Bleak House by Charles Dickens book cover
Summer has officially hit Britain (temperatures have crept over the 23 degrees for the first and possibly only time this year), and as well as wilting in the heat myself, the creative effort has taken a slight hit this month - possibly due to the quantity of Pimm's consumed. However, as well as a few reviews, I've also put together a fun interview with Jen Campbell and managed to write-up some notes on putting on a literary event during May, so not all bad. 

Happily my body has now adapted to the 'extreme' heat and I'm ready for a month chock-full of reading and writing. After all, it's time to start exploring those summer reads, not to mention keeping an eye on the literary prizes working through long- and short-lists at the moment.

But before I start looking forward to summer 2012, I'm going to look way back to good old Dickens. A couple of months ago I warily eyed up Bleak House as my next read in the 'Year of Dickens' and, having made good progress thus far, I can now say fairly confidently that this will be my book of the month for June. I will finish and review it. Promise.

Ok, I was fibbing - I'm not looking forward at all. Summer be damned, like all good librarians I'm stuck firmly in the past. This being the case, I'm going back to classic piratical adventure Treasure Island - something I meant to read last month but didn't quite have time to get round to.

But in order to keep things grudgingly contemporary I'll be picking up The Paris Wife this month too. This is (recent) hitorical-fiction, following the life of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, as she tends to Hemingway during the early years of his career. I'm a sucker for stories about writers so this could be right up my alley.

Finally, I'll be giving one of the biggest-selling books of recent years a whirl for my reading group. I'm sure The Help doesn't need any introduction, but I'll be adding my own two cents to the already overflowing heap of literary criticism later in the month.

That's about it for planned reads. I'm hoping to find a little extra reading time this month, and therefore spring a few random reviews, but the best laid plans and all that...

Notable Posts from April 
Review: Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
Interview: Jen Campbell
Article: How To Run a Successful Literary Event
Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Review: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman