Emma Cragg

Finished reading: The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers 📚

Poetic. I really enjoy the characters and snapshots of their worlds that Benjamin Myers creates.

Finished reading: A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers 📚

When I opened this book I was a little sad not to be continuing the journey with the crew of the Wayfarer. Then the story got going and I realised spending time getting to know Pepper and Sidra was going to be even better.

Finished reading: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 📚

Perfect holiday reading. I enjoyed this so much I’ve immediately started book two.

Finished reading: The Long Good-bye by Raymond Chandler 📚

This may be the start of a Raymond Chandler / classic detective fiction book binge.

Finished reading: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 📚

I thoroughly enjoyed spending the last week or so with Ove and I’m going to miss him. This one will stay with me a long while and I can see myself rereading it, which is rare for me.

Finished reading: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo 📚

Forgot I had to post about this for it to count towards my reading goal. It’s a charming YA novel about discovering who you are.

Finished reading: My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout 📚

Quick weekend read.

Currently reading: My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout 📚

Not far into this but can’t help feeling that it’s like an accessible version of Ducks, Newburyport

Finished reading: GREY BEES. by ANDREY. KURKOV 📚

How much I enjoyed this book and how much I cared for the bees really crept up on me. I’m going to miss starting my days with Sergey and his bees.

Currently reading: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 📚

In anticipation of having more demands on my time when I start a new role at the end of the month, I’m finally sitting down to read this.

Finished reading: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 📚

Should have trusted my judgment and skipped this one. Me and Ishiguro don’t get on. The start was promising but after half way I was just waiting for it to be over.

Finished reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚

Subtle yet powerful, a gem of a book 💎

Finished reading: Ghost Town by Patrick McGrath 📚

Not really much to say about this collection. The stories clipped along but didn’t really move me in any direction.

Finished reading: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr 📚

I really enjoyed this. The evidence is how fast I read it - just a couple of weeks is record breaking for me for a book over 500 pages

Finished reading: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper 📚

Took me a little while to get into this. Lining it up for a re-read later in the year, feel the arrival of Spring didn’t fully allow me to get immersed in the atmosphere of midwinter.

Finished reading: Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper 📚

Bloomin’ marvellous! Sending this on to my Mum to read to my nephews at bedtime - two things they love are quests and King Arthur.

Finished reading: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles 📚

I read this with anticipation having loved the author’s previous book, A Gentleman in Moscow. Sadly this just isn’t anywhere near as good and I can’t quite put my finger on why. Underwhelming.

Finished reading: Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie 📚

I enjoyed the relationships and the range in this story (across both time and geography). However there were a few too many episodes that had the right people in the right place at the right time that felt obviously engineered.

Finished reading: Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing 📚

As with every other book I’ve read by Olivia Laing I’ve come away with a list of artists and authors, and their work, to follow up on.

Finished reading: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 📚

Woah 🤯 The perfect holiday read, I’ve devoured this over the past few days.

Finished reading in 2022: Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake 📚

Finishing up the Gormenghast trilogy. I was really surprised just how much I enjoyed it and how long the characters have stayed with me. Really want to re-watch the BBC TV adaptation.

Finished reading in 2022: The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz 📚

Finished reading in 2022: Roseanna (The Martin Beck series, Book 1) by Maj Sjöwall 📚

It’s difficult to tell whether the functional language of this was due to the author’s style or the translation to English. Either way, I found it’s starkness compelling and a good addition to the atmosphere of the story.

Finished reading in 2022: Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver 📚

I’ve read a couple of other books by Kingsolver which, while I enjoyed I found overly descriptive. This was both an easy and enjoyable read.