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Text of the page (random words):
eyer i ve read this collection of short stories many times before both in its original form of pistols for two and this expanded version including some rediscovered short stories that were released in 2016 with a christmas theme the lovely georgette heyer readalong i m in online chose to read the pistols for two collection a story a week with a couple of breaks as a sort of christmas treat and i m finally getting round to writing about it it turns out that a story a week with a group that know each other and heyer s ouvre well is an absolute delight i think it probably surprised most of us how well these fairly slight stories stood up to close reading they show heyer trying things out which will become whole books further down the line recycling bits of plot dabbling in different genres and overall showing what a very good writer she could be it might help that we were all familiar with her books you could argue that for fans there s a sort of shorthand that means we understand much of what s intended from indicators that new readers might not pick up on look out for grey eyes often an indicator that you ve met a romantic lead another advantage to choosing a short story collection was that different people could lead the discussion each week which really took the pressure off one person at a busy time of year we normally do 3 chapters a week and discuss for an hour even spread out it s a lot of work after sharing pistols for two our next book is going to have multiple hosts too it was also a chance to read to have the honour which sophie irwin has re worked into henrietta to be published later this year i have mixed feelings about this irwin s own regency romances are fine but not for me and i would have liked to see a more offbeat adventurous choice to bring her to a new audience i we in fact also all thought this was an odd choice of story to use as a base to have the honour is already complete in and of itself it doesn t leave any loose ends and it doesn t need building on if you wanted that you could go and read a civil contract which clearly shares the same roots but does something much more interesting with its characters there are other better candidates to build on stories that leave plenty of room for speculation and cry out for backstory i haven t decided if i ll read henrietta or not yet my current feeling is that however good it is it ll annoy me because whatever irwin does with it it s not going to match my personal expectations for that story great cover art though posted by desperate reader at 8 52 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday march 29 2026 nine goblins t kingfisher an oddity this one an early t kingfisher that was self published back in 2013 and has had a new release now with titan it s more or less novella length at 148 pages and a self proclaimed accurately homage to terry pratchett and james herriot the mash up no one knew they needed herriot would probably have been deeply confused by it all or not i wonder if he was a tolkien fan pratchett i m sure would have been delighted this was also t kingfisher s first book aimed at an adult audience whilst primarily publishing for children and that may add to the general oddness of it i liked this little book it s funny and warm with a twist at the end that gives it a serious edge especially at a time of global uncertainty but it s also unevenly paced and took me an extraordinarily long time to read the first half tells two back stories quite slowly in a way that makes it hard to guess where things are going and then a lot happens very quickly i m not sure how much i took to sings to trees who is the herriot inspired elf stuck with tending a range of creatures as ungrateful as they are mythical he s fine but he doesn t have a patch on the goblins in all their disgusting glory and like pratchett this also falls somewhere between writing for adults and writing for children i know that both are technically adult books but once upon a time pratchett was what a certain sort of younger teenager read teenagers like me when they hit 13 or 14 had grown out of children s books and ya didn t exist as a category the way we know it now nine goblins is funny and politically aware angry in the same way that pratchett was they re not exactly jokes that a reader grows out of but much like the music i loved in my teens it s fun if something turns up on the radio from time to time but i no longer listen to it on repeat altogether a solid 3 star book an enjoyable way to spend a lazy afternoon an indication of the exciting writer that kingfisher has become and an obvious recommendation for fans of pratchett or douglas adams but not a keeper for me posted by desperate reader at 9 32 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday march 24 2026 sky high michael gilbert my job has changed somewhat and i m spending a lot more time on a laptop at work which is making it less appealing to come home and get online or possibly i m just forgetting after a day talking about books ordering books and putting books on shelves that i haven t been here to talk about the books happily after a really nasty bout of peri menopausal nonsense that blighted most of january and february march has been a bit easier and i m getting some energy back i haven t been as doing as much of anything as i d like including reading but a new michael gilbert from the british library crime classics series is too much of a treat to put off sky high is excellent a high stakes murder mystery with a fabulous cast of characters including liz a motorbike riding widow in charge of the local choir connected to everyone and more than capable of solving a murder and a retired general who must have been a lion amongst donkeys when the choir s lead tenor is blown up in his house liz the general and her ex commando son take up the investigation gilbert has the gift of knowing exactly how to mix genuine humour with genuine tension the stakes feel high there s a connection that isn t quite clear at first as to how liz lost her husband a murderer who doesn t in the least mind dirty tricks the long shadow of the second world war hanging over them all and the need for brimberley s choir to put rival villiage bramshott s efforts to shame at the harvest festival i ve read a chunk of gilbert now and i mostly adore him the spy stories should be approached with a bit of caution if you re squeamish there s some casual but extreme violence and old fashioned attitudes that don t read particularly well now i don t mind this the stories reflect the time they were written but i wouldn t re read all of them and am wary of recommending it makes me appreciate the choice for the british library collection all the more these also reflect the time they were written but in a much less challanging way gilbert is a genuine rediscovery and a complete gem his work deserves a much wider appreciation it s some of the finest vintage crime around posted by desperate reader at 8 31 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday february 23 2026 viennese bakery bernaette wörndl february has more or less escaped me i m having trouble with fibroids again which has left me anemic and exhausted any energy left over after work has gone into knitting husband a slipover honestly there s no greater demonstration of love than starting a project