Summer of Books

I’m hoping this will be a summer of books, my friends. There are so many great books to read. And I like to imagine that I have dived into and am swimming in a veritable sea of good books. Maybe floating is a better word. Floating on wonderful plots, wonderful characters, and wonderful words.

Which is why my post today will be fairly rushed. I have procrastinated all day, and now, in late afternoon, I am writing to a deadline.

That sea of books has a lot to answer for…

But first, a digression. When I first started blogging, actually before I even began blogging, I read everything I could find about blogging. How-tos, dos and don’ts, and advice from experienced bloggers. And I read lots of blogs.

Some of them were execrable. I know that sounds harsh, but after years and years of reading and marking the writing of teenagers I felt I knew what poor writing was, and how it might be fixed with some effort on the part of the writer. I rolled my eyes a lot and ranted to Hubby who told me not to read any more of the execrable ones. That’s such a good word, isn’t it? Execrable. I also read some really great blogs with wonderful writing. Hence I was inspired and repelled at the same time.

I was repelled by the posts which had poor grammar or writing style, or were simply a device to post OOTDs, those that were too short to engage me, or rambled and then never got to the point. And by the bloggers who posted haphazardly, and then introduced their eventual post by talking about how busy they’d been. Too busy to post, apparently. I began to see what the blogging gurus meant when they advised bloggers to post regularly and never to make excuses for not posting or posting late by referring to one’s terribly busy life. This disrespects the readers, by assuming that the blogger has a busy life, and the readers do not.

I have on occasion, during my blogging career, excused an upcoming absence from the blog because I would be travelling. Or heading out on vacation where I would be without internet or cell phone coverage… aka venturing into the wilderness with Hubby and a canoe. And I have twice gone online to say that I was unable to post on my usual day. But I have always been cognizant that readers’ time is as valuable as mine. So I never skip blogging simply because I am “so terribly busy.”

But today, I have backed myself into a corner and am very, very late starting this post. Not because I am too exhausted by my “busy” life. Not because I am heading into the wilderness without wifi, or embarking on a trip.

Nope. I’m holding up my hands here. I have no viable excuse. I have been unable to begin my post because I was procrastinating.

I was wasting my time with a good book. Or two as the case may be. I have been an irresponsible blogger because I am addicted to books.

I am very good at procrastinating when there are books to be read. Or books to be listened to. I excel at putting off most things in favour of a good book.

In the last week my summer of books has started. I have dived into that metaphorical sea, and have been floating on good books. Today I read with my morning tea, and as I ate breakfast. Read as I ate my lunch, and drank my tea afterwards. I listened to a different book as I pedalled my exercise bike, did laundry, hung towels on the clothesline, brought in towels from the clothesline. Or just sat on the deck sipping tea and staring at the ducks on the river. Anything in order to keep on listening.

Okay, so here’s what has had me distracted all day. I have been reading the latest Peter Grainger mystery featuring DC Smith et al. Some Sort of Justice is the continuation of a case only partially resolved in his last book The Late Lord Thorpe.

Before I started the new book, I went back to quickly remind myself of the last one. Well, that turned into my rereading almost half of The Late Lord Thorpe. I love Grainger’s characters, his carefully unfolding plots, and his style so much that rereading, even when I remember the outcome of the book, is still a pleasure.

If you’ve never read Grainger and love mysteries, you are missing out. There are now seventeen books in the DC Smith and the Kings Lake Investigations series to enjoy. Start with An Accidental Death. Coincidently it deals with the first meeting of DC Smith and Cara Freeman, both of whom figure largely in this latest book.

I’ve been reading Grainger’s books for years. Originally they were self-published on Amazon, available only in electronic form, and as Grainger himself said, they were marketed by word of mouth. But lately I see that they have been picked up a traditional publisher and you can purchase them in hard copy as well as digital. I’m so pleased that the publishing world has caught on to what many of us have known for ages… Peter Grainger is a great writer.

The book to which I have been listening today is written by a writer new to me: Bruce Beckham. I found his first book because it was offered free, as part of my Audible membership. I’ve found several good writers this way. Audible will offer one or two books in a series for free. Then subsequent books are purchased with credits, which of course we pay for as a part of our membership. Still it’s a great way to discover new writers. And save credits for the books I am sure I will love. I am on my third Inspector Skelgill book and I’m really enjoying them.

The books are set in the Lake District, and Inspector Skelgill is an inveterate fisherman, an outdoorsy fell-runner not given to brushing his hair or speaking anything but what is on his mind. The description of how he makes his tea in his “kelly kettle” while he’s having his shore lunch was particularly evocative to me. It conjured images of Hubby and I huddled under the overturned canoe which, while it reeked of fish, nevertheless still sheltered us from the rain while we ate our lunch and drank our thermos of tea.

