Some Books Read This Year - that *ARE NOT* Dr. Who ones!!

Suddenly occurred to me that the only books I’ve really gone into this year on the blog (other than the posts related to specific books), were the Dr. Who posts.  So I thought maybe I’d waffle a touch about some of the other stuff I’ve been reading, here and there. 

By the way, in my little document on my laptop, where I note everything I read each year and what I reckoned of it, I have taken to noting for posterity whether the book was an actual printed one, or a Kindle one; or a library book.  I have decided my sources are interesting, historically speaking too.  I have actually read a ton-load more Kindle books than I’m mentioning here – I have a habit of reading lots of very subgenre specific stuff on the Kindle, which I thought might bore those of you not into it, so I haven’t mentioned many those here.  So far, my reading ratio this year, of Real Printed Matter vs. Kindle is about 60/40 to the former.

1. Oxford Proof, by Veronica Stallwood (2003)
   (As readable as ever – possibly my favourite detective series.  Heroine not so much feisty; as lazy, a bit rude and wonderfully selfish.  Love her, its like reading about me, only with more oomph, money and crime solving ability.  This one ended up solved quite cosily, and yet still felt believable.  That’s what I like about this series best: I love the selfish heroine – she is more like most of us than most of us would admit – and I love the way everything that happens to her and around her is made plausible.  It’s not a Midsummer Murders where you wonder how there are any people left at all in this village or county.  It feels like it could be real. ACTUAL BOOK.)
2. Cupid’s Dart, by David Nobbs (2008)
   (My first ever David Nobbs book – a present to me.  I had trouble with this at the beginning and I don’t quite know why, unless it be my odd prejudice against self proclaimed 'humourous' novels; as by about half way through I was completely hooked and raced to get to the end to see what would happen between Ange and her 55 year old Philosophy Don virgin.  I thought he was a great narrator.  Some of the details surrounding where Ange left him and he went a bit mad and tried to poison his mother with cake were excellent.  I was nodding along and laughing and feeling an outrageous plot turn was all too plausible.  This ended up being a very enjoyable read indeed.  I’d read more of him, this being my first. ACTUAL BOOK.)
3. The Con and the Crusader, by Maggie Shayne (2005)
   (Contemporary – well, time travel, Romance Novella.  One of my favourite paranormal romance authors.  Very sweet and lovely.  Could easily have been worked into a full length novel, but she did ok with it at the shorter length too – it felt only a little rushed.  At her best, she has a feather light touch, her writing is gentle, impeccable, for its genre.  Yet above its genre too.  She’s a real artist.  I loved Jack McCain and I loved his redemption.  Don’t we all wish we could be redeemed by hard work – and isn’t it so much nicer to read about it than to do it?! ACTUAL BOOK.)
4. Shayne On You, by Maggie Shayne (2011)
   (Very interesting book – a combination of magickal primer and advice columnist, by this woman, one of my favourite romance authors.  I am wary of Maggie Shayne in person, as I remember ages ago asking her advice on something online.  I don’t remember exactly what went down…she gave me a very good grounding exercise, but something I said – perhaps I hurried her, I do hurry people if I think they are being tardy? – annoyed her and she was scratchy with me.  This happens rather a lot when I speak to authors.  I piss them off!  Anyway, I unfriended her on FB as a result, as I felt her eternal ‘only see the light’ statuses were pissing me off violently – she herself says she can be Pollyanna-ish.  Reading this book helped me to understand her mindset an awful lot better.  I am not a huge fan of the Law of Attraction, but as she explained it, it made a lot more sense than it usually does.  Not all of it by any means – some of it contradicted itself, but mostly – I felt a lot of her advice was sound, more of it was than not.  I felt I understood and could buy into this positive attitude.  And I have actually been trying to. A daily thought session on what to be grateful for; some affirmations that don’t seem farfetched but I understand why I am doing them for once.  ON KINDLE.)
5. Potty Training Boys, by Dr Caroline Fertleman and Simone Cave (2008)
   (I have come to the conclusion that I do not have a single clue what I am doing when it comes to potty training; I appear to have completely forgotten how to do it, so I have resorted to a book to give me some guidance.  This one was refreshingly simple and I have been implementing its advice now it’s a bit warmer.  As I couldn’t have little cold prone Alex constantly sitting about with his trousers off in those previously subzero temperatures when we can’t afford to put the heating on…plus, can’t risk too many accidents on this carpet that isn’t ours.  But I have been giving their ideas a go – it sounded simple enough.  Er, it actually isn’t.  It’s a bit of a quiet war played as a game, with sticker charts, this potty training lark.  Important not to pressure your boy, whilst also moving along.  Not as easy as the book made it sound!!  ACTUAL BOOK.)
6. Rock Your Plot: A Simple System for Plotting Your Novel, by Cathy Yardley (2012)
   (How to write your typical 3 Act Drama.  Not just for genre fiction though she says it is.  I reckon it could work with more high class lit too.  I’ve always thought story and plot and suspense and emotional involvement are vital, you can’t just have good style.  That’s why Christopher Priest’s sci-fi novels read like lit – he has it all.  This may be the extensive scaffolding system I’ve been fantasizing about for a novel for years; even if only to learn how to break the rules more effectively.  Would love to have enough of an idea to see if this works in application.  I loved the story she used as a running example – I actually wanted to read it, the way she was constructing it.  How annoying she hasn’t actually written it!  ON KINDLE.)
