Before next Sunday, 19th October, 2025 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain on your Classics Club list. On that day the Classics Club will post the winning number. The challenge is to read and review whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 21st December, 2025.
It’s almost time for Novellas in November, hosted by Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck. It’s now in it’s sixth year. I took part in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
There are no categories this year, although participants are invited to start the month with a My Year in Novellas retrospective looking at any novellas read since last NovNov, and finish it with a New to My TBR list based on the novellas that others have tempted them with over the course of the month.
There are also two buddy reads this year – Seascraper by Benjamin Wood and Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde.
These are some of the novellas from my TBR shelves:
Women and Writing by Virginia Woolf – 198 pages
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark – 172 pages
The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald – 167 pages
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner – 184 pages
The Case of the Canterell Codicil by PJ Fitzsimmons – 177 pages
Anty Boisjoly, nineteen-twenty-never Wodehousian gadabout and clubman , takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle.
Not one but two locked-room murders later, Anty’s pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective-inspector, an irascible goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multi-layered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, and revenge, and with a twist in the end that you’ll never see coming.
What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
I haven’t done a WWW Wednesday post since July! Where has the time gone? We’re now in October and it’s definitely Autumn – colder but stil some bright sunny days. The leaves are now falling, soon our garden will be covered by them – we have a lot of trees.
Currently I’m reading one of Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti novels – Blood from a Stone, which I’m thoroughly enjoying. I’m not surprised by that as I’ve enjoyed all of the Brunetti books I’ve read. He is one of my favourite detectives, maybe even the favourite.
In this one Brunetti is investigating the death of one of the vu cumprà, illegal immigrants selling fake designer handbags from sheets on the ground. He was killed one cold night near Christmas when two men entered Venice’s Campo Santo Stefano and shot him five times. The only witnesses are some American tourists.
I’m also reading Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), which I think is such a strange book, definitely not a children’s book as I had thought. First published in 1726, it’s a satire on human nature and the imaginary travellers’ tale literary subgenre about Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon who travels to four strange and distant lands. I’ve nearly finished it and I’ll write more about it in a later post.
The last book I read was West with Giraffes by Linda Rutledge, a novel based on a true story which I loved.
Description from Goodreads
Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.
It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.
What will I read next? It could be The Case of the Canterfell CodicilAnty Boisjoly Mysteries Book 1) by P.J. Fitzsimmons, a locked room mystery.
Description from Goodreads
In The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, Wodehousian gadabout and clubman Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle. Not one but two locked-room mysteries later, Boisjoly’s pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective-inspector, an irascible goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multi-layered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge, and a teasing twist in the final paragraph.
But when the time comes to start another book it could be something completely different.
Viking| 4 September 2025| 272 pages| e-book| Review copy| 3*
Gabriel Dax, travel writer and accidental spy, is back in the shadows. Unable to resist the allure of his MI6 handler, Faith Green, he has returned to a life of secrets and subterfuge. Dax is sent to Guatemala under the guise of covering a tinderbox presidential election, where the ruthless decisions of the Mafia provoke pitch-black warfare in collusion with the CIA.
As political turmoil erupts, Gabriel’s reluctant involvement deepens. His escape plan leads him to West Berlin, where he uncovers a chilling realisation: there is a plot to assassinate magnetic young President John F. Kennedy. In a race against time, Gabriel must navigate deceit and danger, knowing that the stakes have never been higher . . .
My thoughts
I was really keen to read The Predicament William Boyd’s second book in his espionage trilogy about Gabriel Drax because I loved, the first book Gabriel Moon. A major strand in that book was the story of the tragedy surrounding his mother’s death when he was a young child. His subsequent separation from his older brother added to Gabriel’s disturbed state of mind and contributed to his reluctance to become a spy. In fact he was accidentally drawn into the world of espionage without making a conscious decision.
The Predicament begins in 1963, a few months after the events related in Gabriel’s Moon. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would because the novelty of a spy who doesn’t want to be a spy is no longer a novelty. Now, Gabriel knows he is being drawn back into the dangerous and shadowy world of espionage by his fascination/obsession with Faith Green, his MI6 handler, who effortlessly manipulates him. But is Faith beginning to show her true feelings for him, is it possible that she may even be in love with him, or is she just using sex to keep stringing him along?
