I have been reading through the famous Bookmark Book that has been traveling throughout the U.S. for the past year and have just finished up. It will be going to its final destination next week. Much fun!

Also finished The Other Side of Everest by Matt Dickinson, a filmmaker who summited Everest in May 1996, a year that the Mother of the Earth took a number of lives. Everest and mountain climbing stories are a bit of an obsession of mine, and I don't know how I missed this book that was published some time ago. It was so good that I 'rationed' it, leaving the ending for a time when I could really savor it. This despite knowing what happens at the end!

rouan,

Please don't peek at the last line of Bones.....i did and was sorry......all I can say is that his next book better be coming out next week!

gbg

I just finished Long Way Round by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman, about their journey by motorcycle through Europe, Asia and North America, starting in London and ending in New York. Pretty good travelogue for its kind.

Oh good, I can get in again. I had an awful time with an ad that blocked the screen and wouldn't let me navigate.
I finished Olive Kitteridge. I don't know what I expected, but this was definitely different. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end, it really comes together. I also read Paris A Love Story by Kati Morton. This memoir of her life focuses on how Paris played such a large role from her days as international correspondent with husband Peter Jennings, to the diplomatic wife role with husband Richard Holbrooke. I thought she handled the writing well, there was no plying for sympathy, just an interesting story of an interesting life. At least, one I found interesting.

Just finished the latest Sebastian St. Cyr mystery about fifteen minutes ago entitled What Darkness Brings. It was... okay. The main mystery surrounds a big blue diamond. Out of ten, I would give it a four... or a five.

Looking around for a book that will grab me. Nothing looks promising yet.

PAM

I finished the forthcoming book from Mark Billingham called The Dying Hours. It has Tom Thorne in it, and I enjoyed it very much.

I found myself getting bogged down in Antonia Fraser's biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. It is a magnificent book, but very dense and detailed (as it should be). So for a break, I read Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple mystery, The Murder at the Vicarage, published way back in 1930. It is the definitive "cosy" murder mystery, and I enjoyed it very much. One of the surprises of this particular book is the personality of Marple herself at the beginning of her career as a beloved fictional detective. Far from being the benign wooly-headed old dear of later books, Miss Marple first appears as a notorious village gossip and well-known snoop. Some of the characters (residents of the tiny village of St. Mary Mead) clearly don't like her, mostly for her tendency to stick her nose into other people's business and her almost eerie ability to discern their character flaws and hidden motives. Many readers may have come to view her as a surrogate grandmother, but she clearly began her career as a woman who was disliked and feared by many of her neighbors.

I started reading Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish by James Prosek, hoping it would be the same mixture of science, history and sociology as The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson that I read last year, but I am bogged down in a section dealing with the Maori of New Zealand and their mystical relationship with the eel, which reads more like a travelogue then either sociology or folkloristics. It's time to decide whether to slog on in the hope of it getting better - has anyone here read it and can tell me if it's worth finishing?

I am currently reading Killing LIncoln by Bill O'Reilly (and a second author named in smaller type whose name I forget, as I believe is the point). I have been surprised as I carry this book to work, the car repair shop, etc., that several people have remarked on what a good book it is, because I'm not thinking so.

I've just finished An Inquiry into Love and Death by Simone St. James. Good grief! Maddy Clare doesn't hold a candle to this one. I thought Maddy was good, but I love this one. More ghosts, in which I do not believe, but . . .

Gooseberry girl, thanks for the warning; I will restrain myself from looking at the ending (sometimes I have to look at the ending to help me decide if I want to bother finishing a book that isnt' grabbing me.).

37 yr-old, attractive, female vicar and exorcist to the diocese of Hereford, Merrily Watkins stars in about 10 of Phil Rickman's mystery-bordering-on-supernatural series such as 'The Wine of Angels' and 'Midwinter of the Spirit'. I thoroughly recommend them all Well-written, well-plotted, well-characterised, for those of you looking for murder-mystery novels.

