The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

I read this book as it was left in a holiday cottage we are staying in.  It is a non-scary ghost story of love, loss and courage.

It was an easy short read.

However it was predictable, over written and lacking any suspense.

Around the World in 80 Days / Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne

 

This was a present from my eldest daughter for Christmas.  Having, heard the story many times but not read it I thought it was about time. 

I liked how Passepartout adds a brilliant aspect of comedy.
Full of stereotypes of the time.
The  geography and science is wonderfully made up - as no one had crossed that part of Africa the balloon could never have made the trip.
An enjoyable easy read.

Christmas Carols: From Village Green to Church Choir by Andrew Gant

 

Having sung many of the carols numerous times, it is interesting to find out how they started.

He tries to place the words and music in historic context, to find the influences which have led up to today's carols, and to explore the social settings in which these songs were sung.

Some of it was a little dry and some parts were very interesting.

I think having the CD to listen to them whilst I read it would have improved the reading experience

Lamentation by C. J. Sansom

This is the sixth book in the Shardlake series.

I love this book.

It is an an exciting and excellently written story with lots of twists and turns.
It has a huge amount of rich detail about life in Tudor times. 

Christmas at Thompson Hall: And Other Christmas Stories (Penguin Christmas Classics) by Anthony Trollope

Insightful and humorous depictions of the middle class and gentry of Victorian England at Christmas time.
Easy to read love stories

Frost At Christmas: (DI Jack Frost Book 1) by R. D. Wingfield

   

Having watched Frost on TV and then read the book, the TV adaptation is fairly faithful to the book.

I love the faults of Frost which are described brilliantly.
Not for Feminists.

The Great Christmas Knit Off by Alexandra Brown

 

A Christmas love story.

Lightheated and easy to read.

There is quite a lot of padding and the ending is very obvious

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Having watched the television adaptation and listened to the stories on the radio, I determined to read an original.

It is an easy and enjoyable read that is easily accessible.
It's short, so you can read it quickly.

Part Two of the book starts with what transpires to be a flashback to Utah, but it is a story that confuses me; I wondered if it was a completely separate story.

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

   

This is a collection of short stories; some of which are better than others!

Good points:
Mantel uses vivid descriptions and amazing characterisations.
They are darkly humorous, although some are uncomfortable,. 

Bad points:
Often the endings are way too sudden and unsatisfying. 
I preferred her longer stories.

Things That Are by Amy Leach

 

A bizarre little book that can't be read too quickly. The chapters cover all sorts of natural topics, switching from scientific to philosophic to poetic themes; for example it contains pieces take an animal or plant and explore its world.

It can feel whimsy with short confusing chapters.

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

 

I really enjoyed this book - a collection of short stories linked by theme and characters from previous stories popping up. 

As you start each chapter, you have no clue how it is going to end up - the kind of book I love!

Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon

 

A well written intriguing mystery.

There is a spooky atmosphere.

 The story is slow moving in parts.

What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

 

Munro gives detailed answers to weird questions asked from readers on his website - such as How much Force power can Yoda output?

My mind is stretched in fantastic and interesting ways - I was entertained.

 

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

 

A collection of light short stories, although in some, notably 'Sisters', there's some very sharp social comment.

The short stories contained within the book are beautifully written, but much more of their own time.

There is only one about Cold Comfort Farm - the rest are about  are about ordinary people living ordinary lives reflecting 1930's sexual morals. There is a story where a spinster takes in a single mother and eventually confesses to having had unwedded cough with a man herself.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

 

I really enjoyed this - showed me lots of human history I didn't know.
It was an easy romp through time.

However - 

I thought it was going to be more about why Homo sapiens survived when other homo species  failed.

I thought there was a lot of exaggeration and sensationalism - to quote the Guardian's review "his account of the battle of Navarino. Starting from the fact that British investors stood to lose money if the Greeks lost their war of independence, Harari moves fast: "the bond holders' interest was the national interest, so the British organised an international fleet that, in 1827, sank the main Ottoman flotilla in the battle of Navarino. After centuries of subjugation, Greece was finally free." This is wildly distorted – and Greece was not then free. To see how bad it is, it's enough to look at the wikipedia entry on Navarino"

Fair Girls and Grey Horses by the Pullein-Thompsons

 

A pleasant autobiography written by three sisters. I used to read a lot of their pony stories when I was younger.  They had the kind of childhood I longed for and it showed failings in the education system then for not recognising differences.  It was an easy enough read - but probably not one I would go back to.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

 

 A great adventure story where an ordinary person becomes a hero.

Great pace and action.

But (as it is a novel) the coincidences are a bit unbelievable. 

The Listener by Tove Jansson

 

I love Tove Jansson - a collection of odd short stories where not much happens but that contain beautiful descriptions that make me want to move to Scandinavia. 

The Windermere Witness: 1 (The Lake District Mysteries) by Rebecca Tope

  

A disappointing easy read which didn't seem to quite fit together and have too many main characters which were unnecessary.

Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read by Stanislas Dehaene

         

 This is a exhaustive exploration of how the human brain reads.
Stanislas Dehaene takes his specialized subject (cognitive neuroscience)  and is able to render accessible what might otherwise be difficult. 

J: A Novel Howard Jacobson

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

  

I didn't enjoy this novel. 
I thought it would be funny but it wasn't.  Amusing, yes. Thought-provoking, sure. Funny no!
It combines a mishmash of topics: baseball, Judaism, and dentistry and they never quite add up to a cohesive whole.
I struggled at times with the multi-page paragraphs and the general ceaselessness of switching between inner monologues and first person.

How to be both Ali Smith

The Bone Clocks David Mitchell

 

I loved this book - so clever. It is made of composed of six parts, each dealing with different ages of Holly Sykes. It feels like an epic spanning across multiple narrators, continents and genres of writing styles.

The Lives of Others Neel Mukherjee

Orfeo by Richard Powers

 

he Narrow Road to the Deep North Richard Flanagan

Very harrowing and hard to read.
The frequent changes in perspective and character make it hard to follow in parts.
It introduce me to a period in history, and indeed a place, that I knew almost nothing about

The Dog by Joseph O’Neill

 


This has no plot but offers insights into dislocation (and makes me really never wish to live in Dubai).
The main character feels like a real person - flawed but honest of his situation.
It is written as a interior monologue and as such I am not really a fan of this style. 
There is no conclusion