It all seems a bit shallow and the characters are rather stereotypical, although it’s fast paced and easily readable. Gabriel is assigned to a joint MI6/CIA operation in Guatemala to interview Pedro Tiago an ex-priest thought to be the next elected President. When Tiago is assassinated Gabriel realises he has once again been manipulated and is in danger of losing his life. Then he is sent to Berlin to assist the CIA prevent the assassination of President Kennedy, an interesting episode that lacks tension as we know Kennedy wasn’t assassinated in Berlin.
The action does jump about, as in between these events he has meetings with Russian spies and realises he’s become a double agent and he is still having sessions with the psychoanalyst as in Gabriel’s Moon. In addition he is a successful travel writer and he continues to use his spying assignments as locations for his books, but his research seems rather superficial and he is accused of plagiarism. I felt it was all too much tongue in cheek. There are several loose ends, which I hope will be resolved in the final book.
My thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.
This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate atBooks Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.
A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.
This month we are starting with Dominic Amerena’s debut novel about authors and publishing, I Want Everything. Amazon describes it as a wickedly sharp story of desire and deception, authorship and authenticity, and the devastating costs of creative ambition.
I haven’t read I Want Everything, so I’m starting my chain with another debut novel – My Beautiful Imperial by Rhiannon Lewis. It was a Mother’s Day present from my son, a few years ago. It’s historical fiction set in the 19th century in both Wales and Chile. It captured my imagination completely. I was caught up in this story of friendship, love, war and the dangers of life at sea. It’s based on the actual events of the Civil War in Chile.
Painting as a Pastime by Andrew Marr is another book that my son gave me for Mother’s Day several years ago. Churchill was forty when he first started to paint at ‘a most trying time‘ in his life and art became his passion and an ‘astonishing and enriching experience‘. He talks about the fun of painting, the colours and the pleasure he found in not only in painting a picture, but also the pleasure he discovered in a heightened sense of observation, finding objects in the landscape he had never noticed before. Andrew Marr is political editor of the New Statesman. He is a former political editor of BBC News, and hosts Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC radio.
Andrew Marr’sThe History of Modern Britain covers the post World War Two period from 1945 up to 2006, with an added introduction in the paperback edition written in 2008. This history follows all the political and economic stories, but deals too with comedy, cars, the war against homosexuals, Sixties anarchists, oil-men and punks, Margaret Thatcher’s wonderful good luck, the true heroes of British theatre, and the victory of shopping over politics.
1946: the Making of the Modern World by Victor Sebestyen gives a wider picture of the world after the end of World War Two. In 1946 the Cold War began, the state of Israel was conceived, the independence of India was all but confirmed and Chinese Communists gained a decisive upper hand in their fight for power. It was a pivotal year in modern history in which countries were reborn and created, national and ideological boundaries were redrawn and people across the globe began to rebuild their lives. This is a book I bought in 2014.
Another book I bought in 2014 and it also has a year in the title is 1066: What Fates Impose by G K Holloway. A novel about family feuds, court intrigues, assassinations, plotting and scheming, loyalty and love, all ingredients in an epic struggle for the English crown. Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, is seen by many as the one man who can bring stability to the kingdom. He has powerful friends and two women who love him, but he has enemies who will stop at nothing to gain power. As 1066 begins, England heads for an uncertain future. It seems even the heavens are against Harold.
Another novel about a fight for the throne of England is told in The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman. This conflict was between the houses of York and Lancaster, known as the Wars of the Roses from 1455 to 1487. This is a fascinating novel about his life from his childhood to his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. Much has been written about the infamous Richard III from the time of his death onwards. Penman portrays a very likeable Richard; from his childhood onwards he comes across as a kind, generous and brave man, a skilled leader on the battlefield, a loving husband to his wife, Anne, and devoted and loyal to his brother, Edward IV, who was by no means a saint.
My chain has wandered far away from I Want Everything, taking in both fiction and nonfiction, a book about painting and historical fiction. It passes through 19th century Wales and Chile, Britain in the post Second War Two years, the year 1946 worldwide, then back to the 15th century in England at the time of the Wars of the Roses. And I haven’t included any crime fiction this time – a rare event!
BooksPlease 