The year in books: October

I thought it had been a while since I'd written a blog post - turns out I was right!

I don't have a book for October - I'm slightly behind with this now, so I'm just going to talk about what I have been reading since I last posted.

My book for September was Paper Towns by John Green - picked up from my favourite charity shop warehouse.  Margo goes missing and Quentin is determined to track her down.  I read this a few weeks ago and can barely remember what happened, other than it features a rather implausible road trip (I've always been amazed at how young Americans are when they learn to drive and own cars). 

I thoroughly enjoyed Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey.  Maud has dementia and believes her friend Elizabeth is missing, although Maud's daughter and Elizabeth's son and the police don't seem terribly concerned.  It's quite sad in places, Maud is forgetting recent things more and more, yet can remember vividly (or can she?) events which happened during her childhood. 

Probably my favourite book of recent weeks, Nina is Not OK by Shappi Khorsandi was another charity shop purchase and I've already passed it on to a colleague with the instruction she must read it soon.  Nina is studying for her A levels but her heavy drinking is impacting on pretty much every aspect of her life, especially relationships with friends, family, and men.  Very good writing, a fast moving plot, and characters I cared about.

I've always enjoyed Philippa Gregory books, but it's been a while since I read one.  The Kingmaker's Daughter is just like every other Philippa Gregory book, so a comforting read if this is your cup of tea, and if you don't like other books she's written then you're probably not going to enjoy this one!  My knowledge of history is pretty poor, other than the Tudors, the Victorians, and the Stone Age, as these were covered in topics at primary school, and in secondary school I remember we spent a lot of time on the First World War.  I sometimes feel I'm possibly the only person to have been through a British primary school and not studied the Egyptians.  So my knowledge of the Plantagenets (the royal house before the Tudors) is a bit lacking.  But as always with her books, you don't need a great understanding of the period as the writing is excellent and enough of the history is covered to provide context.  There's witchcraft, politics, sexual shenanigans, plenty of births and marriages and deaths, just what I come to expect from her books.  I do have another one of her books on the teetering pile of books next to my bookcase, but I think I'll have a bit of a break before I read it.  Too much of a good thing, and all that.

Joining in with Laura.