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The Arctic Curry Club is the story of Anglo-Indian Maya, who has left her life in England to follow her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic. Ryan is a scientist studying wildlife, but Maya struggles to adapt to the dark and the cold.

As she explores her Indian heritage, Maya starts to remember snippets of her childhood, family secrets long forgotten.

Everything falls apart, but with the help of some wonderful new friends, Maya begins to make a life for herself.

It’s a quick read, with engaging characters, and some unexpected twists at the end. With lots of Arctic atmosphere and the evocative descriptions of Indian food (the author has personal experience of both), this is a rewarding feelgood story in an unusual setting.

Picked this up on a whim in the garden centre this morning. I’m already on chapter 10…

In the third instalment of the Invisible Library series, Irene and Kai are startled when a portal to the Library erupts into flames. We then discover this is not an isolated incident, but the result of a wider attack on the Library. Evil former Librarian Alberich is back, and he's on a mission to destroy the Library, recruiting allies among the Fae to help him. As Alberich wants to recruit Irene, a confrontation is inevitable. But as she battles to save the Library from complete destruction, Irene is given unexpected information about her past.

In this second instalment of the Invisible Library series, Librarian Irene is installed in a Victorian London with her apprentice Kai. When Kai is kidnapped, Irene has to travel to Venice in a Fae-dominated world, where it's permanently Carnival. Irene must rescue Kai to prevent a war, but doing so will violate the Library rules. The result is a slightly chaotic romp through Venice, as Irene seeks to outwit the kidnappers and the many obstacles they place in her path. We learn more about the nature of the Fae and of the Dragons, but as Irene is acting outside of her role as a Librarian, this episode is far less focused on books.

I’m trying out the Serial Reader app, which serialises classic books into bite-sized chunks for daily reading. I have picked The Complete Sherlock Holmes, which it says I will be reading until September!

@mark I read quite a lot of the Cadfael series a long time ago. I must go back and start again!

When we first meet Irene, she’s mopping the floors in a gothic boarding school. We learn she’s an agent for the Library, sent on missions to alternate dimensions to collect unique books and bring them safely back to the Library. Being a Librarian gives Irene some unique advantages, but collecting books can be a risky business. Saddled with a student, and sent to an alternate Victorian London, Irene finds herself in mortal peril, and must make some unlikely allegiances to survive… and (more importantly) bring back the book she’s been sent for.