Favourite things to do in the winter

 I liked this topic from Long and Short Reviews, simply because the answer is so simple. I know many people who would say they like to ski, snowboard, go ice-skating and so forth, or even just go for a walk in the snow. 

That isn't how my answer is going to go.

I hate the cold and I have a dodgy knee, so going out in ice and snow is a no from the start. So my favourite thing to do in the winter is sit inside in the warm with a glass of hot mulled wine or hot chocolate with marshmallows, watching the snow fall outside. I'm too old for sledging and I haven't got the balance for ice-skating, so staying safe inside is definitely the best option for me.

So what do you like to do in the winter?

New Books I Want to Read This Year

 I'm back on Long and Short Reviews' blog topics after the Christmas break, and this topic was a good one since quite a few of my favourite writers have new books coming out this year.

The main ones I'm keeping an eye out for are:

"The Last Death of the Year" - Sophie Hannah. I love her Poirot novels, so I pre-ordered this one straight away.

Richard Osman's new, untitled, Thursday Murder Club book - I've read all of his so far and loved them.

And "The Rushworth Family Plot" - Claudia Gray. The hero and heroine of these Jane Austen-esque mysteries are a wonderfully intriguing pair.

I also have a new one of my own coming out on 15th January - "Totality". I would love to include a cover but Blogger is refusing to play this morning, so here's a description instead.

When eclipse-chaser Azora goes to see a partial eclipse with her friends, she catches the attention of film star and BDSM enthusiast Lorcan and wins a kiss from him. Two months later Lorcan contacts her and asks to meet up, and Azora wonders - what can he want from someone like her?

 Azora and Lorcan soon find the heat between them igniting, but Lorcan’s co-stars make one thing clear– Lorcan likes to date “civilians”, discarding them within a few weeks. Azora decides to enjoy the ride – her friends’ animal shelter will benefit from the publicity, and why shouldn’t she have some fun while still seeking the one thing she’s never seen, a total eclipse?

 But soon Azora knows the end date is in sight – and yet she no longer is sure she wants it to end. Can Lorcan be truly happy with a civilian, or will Azora see totality alone?

Amazon US: https://tinyurl.com/mrnfycwh

Amazon UK: https://tinyurl.com/yye6kvz8

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1668854

So which books are you wanting to read this year?

A musical I liked

 I've had a short break from Long and Short Reviews, but I had to have a go at this one since I've just started getting back into musicals. 

I loved them as a teenager and was in "Annie" in school, plus I won the school talent show with a song from a musical (which really ticked off the drama teacher, since I gather she got grief for not giving me a better role). However, my favourite is one which can't be done as an amateur performance - Starlight Express.

I owned both the soundtracks as a teen and would sing and dance to them in my room, but it wasn't until July of this year that I actually saw it live. I loved it, although the woman next to me stated that previous versions had had better stunts. I'll take her word for that - I do remember in the past reading stories about how the race tracks collapsed into the audience, which might explain why the cast only raced round the stage in this version. However, I thought it was great, and the atmosphere was incredible. 

So which musicals have you liked?

My thoughts on the mystery genre

 This topic from Long and Short Reviews was an interesting one.

I've been reading murder mysteries more often recently, although I tend to be quite selective as to which authors I read - I love Agatha Christie and Richard Osman, but some other authors just don't work for me. That said, I only really have one criterion for mysteries, and it's one that I first noticed while watching an episode of Jonathan Creek, a show which is a bit dated now but was famous for its convoluted methods of killing.

It's quite simple. I never make any effort to try and guess who the killer is - I know this is part of the fun for many people, but I'm happy to just watch and enjoy the journey. So if I manage to figure it out before the big reveal, then the writer clearly isn't trying hard enough. I want to be surprised, and if I'm not surprised, it's a failure for me.

I'm not sure why I have this criterion specifically for mysteries, since for other genres I'm perfectly fine with knowing the ending beforehand. But when it's a murder mystery, I don't want to know and I won't try to guess, so there's no excuse for not surprising me.

So what are your thoughts on the mystery genre?

What I do when I'm bored

 I'm quite looking forward to reading everyone else's responses to this topic from Long and Short Reviews. It would be very interesting if people were saying they went hang-gliding when they were bored. Sadly I can't claim to do anything quite that exciting.

It's rare that I am genuinely bored as I have a great capacity for daydreaming, so I can sit for ages staring out of the window, deep in my own thoughts. If I do get bored it's most likely because I've got so much time on my hands that even daydreaming has lost its charm. This usually means that I'm stuck somewhere like a hospital waiting room or a coach coming back from London, both of which take hours.

If I know I'm going to be somewhere a long time I take my Kindle with me so I can read. I also do prep work for whatever I'm currently writing and save it to my phone. I've managed to kill a lot of time that way, although I would just like to point out to whoever services coaches that they really need to get a better quality reading light. I could barely see my Kindle the last time I came home on a coach.

Maybe that's one of the reasons they all have charging ports in the back of the seats now. Can't see to read? Here, try surfing. There's even free Wi-Fi!

So what do you do when you're bored?

A genre I want to read more of

 Having had a quick break from Long and Short Reviews topics thanks to being on holiday, this one was an easy one. I've been trying to catch up on my reading and there is one genre I've definitely neglected.

Historical. Both fiction and non-fiction.

I have a lot of historical writers on my "following" list on Amazon and haven't seen any new ones from them lately, so I'll have to go searching for some new ones. My favourite period is the Wars or the Roses and Henry VIII, but I'm looking to branch out, maybe into the Georges - I've read further back into the early Henry periods, but not much further forward.

I also love American history, but most of my reading has been on the presidents and those close to them, so I need to look around for some interesting figures. I have a biography of J Edgar Hoover on my to-read list and I'm sure there are others I can find.

So which genre do you want to read more of?

Books with fantastic endings

After a quick break I'm back on the Long and Short Reviews topics, and this one intrigued me. I can think of plenty of books with endings I liked, but not many of them were fantastic.

I ended up with just one. "The Beguiled".

"The Beguiled" is a book which suffered a lot when the film was made, as not only did it seem to be written from bullet points while missing all the character development, but the trailer gave away the ending. Which is a shame, because I genuinely didn't see it coming.

Spoiler alert for those of you who haven't read the book or seen the trailer...

The women and girls are housing an injured soldier in a school, and gradually coming to realise that he's doing them more harm than good by manipulating them all. So how can they get rid of him?

Well, one of the girls happens to know where some poisonous mushrooms grow...

So which books did you think had fantastic endings?