Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.
The topic this week is Books with Handwriting on the Cover (Or fonts that look like handwriting. Titles, subtitles, covers with letters on them, etc.) These are all paperback books I own, some of which I haven’t read yet. I’ve linked those I have read to my posts on them.
I’m a bit late posting my Top Ten Tuesday, but it still is Tuesday!
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley – I’ve avoided reading this book because of all the hype when it was first published, but maybe I should just ignore that now. It’s a murder mystery set in 1950. When a body is found in the garden Fiona, who is very nearly 11 years old, decides to do her own investigations.
Fire by L C Tyler – I’ve read a few novels set in 1666 about the Great Fire of London and this is yet another one. It’s the fourth in the John Grey Historical Mystery series. Lawyer John Grey investigates a Frenchman who admits to having started the fire together with an accomplice, whom he says he has subsequently killed.
Old Filth by Jane Gardam, which I loved. This tells the story of Sir Edward Feathers, variously known as Eddie, The Judge, Fevvers, Master of the Inner Temple and Teddy. Not a dirty old man, he is ‘spectacularly clean. You might say ostentatiously clean.’ Filth is his nickname standing for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. It’s a gentle book, full of humour and heartbreak.
Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster, an extremely well researched and informative account of Daphne Du Maurier’s life, taken from her letters and private papers, with personal memories of her from her children, grandchildren and friends. It is a candid account of her relationships and also an excellent source of information on Du Maurier’s method of writing and views on life.
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. I loved Mitchell’s book Cloud Atlas, so I’m hoping to love this one too. It is described inside the front cover thus: ‘Metaphysical thriller, meditation on mortality and chronicle of our self-devouring times, this kaleidoscopic novel crackles with the invention and wit that have made David Mitchell one of the most celebrated writers of his generation.’
Mr Mac and Me by Emma Freud, a novel about a young boy and his unlikely friendship with the Glaswegian artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Freud paints a vivid portrait of a home front community during the First World War, and of a man who was one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation. I thought this looked interesting so I bought a copy.
Him and Me by Jack Whitehall. I’ve enjoyed TV programmes with Jack and his father, Michael so I’d meant to read this book about their relationship and memories. But I haven’t started it yet.
The Heretics by Rory Clements, historical mystery, set in 1595. This is one of Clements’ John Shakespeare mysteries. I haven’t read any of them before but I have enjoyed his Tom Wilde spy mysteries.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Set in the Deep South of America in the 1930s. It is narrated by Scout (Jean Louise Finch) as she looks back as an adult to the Depression, the years when with her older brother, Jem, and their friend, Dill, she witnessed the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl.
Come Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan, written with love and humour. I loved this archaeological memoir, which she wrote in answer to her friends’ questions about what life was like when she accompanied her husband Max on his excavations in Syria and Iraq in the 1930s.
BooksPlease 