Books I read on my holidays - March 2014

Have just returned from a week of wonderful winter sunshine on holiday somewhere lovely and warm.  Whilst lazing by the pool, relaxing on the patio or trying to take my mind off in-flight nerves, here's the novels I chose to read this time around.

I've been a big fan of Edna O'Brien's novels since I was a young teenager.  Her autobiography Edna O'Brien, Country Girl, A Memoir, was a wonderful read, written with style.  10/10.

Laurie Lee's As I walked out one midsummer morning was a nicely short and well-written meander around Spain from a teenage Laurie Lee in the 1930s.  A good book, enjoyable, short.  7/10.

I read Penny Hancock's first novel last year and have been waiting for her second novel The Darkening Hour to come out in paperback for some time, with more than a little anticipation.  It was well worth the wait. A good thriller, tense, well written.  10/10.

Hugely enjoyable Douglas Kennedy book The Big Picture and a high scoring 9/10.  I'd have given it 10/10 if the ending had been a little less cliched.  And I'll never understand why the publishers of his books give them these Mills & Boon type covers - which have nothing to do with, and detract from, the subject matter of his work.

Nathan Filer's The Shock of the Fall is a wonderful book, written by a mental-health nurse, about mental health, those it affects and how it's treated.  This is a book that had my husband in tears when he read it, and left me with a lump in my throat. Highly recommended. 10/10.
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