Again it seems a long time since I visited here. It seems life is a turmoil right now, but as always reading is calming.
Currently I am reading The Beach Trees by Karen White, Lost in Shangri-La (I apologize as I don't have the author's name handy) and Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brookes. So far, all are good and very different from each other.
I have to disagree on Lauren Hillerbrand's book about Louis Zamperini. I loved it and think it may be the best book I have read this year. I know it took her 10 yrs. to research. If you read about her she is very interesting too. I also have loved all Rennie Airth's books.

I am just back from a two-week trip during which I read two more Susanna Kearsley books, The Shadowy Horses and Every Secret Thing as well as One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Coming home on the plane, I traded my daughter one of them for one she had finished, The Complaints by Ian Rankin. This one introduces a new Scottish police character after Rankin retired Rebus in that long-running series. All of them were good. I really do like Kearsley but will have to order more of hers since my library only has her latest.

We've been getting our house ready to sell, so I've been lucky to fit in even a paragraph or two before falling asleep at night. But I have been slowly reading Heyer's The Black Moth.

SarahCanary, coincidentally enough, I just reread a favorite Heyer, Powder and Patch. It was a Harlequin edition with an interesting intro by a romance novelist. First I discovered, after decades of getting it wrong that her last name is pronounced like hare rather than higher and that P&P was her first novel.

Have been reading in spurts, as spring migration is in full force and have to see those birds when they come!

Back in February went to visit my parents and found a box of books I left there years ago. Among them I found The Past is Another Country by Lois Battle, which I read 19 years ago, and remembered enjoying it. I'm rereading it. It takes place in Western Australia and NYC. The author's most popular books are set in the US South, but she was born in Australia (the daughter of an Australian war bride).

Timallan,
Like you, I try to read "summery" books in winter or our usually soggy gray spring, to try to trick the brain into a sunnier, warmer illusion. I try to avoid "wintery" books in cold weather. A couple of years ago, I had to read The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeir for a book club in January--half of the chapters take place in Antartica--and I still shiver when I think of that book.

SheriZ6, if you are tired of Sookie Stackhouse, you might give the Mercy Thomson series by Patricia Briggs a try. Not quite so bloodthirsty, and I liked the characters better.

Started listening to "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss this week and am hooked. It's long, 28 hours, but it doesn't seem like it.
"Kvothe, a man known as the heroic Legend, is lying low in the guise of an innkeeper. When an act of bravery brings a stranger to the inn, Kvothe is persuaded to narrate his own autobiography, an engrossing story marked by magic and deep-seated vengeance." (Library Journal Review)

I'm reading "Ghost Ship" by P. J. Alderman. A light and fun mystery. Jordan moves to Port Chatham and discovers she can see ghosts. Now she's found a body and is going to help solve the murder, plus she has to solve the murder of a long dead ghost, the current corpse's ancestor.

My bedtime listening is "Heat Wave" by Richard Castle. Fun because I watch the show.

Keeping it pretty light right now so I can ignore parts of real life. And I've got serious stuff on hold, so I don't want to wear my brain out before it starts coming in :)

Just returned from a great vacation on Folly Beach. Finished my 2nd of the "Big Stone Gap " books by A. Trigiami. Of course, that Virginia mountain setting is a far cry from the palm trees and oleanders that surround me now....

I liked less well the author's "Very Valentine." (set in NYC and Italy).

Just finished the forthcoming book from Erin Kelly, called The Sick Rose. Her first was an atmospheric look at a murder going backwards chronologically, and this one has time going back and forth, but works quite well. There is a horrible sense of a young man sucked into crime inch by inch and not knowing how to extricate himself. It was quite enjoyable but not a brilliant read.

Since I'm rather busy at work, can't read something thoughtful (also if I don't know if I ever did) so I'm reliving my early teens re - reading The Screaming Clock by Robert Arthur from The three Investigators series, I loved them

grelobe

Rosefolly, thanks for the recommendation -- oddly enough, I just recently read all the Mercy Thompson books (talk about a reading jag - five books in two weeks). They were terrific and I think that's half the reason I wasn't as enamored with Sookie this time out.

