Friday's Fave Five - 24/4/26

Friday's Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.  Each week she reminds us to look back and find the things we were grateful for during the week.  It's good to be grateful.  Why not join us?

1)  Well firstly I am grateful for my Hubby.  He had a birthday last Saturday and we celebrated by attending a fund raising evening organised by a friend of his doing what he loves best - singing and playing his guitar.  He was one of several acts that performed at a nearby church and although I don't usually go to watch him play I couldn't miss out on his birthday.  We'll have been married for 42 years in June.  Definitely a keeper.

2)  The quiz night I mentioned last week raised £3967 for the Foodbank which is amazing!  

3)  Spring weather.  It's been sunny all week and although not that hot yet I was still able to get all my washing done and a lot of it dry on the line outside. (I still tumble dry things like underwear and t shirts to cut down on the ironing.) 

4)  Postal votes.  We have elections for councillors next month but our postal votes came yesterday.  I'm grateful not to have to get to the polling station on the day.  Usually it's fine but one less hassle to deal with.

5)  A good meet up for the evening book club on Wednesday.  There were only 5 of us but we had a good discussion about the book and lots of other things too.  We all agreed that we didn't like the book:

Hopefully the next one will be better:

And the jumper is nearly done.  I just need to do a few more rows and then the decorative bottom.  Oh and all the tedious sewing in of ends and seams to do.  Don't hold your breath for a picture of me modelling it!

Have a good weekend all.

Weekly photos 5th - 11th April 2026

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who has been commenting on my A-Z posts (and my regular posts).  I do appreciate it.  Unfortunately I haven't been as good at responding as I'd like.  This was a busy week with grandchildren here and now I have a rotten cold.  One that has a tickly cough with it.  I woke up in the early hours this morning doing nothing but cough.  Deciding I needed to be propped up I came downstairs and wrapped myself up on the recliner.  I also took some honey in warm water which helped but not the most restful of nights.

Not all doom and gloom though.  For once I said no to a visit from our granddaughter - didn't want to spread my germs so I've been able to relax all day.  I've managed to get all of this week's A-Z posts finished off and scheduled to post so one less thing to worry about. (Until next weekend at least.)

But as for photos well let's see how I did:

No photo taken on Sunday but this was my reading book:

This was taken on Monday.  Not sure what they were begging for, might have been dessert as we'd just finished dinner.

Tuesday had Noah and Daddy playing draughts

and Miles blowing bubbles.

Nathan & Ella were here all day Wednesday - it was the warmest day so far this year I think.  Warm enough for ice lollies anyway.

Four of them here on Thursday and racing cars kept them amused for ages!

On Friday we spotted that Miles had left some of his Easter treats behind so I packaged them up to be posted.  They were supposed to be collected from the house and although I was in all day I didn't hear the postman.  I suspect he didn't knock very hard let alone ring the doorbell!  Thankfully I rearranged collection on Saturday from the front porch.  Not secure but the parcel wasn't visible from passers by and was successfully collected.  Hopefully Miles will get them early this week.

I didn't take any photos yesterday.  I was busy reading this:

Pretty grim reading but it was written by Peter Apps who was at the same school my boys attended.  He was in the year between them.  I also have a book lined up written by his sister and the two together will fulfil two of the 52 book club challenge prompts.  My review of the book can be found here.       

Read then Write - 26/3/26

Well the big news here is that I got through an audio book at the weekend!

I wrote about it on my #SoCS post here.  As I mentioned there I've not been a big fan of audio books and this was borrowed accidentally from the library.  I don't think I'll be making a habit of it as I did find it hard to concentrate on it.  Even though I wasn't in bed and about to fall asleep.

Thankfully though it has kept my reading tally on track.  I'm actually 2 books ahead of schedule but this has been quite a slow week for reading.

I've been busy knitting in the evenings, although one evening I did start a new jigsaw puzzle and I've been going to bed quite late so I haven't read much of my current book "The trouble with Goats and Sheep" but I'm aiming to finish it by the end of the weekend.

I also got another book out from the library yesterday:

This is the first in the Karen Pirie series.  I recently read #6 that had been passed on to me so I thought I'd check out the first and go from there.  My library is quite efficient at getting book reservations in.  I really need to have some earlier nights and fit in more reading time!

#SoCS - 21/3/26 - Easy/Hard

Linda provides the prompts for #SoCS and the link up is here.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “easy/hard.” Use one, use both, use ’em any way you’d like. Bonus points if you get both words into your post. Enjoy!

Well I'm going to use both by asking is it easy/hard to listen to an audio book?

I have never really settled to listening to audio books.  Some years ago my daughter gifted me a six month subscription to audible but I was still working at the time so the only time I really had for reading was when I went to bed.

