Tag Archives: Thomas Peskett Prest

A Bad Case of Startitis

September 15, 2011 By in Thoughts & Ramblings Tags: , , , , , , , 18 Comments

In the last couple of weeks I have picked up and started far too many books, and so this is a name and shame post.

I have rounded them up from different corners of the house, and I will finish at least two books for every one I start until the number in progress is more sensible.

Usually I aim for three: an upstairs book, a downstairs book and a travelling book.

The String of Pearls by Thomas Pesket Prest

I hadn’t meant to start this one yet, but I pulled it out of the bookcase for this year’s RIP Challenge and when I opened it to take a look I was hooked.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This wasn’t on my RIP list, but when it appeared in the library I had to bring it home and I had to start reading right away. My problem is that it isn’t a daytime book, it’s too unsettling to read late at night, and so I have a very narrow reading window each evening.

Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart

Now this one I have actually finished since I took the picture, and I am pleased to report that it was a wonderful entertainment.

A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe

This caught my eye in the library and when I came home I just had to pull my copy out.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

I’ve been reading this one on and off for months. Well it is a big book!

Far North by Marcel Theroux

I picked this up from my Clearing The Decks stacks a while back, and I read a good bit sitting in the park while Briar was on squirrel watch. I was distracted by another book, but I must get back to this one and see how it all ends.

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond

I was just getting to grips with the naive speech and phonetic spelling when this one disappeared under last Sunday’s papers. By the time it reemerged I was engrossed in something else.

What They do in the Dark by Amanda Coe

Now this is a strange one. Wonderful characterisation and wonderful writing, but it isn’t quite coming together. I must push on, because there is so much potential there.

*****

Eight books in progress is just silly. So please tell me:

How many books do you have on the go at any one time?

And do you have a cure for startitis?!

As Summer Draws to a Close, RIP VI Begins …

September 1, 2011 By in Challenges Tags: , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Summer is fading, the temperature is dropping, and the evenings are drawing in. Autumn is approaching, bring with it the sixth annual RIP challenge.

A wonderful opportunity to read mystery,suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, supernatural…

“Regardless of what my thermometer tells me, my heart tells me that autumn is here and that it is once again time to revel in things ghostly and ghastly, in stories of things that go bump in the night. It is time to trail our favorite detectives as they relentlessly chase down their prey, to go down that dark path into the woods, to follow flights of fantasy and fairy tale that have a darker heart than their spring time brethren. To confront gothic, creepy, horror stories in all their chilling delight.”

Now doesn’t that sound perfect?

So many wonderful possibilities, and I have pulled together a pool of eight books.

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth by Chris Priestly has been waiting for quite a while. The final part of a trilogy, I so want to read it but I really don’t want the series to be over.

I have already begun What They Do in the Dark by Amanda Coe. It is very strange and very dark.

The story of Sweeny Todd has been retold many times, and I want to read the book that told the story first: The String of Pearls by Thomas Peskett Prest.

Ghastly Business by Louise Levene caught my eye quite recently – a bluestocking is caught up in a murder mystery in twenties London.

The Baskerville Legacy by John O’Connell tells the story of Arthur Conan-Doyle as he travels to Dartmoor and writes – or maybe co-writes – that famous story.

Midwinter Sacrifice by Mons Kallentoff is a Scandinavian murder mystery, with a woman investigator who looks very, very interesting.

The Unseen by Katherine Webb is a story of spiritualism in Edwardian England that has been sitting on my bedside table for a while, waiting for this season.

And I am intrigued by the The Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

So many intriguing possibilities.

And there are group reads, short stories, films to ponder too.

Autumn will be wonderful.

What do you plan to read as the days shorten?