7. The Statesman and the Fanatic: the lives of Thomas Wolsey and Thomas More, by Jasper Ridley (1985)
   (Very readable biography.  Because I am reading other Tudor books at the same time, I know to not rely on his portrait especially of Wolsey, alone, but it was nonetheless very ably written, very well thought out.  What struck me, in the conclusion, was the very clever way Ridley said what they would be doing were they both alive today and had their careers followed similar trajectories because of their temperaments.  Wolsey would be a corrupt fatcat somewhere, but relatively harmless and very efficient.  Whereas More might be responsible for another Holocaust because of his sincere anti-revolutionary stance, his love of authority, and his inability to recognize anyone else’s conscience where it to conflict with what his own told him.  This all rang chillingly true. [Also, the man was appallingly sexist, misogynist even; I know it was the times, but bloody hell…scarily, reading the tone of him reminded me A LOT of my father, who was similarly conflicted about certain things; though he was the opposite in terms of revolution – he was all for it, but may have been just as ruthless given power.  And another who was only nice to his daughter.]  I enjoyed this book and found it rich in information. ACTUAL BOOK.)
8. Creative Writing Prompts: Random Words, Phrases and Sentence Prompts to Help You Write, by Vanna Smythe (2012)
   (At first, I thought this might not be best helpful, but the way the words and especially the phrases section truly are random – to the point of being not phrases but gibberish in most cases – is in fact very stimulating.  Something hypnotic about the lists of words.  Some odd poetry here.  I haven’t used any of them yet, but I think they may well be VERY useful on a day I’m not dog tired. [Why is dog tired a phrase? Dogs seem energetic, if anything? Bouncy lil critters.  Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to be Cat Tired, they are always napping?]  I’ve enjoyed her 2 other fantasy novels, so I was interested in what sort of word chains would stimulate her.  ON KINDLE.)
9. Writing From the Inside Out: Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer Within, by Dennis Palumbo (2000)
   (Possibly the best book I’ve ever read on the way people who write seriously feel about it.  His constant message: what you are is enough; write about and from wherever you are now, no matter how negative you perceive it to be.  “Write about the dog”.  Not as in the black dog, though that’s lamentably accurate in my case; but as in a cartoon he describes where a writer is surrounded by balled up paper, going insane, clearly blocked.  The room is also filled – incongruously – with dogs lolling everywhere.  His wife comes in and exasperatedly says: ‘write about the dogs’.  Use what you’ve got, whatever it is.  There was a lot of acceptance and bearing with yourself in here.  The ‘write about the dog’ advice prompted me to write a blog post recently that got an amazingly positive reaction for being ‘real’.  It stunned me.  People were ‘transported there’; it was their ‘favourite of all my blogs’, ‘poignant’.  So by terms of external validation – which Palambo actually warns strenuously against, as a method of self judgement and self worth measure! – the book caused me to write something quite special.  It’s a keeper simply because it explores the vagaries of feeling of writers, their insecurities and sad feelings.  And it does them all so supportively, calmly, quietly and firmly.  Reading this is the equivalent of a wiser older friend listening and both reality checking you AND validating you.  Quite priceless in its knowledge and calm.  Will re-read.  Many times, I suspect. ON KINDLE.)
10. Inglorious, by Joanna Kavenna (2008)
    (The style made this one, as it was actually quite heavy: a woman’s breakdown in slow motion, in very black humour.  ‘It’s a bad business when you think Modernism can help you.’ !!!!  That really did make me laugh.  It did drag, but then – a long depressed meander around why the hell am I doing any of this, with reference to lots of intellectual philosophizing isn’t going to trip off the mental tongue.  It was well worth reading though and made me laugh and think, many times. I then bought all her other books.  So that’s a recommendation.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
11. The Accidental Husband, by Jane Green (2013)
    (I’m starting to wonder if Jane Green is going a bit mainstream.  Bigamy is quite a big fat subject for a chick lit.  And she did cancer 2 novels ago, too.  Though this had her trademark calm narration, and the usual creation of a world of perfection, it dealt with other serious issues, bulimia for one, and it didn’t shy away from how bad that can get.  I enjoyed this more than I have enjoyed a Jane Green for a while.  Beautiful cover, too – the harmonious colours!!  ACTUAL BOOK.)
12.  Before I Met You, by Lisa Jewell (2013)
    (This was definitely female fic, rather than chick lit.  It had the bouncy tone of Lisa Jewell and the wonderful down to earth not too rich characters, who feel REAL…but the time slip element was wondrous.  She went historical, absorbingly and wonderfully.  I think this may be her best book so far in my opinion.  I loved it from cover to cover and ate it in 2 days flat with Fluffhead there.  It also had one of the loveliest covers I’ve seen in ages – I keep wanting to cut it off the book and frame it.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

So there you go.  A confection of the mixed up lot of caboodle I’ve been nosing in.  I’ve actually read quite a lot this year so far, I’m quite amazed at myself.  Must come from the strong urge I am having this year to bury my head in the metaphorical sand!

More books soon!