Well I'm sure you can guess what happened.  I would often fall asleep listening to the book so I consequently found myself having to backtrack, trying to work out at what point I was up to when I fell asleep and often reading the same chapter over and over.

Needless to say I did not renew the subscription when the gift period expired.

Fast forward to now and I read a lot.  I'm retired so I can really read as much as I want and when I want.  I do love a physical book but I also like the convenience of reading on my Kindle App, especially when on holiday.  But I've kept away from audio books.

Until today.  I mistakenly ordered an audio version of a book from the library rather than the physical copy.  I decided to give it a go.

Straight off I had to speed it up.  The narrator's voice was boring and slow.  I worked out how to speed it up and I actually managed to listen to the whole book during the course of this afternoon and evening.

It was Wednesday's Child by Peter Robinson which is a DCI Banks story. (Actually #6 in the series.)  This is a very English crime series that has been televised.  I enjoyed the TV series and the books have been ok so far. (I'm trying to read them in order.)  They're not 5 star material but they're quite gritty at times.  This one was a bit more graphic than some and the crime centred around a child abduction.

My main problems with the audio version were that:

1)  I found the narrator annoying - and it was the same one for all the characters, men and women; and

2)  I noticed how much detail there was in all the descriptions.  Of everything.

Perhaps when I've been reading the books I've skimmed over that or maybe this book was just more descriptive than previous ones.

Anyway I finished it. 

But it hasn't persuaded me that audio books are my thing.  I was knitting while listening so it was productive in that way but I'm not sure I would necessarily keep all the plot details in my head if I was doing something that required a bit more concentration.  Chick lit might work I suppose but I'm not convinced.

I'll definitely be more careful when ordering books from the library in future though!

Are you an audio book fan? 

Read then Write - 19/3/26

Well I only managed to finish one book since my last book post - The Killing Stones by Ann Cleeves.

The blurb reads:

"It's been several years since Detective Jimmy Perez left Shetland. He has settled into his new home in Orkney, the group of islands, off the northern coast of Scotland, with his partner Willow Reeve and their growing family. One stormy winter night, his oldest and closest friend, Archie Stout, goes missing. Ever the detective, Perez catches a boat to the island of Westray, where Archie worked as a farmer and lived with his wife and children.

But when he arrives he finds a shocking Archie's body, on an archaeological dig site and an ancient Westray story stone with precise spirals carved into it beside him, the clear murder weapon. The artifact, taken from a nearby museum, seems to suggest a premediated murder.

But Perez is so close to the case that he struggles to maintain an objective distance from the potential suspects. He finds it difficult to question Archie's wife, whom he's known for years. Rumours swirl about the dead man's relationship with a young woman new to the island, an artist. With each new lead, the case becomes more twisted and Perez wonders if he will ever find out what happened in his friend's final days."

I've enjoyed quite a few books by Ann Cleeves and I've watched the "Shetland" series which featured DI Perez on the TV.  This book finds Perez now settled in Orkney with partner Willow, a young son and another baby on the way.  Yet there didn't seem to be any explanation of how we got from Shetland to Orkney.  According to Google we've jumped 7 years but that wasn't accounted for in this book.

Having said that this book could easily be a stand alone and I do love Cleeves' way of describing things in detail and giving depth to her characters.  It was a little bit too neatly wrapped up for me at the end so no 5 stars but it definitely makes you want to visit Orkey for its scenery.

According to Goodreads I'm 2 books ahead of schedule to complete this year's reading challenge but my reading pile is not going down.

I have 3 books out from the library at the moment:

 


The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is the afternoon book club choice.

People Person is for the evening book group and

The Betrayal is for one of the 52 book club prompts:

"Inspired by the top grossing movie, in the year you were born"

The film?  Ben Hur.  My first thoughts were I'd have to find something on ancient Rome.  Definitely not my sort of thing.  Having looked at what the film is about Betrayal seemed a good fit.  My challenge my rules!

I've actually read The Trouble with Goats and Sheep before so that should be an easy one to get through and I'm starting with that one next.  Then I'll do the other book club one so that I'm ready for the next meet ups before moving on to Betrayal.

Read then Write 12/3/26

It's been a good week for reading and all things books!

I finished Past Reason Hated by Peter Robinson. This was another good crime thriller featuring DCI Banks. This one felt a bit slow in places and there was a lot of repetition about the smoking and drinking that went on at the time but I still enjoyed the unravelling of the clues and solving of the crime. 3 stars

I moved on to this one

Yes, another crime thriller.  I think it's fair to say it's my favourite genre.

