vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock)
Nearing the end of Memoirs and on to this tale of a stolen secret treaty ... spoilers )
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
My main book reads at the moment, as usual reading on my Kindle so I can have an utterly gargantuan font needed for my progressive neurological disease. I will soon be finishing Wheel of Time book 9 and starting Assassin's Apprentice, which is this month's read for my book club.

Screenshot of a Kindle Paperwhite, black & white screen, showing 6 book covers. On the top row are Wheel of Time Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan, The Water Road narrowboat book by Paul Gogarty and Belladonna by Adalyn Grace. Below are The Haunted Trail collection of weird fiction in the British Library Tales of the Weird series, a collected Complete Sherlock Holmes, and Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. Progress percentages for the books include 72% through the Wheel of Time book, 25% through the canals book, 8% through Belladonna (only recently started), and 37% through Sherlock Holmes (nearing the end of "Memoirs").
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
Onto another story, and unashamed disclaimer up front: this is one of my all-time favourite Holmes stories. spoilers )
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
My next short story collection read is The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling Weird. Another in the British Library "Tales of the Weird" series. This one is edited by Weird Walk.

An eerie yellow on black background drawing of a path winding through spooky looking plants and trees into the distance. The atmosphere is very foreboding.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Still struggling not to type 2024 at the top of these posts!

    earlier books )
  1. Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott
  2. A Middle-earth Album: Paintings by Joan Wyatt Inspired by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Joan Wyatt
  3. Could You Survive Midsomer? – A Winter's Murder: An Official Midsomer Murders Interactive Novel by Simon Brew
  4. Eerie East Anglia: Fearful Tales of Field and Fen by Edward Parnell
  5. Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide by Nick Groom
  6. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
  7. The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson


I've written reviews of Captive Queen, the Midsomer Murders gamebook and Eerie East Anglia.

Of the others, the Tolkien paintings book was nice, though there were some curious choices, especially re the hobbits. The Shakespeare book was great in parts, but had an almost total blind spot on detailed coverage of the many plays, which felt like a huge omission. Our Mutual Friend was a delight for me, as always. And The Principle of Moments, the first in a planned trilogy, was a heady mix of fantasy, space opera and time travelling shenanigans. Probably more ambitious in its goals than it ultimately achieved. But still a riveting read, and I will read the other books.
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
Continuing my reread of the Memoirs collection, and another story I can barely recall. spoilers ... )
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Just finished this today, another in the British Library's "Tales of the Weird" series of short story collections, gathering together generally older tales, as well as sometimes more recent ones. This collection was edited by Edward Parnell, and focuses on East Anglia, such a rich setting for spooky and weird fiction.

There are 17 short stories in this collection, including a couple by MR James (such as "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come To You, My Lad"). But also stories by many others, including E.F. Benson, Marjorie Bowen, and even Robert Aickman.

Stories range from medieval through to the present day, though many are in the Victorian or early twentieth century era. Many are written in the MR Jamesian style, of old manuscripts and strange places. Others take a different approach.

Overall most of the stories are strong, but three were absolute standouts for me. Firstly "The Dust-Cloud" by E.F. Benson, the atmospheric tale of a ghostly car crash. This left me unnerved for some time after, as did "The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster" by H.R. Wakefield, the story of a haunted golf hole. Which started almost PG Wodehouse like, but soon became something darker. The third story that wowed me was John Gordon's "If She Bends, She Breaks", a tale of winter in the fens, that I very much regretted reading just as I was about to go to sleep, because it spooked me so extremely much! But in a good way.

A couple of the stories felt workmanlike. There was only one story that I disliked, indeed viscerally so: "Possum" by Matthew Holness. This was one of a few more modern stories in the book, and felt tonally completely out of place, and phenomenally unpleasant to read. But otherwise it was a strong collection.

Recommended. 4/5 stars.

vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Here are my three main reads at the moment: "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens (an umpteenth time reread), "Eerie East Anglia" collection of weird/spooky short stories from the British Library, and Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson's fantasy / timey wimey / space epic "The Principle of Moments".

vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
These have been on hold since Christmas, as I've just slept so much, and have been phenomenally wiped out as my neurological illness flares again. Then I had to focus my extremely limited awake time and energy on a time critical academic journal paper revise and resubmit. But I think I can restart these fun things next week. I enjoy doing them a lot. Initially I plan to alternate the two weekly, so a Benny audio listen and review one week, a Sherlock Holmes short story reread and review the next week, and repeat. With luck I may be able to switch both to a weekly rate again, but this initial alternating plan looks more sustainable for now. I will be resuming with the "The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk" story from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and Bernice Summerfield Big Finish season 6 story number 3 The Lost Museum.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Current main Kindle reading for me. The top 6 books in the picture below are the main books I'm currently reading. A mix of fiction and non fiction.

vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock)
Onto the next in my reread, and a story that has rather a complicated publication history, which means I could read it in a couple of different places in the reading order. But have opted for it now. Mainly to get it out of the way! It is not one of my favourites.

spoilers ... )
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
Starting my reread of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. And going to discuss spoilers so into spoiler space ... )
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
Onto the last in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection. And this is one that I do remember. Even though I have a tendency to muddle it with the "Solitary Cyclist" story ...

Into spoiler space ...  )

So that's the end of the first collection of short stories for me. On to Memoirs next week.
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
On to another one that I can barely remember, and this discussion is going to be full of spoilers, so let's go into a big spoiler cut ... )

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vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
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