December

December was a bit of a disaster for blogging, although not reading.  This was mostly because my office, my 'room of one's own' was being re-plastered and decorated.  One thing I learnt is that not having my space throws all my routines out and I don't function well without routines.  I also had flu for a week and for a couple of days I couldn't move, not even to read.  I then had a couple more days in bed where all I did was read but I was in no fit state to write about them.

Anyway, in December, I managed to read a fair bit of ordinary fiction - so nothing that really ticked any boxes on my 80 book challenge and nothing much worth an individual post.

The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian.
I have read some of these Victorian detective stories before and I really enjoy them.  Great fun, pacy and intriguing.

The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price
Now this was fascinating, if a little silly.  It is a novel for teenagers about a company that build a time-travel portal to go back to the 16th century to mine for coal and metals (no-one ever explains how the Industrial Revolution could have happened if all the coal had already been mined before the 19th century but never mind).  Unfortunately, the scientists and geologists have a spot of bother with the locals stealing from them.  An archeologist called Andrea is doing some field research by living with the locals, a clan called the Sterkarms, and this story explores how she is caught in the middle between the people she has grown to love in the 16th century and her bosses in the 21st.  I really enjoyed this book and thought it was great fun.

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
Typical mystery thriller.  Pathologist Temperance Brennan discovers links between the deaths of several elderly women and in doing so becomes a target herself.  I enjoy books like this when I don't want to think too much and it did the job.

The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
Another detective mystery but this one set in the UK.  This time it is a forensic archeologist who discovers something untoward and gets mixed up in a real murder case.  Another enjoyable, absorbing, pacy book.

I'm sure I read more fiction than this but can't remember what at the moment.