January's reading

 I might have missed a few here moving between laptops, but they can always be tagged on to February!

Wilding, Isabella Tree: I made the mistake of reading the introduction, which I think is usually to be avoided. But moving past that this is a tremendously readable account, if alarming in the details about current farming practices. There is more in the way of statistics than of poetry, but that is not what this book is about: it is more about a possible way forward, particularly in the aftermath of Brexit, in making farming and conservation work together for the benefit of both, in terms of biodiversity, water management, soil enhancement, and food improvement. I hope those with power in the right places pay a bit of attention.

Suddenly He Thinks He’s aSunbeam, Adey Grummet: An Australian singer finds herself married to a man with a vocation – an actual vocation to become ordained as a priest at the higher end of the Anglican church. This is a very amusing as well as moving account of coming to terms with the effects her husband’s change of life will have on her own career, behaviour and circumstances – just watch out for some slightly dated attitudes to certain parts of society, and believe they are in the end well-intentioned.

Places in the Darkness, Chris Brookmyre: This is very sci-fi. I mean, I know, the setting is a space station, and I was up for quite a bit of technological scene-setting, and I certainly had it. But then the characters kick in and it’s a crime fiction book, so if space stations are not your thing, then just have patience. I thought it lacked some of the humour of his other books, but the plot is beautifully complex and leads you into thoughts about artificial intelligence, the vulnerability of memories and the ultimate ethics of police work in a corrupt society.

The Curator, M. W. Craven: The relationship between Poe and Tilly is the main reason for reading these books – it is at once hilarious and touching. But there is much more besides: the plot is well woven, the secondary characters lifelike, even the animals real people.

Forensics: The Anatomy ofCrime, Val McDermid: An approachable treatment of the subject for an intelligent beginner. The book is divided into chapters on facets of forensics – fingerprints, blood patterns, forensic anthropology, etc., and the history of the facet is covered before going on to what is happening in the field today. If you’ve already read Sue Black’s All That Remains some parts will be very familiar, but there was plenty still to bookmark and come back to. There is also a good index and bibliography.

Surface Tension, Christine Kling: I read this because it was free, and set in Florida, which I needed for a reading challenge. I sort of didn’t expect to enjoy it, but I did. It’s based near Fort Lauderdale, and it is action-packed from the start. If, like me, you have little idea of which end of a boat is which, you can just run with the high-tech description for a bit and be reassured when the body is found. But there’s a real sense of the author’s deep familiarity with the whole coastal scene in Florida, historically as well as contemporary. In some ways it bears comparison with Marsali Taylor’s excellent crime novels set on and off Shetland: the heroine is just as scarred by her past, if not more so, but she really knows her boat-based community. The book is much darker, though, and with more in the way of shorts, sex, and mangrove swamps.

Other editions

Adventures of the Yorkshire Shepherdess, Amanda Owen: Having heard a good deal about the series on television, I felt well-disposed to this lady and her family, and was not disappointed. Apparently this isn’t the first book, but it was very enjoyable: you could be there with the family in their disappointments, sorrows and laughter. I might even look out some more in the series!

See Them Run, Marian Todd: Well, this one feels as if it’s set in St. Andrews, which is a good start. I liked the main character, who is in Fife to escape something awful that’s happened in Glasgow (and why not?), though it’s likely to follow her. Not quite sure about the senior officer who comes tramping in to take charge, or the general dynamics in the police station, but I think they’re likely to develop over future books. For once, the non-police characters are more rounded and interesting, particularly the victims and their families.

The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern: A young man finds an uncatalogued book in his university library and in it reads a story about himself. This drags him into a mysterious world of books, of painted doors and hidden doors and lost doors, of underground rooms and bees and swords and keys. The occasional flash of dry humour is very welcome. There is a magical style to this book, a love of stories and intertwined stories, that fills your head with half-caught ideas for stories of your own, and in the end the plot actually works.

The Limpopo Academy of PrivateDetection, Alexander McCall Smith: I’ve lost track of this series a bit, but enjoyed this one. It’s the mixture as before, with Mma Makutsi endlessly ambitious, Mma Potokwani concerned for her orphanage, the unexpected arrival of the famous Clovis Andersen, and Mma Ramotswe and her lovely, patient husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni behaving with reason and kindness to everyone.

Jordanna Max Brodsky, The Wolfin the Whale: There’s a bit of confusing use of capital letters around the beginning of this, but it settles down into a story with a mythical feel to it, full of legends and rituals in a tiny Inuit community that has lost a large proportion of its young men in one bad accident and is no longer viable. The survival of the rest, the desperate longing to meet another community, and the coming to adulthood of Omat, the main character. Some of the description is beautiful, magical and mystical, and some is harsh as befits the hard landscape. When rescue seems to appear it is not the bright future they hoped, and Omat is left alone to try to save the community in the face of more than one enemy. Encounters with Vikings and native Americans lead to confusion and danger, and long journeys across ice, tundra and forest. Some elements of the fantasy side seem to become lost and the whole thing ends rather suddenly, but it was an interesting read.

Well, as I said, more to come next month! Meanwhile I'm nearly a third of the way through Hippolyta VI, The Corrupted Blood, and excitingly an audiobook of Tomb for an Eagle is in production as we speak. It's all go here!