Pam-glad to hear that the 2nd book by Simone St. James is as good as the first-can't wait to read it.
I've read quite a lot this winter too-as someone said the weather has been frightfully cold, which means I don't feel like digging into projects so I've been lazy.
Right now I am reading The Book of Killowen by Erin Hart. This is her fourth book, I believe, and I have enjoyed them all. I am also finishing up Darien Gee's book The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Club (apologies if title is slightly wrong)-it is her 2nd book as last year she wrote one about Amish friendship bread. These books are well written and enjoyable reads. I recommend them if you like "womens" fiction. I'm sorry if titles aren't correct but I am no where near the books.

I was in hospital for a couple of weeks (recovery - I'm OK) and managed quite a bit of reading. Had been going to dutifully read my way through Zola's novels, but thought - no way! So I managed: The Hunger Games (both volumes) - most entertaining; a re-read of some John Buchan - wildly out of date now and not fashionable but I enjoyed the gung-hoeness of it; and some more of my favourite Phil Rickman's novels about Merrily Watkins, female priest and exorcist to the diocese of Hereford. I can thoroughly recommend them if you like really well-written, well-characterised murder-mysteries with a touch of the supernatural. The sequence starts with 'The Wine of Angels' and goes on to 'The Midwinter of the Spirit', which is when she is first appointed exorcist. There are about 8 or 10 of them availabel now.

Carolyn, glad to hear you enjoyed the second Simone St. James as much as I did! And I concur.. the second was better than the first. I am already looking forward to the third. Not out until NEXT YEAR.

Now reading A Different Sun by Elaine Neil Orr. I carried it around for a bit, reading a few paragraphs and then stopping. For a few days I thought maybe I would just skip it and move on. Then I sat down and decided to give it my full attention for a bit. I am still at the beginning but feel myself being drawn in; we will see if it lasts. A young girl in antebellum south grows up thinking she might just want to be a missionary. And, eventually, heads to Africa to be, yes, a missionary. The author grew up in Nigeria so I am expecting great things. Will keep you posted.

PAM

I finally finished Thomas Robishaux' "The last Witch of Langenburg". This is a micro-history which reads like a mystery. It's based on historical documents from small villages in Germany in the 1600's, where there was a spate of witch-burnings. I found the details fascinating: the use of mandrake root as a charm, the village superstitions and customs, and how the rural economy functioned in that day and time.

Dido, I hope you are on the mend. Zola's sour appraisal of humanity would likely not be a good choice for someone convalescing.

Woodnymph, the Langenburg witch book sounds fascinating. I will definitely add it to my TBR list. I had to special order Anne Somerset's The Affair of the Poisons which looks like a lurid and fascinating account of one of the great scandals at the French court. The unexpected death of a beautiful young woman leads to accusations of a large scale conspiracy of poisonings at Versailles. Allegations lead even to the king's celebrated mistress Madame de Montepesan. Dozens of people, mostly women, but also some members of the French clergy, were arrested. Many were tortured into confessing acts of murder, Satanism, infant sacrifice at black masses, etc. Many of these people were brutally executed, others imprisoned for life. A lucky few escaped with their lives into exile. Not having read the book yet, it does suggest the mass hysteria and religious paranoia of the Langenburg witch book. I suppose I should be ashamed of being so eager to read such a gruesome tale!

Just checking in...

Dido - hope you are feeling much better now.

Netla - what did you decide to do about the eels book? I have found that if one chapter is rather grueling to read, it usually works to skip it if you're reading a narrative non-fiction like that. (I normally check with the chapter index to find out if that will work.) Just an idea, and also -- I had no idea that there was a whole book on eels. :-)

I recently read The Card by Arnold Bennett (1910) which was a fun light-hearted read set in the Potteries in the North of England about a young man who wants to climb up the social ladder and has somewhat flexible ethics. (Nothing fatal, but a bit "grey" in places.) Very funny in parts and available on Project Gutenberg.

My on-going project of reading through the Thirkell Barsetshire books is going well, and now on Pomfret Towers, which is number six, I believe. They are like bubblegum but fun to read. (Just won't fill you up, reading-head wise.)

