REVISITED, THE BOOKS OF 2021.

 JANUARY ...

1. Twas the Nightshift before Christmas by Andy Kay
2. Lizzie's Dream Journal by Charlie King {RFR}
3. Harvey And The Handy Lads by Henry Brewis
4. Melting In The Middle by Andy Howden {RFR/BT}
5. Acts Of Kindness by Heather Barnett {RFR/BT}
6. Whisper Of The Lotus by Gabrielle Yetter {RFR}
7. One Night In Beartown by Nick Jones {RFR/BT}
8. The Weighing Of the Heart by Paul Tudor Owen

8 books or, if you prefer, 1,692 pages read compared to January 2020 which saw 8 Books or, if you prefer, 2,032 pages read

FEBRUARY ...

1. The Evening And The Morning by Ken Follett
2. Dark Tides by Philippa Gregory
3. Harry And Hiccup Play Hide-And-Seek by Papa Perkins {RFR}
4. Pixeldust by T.K. Arispe {RFR/BT}

4 books or, if you prefer, 1,621 pages read compared to February 2020 which saw 6 books or, if you prefer, 1,869 pages read

MARCH ...

1. Pluto's In Uranus by Patrick Haylock {RFR/BT}
2. The Racketeer by John Grisham 
3. The Walls Of Rome by Robert M Kidd {RFR/BT}

3 books or, if you prefer, 1,009 pages read compared to March 2020 which saw 11 books or, if you prefer, 2,241 pages read

APRIL ...

1. Wayward Voyage by Anna M Holmes {RFR/BT}
2. Sir Lambalot by Jude Lenon {RFR/BT}
3. Rising Star by Michele Kwasniewski {RFR}
4. The Cobra's Heart by Ryszard Kapusainski

4 books or if you prefer 858 pages read compared to April 2020 which saw 8 books or if you prefer 2,321 pages read}

MAY ...

1. The Winter Of Winters by Robert M Kidd {RFR/BT}
2. Escape From Antarctica by Ernest Shackleton
3. A Lullaby In The Desert by Mojgan Azar {RFR}
4. Philomena by Martin Sixsmith
5. The Green Mile by Stephen King 
6. Barty Barton The Bear Who was Loved Too Much by Sue Wickstead {RFR/BT}

6 books or, if you prefer, 1,634 pages read compared to May 2020 which saw 9 books or, if you prefer, 3,591 pages read 

JUNE ... 

1. Sealfinger by Heide Goody & Iain Grant {RFR/BT}
2. Doggerland by Heide Goody & Iain Grant {RFR/BT}
3. Sandraker by Heide Goody & Iain Grant {RFR/BT}

3 books or, if you prefer, 1,524 pages read compared to June 2020 which saw 6 books or, if you prefer, 2,619 pages read

JULY ...

1. Tally and the Angel by Eleanor Dixon {RFR/BT}
2. Peaches For Monsieur Le Cure  by Joanna Harris
3. The Strawberry Thief by Joanna Harris
4. Believe In Yourself {Be You} by Lexi Rees & Sasha Mullen {RFR/BT}
5. Whispering Shadows by Jan-Philipp Sendkar

5 books or, if you prefer, 1,634 pages read compared to July 2020 which saw 8 books or, if you prefer, 1,646 pages read

AUGUST ... 

1. The Whisker Twitchers by Kathy Tallentire & Becky Stout {RFR/BT}
2. False Truth by C.D Steele {RFR}
3. Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
4. A Journey To The End Of The Russain Empire by Anton Chekov
5. Hunt For The Southern Continent by James Cook
6. The Juggle by Ellie Baker {RFR/BT}
7. Fantastic Fin Faces His Fears by Jessica Bowers & Andrew Whitehead {RFR/BT}

7 books or, if you prefer 1,414 pages read compared to August 2020 which saw 8 books or, if you prefer, 1,613 pages read

SEPTEMBER ...

1. Across The Empty Quarter by Wilfred Thesiger
2. Jaguars & Electric Eels by Alexander Humboldt
3. Me And The Monkey by Andy Darby {RFR/BT}
4. Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
5. Fighting In Spain by George Orwell
6. Borneo, Celebes, Aru by Alfred Russel Wallace

6 books or, if you prefer, 1,160 pages read compared to September 2020 which saw 8 books or, if you prefer, 1,932 pages read

OCTOBER ...

1. Sammy Cat Leaves Home by Barry Green
2. Little Brown Bear by Barry Green
3. The Dance Of The Snow Tractors by Siena {RFR/BT}
4. The Shattered Violin by Jared Bodnar {RFR}
5. Death In The Woods by Jo Allen {RFR/BT}
6. Twilight Robbery by J.M. Forster {RFR}
7. The Twelve Even Stranger Days Of Christmass by Syd Moore {RFR/BT}

7 books or, if you prefer, 1,030 pages read compared to October 2020 which saw 1 books or, if you prefer 264 pages read

NOVEMBER ... 