Grelobe, the Three Investigators were my favorite, favorite books growing up. I loved them and I still have a motley collection of hardcovers I can't part with. I've read most of them to my kids and they enjoyed them, too. The Mystery of the Singing Serpent was my favorite -- probably because it included a girl character who was just as smart as Jupiter!

I finished the always-enjoyable Georgette Heyer's Black Sheep and am about to (reluctantly) start Emma Donoghue's Room which I've been promised is not as bleak as I'm expecting it to be.

I didn't realize Erin Kelly has a new one coming out; I read her The Poison Tree and thought it was decent. This has been a weird reading month. I tried March by Geraldine Brooks since I thought her other fiction books were fascinating but had to send March back to the library after a few chapters. Jane Smiley is an author I'd like to like but never do... until I picked up Duplicate Keys about a NYC librarian who discovers some of her friends murdered in their apartment when she goes in to water the plants. Not a murder mystery per se as it is really about how the deaths and subsequent investigation affects the librarian and her group of friends. I'm also immersed in Nicci French's Killing Me Softly which is a psychological thriller about sexual obsession; it is riveting, albeit farfetched.

On a very different note, I also thought Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken an excellent book. I found Mr. Zamperini's trials unimaginable and the book also highlighted, for me, the sacrifices made by so many ordinary men of his generation, and the hardships endured by common citizens in so many nations during wartime. I cannot help but think that my generation does not know deprivation or sacrifice and is very very good at whining, me included.

Finally, I also tried Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything in vain attempt to improve my fraying short-term memory. Yikes--too much effort to build my memory palace. Which reminds me that I also read Mira Bartok's The Memory Palace which is her memoir about growing up with a schizophrenic mother, and how she and her sister dealt with her in adulthood. It was a beautifully written but very sad book.

I have just started "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines.

While working on the family genealogy, I came across an ancestor who left New York for Shelburne, Nova Scotia, as a refugee after the American Revolution. I'm ashamed to say it had never crossed my mind to wonder what the Loyalists did after 1783 (and my American history courses in school certainly didn't cover this), but in one of those odd coincidences, I'd just read an interesting book review of Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff. The library had it, I'm now about half way through it, and it's a fascinating bit of history.

I had no idea of the sheer number of people -- over 60,000, many American-born, and included among them Benjamin Franklin's son, William -- who sided with the British and were forced out by their Patriot neighbors once all the peace treaties were signed and the war was over. It's really interesting and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

I also forced myself through Room by Emma Donoghue today and while I didn't like it very much, I was impressed with the author's writing skill and originality. I've requested another book by her, Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins from the library.

I've finished The Tortilla Curtain, now I've started "Things Fall Apart" again with a notebook.

I have not been able to get RP for some weeks, due to putting in a virus protector which blocked too much! Eventually I had to get my guru to sort it out.
I have been reading the "Girl's Night In, 10th Anniversary Collection" which is a good 'book at bedtime' being short stories. Also a number of cosy mysteries, recent reprints of Cyril Hare and one of his OOPs in the same series from Abebooks.

sheriz - I have purchased after seeing the author on Book-TV, The Civil War of 1812. It is essentially a narration of the effect of the War of 1812 on the Americans and the Loyalists who fled to Canada after the Revolution. Like you, it was something I had never been taught, or even thought of that much. I had always been affected by the descriptions of the Loyalists leaving Boston after the Revolution...and during as well. But I never gave a thought to "what next" for them.

Wood -

I have to ask... Where are you that you are in a place that is a "far cry from the palm trees and oleanders that surround me now...."...?

lemonhead, the "Big Stone Gap" books are set in the mountains of western Virginia, with which I am very familiar. Ten months ago, I relocated from Virginia to Charleston, SC, which has quite different flora and fauna, not to mention the cultural changes....

aah. Thanks, Wood... I was just curious...

I have just finished two books, one F and one NF. The NF was a decade by decade history of the kitchen in America called The Warmest Room by Steven Gdula. A rather interesting look at how kitchens in the US have changed since the beginning of the twentieth century, both in its role in the family and also how the various inventions (such as the microwave and fitted cabinets) have influenced design. Although I do try to avoid the kitchen an awful lot, this was interesting to read about.

