Monday 7 May 2018

APRIL 2018 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH



Numbers-wise  - only 6 reads completed (two of them were short, one of the two uber-short ) - April was a fairly disappointing reading month, but there was a lot going on with a house move undertaken after 25 years in our last gaff. I expect the repercussions of the move will still be felt during May as we get settled and the unpacking, dump runs, furniture assembly slowly winds down. Probably to be replaced by gardening and decorating!

One stand out book and pick of the month- Cormac O'Keeffe's Black Water - a FIVE STAR Dublin debut!

The full list was.....


Glenn McGoldrick - Red Marks (2017) (4.5)

McDroll - Feeling It (2013) (4)

Robert Parker - Crook's Hollow (2018) (4.5)

Various - Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime (2018) (4)

Patricia Skalka - Death Rides the Ferry (2018) (4.5)

Cormac O'Keeffe - Black Water (2018) (5)


More trivia for my own amusement though feel free to scroll through and cure your insomnia!

3 x 4.5 STAR READS...... Glenn McGoldrick, Patricia Skalka and Robert Parker. Parker has been enjoyed before. Prior to April I was a Skalka and McGoldrick virgin. More from Glenn McGoldrick awaits me.

2 x 4 STAR READS.....  both short stories collections. One self published by Scottish writer McDroll and the other an anthology by AN INSECURE WRITER'S WRITER SUPPORT GROUP published by Freedom Fox Press

5 reads from 5 different authors,

4 of the 5 were new-to-me authors, plus none of the writers featured in the anthology had been read before

Gender analysis -  2 male authors, 3 females - the anthology comprised of 10 female authors and one male - progress of sorts for me.

I believe of the 5 authors I read, 2 are English, 1 hail from the US, 1 is Scottish and 1 is Irish


All 6 of the reads were fiction - 3 novels and the rest short stories - a collection, an anthology and a stand-alone.

All of the books were published in this decade ....4 from 2018, 1 from 2017, 1 from 2013 -  a familiar cry - whatever happened to me reading older books?


Two of the reads were pre-owned. The other four came from Edelweiss (1), publishers (2), and 1 from a publicist.

Favourite cover? Patricia Skalka - Death Rides the Ferry




Second favourite – Glenn McGoldrick and Red Marks






My reads were this long 14 - 68 - 210 - 202 - 208 - 320

Total page count = 1022 (2909 in March)....... a near 1900 page decrease

4 were Kindle reads, and 2 were paperbacks.

1 < 50,
1 between 51 < 100,
0 between 101 < 200,
3 between 201 < 300,
1 between 301 < 400,
0  > 400 pages

Cormac O'Keeffe with Black Water was the longest read at 320 pages.

Glenn McGoldrick's Red Marks was the shortest at 14 pages long

6 comments:

  1. It's almost impossible to get a lot of reading done when you're going through a major house move, Col. I'm glad you had some decent reads, despite that. And I very much like the cover for Death Rides the Ferry, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Margot - May hasn't been much better so far - still settling in, but there's June to look forward to!

      Delete
  2. I am still interested in Death Rides the Ferry, or maybe an earlier one in the series. I hope May is more relaxing, or maybe by June.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do think you would enjoy Skalka's work. May - I reckon is also going to be a reading write-off. There's some gardening work planned which involves a lot of weekend hours, plus I have a few evening cinema trips planned.

      Delete
  3. Col – Thanks for the list. Don’t when I will get to any of them, but if you liked them, I am sure I will. Hope you are settling comfortably into your new place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elgin, cheers. Nearly two months now which have flown by and quite a bit accomplished in that time.

      Delete