The Council has asked councillors for book reviews to display in libraries during Local Democracy Week.  Here’s what I wrote:

The Alphabet Mysteries, by Sue Grafton

I’m going to be greedy and not just choose one book.

I’ve always been a huge reader of murder mysteries and crime novels, from when I started to read Famous Five books as a nipper to when they let me into the adult library for the first time, and I got through the entire back catalogue of Agatha Christie stories.

Even now there’s nothing I like more than to take an evening off and curl up with a good murder story and over the last year, I’ve been working my way through Sue Grafton’s books about private investigator Kinsey Millhone.

It was a very ambitious thing for Grafton to start one book “A is for Alibi” and the next “B is for Burglar”.  It’s saying upfront “I’m not just going to write one or two books, I’m going to write at least 26!”

But Grafton is managing to keep up the pace and has got all the way through to S is for Silence, and shows no sign of slowing down.  And all the books are great – you know what you’re getting when you pick one up.  A fast paced thriller, bad guys, good guys, and a PI who cuts her own hair with nail scissors.  Who could ask for anything more?

On a different tack, as a politician, you could say I like the sound of my own voice.  I make recordings of public domain texts through an international project www.librivox.org  —  it’s a group of volunteers from around the world who make MP3s of public domain works.  We’re always looking out for more people to help, both with reading, and with the admin side.  And there’s hundreds of free audiobooks on the site too!