on 2mm needles that involves lots of new to the knitter techniques i can now successfully graft stitches though which is a bonus as i ve avoided doing that for years i ve struggled with the concentration necessary for reading however starting a lot of books but not getting very far with them i did listen to both gaudy night and busman s honeymoon which i might write about but every time i read or listen to sayers i struggle with her more so might duck out of that too as for viennese bakery i bought it and it s beautiful but i don t know when i ll bake from it given that i m struggling to keep my blood sugar under control so cake is probably a bad idea it doesn t matter i loved vienna when i visited i particularly loved its cafe culture an excellent coffee and a small slice of something to chat over or to sit and admire a view over or just as a chance to pause and take in the day is incredibly civilised in vienna it was also affordable i remember a coffee in an incredibly smart i don t even know if you could describe the rococo ballroom splendour of the place as a cafe we thought it would semi bankrupt us it was cheaper than going to a starbucks here and here anywhere that nice would charge more than i want to pay our cafe culture is improving but it still has a long way to go meanwhile i have my eau de nil and gold cookbook with its gilt edges full of atmospheric pictures of vienna and recipes that i can imagine making or that fill me with nostalgia and make me think another visit is in order it is enough and if i can t justify making myself an entire poppyseed cake i can go to the polish deli buy a slice of a slightly different poppy seed cake there make a coffee in a delicate cup fetch out the pastry forks and enjoy the moment posted by desperate reader at 10 57 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday january 26 2026 around the table diana henry i ve been knitting a lot and not reading as much as i should some of my reading has been re reading at that gaudy night again but i have finished diana henry s around the table after having it on the go for a while around the table is a collection of 52 essays on food and life and not really designed for reading cover to cover in one go much better to dip in and out of i think and really savour in the process it is not a cookbook although there are plenty of tips and suggestions in here for the cook to consider i have a long standing love for diana s books which i have successfully managed to share with my husband who is now also happily cooking his way through a bird in the hand and from oven to table these are practical books full of the kind of food that we both like and recipes that have proven to be reliable time after time for husband who could and did cook for himself and us for years but with a limited repertoire both titles have been significant confidence boosters he likes that things turn out very much like the pictures i would be well served if he would read around the table too for the extra hints and food philosophy for anyone familier with diana s articles and cookbooks there will be familiar territory here her thoughts on the quality of pork and the virtues of a good butcher bear repeating it really does make a difference if we ever manage to leave leicester the butchers on the local market will be one of my biggest misses in cold kitchen caroline eden talks about books to have to hand the sort perfect to browse or read through whilst waiting for something to cook around the table is exactly that sort of book the essays are short enough to fit well with the need to give something an occasional stir or until the next thing needs to be added as it s also a book that might inspire your next meal or project citrus season is at it s height right now do i just enjoy the blood oranges whilst they re here and as they are or do i go and buy seville s and make some marmalade or help you make a better salad dressing its physical as well as spiritual home is very much near the kitchen table too in short a deeply enjoyable book that feels like the best sort of conversation between reader and author it builds on previous books feels chatty and warm without being overly intimate sometimes biographies can be too revealing this isn t that or a biography i love the essay format and generally could stand to see a lot more books of this calibre around posted by desperate reader at 5 44 pm 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday january 18 2026 new year new jumper new project work took up a lot of energy last year and amongst other things knitting fell a bit by the wayside on new year s day i finally finished a jumper i started over a year ago and had meant to finish variously by the start of december my birthday christmas and then finally new year which was just in time for the cold snap so i suppose it was done at just the right time in the end there was no particular pattern for this one just bits and pieces from other jumpers that i liked i had an idea of what i wanted which hadn t quite worked out for an earlier version i made it both too short and a little bit smaller than i really wanted the yarn is jamieson and smth 5 ply which is lovely to knit with and gives quite a heavy drappy fabric i wanted quite a slouchy jumper with space for layers underneath and not too dense a fabric i got all of that and also something which wasn t quite as see through as my first attempt colour choice helped a lot with that the sleeves have ended up quite close fitting which i like but i wouldn t do as close again they re exactly the right length but don t really push up which is fine in winter but maybe less so in warmer weather equally i wouldn t get a long sleeved tee to fit comfortably underneath them which alas not great for winter otherwise it s a nice looking jumper this is it before it went on the board that is remarkably warm and that i ve already worn a lot the new project is a proper fair isle slipover a mati ventrilon slipover pattern from the 2025 wool week annual it s got elements i would normally avoid the first being quite a deep rib knitted on 2mm needles ribbing like this bores me 20 rows at 336 stitches a row felt like a marathon effort the sleeve holes will be steeked i ve used steeks before but again it wasn t a process i loved especially at the finishing stage this will also be the garment where i make myself learn how to graft my knitting together rather than relying on a 3 needle bind off plenty of challenges then of course the first challenge was what colours to use i have a lot of yarn in my stash and i need to use some of it buying specifically for this project was not an option unfortunatley it turns out that what i ve got a lot of is small amounts which are perfect for hats or gloves but fall short of enough for this particular slipover i do also have a few cones and colours in sufficient quantities but not ao many that would work well together or the intended wearer would like husband eventually i hit on a combination that i thought would work but it s knitting up a little more subtly than i had hoped husband likes the effect so that s fine and i love the main colour but it is a bit of an issue when you do most of your yarn shopping on holiday and it s a lot more expensive to order online from a distance it s not really feasible to buy big project quantities without a specific big project in mind but is it sensible to have huge quant...