And then had a fascinating read by Rolling Stone writer Janet Reitman called Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secret Religion. Fascinating and thought to be one of the most objective and thorough looks at this group, it's riveting. If you enjoyed Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, then you'll probably like this one, I think.

And then a quick run-through of an old Joyce Grenfell book called Stately as a Galleon, but no "George, Don't Do That", regretfully and I can't seem to access it on youtube due to copyright rules in the U.S. Still, that was fun.

Oh, and some Mapp and Lucia.

Carolyn, thanks so much for posting about A Killing in the Hills. It is indeed a page turner; I could barely put it down. It is one of the best I've read in a long time and the ending leaves room for what I hope will be a series.

Another really good book that I listened to recently is The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan. I accomplished so much knitting because I didn't want to stop listening to that very interesting book.

Yes, Frances, I was hoping that A Killing in the Hills would have follow ups.

And speaking of series, I just finished Jericho Cay by Kathryn R. Wall, which I picked up while browsing in the library. It is a new-to-me author and the latest of what is a long series, which I will try to read in order. Woodnymph, you might like to check them out; they are mysteries, and the setting is Hilton Head.

I have just finished reading The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. Thanks again Sarah-Canary for reminding me of the title and author.

Now I need to finish The Return of the King; I'm reading the appendices as well as the story.

I also have waiting for me Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley and Incarnate by Jodi Meadows (recommended on another site I visit)

I stayed up until the wee hours last night finishing David Leavitt's The Indian Clerk, a historical novel which contains characters who were mostly real people. The novel is set at Trinity College, Cambridge, on the verge of the First World War. It tells the story of the collaboration of the famous mathematician G. H. Hardy, and an impoverished Indian clerk, Ramanudan, who becomes one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. Normally I would be the last person to read a book which deals with mathematics, but this story really held my attention. Anglophiles will enjoy the setting of the book, though the war casts a funereal pall over the most of characters.

Hey, I think the log in problems are fixed! For the first time in years I was able to log in with no problem, did not have to go through the Gardenweb pages to sneak in.

Yesterday I finished Gail Godwin's The Good Husband, published in 1994. An excellent novel and a reminder of how many things have changed and how many have stayed the same. Very satisfying book, beautifully paced. Four characters, two marriages, how people affect one another, love, transformation. I've always meant to read one of Godwin's novels and I am glad I finally did.

Before that I read a book of short stories with horses as the theme. It was surprisingly good, with John Steinbeck, William Saroyan, Arthur Conan Doyle, Annie Proulx, Bret Harte, and many others. This book was a gift from my brother at Christmas, and I have a feeling he bought it from a remainder table because he knows I like animals. Serendipitous, methinks.

Gail Godwin has long been one of my favorite American southern writers. I highly recommend her "Father Melancholy's Daughter", "Evenings at Five", and "The Finishing School." I think she is greatly underrated.

Just finished up As for me and my House by Sinclair Ross. I think this may be viewed as a Canadian classic (Tim might help with that?) and it was a good read. To be honest, I had picked it up a while ago and wasn't in the right mood to read it, so put it down. But then clearing the shelves the other day, came across it again and picked up and loved it.

The contrast between the openness of the prairie and the secrets that the married couple keep between them, the tangled web of a small community and its opinions, was extremely well done. Although it's a very different book, it did remind me of Connell's Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge and other portraits of intimate domestic situations where people feel imprisoned. Sounds rather depressing, and it's not a happy book, but it is well written and as mentioned, the contrast between the two environments of prairie and personal relationship was really notable.

My latest is "Dancer" by Irish writer Colum McCann.

Lemonhead, As for me and my House is certainly one of the most famous books about life on the Canadian prairie. If you liked his writing, I would definitely read Sinclair Ross' very famous short story, "The Painted Door', which I believe you can find online.

If would you like to read other books with a similar prairie setting, I would add Margaret Laurence's Manawaka books and W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind to your TBR list. Mitchell's book seems to be the most famous and beloved of this genre. The Canadian prairie novels seem to be unsentimental about the topic of human foibles, but minus the acid satire of American books like Sinclair Lewis' Main Street.

Besides the Nebraska books of Willa Cather, I am curious to know who are the most famous American writers of the prairie experience.

