Books, Music, Photography, & Movies
My views on the above and some…
Last year I clocked 120, so it is much lesser but I have been reading Morse and Inspector Battle series from the library and physical books takes twice the time when compared to their kindle counterparts. I am enjoying them very much, so I am going to go with them until I can finish the series, by next year.
As long as I keep reading that is all that matters, to me.
but I still managed to complete a book. The first week of school is always chaotic. Thanks to all the new students, the new rota, the missing teachers, the new teachers trying to find their way in the maze of stairs in our school, the lack of books, stationery, misplaced orders, confused timetables, … anything and everything that can go wrong goes wrong. Not just that, I have been shuttling between buildings (school has almost 5 different buildings). Among the chaos, my kindle was a constant companion trying to keep me sane in the insane world. I recently read a book which was on my to-read list for quite a while. The time was right and I finally finished it.
I started with The Elephant Keeper’s Daughter by Julia Drosten (Goodreads Author), Deborah Rachel Langton (Translator) because this is a culture I am slightly aware of. It is much closer to my home. The story is based in Sri Lanka and is about this girl who is the daughter of the Elephant Keeper and the story unfolds during the British invasion of Sri Lanka in the 1800’s. It was very well written and translated to bring the essence of the culture and the nativity to the reader’s mind. I enjoyed the story very much. It took a while to finish it due to the various day to day distractions but I took it slow and steady. Once I was done with the book, I decided that I will take up the one on my to-do list and finish that too.
The Lioness of Morocco by Julia Drosten (Goodreads Author), Christiane Galvani (Translator) was on my list for way too long now to ignore it. So I started on that next. Thanks to the Kindle Unlimited option, I was able to get my hands on this book. This book took me to another world which is totally alien to me. It is, as the book title describes, set in Morocco. I have no idea of the culture or the lifestyle of the people. In a way, this book transported me to a new place even without me making a trip. I love it when books can do that. It is almost 200 pages more than the first book I read by this author and so it took almost twice the time for me. But, I enjoyed it very much. I finished it just today on a much needed lazy Sunday.
I gave 5 stars for both these books which is a rare thing for me to do.
Finally, I finished the last book (at least for now) of DI Nick Dixon’s series by Damien Boyd. Once I started the first book, I decided that I will finish the series. It was only 8 books. It wasn’t that difficult even though I had to slow down on School days. Each story was unique and different characters were involved in solving the crime and the team with Nick was very efficient. I also loved the small backstories that went into each of these novels. The subtle humour is amazing 😉
If you fancy murder and detective series situated in Somerset and Avon area, try Nick Dixon. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I haven’t said much about any books I have read over these three/four months. Since I have some time now, might as well get it written down. I picked up Faith Martin’s DI Hillary Greene books on Kindle Unlimited because it had a female detective and it was a series and you know how I love female based bad-ass characters and a good mystery and detective story. It was a lovely combination to not give it a go. Never did I think that I will be hooked on it once I start it. Whenever I had some time for myself, I had two options: to write something on my blog or to continue with my DI Hillary Greene books (and I had something to always write). There was no competition really. Hillary Greene always won. Here is the list of books of hers in that series I had completed. Only two of them are left but it is because they aren’t available as an e-book on Amazon’s Kindle yet. I am waiting sincerely for those to get published.
I tried to break the series by picking up a couple of romance books in between but couldn’t be on a break for too long. The allure was too much to ignore.
DI Hillary Greene reminded me of Dr Frost (TV series) in many ways, the dry humour, the intelligence, the no-nonsense approach, issues with relationships, workaholic, placed in a small town (Kidlington in Hillary’s case and Denton in Frost’s case) you name it. It also had characters who stay with her throughout the series and many who come and go for a couple of books. There is a natural progression. It was a delightful read and I would love to see this as a TV series (hopefully well written). It also has a lot of English Slang which taught me a few choice words 😉
Books, Music, Photography, & Movies 