My Fiction was an ILL published in 1931 called The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff, an English playwright who also wrote books. This is a quiet little story about a very middle-class family in the 1930's who take their annual holidays (two weeks = fortnight) in Bogner Regis, a seaside town on the South coast of Britain. Very reminiscent of Paul Gallico's Coronation in that there is not a great deal of action to the story - just the day to day concerns of a perfectly normal family having a seaside holiday. And yet, of course, there is more to than that. The family are really concerned that everyone is happy at this time, and there is so much underlying pressure (unstated) for things to be as good as the year before (and the year before). It is very important for things to not change, not evolve, but this pressure is all unspoken, unrecognised but still there. You, as the reader, so desperately want them to have a lovely holiday as so much seems to be riding on it.

So - it sounds like a pressure-ridden book, but it's not really. Lovely descriptions of an old-fashioned English holiday by the sea and staying in a seaside hotel with the requisite landlady. Many descriptions made me smile as they brought back memories of my childhood holidays in the Isle of Wight.

Another really enjoyable aspect of the book was that it was an old copy printed in the 1930's, with slightly yellowing pages that had been turned many times, lovely font just the right size. Just a really nice reading experience overall.

Hmm. What next?

sheriz6 - I had the same experience with Jane Smiley. I couldn't finish A Thousand Acres, but Duplicate Keys really captured my attention. Another one of hers that I enjoyed was The All True Travels and Adventures of Liddy Newton. As I recall, it's set in the Kansas and Missouri Territories during the abolitionist movement -- an interesting read.

carolyn-I have read all S. Kearsley's books and loved them. Be careful when ordering though as they have changed the names of some of the older ones-I hate that!

I am soo enjoying my latest "The Englishman's Boy" by
Guy Vanderhaeghe. It is shaping up to be a nice earthy western with lots of interesting characters.

This author I shall be following up.

Sheriz6, isn't it odd how something new to you recurs? I have just finished Where Shadows Dance, the latest Sebastian St. Cyr by C. S. Harris. In it, Sebastian encounters the elderly William Franklin living in London. I'm another who sort of dismissed the Loyalists as good riddance for the Patriots and was never taught what happened to them except that they left the new country. The Harris book ended with the beginning of the War of 1812 from the viewpoint of the British.

Pam53, thanks for the warning about the Kearsley books. I haven't looked at the order sites yet because I have a number of library books to get through first.

Carolyn, very true! I'm nearly through Liberty's Exiles and it's very readable, not dry at all. Jasanoff is a very good writer. The book has also started me thinking about a couple other family lines in the genealogy that (I thought) randomly hopped between Maine and Canada during the post-Revolution years -- maybe now I have a reason why.

Sheri, Jasanoff's book had very good reviews over here; perhaps my library would get a copy (faint hope). On the US side of my family there were two brothers one fought for the US and one for the British (we call that a braces and a belt approach) Both came through unscathed and must have patched up their disagreements as they settled down in the same area.

Bookmom - I addressed my previous post to sheriz when it should have been directed to you. Sorry.

Started reading The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett, a classic (I think) that comes up in conversations across the blogosphere every now and then. It is the ongoing story of two sisters who grow up in a tiny little village in Middle England during the late 1800's and reminds me a lot of Elizabeth Gaskell et al. Really enjoying this and looking forward to picking it up again.

As for my non-fiction read, I selected The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel which is meandering discourse on libraries. Each chapter is called The Library And... and there are discussions on "order" (how to organize a library and the history of library book organization etc.)"history" etc. A slow meditative book, Manguel shows (in a good way) that he is *extremely* widely read and quite put me to shame. Ahh well. I bet he doesn't work full time in an office job and go grocery shopping etc. :-)

sarah_canary, I figured you meant me since I didn't see where sheriz commented on Jane Smiley. :) Anyway, I had the same reaction to A Thousand Acres except I did finish it, didn't see the incestuous "unveil" coming and was totally disgusted. After that, every time I'd pick up one of her books, I just couldn't enjoy it until I tried Duplicate Keys. The All True Travels.. sounds good, thank you for the recommendation.

