Books, reading, badges...

I decided earlier this year to try and spend less time doodling around on social media and my phone, and more time actually reading some of the books on my (virtual) to-read pile - helped by the 20 or so new books which made their home here between Christmas and early January! To help keep me focussed, I decided to tackle the Reader badge from the Rebel Badge Club, which meant reading at least 6 books over 3 months (starting on 1 January to keep it tidy!), including fiction, non-fiction and biography, critiquing a review and writing my own review, and (the bit I've not yet done), attending a book club to discuss something I've read.

A few years ago I was very much a chick-lit reader, and have a good collection of books by authors such as Katie Fforde, Carole Matthews, Freya North, Jill Mansell, to name just a few. But in more recent years, I think particularly as my world has shrunk due to Covid and health issues, my reading horizons have expanded considerably. I've discovered a love of non-fiction writing about travel and other places; nature writing has established a place on my shelves; I've read a wider range of general fiction, and have found that I enjoy a good amount of (non-gory, non-thriller, often cosy) crime. I don't like historical fiction, with the exception of things set in WW2 for some reason, and I'm not good with the classics.

Earlier this week I had the joy of reading a book which made a big impression on me - and discovered that it was one of a series, with about eight others already published! This was Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson, about a child who goes missing during the upheaval of evacuations from London. Parallel to this, a rent collector is found murdered in a block of flats in London. The link between the two is that the detective investigating the murder ends up investigating the missing child case while he's visiting friends or family in the village where this happens. The books is heavily based in reality - not just very identifiable places, but also couple of the characters are based on real people of the time. Josephine Tey, the main character and an amateur detective in the series, was a real crime writer who had been born in Scotland and later lived in England (although very little is known about the details of her life).

Upson's writing brings out the poignancy and fear of the setting, the unsettled nature of the days waiting for the declaration of war and for the beginning of so much change. And throughout it, her characters are complex and well-developed, capable of showing emotion but also of displaying a stiff upper lip. All this stands in sharp contrast to another crime book I read earlier this year - Murder Before Evensong by Revd Richard Coles - but that's a whole other post in itself!

I usually have at least three books on the go at any given time: fiction, non-fiction, and something (fiction) in Swedish. My current books are:

• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (I've been reading this since early Jan and still have around 300 pages to go. I'm not entirely convinced I'll finish it...

• The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

• Sweet Home Dalarna by Karin Janson (Swedish)

• Life Between the Tides by Adam Nicholson (non-fiction)

• Let's Talk about Death over Dinner by Michael Hebb (one of a number of books on my list about death and dying. More on this later, I'm sure!

At some point soon, I'll need to sort out my bookshelves properly - at the moment there's no real order to anything other than the Swedish books - and even they are divided over two rooms. There's a theoretical distinction that the small bookcase in the bedroom is my TBR pile, but I've not kept to that very well and instead have two unstable piles on my bedside table which have gradually transformed from TBR to 'read and need to put away'. But having books around me brings me joy, so for the time being they continue to grow in height and wobbliness every week!