May Reading

It's been another fairly busy month in terms of reading - 104 books in total. I was a little surprised by this figure, as the second half of the month was quite stressful for me one way and another and I couldn't really concentrate on many heavy reads, instead preferring to get on with some domestic arts (in fact, I'm finding knitting and cross stitch as relaxing as reading and quite a good alternative - sometimes when you read as much as I do, it is nice to have a chance and do something completely different). However, the total is higher than it might otherwise be due to having purchased a number of Babysitters Club titles - since these really don't take much reading at all, having read one of those a day has effectively "kept my numbers up", not that I read for numbers, but rather for relaxation and their completely unchallenging unliterary nature has been exactly what I have needed over the last couple of weeks.

Obviously the big highlight of May was the Persephone Reading Week which I think you'll all agree was a huge success. And one of my best reads of the month, The hopkins manuscript, was read as part of this week. Other good reads included Christina Hardyment's The canary coloured cart (which I must write about), Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (Elizabeth Von Arnim - review coming up on my Virago blog), and Miss Matty by Richmal Crompton which Simon from Stuck in a book lent to me and snuck in at the very end of the month.

I should confess too that May was quite a bad month for book purchasing and acquisitions. According to my librarything account, I added over 100 books to my collection (which now totals more than 1400 volumes). I guess it was bound to happen when the month started with a cheerless bankholiday weekend that necessitated a trip around the charity shops and a trip to London for a book bloggers meet up that involved much second hand book shopping!

What are my plans for June? I have about 20 books on my TBR pile, but I need to work out which of those I want to save for summer holidays and things. I have a few library books on loan, and I have a few VMCs awaiting me. And I'll be continuing my Orange Wednesdays feature as that is proving interesting to me and popular with readers. But I also want to spend more time knitting and doing cross stitch, and I'm thinking quite hard about the pattern of my blogging. Accepting review copies over the last few months has skewed my blog somewhat; as life is far too short for me to write about everything that I read, I end up just writing about review books rather than books which I am more enthusiastic about. And also some of my favourite blogs are not ones which are heavily dominated by reviews - I love to read about the other things that people do - holidays, days out, crafts, baking and general bookishness, and to some extent this is more what I like to write about than reviewing books per se. So having passed my first bloggiversary, and changed my name to Cardigan Girl Verity, there may be some changes around here, but then there may not be. We'll see what happens!

Persimmon tree and other stories	Barnard, Marjorie
Many conditions of love	Zama, Farahad
Sue Barton: Superintendent nurse	Boylston, Helen Dore
The expendable man	Hughes, Dorothy	P
Skinny bitch	Freedman	NF
Sand in my shoes	Rice, Joan	AB
An interrupted life	Hillesum, Etty	AB P
The baking bible	Collister, Linda	NF
Elizabeth's adventures in Rugen	Arnim, Elizabeth von
The barracks	McGahern, John
Looking for Enid	Maclean, Duncan	NF RR
Julian Grenfell	Mosley, Nicholas	B P
Still glides the stream	Thompson, Flora	AB
Private life	Smiley, Jane
Dimanche and other stories	Neriemovsky, Irene	P
Sarah Strick	Hurley, Randle
Private places	Craig, Amanda
Open the door!	Carswell, Catherine	VMC
Getting mad, getting even	Saunders, Annie
Plats du jour	Grey, Primrose	P
Good things in England	White, Florence	P
Easy baking	Marks and Spencer	NF
Unicorn girls	Holden, Ursula
Surfacing	Atwood, Margaret	VMC
Felicia's journey	Trevor, William
Instructions not included	Moreman, Charlotte	NF
Mandoa Mandoa	Holtby, Winifred	VMC
Housewife married	Penton Harper, Alison
Writing on my forehead	Haji, Nafisa
Hopkins manuscript	Sherriff, RC	P
Fifteen	Clearly, Beverley	C RR
Two vandals and a wedding	Secombe, Fred	AB
High heels and a head torch	Duke, Chelsea	NF
Wigs on the green	Mitford, Nancy
After you'd gone	Lingard, Joan
Shop girl diaries	Benet, Emily	AB
Sweet desserts	Ellman, Lucy
Summer will show	Warner, Sylvia Townsend	VMC
Where I belong	Latham, Joyce	AB
Mr Rosenblum's list	Solomons, Natasha
The robber bridegroom	Welty, Eudora	VMC
Sue barton: neighbourhood nurse	Boylston, Helen Dore	RR
Enormous changes	Paley, Grace	VMC
Tin toys	Holden, Ursula
Minack tales	Tangye, Derek	AB
Wishing for tomorrow	Mackay, Hilary	C
Celia	Young, E.H.	VMC
War-workers	Delafield, EM
Rhapsody	Edwards, Dorothy	VMC
Sleeping with Mozart	Church, Anthea
Children of the house	Fairfax-Lucy, Brian	C
Liza of Lambeth	Maugham, Somerset
Five go to Finnegan's farm	Blyton, Enid	C RR
Last year when I was young	Dickens, Monica
A future CS girl	EBD	C RR
Nobody has to be a kid forever	Colman, Hilla	C
Fall on your knees	Macdonald, ann
Love bites	Hirst, Christopher	NF
Northbridge rectory	Thirkell, Angela
Delta wedding	Welty, Eudora	VMC
Underfoot in showbusiness	Hanff, Helene	AB
Q's legacy	Hanff, Helene	AB
Loving without tears	Keane, Molly	VMC
World of girls	Auchmuanty, Rosemary	NF
World of women	Auchmuanty, Rosemary	NF
Love me tender	Feaver, Jane
Things I wish I'd known	Green, Linda
Stacey's big secret	Martin, Ann	C
Sights unseen	Gibson, Kaye	VMC
Toys were us	Whittaker, Nicholas	NF
Claudia and the phantom phone calls	Martin, Ann	C
Kids cakes and party food	Good Housekeeping	NF
Family meal planner	BBC Good Food	NF
I will not serve	Mahere, Evelyn	VMC
Miss Jemima's Swiss Journey		NF
What Katy did next	Coolidge, Susan	C RR
Borderlines	Hospital, Janette Turner	VMC
It so happens	Ferguson, Patricia
New York, New York	Martin, Ann	C
The quickening maze	Foulds, Adam
A single swallow	Clare, Horation	NF
Mary Anne saves the day	Martin, Ann	C
Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther	Arnim, Elizabeth von	VMC
In my father's places	Thomas, Aronwy	AB
Dawn and the impossible three	Martin, Ann	C
A time in Rome	Bowen, Elizabeth	NF
A canary coloured cart	Hardyment, Christina	AB
Here come the bridesmaids	Martin, Ann	C
The captain's wife	Lewis, Eilunedd
Hector and the search for happiness	Lelord, Francois
Claudia and mean Janine	Martin, Ann	C RR
The matriarch	Stein, GB	VMC
California Girls	Martin, Ann	C
Belinda	Broughton, Rhoda	VMC
Logan likes Mary Anne	Martin, Ann	C RR
Letters from Lamhedra	Williams, Marjorie	NF
Mother of the bride	Lawson, Kate
Babysitters summer holiday	Martin, Ann	C
Jasmine Farm	Arnim, Elizabeth von
Babysitters on board	Martin, Ann	C
Divorced and deadly	Cox, Josephine
Miss Matty	Crompton, Richmal
Babysitters winter holiday	Martin, Ann	C