I seem to have been all over the UK this past week! Recently finished a book by Stuart MacBride taking place in Aberdeen. Then it was off to Ireland and The Book of Killowen the latest by Erin Hart. I am now dividing my reading time between A Dying Fall the new Elly Griffiths (to Norfolk) from the library and A Week in Winter (back to Ireland) the new Maeve Binchy on my Kindle-had to buy that one and of course I always take my kindle on Dr's appt's. My library books never leave the house as I fear losing one & I hear the cost of replacing one is double what the book actually cost!

Pat

Tim, re American writers of the American prairie experience: I think I mentioned on another thread O.E. Rolvaag's "Giants in the Earth." I read this in my teens and never have forgotten this powerful novel about Norwegian emmigrants in the mid-west. It stood the test of time, as I recently re-read it. In my opinion, it is even more evocative than the work of Willa Cather.

Lemonhead, I wonder if you have seen the Mapp and Lucia DVDs? I think that they are well cast although I don't think the scene with the floating table was done correctly! They couldn't have got out of the door shown there, I believe!
I also enjoy the Tom Holt continuation of the series but am still waiting for Major Benji which is on order at the library.

Part way through Anne Perry's "We Shall Not Sleep" but find the gory details hard to handle some days. Now into her "A Sunless Sea" which is more enjoyable to me.

I finally sat myself down and picked up Speaking From Among the Bones. Gooseberry girl, you were so right to caution me not to sneak a peak at the ending. I wonder how long we have to wait for the next one to come out. How dare he leave us hanging like this! LOL

I just finished Bad Science by Dr. Ben Goldacre, which I was sure someone recommended on the science books thread, but I couldn't find it there, so I must have imagined it.

This is a highly readable collection of expanded columns Dr. Goldacre originally wrote for the British newspaper The Guardian, about pseudoscience and the methods used by various quacks, scientists with vested interests and the pharmaceutical industry - aided and abetted by journalists - to mislead and fool the public.

It was interesting to see how simple some of the trickery is and scary to see how much power is yielded by people who, once you know where and how to look, turn out to have no particular qualifications for the things they pretend to be experts on. I was familiar with much of the statistical trickery he discusses, but some of the other stuff was revelatory.

Netla - your bad sci book sounds fascinating. Thanks for the tip.

It was cool and bright yesterday afternoon, so I took my books and read outside the library on campus. It was a gorgeous way to spend the afternoon, and although by the end it was a bit chilly, that just meant that I had an excuse to go and buy some biscuits and a cuppa at the student center. So - in my reading, I immersed myself in the ongoing Barsetshire world of Thirkell. The copy I was reading an ILL from Oklahoma and the edition was 87 years old. It was in great shape and had great font, lovely pages, and all those details that help to make a good read (outside the words)... :-)

Now in to The End of My Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe which will definitely be adding some titles to my TBR pile. New books! New titles!

And here's the view for my reading yesterday on campus... (Sorry for cruddy quality. I only had my I-Phone with me.)

{{gwi:2117307}}

I'm reading Faithful Place by Tana French. She writes smashing stories. This one is about a young man who got out of his inner city Dublin/dysfunctional family life and became an undercover policeman but is drawn back into the old neighborhood after 22 years upon the discovery of a body.

Lemonhead, I took a break from the eel book. I picked it up again yesterday and found there were only a couple of pages left of the chapter and the next one was about eel migration and the speculations about their breeding grounds.
The problem with this book is, I think, that there is so little known about the life-cycle of the eel that there isn't a whole lot of science to write about, so it ends up being a travelogue with bits of folklore, sociology and science thrown in for seasoning. I intend to persevere, however - I find eels fascinating. It's just not going to be a priority read.

That title goes to Spook by Mary Roach. As with Stiff and Bonk she has chosen a fascinating subject to write about.

I have been reading "Killer Librarian" by Mary Lou Kirwin which I grabbed from the library display for the title.
It was quite amusing, very light but with some errors that made me want to pencil in alterations and query marks!
As a former librarian, of course I wouldn't do that but, oh, the temptation to write that "Tiger in the Smoke" is not by Josephine Tey and a book in the UK would be priced in pounds not dollars!