This one features DCI Karen Pirie a detective working on cold cases in Scotland.  

The blurb reads:

"On a freezing winter morning, fishermen pull a body from the sea. It is quickly discovered that the dead man was the prime suspect in a decade-old investigation, when a prominent civil servant disappeared without trace. DCI Karen Pirie was the last detective to review the file and is drawn into a sinister world of betrayal and dark secrets.

But Karen is already grappling with another case, one with even more questions and fewer answers. A skeleton has been discovered in an abandoned campervan and all clues point to a killer who never faced justice - a killer who is still out there.

In her search for the truth, Karen uncovers a network of lies that has gone unchallenged for years. But lies and secrets can turn deadly when someone is determined to keep them hidden for good...."

This was actually #6 in the series but I was familiar with the character as she has been televised. Karen is definitely a no nonsense character and it was interesting reading about how things are done in Scotland and what happens when the work overlaps with policing not only in England but also abroad.

The cold case was wrapped up by the end of the book and there were quite a few twists and turns to that but the case of the skeleton didn't feel finished to me.  I might have to look out the next book in the series to see where that actually ends up going.  But I'll be looking out for the earlier books in the series first - I do like continuity.  I'm not even sure where I got this book from.  Possibly from my BIL - he passed on a lot of books last summer but it may have been a charity shop buy.

Definitely worth the read though - 4 stars from me.

I also had 2 Book Club meet ups yesterday.

The first one in the afternoon had our biggest attendance yet - 7 people.  The book we'd been reading for that was Grandad there's a head on the beach by Colin Coterill which I wrote about here.  Five of the group had read it and surprisingly 3 people really enjoyed it while I was in the minority of 2 who hadn't enjoyed it all.  

The evening group also had 7 people there which was a good turn out and we discussed The Muse by Jessie Burton which we'd all enjoyed although some more than others.  We had 5 regulars and a couple of newcomers so it was a nice mix and of course we moved on to discussing all sorts of things!

The next book I'm going to read is this one which was one I'd reserved a while ago and I picked it up from the library on Tuesday.

I've read a few books by Ann Cleeves in both her "Vera" and "Shetland" series as well as the more recent "Matthew Venn" books but this one follows the original Shetland detective Jimmy Perez after his relocation to Orkney.

Time for bed and a few opening chapters.

Read then Write - 5/3/26

Since last Thursday I have managed to finish The Muse by Jessie Burton plus two other books.

I really enjoyed The Muse. Moving between two timelines it charts the journey of a painting, created in Spain and ending up in England.

The earlier part of the book (set in 1936) focuses on Olive Schloss and her relationships with her family and Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa, who come to help out at the house she is staying in. Olive is a painter but her father, a renowned art dealer would never recognise her as such. But Olive manages to create several art works before the family are forced to return to England due to the Spanish Civil War. But the paintings are accredited to Isaac.

Jumping forward to 1967, Odelle Bastien starts work at the Skelton gallery in London and becomes involved in discovering the truth behind a painting that has been brought to them and finding out more about her boss, Marjorie Quick.

I enjoyed this book more than The Miniaturist by the same author but, although there was a lot mentioned about the fighting in Spain during the earlier periods in the book, I don't feel I really got to understand it very well, hence a 4 star rating not 5.

I moved on to Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa next. A nice easy read for A Sunday afternoon and into Monday. Definitely fits the description of cosy crime. 3 stars.

And finally I read this one:

This was another of what I would call a "cozy" read but this was a romantic one. It was quite long at 456 pages (it was originally a series of 4 books that have now been combined into 1) but it was a quick easy read.

"Beth is running away. With her young son Leo to protect, Willow Cottage is the lifeline she so desperately needs. Overlooking the village green in a beautiful Cotswolds idyll, Beth sees a warm, caring and safe place for little Leo.

When she finally uncovers the cottage from underneath the boughs of a weeping willow tree, Beth realises this is far more of a project than she bargained for and the locals are more than a little eccentric! A chance encounter with gruff Jack, who appears to be the only male in the village under thirty, leaves the two of them at odds but it’s not long before Beth realises that Jack has hidden talents that could help her repair more than just Willow Cottage.

Over the course of four seasons, Beth realises that broken hearts can be mended, and sometimes love can be right under your nose…"

3 stars from me.

I also managed to fit all 3 of these books to prompts for the 52 book club challenge and I'm now 1 book ahead of schedule and I've already started this one:

This is #5 in a series I'm gradually working my way through and again it works for another prompt.  I do love a crime thriller.

Read then Write - 26/2/26

Well I finally managed to finish "Grandad there's a Head on the Beach"! 

Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach by Colin Cotterill
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well if this was ever made into a film it would be fast and furious and completely farcical. Which is a shame given that at the heart of the story is the awful way Burmese people are treated in Thailand and used as slaves in the fishing trade. But I just couldn’t get on board with it. It took me 10 days to read this book and it’s only just over 300 pages long! It probably wasn’t helped by it being the 2nd book in a series but I’m certainly not going to read the first or the last.

It will be interesting to see what other members of the book group think of it.

I've now moved on to this book:

This is the evening book group's choice.  I'm enjoying it so far although I was a bit on the fence about The Miniaturist by the same author.  But I need to fit more reading time in if I'm to meet my targets.  Doesn't help when you end up binge watching a series that's based on a book I haven't actually read.  I don't usually like reading books after I've seen a TV show or film but I might have to make an exception.  The series was Curfew based on a book by Jayne Cowie.  

Oops, I got so engrossed in the final episode that this post is slightly late lol.

Read then Write - 19/2/26

Well this has not been a good week for reading!

I've started one of the book club reads:

and despite the interesting sounding title it is not grabbing me.

It's set in Thailand and there was indeed a head on the beach.  I'm not quite sure where it's going yet.  I need to persevere.

I've probably spent more time looking at cookery books this week as I'm hosting our "Ladies Lunch" tomorrow.  (With former work colleagues.) I have my dessert already made.  The starter will cook in the air fryer and after a quick trip to Tesco this evening I now have all the ingredients I need for the main course.

I'll try and remember to take photos!

Read then Write - 12/2/26

Not a bad week for reading.  I finished The Names by Florence Knapp:

The Names by Florence Knapp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found the premise of this book interesting - how does the choice of a name affect our lives going forward? The book follows Cora's baby son who is named either Bear, his 9 year old sister's choice, Julian (Jules) his Mother's choice, or Gordon after his Father and Grandfather.

The story is told from those 3 POVs and moves forward in leaps of 7 years starting in 1987 and ending in 2022. It is beautifully written - the author definitely has a way with words. However it felt a little bit disjointed to me and although some things were covered in detail, others were not.

The name choice also isn't what really affects the life of the baby but rather the effect Cora's decision has on her marriage and the events that follow. It should be noted that the marriage is an abusive one for anyone who likes to steer clear of domestic violence.

Overall it's a good debut but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's great.

I also attended a Book Club meeting on Tuesday evening where we discussed The Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.  It was a good evening as we had seven people there who had all read the book.  Most people liked it.  I was on the fence.  There were things in it I felt didn't quite gel together.  It was a bit slow too.

This week I've also managed to finish this book:

The Guardians by John Grisham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't think I've ever been disappointed by a John Grisham book. Of course there are lots of similarities in many of them - based around the American legal system, often involving injustice and frequently drug cartels and conspiracies.

This one was a bit slow initially and there are several storylines to get your head around as we follow Cullen Post, an innocence lawyer and minister as he tries to prove the innocence of convicted criminals and get them exonerated.  The pace picked up and I really enjoyed it.

I now have 2 books to read for the book clubs:

 and 

I have the Cotterill one on my Kindle App and I have a physical copy of The Muse.  There's a few weeks before the clubs meet again so I have plenty of time to read them.  Hopefully I'll like The Muse more than I did The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.  I found that quite hard going.  I haven't read anything by Cotterill so that may or may not be interesting.

Of course I'm trying to match these Book Club reads to the 52 Book Club Challenge list of prompts wherever possible but I'm not sure where these will fit yet.  I'm sure I can fit them in somewhere but it may be at the expense of books from my TBR pile! Thankfully I've managed to not add any more books to that pile so far this year.  For anyone who missed it these are just some of those books:

I'm not going to check how many unread books there are on the Kindle App lol.

Read then Write - 5/2/26

This is what I am currently reading:

This was gifted* to me at Christmas by my eldest son and his wife although I'm sure she will have been the one to pick it out.  I'm only a little way in but I'm already loving the writing.

It's been a bookish week.  On Sunday I decided to see which of the books on my TBR pile I could use for the 52Book Club Challenge.  I think I managed to pair about 14 books to the prompt list so I'll be reading those first.  

This is some of the TBR pile.  There are a few more in the house and then quite a selection in our garden room.  

The trouble is that now I'm part of two book clubs I'm reading books from the library so the TBR pile is not going down very fast (if at all - see above*) but I do enjoy reading.

We had a good meeting of the afternoon book club this week and we discussed The Power by Naomi Alderton which I reviewed here.  We all agreed that it was quite a clever book even though none of us really enjoyed it.  It turns out that none of us are big fans of dystopia. 

Hopefully our next read will be more fun: