In no particular order…

The Tenderness of Wolves – Stef Penney: bought this one for Mon’s online book club; first attempt at reading something to order in ages, and so far I’m really glad to try it. Bearing in mind my ridiculously romanticised view of Canada and my ongoing lust regarding emigration, it’s probably not surprising that I’m enjoying the Canadian setting, despite murder and cold.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken: oddly gripping despite not having the aforementioned supernatural whatsit; read this in a single sitting and really enjoyed it. I like stories which present our world but with a few notable differences; in this case, the wolves of the title have arrived from the continent after a sub-English Channel tunnel is built, but of course ‘wolves’ can mean many things… Looking forward to getting my grubby mits on the rest of this series at some point.

The Steps up the Chimney – William Corlett: children’s book with the usual slightly supernatural bent; thoroughly enjoyable, though, and not least because Quercus tells me I have something in common with Phoebe, girlfriend of the main grown-up in the story.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery: picked up in a charity shop in Honiton, I’m quite liking this so far. The narrative is split between the concièrge, secretly of vast intelligence and intellect, and a twelve-year-old child who lives in her building, also secretly brighter than a bright thing from Bright Village. The disquisitions on phenomenology and semiotics were remarkably interesting bearing in mind my loathing of critical theory (a loathing developed during ten years of endurance), and the different voices are both appealing as they assess their surroundings and continually find them wanting.

The Underground Man – Mick Jackson: another random library choice, I liked this one quite a bit. The plot centres on a duke who, amongst other personal eccentricities, has chosen to build a network of tunnels under his estate. It has a sad ending, though, as does he, really; see previous book comments for my open acknowledgment of being a happy-ending fan.

Left Bank – Kate Muir: chosen at random when at the library, this one didn’t do much for me. I flicked through it, but to be honest, from the UK cover, I’d thought it was set in the nineteenth century, and when I realised it’s actually a modern study of a celebrity-style marriage (fictional) and the way a new nanny precipitates a crisis therein, I sort of switched off, largely.

Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris: the first of the Sookie Stackhouse novels which are now on TV as the series ‘True Blood‘. Have been watching the series and enjoying it, though I don’t think any vampire-related stuff will ever get me in quite the way that Buffy did, so thought I’d give this a go; very similar to the series, but with a few noticeable changes (I don’t think Tara is in the books, for example, thus far). Worth a go if you like easy-to-read vampire doings.

In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan le Fanu: quite creepy, but nothing like as chilling as M. R. James. Still, I’ve been thumbing through these for a couple of weeks, on and off, and the fact that I kept going back to finish signals the pull these stories have. ‘The Familiar’ was a good ‘un, ‘The Room at the Dragon Volant’ less-so, for me.

Witch Week – Diana Wynne-Jones: more kiddywink fiction, and part of the Chrestomanci series. Entertaining; I’m not sure why these are apparently out of vogue compared with H. Potter et al, because they’re well-written and engaging, albeit less dark.

Ghostwalk – Rebecca Stott: dual-time mystery about alchemy, Newton and a modern ghostwriter’s attempts to reconstruct an academic study which its author’s death left incomplete. I quite enjoyed this, though I found the inevitable ending unsatisfying. Call me an old romantic, but I like things tied up, and preferably happily, rather than having the grim satisfaction of seeing what’s coming.

The Riddle of the River – Catherine Shaw: crime whatsit set in Victorian Cambridge with a slightly unlikely female detective as its heroine. Entertaining but not a keeper.

The Food of Love – Anthony Cappella: romance thingy about an American in Rome. Lots of recipes on the way to finding true love, and though it’s not exactly a startling ending, it passed the time quite agreeably.

Dogs and Goddesses – Jennifer Cruise: lightweight but entertaining nonsense about a reincarnated goddess and her trio of demi-goddess servants.

Alchemy – Maureen Duffy: didn’t find this that great, to be honest; tried over three weeks to get into it, but failed. The story sounded good – two times, interlinked narratives, witchcraft, alchemy etc. Sounds as if it would be quite hard to write something boring, no? Well, hard or not, I was bored. Oh, and the punctuation, or lack thereof, was v. strange. At first I thought it was some sort of period setting thing, but no – it was there, or rather not there, in the modern setting too.