1. The Custard Corpses by MJ Porter {RFR/BT}
2. The Boy Who Breathed Underwaterr by Izzy Rees {RFR/BT}
3. The King Who Didn't Like Snow by Jocelyn Porter {RFR/BT}
4. My First Animal Moves by Darryl Edwards {RFR/BT}
5. The Real Mrs Brown by Brian Beacon
6. The New Land by Daisy Bourne {RFR/BT}
7. The Shipwrecked Men by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
8. Snakes With Wings And Gold Digging Ants by Herodotus
9. The Shaken Path by Paul Cudby
10. Storytellers by Bjorn Larssan {RFR/BT}
11. Kaycie Discovers Her Talents by Tiffany Grantham {RFR}

 11 books or, if you prefer, 1,523 pages read compared to November 2020 which saw 8 Books or, if you prefer, 1,342 pages read

DECEMBER ...

1. Silent Night by Neil Pattison

1 book or, if you prefer, 400 pages read compared to December 2020 which saw 3 books or, if you prefer, 1,302 pages read

THE TWELVE EVEN STRANGER DAYS OF CHRISTMAS.

 One of several bloggers who over seven days will be participating in this Blog Tour (the full list of which can be found in the Schedule at the bottom of the post). Today {the 5th day of the Tour) its my pleasure to be sharing my thoughts on ...

THE TWELVE EVEN STRANGER DAYS OF CHRISTMAS by SYD MOORE.

Genre: Crime / Thriller

Publication Date: 28th October 2021

Publisher: Point Blank  (Crime Imprint Of Oneworld)

Standalone Book of Short Stories

Estimated Page Count: 272

From the twice CWA Dagger shortlisted author of The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas come twelve (or maybe thirteen?) stories to transport you to the macabre world of inexplicable phenomena.

As the dark winter nights get longer, prepare to lose yourself in the world of the strange. With a tale for each day of Christmas and a rather unlucky 13th, Christmas is not the only spirit in these pages. ‘Tis the season for sacrificial feasts, cultish communities and a train with a rather final destination. So wrap up warm and let yourself get lost in the world of the strange, the scary and the supernatural… ... Synopsis 

{Please note because this is a collection of short stories I won't as is customary be sharing either the First Sentence or my Memorable Moment. FGT}

MY THOUGHTS ... Whether written by a number of writers or, as is the case with this book, one author, as is usually the case with these collections of short stories there are some that are enjoyable and some less so; some that hit the mark and others that, well, don't quite.

For myself it was probably the first story I enjoyed the most. I mean who could fail to be anything other than intrigued to discover that the seven dwarves were not in fact ...?

Ha! As if I'm going to tell you. You'll have to read the book for yourself in order to find this out.

Strangely enough a series of not twelve but thirteen short stories from 2 to 48 pages long; ranging from the quirky to the downright weird, whilst there is a story {plus a bonus one} for every day of Christmas many of them aren't explicitly Christmas themed ... indeed, several of them classic ghost stories and tales of the supernatural {to say nothing of Rogation, the blessing of a community's crops and animals, that takes places a few weeks after Easter}, the twelve Stranger Days Of Christmas is just as well suited to Halloween as it is to Christmas. 

Ideal to read whilst putting your feet up and enjoying a cuppa as the nights darken, though be warned you may find one cup of your favourite beverage leads to another just as one story invariably leads to another ... and another.

ABOUT SYD MOORE ... SYD MOORE is the author of the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries (Strange Magic, Strange Sight, Strange Fascination, Strange Tombs and Strange Tricks) all published by Point Blank. The series was shortlisted for the Good Reader Holmes and Watson Award 2018. She has been shortlisted twice for the CWA Short Story Dagger for The Strange Casebook (2018) and The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas (2019). Her debut screenplay, Witch West, which she developed from an original idea, has been optioned by Hidden Door Productions for production in 2021. Syd is a founder member of the Essex Girls’ Liberation Front which successfully got the term ‘Essex girl’ removed from the Oxford English dictionary. She lives in Essex.FOLLOW SYD MOORE ... ~ Twitter ~ BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE ... 28th October: Curled Up With A Good Book ~ Books and Me ~ Bookshine and Readbows ~ 29th October: Bobs and books ~ The Photographer's Way ~ Plumbobmummy ~ 30th October: My Reading Corner ~ Books, Cats, Etc. ~ @fantasybookcraz_mum ~ 31st October: Zoe’s book Nook ~ Books_from_the_shed ~ Snowphiethebookworm ~ 1st November: sharon beyond the books ~ Felicity Grace Terry ~ Twoladiesandabook ~ 2nd November: Scrapping&Playing ~ Book Blogging Bureau ~ Nicki`sLifeOfCrime ~ 3rd November: Chez Maximka ~ Stacey Hammond ~ wee_glasgow_bookworm ~