Elinor’s Bookshelf

Well, I've been MIA here for a while and have recently caught up on posting my latest reviews. Time does fly and it's already that time of year again - Sue from https://bookbybook.blogspot.com/ is hosting her #BigBookSummer challenge again this year and I can't wait to get started.  Check out the link below if you would like to join too - it's a really laid-back challenge so don't sweat it!   But before I do, here are the books on my shelf that qualify for this year's challenge - 19 altogether (and that's my shortlist!).  There is no way I can read all of those this year, so I'd love thoughts to help me choose! Here are the books I'm considering for this year's challenge. The English and their History by Robert Tombs At a whopping 1012 pages this history book definitely qualifies for the challenge.  It's been on my shelf for a while - I guess I am daunted by its page count and the fact it's non-fiction.  This one is in my grey zone at t...

My rating: ★★★☆☆ First and foremost this was a truly unexpected plot mixing fantasy, history, geography, and fiction. I'm not sure whether it's me or the writing but I did get distracted whilst reading the first half in particular and, at the same time, I felt drawn to the historical and geographical parts of the book - the author must have done a lot of fact-checking to get all of this to fit together properly. Overall this made for a good read even if some of the plot was a little difficult to understand on a human level (most notably PC Grant's apparent numbness to his friend's plight in the last two chapters). I did think the personification of the rivers was clever and managed to get the hang of this slightly different world after a bit. I shall be giving the second instalment a go. View all my reviews

My rating: ★★★★★ This is something else. Enter a world of sapphic love and desire featuring Nancy (loosely inspired by Zola’s Nana), Kitty the “masher”, Diana the huntress, a gently blossoming Florence, and a flurry of lesser yet equally entertaining characters. The tantalising story of Nancy Astley unfolds from her youth as an oyster-girl in Whitstable to her discovery of lesbian love, lust, and pleasure in late 19th century London. The capricious and frivolous nature of Nancy belies the importance of her journey. She fumbles and falls trying to define herself, running from the past at break-neck speed, while at the same time hiding her present like a precious jewel never to be spoiled. But the present inevitably passes, and the past never truly is passed. Sometimes lubricious, always brave, and often risqué, the style, with slang in all the right places, and queers and gays and toms, has an almost poetic ring to it. It conjures up people and whole scenes in vivid colours, or browns...

My rating: ★★★★☆ Wow! Will hasn’t seen his brother Ken since Ken was framed for a murder close to home, over a decade ago. Ken and his family believe he’s dead until Ken’s mother, on her deathbed, tells Will that Ken is still alive. Will decides to find him, and on that journey back in time, what will he unearth? This was very good - I had previously read The Stranger which left me (sorry fans I know you’ll not like me for this) nonplussed. This, on the other hand, I believe to be in true Harlan Coben style: suspenseful, intriguing, and with a twist. And a twist. And a twist. This was right up my alley, quite dark and with that taste of the underworld that makes a thriller truly, well, thrilling. View all my reviews