The Unburied – Charles Palliser: very hooking-in mock-Victorian mystery. Couldn’t put it down, and am looking forward to ‘The Quincunx’.

Unconditional Parenting – Alfie Kohn: a lot of this made complete sense to me, particularly the bits about the long-term outcomes of conditional parenting, in light of my own up-bringing – my mother was, according to this book, an unconditional parent, which is to say she reasoned with me, explained her requests, and didn’t ask me to do things simply because she could or because she thought society would expect me to behave in a certain way; my father, meanwhile, appears to be a textbook conditional parent, with a strong emphasis on the authoritarian. Kohn suggests that such parenting often results in a child leading a double life – I can’t say strongly enough how very much this describes my relationship with my father. Between the ages of, say, ten and seventeen he simply didn’t know me, or what I got up to, at all, though he clearly thought he did. Kohn’s arguments in favour of unconditional love – of a dialogue, rather than a diatribe – were very persuasive for me.

The Chase – Louisa May Alcott: not what I expected at all – much better, indeed. Somewhere between Marie Corelli and Wilkie Collins. Quite exciting, in short.

His Dark Materials trilogy – Philip Pulman: very much enjoyed re-reading these, although I think on balance that I preferred the first one; I find the third one a tad complimucated, albeit enjoyable, and it always irritates me when there is a happy ending but it’s compromised.

Toxic Childhood – Sue Palmer: very interesting read, though some of it goes against the bits of attachment parenting philosophy that I find appealing.

The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson: took ages to hook me in, but once it had done, I couldn’t put it down. Sad, though.

The Hickory Staff – Robert Scott and Jay Gordon: took ages to get into, and seems to chop about a lot in the first few chapters, but quite entertaining once I got about a hundred pages in.

Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer: awfully predictable, but I couldn’t put the entire quartet down, even if the plots aren’t exactly surprising.
Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer
New Moon – Stephenie Meyer
Twilight – Stephenie Meyer

The Rose Labyrinth – Titania Hardie: took ages to finish this, and skipped lots of it en route to completion. V. learned-seeming, but took itself very seriously, and basically just rejigged a lot of the sort of thing that you find in other books of a similar nature.

Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham: simple – fab.

She and Allan – H. Rider Haggard: he was really stretching the franchise by this point, and it shows.

Nathaniel’s Nutmeg – Giles Milton: entertaining read but I kept the book by the bath, which means I only read it sporadically, and it wasn’t that fascinating.

Memory Hold the Door – John Buchan: largely PhD-related stuff, but Buchan was an interesting cove, and I really like his fiction.

Three in a Bed – Deborah Jackson: very reassuring if you’re finding yourself drawn towards bed-sharing while lots of family and friends utter phrases involving the words ‘rod’ and ‘back’.

What Mothers Do – Naomi Stadlen: lovely, lovely book that reminds you that it’s OK to focus on your baby, and that that doesn’t mean you’re doing nothing, but quite the opposite.

Chrestomanci – Diana Wynne Jones: I think these are out of fashion at the moment as they were written – I think – in the 1970s, but I found them really easy to read, and well-written with it. Fantasy stuff, but of a better order than many.

Northern Lights – Philip Pullman: I want an armoured bear. So. Much. Very enjoyable read, and far, far better than Harry Potter. Did I mention the bears?

Wildwood – Roger Deakin: gorgeous book about gorgeous trees. One of Quercus’s favourites.

Fairy Tales – Angela Carter: an unusual collection of fairy stories, ranging in origin from relatively modern US roots to the Steppes of Central Asia. Grouped by the characteristics of the women involved in the stories, the collection is a very easy pick-up, put-down read.

The End of Mr. Y – Scarlett Thomas: scarily reminiscent of bits and bats of my PhD, this is a story about the place where consciousness exists, and how to get there, and what you might do if you did get there, and why you might not want to go there at all, after all.