Normally I don’t really notice how many books I have or have not read in a month. By doing this process I do and so I knew as May trundled on that it was going to be a slow reading month.

I had some giant commissions, a LOT of communion pencils and some big corporate events with my other business (The Craft Corner)

As I was so busy with work I found that I was listening to more audio books, as I can sometimes listen to them as I work. I gets you through covering a lot of pencils let me tell you. And while I do really enjoy audio books I also find them a lot slower to read.

I am currently listening to Michelle Obama’s Becoming on audio and I love it (she narrates it) but sometimes I find myself wanting to read it faster. You know that feeling of wanting to devour a good book? Well with audio you are limited by the pace of the narrator. So I don’t think I would ever fully convert to one format or another but I do like the mix of both.

So this month I read 4 books, one paperback, one kindle purchase and 2 audio books on loan from my local library.

The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber

My review:

A book about the biggest things and yet the smallest things in a human life. It weaves the tale of a Mormon community in the canyon country of Utah. The environment is harsh, as is the outside world to this group of people. It mixes factual history with the fiction of the tale, a lot of which i knew pieces of from religion class a million years ago. It reminded me in parts of Jodie Picoult’s, A plain truth. But more subtly told, It was the kind of story where I know I would enjoy reading a sequel but I also thoroughly respected the author for the ending. She trusts the reader to see the future.

3 solid stars

Source: BorrowBox – Digital Library Loan

Links: Amazon Goodreads Bookdepository

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

My review:

I’ve read a couple of Atkinson’s books and yet again she has written a beauty of a book. It starts out slowly but before you know you are tied up in Juliet’s story and can’t put it down. I love particularly how she paints the world of MI5, the perfect mix of danger and monotony and the wonderful inner monologue of our heroine

5 stars

Source: Paperback from my local Library

Links: Amazon Goodreads Bookdepository

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

My review:

The perfect Sunday read. Although I didn’t love it as much as The Kiss Quotient I did really enjoy it. And reading the authors note at the back gave me a deeper appreciation for the characters and the way the story was told. Don’t read it until you finish the book though.

Like a really good dessert, the kind to book you finish too quickly and then wish you had savoured it more!

3 happy stars

Source: Kindle Purchase

Links: Amazon Goodreads Bookdepository

Easterleigh Hall by Margaret Graham

My review:

An upside down Downtown Abbey. A solid novel telling the story from the servants point of view in a grand house at the turn of the war.

Although having reached the end I then realised there was a second book! Which I wish I’d known when I started as I was looking forward to some closure

3 stars.

Source: BorrowBox – Digital Library Loan

Links: Amazon Goodreads Bookdepository

My rereads

Not a chance!

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