Hayley

I hadn’t heard about that! Are all of them closing or just some? WHSmith hasn't been a great bookshop for a while - I think it was obvious they were struggling when they started selling more gifts, toys and snacks than books. But there was still a better selection than supermarket shelves. It’s not good if that selection is all that’s left in places - especially for kids! It completely takes away the spontaneity of seeing a cover on a bookshop shelf that just looks really interesting.

Maybe it did inspire Smaug! Tolkien did spend a long time translating Beowulf . (I agree that ‘feage’ would be fey as well - interesting how in old stories the idea of ‘fey’ was so much broader than what we think of as fairies now!)

I think I put this is in the other thread accidentally, but my first finished book for this challenge was The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale (which was very good) I finished The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke very quickly (it's so short but still so beautifully written!). Then I went for a children's book because my boyfriend bought the Brambly Hedge box set (technically for the baby but I had put it on my wish list because I also wanted it ). So third small read was Winter Story by Jill Barklem. They're such beautifully illustrated books!

That's an interesting one! I absolutely love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, but I wouldn't have said it was horror!

Thank you @muggle not, @willoyd and @Janet (it's great to 'see' you again by the way!). Congratulations on becoming a grandparent! It's actually very nice to hear someone suggest that everything might not be complete, and that's fine. The pressure for everything to be 'perfect' before the baby arrives is stressful! Although I do frequently try to remind myself that there aren't really that many things that need to be in place. We have actually done a lot already! Solidarity with your DiL's tiredness - my new hope is that it doesn't get much worse now in the third trimester! It did actually, yeah! My prediction was...

I know, it's tiny! I would love a longer book set in the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell again! Yes, that was my favourite thing about it! The descriptions of the emporium and the toys were so beautiful and really captured the magical feeling. I only didn't give it five stars because...

We should! Winter does actually fit my next planned book. I’m not sure what I’d go for after that, I’d have to dig around a bit, but I’ll give my vote to winter

It is not the start of the month any more but better late than never! I would love it if people would still like to join in with some group read themes this year. Same rules as last year, you can choose any book of any genre as long as it connects to the theme of that quarter (topic to change every three months). I'd like to immediately suggest the (I feel, appropriate) theme of time for this one (although I'm aware that it will have some overlap with our last historical theme!). So, what do you think? Would anybody like to join me? Do you have any good theme ideas?

It's well past time I updated this! I have started to a few times and always been interrupted by something, so I'm going to try keeping this one short! I feel like so much has happened since I last posted - I'm certainly a different shape and significantly heavier! Something I wasn't quite anticipating is how tired I was going to be. That is partly why I haven't posted yet. Doing the same amount as usual utterly drains me most days. Everyone makes out that you get some sort of magical energy boost in your second trimester, but (as I have now learnt) it doesn't work that way for everyone! This week will be the start of my third trimester, which is a little scary, but everything is going well. In fact, the baby is kicking me as I write this . I've just finished a week's break, during which we started to sort the house out in preparation. Not the most relaxing of holidays, but it gave me the brain break I desperately needed (speaking of which - as much as I hate the fact - I've also discovered that "baby brain" is apparently real - I have to keep noting things down so I don't forget them!). I managed to read 19 books last year and will try to do a quick ratings wrap up soon. My Goodreads challenge has been set, once again, to 50, so I can see how close to it I get in 2025. It's definitely going to be an interesting year, so I have no predictions! My first book of the year has been The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale (started just before Christmas 2024 and finished today). I would have finished it earlier, but had a break of about five days when I sensed I was coming to an especially sad part - at times I'm just more intensely emotional right now and I didn't want to traumatise myself 😅. It's a good 4/5 though - a great book for seasonal Christmas reading! I got The DallerGut Dream Department Store by Mi-Ye Lee and The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke as Christmas presents and I'm really looking forward to both of them - but I don't think I can resist the Susanna Clarke one any more, so that will almost definitely be my next choice! I hope you all had wonderful Christmases and wish you all the happiest New Year! I hope I'm going to be around a lot more now that my house and brain are more sorted!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a lovely couple of days! I hope yours was extra relaxing yesterday, to make up for having to work for Christmas!

Finally finished The Suspicions of Mr Whicher! I enjoyed it overall but I realised that I was slightly confused about how I was meant to be reading it. I expected it to be fiction based on a true event, but it’s actually more like an academic text with elements of fiction. So you have a really detailed bibliography, and notes to justify claims to historical fact at the back. Within the ‘story’ of what happened, there are also quite lengthy diversions to explain things like what the media portrayal of private detectives was in different decades and how specific crimes were portrayed in contemporary fiction. It was interesting but I kind of wish it had been more clearly non-fiction, so I knew what I was starting 😅

I didn’t know there was a TV version!? I’ve finished it now, will add to the ‘completed’ thread 😄

I’m still hoping that it’s all going to become relevant and tie up at some point. But some parts do feel like a big info dump! I still have faith in it 😄 it’s just taking a while to read!

Oh good! And a good solution from them too

I decided to go for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which I am enjoying, but it's so densely packed with all the details of the case (and history of the detective) that it feels like it's taking a while to get through it!