Annpan, ouch! You would think people would get their novels fact-checked before publishing, but these days they hardly seem to get spell-checked.

After so much heavy reading for my European history course, I decided to take a break and try for something much lighter. I greatly enjoyed "The Forgotten Affairs of Youth" by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the 8th in his Isabel Dalhousie series, set in Edinburgh. (P.S. I'm not giving away the plot, but Isabel and Jamie FINALLY do get married....).

Netla, I agree with you that it isn't difficult to check facts with the tools we now have. A simple Google check would have established that a blue rose exists so the character would have been saved a lot of trouble trying to perfect one! But that would have spoilt the story, I suppose!

Annpan - you asked whether I had ever seen the Mapp and Lucia TV series - no, but I have heard good things about it... Does the series stay quite close to the story?

I happened to find a title the other day which I am having an extremely hard time to put down. It was published in 1955 by author Brian Moore and has the appalling title of The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. It's the story (fiction) of a (maybe) middle-aged (definitely) unmarried woman during the 50's in Belfast. She becomes enmeshed with one of her fellow boarders at the house where she lives, and, at the same time, is fighting really hard to keep part of her life secret.

Really excellent read. She's not a particularly likeable character, but she stays with you. Reminds me a bit of Stone Angel's protagonist in some ways.

And it has little to do with bodice-ripping type passion. BTW, just found out that there is a sub-category of bodice-ripping romance books focused on the Amish crowd -- called "bonnet-ripping".... :-)

rouan,

Are you trying to tell me that the next volume won't be out next week???

gbg

Back in January I signed up for World Book Night, which means that on the evening of April 23 I will be distributing some books for free. I chose John Grisham's Playing for Pizza, knowing nothing about it. I simply thought it would have the greatest appeal to the people I plan to distribute to, namely my co-workers. I am halfway through this novel and to my surprise I am enjoying it thoroughly; in fact I can hardly put it down. It is not deep but it is entertaining and not entirely without thought-provoking content. The story is about a washed-up NFL quarterback (American football) who goes to play for a league in Italy. A very quick read. I am glad I chose it.

I've just finished Spook by Mary Roach.

When I was a teenager, I read quite a number of books about spiritualism and also many volumes of folk tales full of ghost stories, but none of these books approached the subject of life after death in a scientific manner. It was therefore interesting to read about some of the scientific attempts to prove or disprove the various different theories about life after death, and of course Roach is as funny as ever.

This book is quite as good as Stiff, of which it is a sequel or companion volume of sorts, as one deals with the body after death and the other with the soul.

Gbg, I'm afraid not...LOL

I picked up some books from the library that I requested. I now have awaiting my attention: What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris, How to Murder a Millionaire by Nancy Martin, Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn, Incarnate by Jodi Meadows and The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells. It's funny that almost all the requests came in within 2 days of each other....sigh. And I won't have time to start reading any of them for a while; I have out of town company coming in for the weekend!

Rouan, doesn't it make you just want to sneak away and read for awhile?

I have just finished Bryant & May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler. It took me several books before I learned to love them, but now I find them laugh-out-loud funny besides having lots of old London lore in them.

Lemonhead, the Mapp and Lucia DVDs are very close to the stories excepting for the opera excerpts of "Lucretia" which I thought would be about Lucretia Borgia! I think you would like them.
Rouan..I borrowed "Mrs Queen takes the Train" but couldn't get into it so returned it unfinished. I do enjoy the Blackbird Sisters books by Nancy Martin though.

Carolyn, yes the temptation will be very strong! LOL

Annpan, I picked up Mrs Queen Takes a Train on a whim so we'll see if I like it or not. Sometimes the ones I pick up on a whim turn out well, others don't.

I liked Mrs. Queen. Now reading The Waikiki Widow by Juanita Sheridan which I had to get through inter-library loan.

I just finished a slim book of stories by Colm Toibin, The Empty Family. They were beautifully written, but a lot of them were a bit sad.