Hi Ianna. Here are a few that I've read lately that I enjoyed. They're not in any particular order, some are fairly new and others not. I also loved Guernsey Lit. Soc. and that spurred me on to read 84, Charring Cross Road - Helene Banff. This is also an epistolary work which you might enjoy.

Water, Stone, Heart - Will North
I'm Not Scared - Niccolo Ammaniti
Saving CeCe Honeycutt - Beth Hoffman
Everything Changes - Jonathan Tropper
Little Heathens - Mildred Armstrong Kalish (NF)
Raising Jake - Charles Carillo

Hope you'll find something here to your liking. Let us know!

Oh yess.. thanks for sharing. I'll check them out.

I hope other members can also wade in.

I like stories that are humorous, adventurous, some romantic twists..

Ianna- I've been reading gardening books all winter! LOL

Humor, adventure and romance sounds like a nice change. I think it's time to go to the library :)

I just learned a movie is being developed for the Guernsey Literary Society...

Lavender - for you I would recommend a book 'A Year In Provence' -- It's about a newly retired English couple who decided to move to Provence. They often travelled there for vacations, but when they decided to buy a farmhouse, all the fun begins. The book is filled with funny characters, adventures into food, housebuilding, unwanted guests, ... And it all happened for real..

And closer to home: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Setting is in Georgia. It's so well written, you can feel the fragrance of the Georgian gardens. It's about murder, funny odd characters, mystery, and voodoo.. Yet again, it's all very real.

Ianna- Thank you for the recommendations! I think I'll start with A Year In Provence :)

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, best read in a while.

thanks Brodie.

Lavender, I loved that book so much,that I bought the DVD on it. A British mini series was made soon after. I reread this book every now and then. Only be careful, don't go hunting for french food.

I'm compiling my list of must read.

I did buy My Lovely Bones.. I must say, it is a difficult book about a child being murdered without a satisfying ending (at least to me) but after I came to understand the author, I realized she wrote about her feelings, her frustrations because she too had experienced horrifying tragedy.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is probably one book that I read before seeing the movie - and I still enjoyed the movie!!! Unusual, and I have been to Savannah since, and was fascinated by the city!! I don't read nearly enough anymore - the upcoming hospital stay will change that. I love English mysteries - PD James, Deighton, Dick Francis - pure escapism. I am slogging my way through "And No Birds Sang", WWII, Farley Mowat - I love his writing, and it is the stories of the Allies landing in Sicily, and the battles up to Rome. My Dad was there, so I need to put it down often. If you are interested in the sea, Mowat's "Grey Seas Under" is a very moving biography of a tug boat. Yes, a tug boat, and you will come to care for that boat like a friend, or favoured pet!!

Nancy. - oh yes, and I loved the mini-series a Year in Provence - how could you not love something with John Thaw in it!!!

The $64 Tomato - William Alexander.
One man's hilarious adventures in the quest for the perfect garden. I still laugh just thinking about it...

I am just about to start 'Letters to Jackie'. It is a book compiling the many sympathy letters Jackie Kennedy received after the death of JFK.

I just finished reading 'Merry Hall'. It is an older gardening book that chronicles an Englishman's search for a country home to start a gar*den. I found it fascinating for about 1/2 of the book, then he begins to talk more about the people around him and less about the gar*den, so I didn't finish it. There are two other sequels that I plan on getting, hoping that he gets back on track.

I'm another mystery fan. Adore all those English detectives.

Might have to get that Mowat book, Nancy. My dad went in with the Anzio beachhead invasion and on up through Naples and Rome. After the first day at Anzio, he wrote his will and sent it home to his mother. I love looking at his photos-Vesuvius erupting, countryside and fellow soldiers, Italians they met along the way.

I agree that A Year in Provence is a lovely book. Good one to pick for this time of year, too. I will need to check out some of these others. Great thread. Thanks!

I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and thought it was excellent! I also read a lot of British mysteries. My all time favorite is Ruth Rendell, just about anything by her is good.

I also have to recommend a few others you might not have heard of: Deborah Crombie, who writes about a pair of Scotland Yard detectives who are romantically involved, Minette Walters, whose work is very similar in theme to Ruth Rendell's, and Jacqueline Winspear, who has written a series about a young woman in the time between the World Wars who opens a detective agency, and is haunted by her experiences as a nurse in Europe during WWI.

I also just finished: Lee Child's Gone Tomorrow, Jodi Picoult's House Rules, Sue Grafton's U is For Undertow and Harlan Coben's Caught. All good books.

Reading Edward Kennedy's last book, "True Compass".
It is great. Even his children stated that they learned things about their father they never knew. It is beautiful.

I just read Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland, and I absolutely adored it! I'm now reading her first novel and find it more challenging because so far, I dislike the main two characters intensely. The authors explanations of love for painting and the artists eye is amazing though. She writes for art like I see in the garden. I've never read anyone who describes colors the way I see them, before.

This is great ladies. I'm taking notes.

Midnightsmum - hospital stay? I hope it's nothing serious.

Just the left knee, total replacement. It will only slow me down for a while!! ;-)) Thanks, Ianna.

Nancy.

Oh yes, you mentioned it before. I'm sure it will be fine. I know at least 2 people who've undergone it and successfully at that.