What’s on your bookshelf: September

Thistles and Kiwis

So it is time again for a review of the month’s reading, a post to contribute to the what’s on your bookshelf challenge is hosted by fellow bloggers  Deb, Sue, Donna and Jo. The idea is to share what you’re reading, what you’ve enjoyed lately and share – why they resonated with you, how they made you feel, who are your favourite authors and what you recommend.

There was a fair bit of crime fiction this month, and as our book club theme was ‘a book with a dog or cat’, there are also a few books with our canine and feline friends. While walking round the library, I spotted the cover of Best in Show by David Rosenfelt and thought if nothing else, it would be ideal for book club. Actually, it turned out to be a really good read, and I have since read another book by him (Holy Chow) featuring the same dog loving lawyer finding out the truth about crimes his clients are supposed to have committed. There are lots of other books in this series, so I’ll keep my eyes open for them. Good stories, funny, and of course, lots of dogs.

I also read another ‘Vera book’, The Darkest Evening. As usual with Ann Cleeves, there is a strong plot, good characters and a powerful ending. If you are a fan, you will know what I mean. I was also pleased to get introduced through a friend at work to the series of crime fiction set in the Cotswolds in England written by Rebecca Tope. This was another ‘can’t put down until I know what happens’ book. I also look forward to reading more in the series, featuring crime solving and house sitter Thea Osborne and her dog (another dog book).

Now to a book that annoyed me – actually, no the book was quite fun for a dull afternoon read, telling the tale through emails and messaging about a pantomime that goes wrong when a dead body is found. For some obscure reason, the publisher felt the need to alter things for a US audience, translating eg rubbish bin to trash can and worst of all, pounds sterling to US dollars when the tale is clearly set in England. Such a bizarre thing to do and very annoying to read.

In the serious fiction corner we have Lionel Shriver’s latest, Mania. As the blurb says

“In a reality not too distant from our own, where the so-called Mental Parity Movement has taken hold, the worst thing you can call someone is stupid”

Everyone is equally clever, exams and grades and discarded and “intellectual meritocracy is heresy”. I found the premise interesting and also getting close to some things that are already going on, but I think it was over long and would have been better as a novella. Has anyone else read it?

Over to non-fiction, and I finally got around to reading Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger, an exploration of her constantly being confused with Naomi Wolf and political manipulation. There is a good review of the book over at The Guardian which sums it up well. There is certainly a lot to think about and how the world works in this post-Covid space.

Finally, one of the sweetest, nicest and positive books I have read in ages We’ll Prescribe you a Cat by Syou Ishida. A mysterious clinic, the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul, offers a special and quite unique way of treating patients who make it through their doors – they prescribe a cat. The cats help the troubled humans solve their problems through just being cats. A book perfect for cat lovers, the takeaway message is ‘a cat a day keeps the doctor away’.

So that is my most recent reading – what have you read recently? Here are my ratings using the scheme we use in the book club I am part of, items related to the book out of 5.

  • Ann Cleeves The Darkest Evening – 4 tractors
  • David Rosenfeldt Best in Snow – 4 golden retrievers
  • Lionel Shriver Mania – 3 professors
  • Rebecca Tope Slaughter in the Cotswolds – 4 parrots (it makes sense if you read the book)
  • Janice Hallett The Christmas Appeal – 3 Christmas trees
  • David Rosenfeldt Holy Chow – 4 dogs
  • Naomi Klein Doppelganger – 4 twins
  • Syou Ishida We’ll Prescribe you a Cat – 5 cats

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis.

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

32 Comments

  1. Hi Barbara, I love a good crime series and yes, Anne Cleeves certainly does it well. Thanks so much for sharing ‘what’s been on your bookshelf?’ this month. My pet peeve is when a movie is adapted from a book and they change a perfectly good ending! #mysisterskeeper. Have a lovely weekend. x

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  2. Hi, Barbara – Thank you for being a regular at #WOYBS.

    Adding to this list of pet peeves, I hate when a great book that is set outside of the US is turned into a film that is promptly set in the US. I understand about financial restraints on production, etc, but still, I find it super frustrating.

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        1. Try Ann Cleeves – the first of the Shetland series might be a good place to start. Or of course, Henning Mankell as an entry into Nordic Noir, or if you want to stick with The Golden Age authors, try Ngaio Marsh.

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  6. Hi Barbara, thanks for joining us for #WOYBS, you always mention great books. I enjoy Ann Cleeves too and I’m now keen to read some of Rebecca Trope’s books. Always good to get your reviews on a range of books.

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  7. That’s a lot of mystery! Which I also love. Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery authors, and this one was really engaging. I’m going to have to look at the library for something by Rebecca Tope.,
    Just finished “All the Colors of the Dark,” by Chris Whittaker, which was quite engaging. Also, just finished our Mystery Book Club read for the month, the first of the Amelia Peabody Egypt mysteries by Elizabeth Peters “Crocodile in the Sandbank” which I originally read years and years ago and forgot how much fun these books were.

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  8. I have added all three mystery writers to my TBR list. Well Prescribe You a Cat sounds like a must read. I think you are the 4th person who has mentioned it lately.

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  12. I am not a cat person, but I think that Doctors definitely should prescribe animals as medicin, the same way some Doctors prescribe exercise, or a change in diet. I’d love to read that cat book!

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  13. i hate it when they change everything to be american. I am reading a book published in the UK and it is all american spelling etc!

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  14. Pingback: If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea… – Thistles and Kiwis

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