And if descriptions of fishing expeditions doesn’t appeal, I should also say that Beckham’s books are well written, and even poetic at times in their description of the setting. His characters are endearing and clever. And funny. His work puts me in mind of Reginald Hill, erudite, witty, and engrossing. Of course no one can measure up to Reginald Hill, in my view. But Beckham comes close. So far I’ve listened to Murder in Adland, Murder in School, and Murder in the Woods.

Aside from the books that preoccupied me today, I also recently finished the second book in the Sally Smith series set in the rarified world of the Inner Temple area of London. A Case of Life and Limb was just as good as Of Mice and Murder. Gabriel Ward was just as fascinating and odd as ever. What a wonderful character Smith has created. In my last book post back in April… has it been that long?… I said Smith’s books made me imagine that if Barbara Pym and Jane Austen got together over a pot of tea and decided to write a murder mystery, except with bachelors instead of spinsters and lawyers instead of vicars, they might come up with something similar.

I also recently finished, and might have mentioned in a previous post, the second Gabriel Dax thriller by William Boyd. I loved his first one, Gabriel’s Moon, and The Predicament did not disappoint.

Similarly Lily King’s Heart the Lover held me transfixed. I highly recommend King’s work. Euphoria was brilliant in my view. I’m still waiting for the earlier novel Writers and Lovers, which is said to be a sort of prequel to Heart the Lover, to arrive in the library.

I don’t always fall in love with books I read. Anthony Horowitz’s latest Hawthorne book A Deadly Episode did not hold my interest. It felt thin, and a bit silly at times.

And Kerri Maher’s novel All You Have to Do is Call, left me cold. Maher’s novel is a fictionalized version of the six Chicago women who ran the Jane Collective and championed women’s right to bodily autonomy in the late sixties and early seventies. We read this for book club, and we all agreed that while we felt the story is an important one, Maher’s fiction did not deliver. I’d totally pass on this one, and suggest reading the actual biographical accounts of these women’s fight for abortion rights. Timely and important as the subject matter is, Maher’s book does not do the topic justice.

That’s my TBR pile in the photo above. Some of the books I started reading and then stalled. One because I don’t think it’s very good. Two because they are non-fiction and I always have to take my time with non-fiction. For me non-fiction, no matter how interested I am in the subject, requires a pot of tea, a rainy or snowy day, and nowhere to be for the foreseeable.

And of course a couple of the books I have not begun. I know I will love Margaret Atwood’s memoir, but the sheer size of the book is a bit daunting. And despite my desire to devour the latest Elizabeth Strout (she is one of my favourite writers), I am making myself wait. I need the perfect moment. I don’t want to rush. Too bad we are not still camping. A rainy day in the tent trailer with no distractions, except Hubby calling that dinner is ready, would be perfect for that book. I will finally get around to The Things We Never Say, and of course I’ll let you know how much I love it.

I want to have finished Strout’s book before September. Because in September Mary Lawson’s sequel to A Town Called Solace is coming out. I don’t want to read one of these books right after the other; highly anticipated literary fiction must be spaced out, I think. I have a feeling that Solace in Winter should be read in winter, so I’ll probably buy it when it comes out and wait until we get back from Spain in November to read it. If you haven’t discovered Canadian writer Mary Lawson, you need to read her. Soon. Start with Crow Lake, and trust me you’ll be hooked.

So, I started this post in the very late afternoon. Much later than usual. What was I thinking? I intended to be quick. To not ramble. Ha. I stopped for dinner with Hubby. And now, it will soon be midnight. And if I don’t finish by midnight the post won’t be picked up for email delivery tomorrow morning.

It’s ironic isn’t it that I’ve been procrastinating writing a book post by reading and listening to books? Maybe it’s like what Hemingway said about life. Except about books. To write about books, first we must read them.

Just don’t read so long that one interferes with writing about the thing you want to write about, and you end up serving your readers a rambling, rushed, execrable piece of …well… something not that good. Still, at least I didn’t say I was too busy.

Now… I just have one more point to make. In order to make my fantasy summer of books a reality I need to find more books. Once I am finished what I am reading and listening to, I have nothing to read. Nothing I want to read right now. To extend the metaphor I began in the first paragraph, I may have dived into a sea of good books lately, but after tomorrow when I finish what I am currently enjoying… the tide will be out.

Send help.

Let me know in the comments what I should be reading this summer of books.

P.S. Earlier this week I had a bit of a book clear out. I took a bag of books to the Watson’s Mill Used Bookstore in Manotick. If you are in Manotick please drop in and browse. They have a well curated selection of used and vintage books. All proceeds from book sales go towards the up keep of the heritage buildings in Manotick: Watson’s Mill itself, the old carriage house which houses the book store, and Dickinson House museum.

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