The Oxford Team had a fairly large collective To Be Read pile and an impending holiday approaching offering quality reading time. So was any progress made and were there any last minute substitutions? A few members of the team let us know!
Susie: The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
“I did not complete the Infernal Devices series! I watched a YouTube video that said reading Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter universe in publication order is better than reading a series at a time. So I’ve ended up jumping between the Infernal Devices series and the Mortal Instruments series…and loving it!”
Katie: Middle England by Jonathan Coe
“Before I started Middle England I wanted to finish Wolf Hall which I achieved after a good solid week of reading. I’m now about 100 pages from the end of Middle England and it’s fabulous. I was given three books for Christmas: The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman, Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Osman’s House of Games Quiz Book which kept us busy on Christmas Day!”
Lucy: The Ditch by Herman Koch
“I started off reading Sloot by Ian MacPherson and really enjoyed it so decided to continue with detective noir so also read These Darkening Days by Benjamin Myers. This Christmas, I was given lots of interesting books, including And Quietly by Mikhail Sholokhov, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff and Our Women on the Ground by Zahra Hankir.”
Madelene: 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
“It was great. I want to read more from the author as she has a very beautiful writing style. I also read Quichotte by Salman Rushdie – it was very strange but a fun read. For Christmas, I was given Letters from Tove and Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson”
Fi: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
“I thoroughly enjoyed reading this fairly convoluted novel full of action, deception and pirates, and am looking forward to starting the third in the series. I was given The Leopard by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Tomorrow by Damian Dibben and A Game of Sorrows by S.G.Maclean and can’t wait to get started.”
Lionel: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell
“I didn’t get to it! Instead I read The Elegant Lie by Sam Eastland which was great. This Christmas I was given The Very Hungover Caterpiller by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees”
Gina: Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay
“This was funny, lovely and heart-warming. I think I’ve decided I’ll probably enjoy reading anything by Adam Kay!”
Louise: The Box of Delights by John Masefield
“I really enjoyed it. The ending could have been better, but overall a thumbs-up from me. “Scrobbled” is a fantastic word, and one I learnt from this book. About as far removed from children’s-magical-realism-style-adventures as you can get, I’m currently reading Renni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race.”
How did you get on? We’d love to hear about what you read and the books you were given!
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