Today I came home with Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation which I've always thought sounded intriguing. Grandin has autism, has a doctorate in Animal Science, and she writes about how the two overlap in this book. Ostensibly for my son, I picked up Michael Scott's fourth (or fifth?) installment in his young adult Alchemyst series titled The Wizard. It is Harry Potter and Celtic mythology meeting up with historical figures like John Dee (Eliz I's alchemist) and I enjoy them as much as my son does.

Carolyn, I recently read all six books of the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series. I have a few quibbles with how she handles the mystery elements, but I really enjoy Sebastian's story and how it's developing, so am looking forward to the next one.

I'm reading Gabaldon's A Breath of Snow and Ashes in spurts. Will read a few hundred pages, then set it down and read something else, then go back to it. Eventually, I will finish it. I know very few authors who can get away with this kind of sprawl.

Also came home from the library with Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden so need to get busy with that one soon.

Finished Mourning Gloria by Susan Wittig Albert. I have usually enjoyed her China Bayles series, but this one didn't seem up to par. She spent a great deal of time on plants and herbs and street-by-street travel information of her fictional town and not enough on the mystery. Seemed like to much filler.

Siobhan, like your mother, I also like cosy mysteries, so requested the Hale book.
I was so stuck for authors, I went into my reading history file, kept online by my library, to refresh my memory. Some of the books I've borrowed were parts of a series and I am filling in gaps or finding later publications.
Looking forward to the new Plum. I buy them and pass them on to my daughter. They always amuse us. I like the Bailey Ruth "Ghost" series by Carolyn Hart but have to buy them too as the library only had the first one.

I've just finished a re-read of Nicholas Evans' "The Horse Whisperer." Now, I am enthralled by Kate Morton's "The Forgotten Garden."

Lemonhead,

I've wanted to read The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff, ever since Jane Brocket (author of The Gentle Art of Domesticity) mentioned it in her blog. I went to the link she provided and found it has been published again by Persephone Books. I was surprised that the copy you read is an old 'original' one. It sounds like a very atmospheric book, where not much happens, and yet...
My library system does not have it. I had not thought of an interlibrary loan.... You've given an idea.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Fortnight in September

Finished "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho last night. I think I'm going to read "Bad Things Happen" by Harry Dolan. Not sure yet.

Finished "Name of the Wind". His story takes 3 days to tell and this book only covers day 1. Interesting story. A few things annoyed me, but I still want to listen to the next one.
"Ghost Ship", not so crazy about.
"Heat Wave", I didn't even finish. Not expecting a lot, but thought it would be entertaining. Made it to where she got out of bath, heard an intruder, chased him out the window up the fire escape to the roof. Then when she heard sirens, she thought she should go back and put some clothes on. Puhleeeze!

Current reads better so far.

NF - "The Happiness Project : or why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun / Gretchen Craft Rubin. Rubin decides that although she isn't unhappy, she could be happier. I am intrigued by her story so far, and would like to see how I can apply some of the resolutions and processes into my own life. Keeping a notebook and pen near this one.
For my 5 hour drive yesterday I started "The Probable Future" by Alice Hoffman. The women in the Sparrow family each have a unique gift, which comes to them on their 13th birthday. Elinor can tell when someone's lying, her estranged daughter Jenny can divine other people's dreams, and 13-year-old Stella knows how and when people will die. It's an absorbing story of how each deals with her gift, and how they reunite into a family.

I just about always have a light mystery, and this one is "The Double Cross" by Clare O'Donohue. One of the Someday Quilts group is asked to lead a quilting workshop, a body is found...and you know the rest. Characters are likable and entertaining. I like the quilting info - always wanted to learn how to quilt. Maybe in my happiness project :-)

I haven't been around much as we have had a new kitchen installed, at least partially installed, and have been living in a mess.
I have nearly finished a non fiction read, Until Tuesday by Luis Montalvan, the account of a US Iraqi war veteran who was wounded both physically and mentally, and his rehab with a service dog called Tuesday. It's quite an interesting story and the dog sounds just wonderful.

jaxnsmom - I love Alice Hoffman. Probable Future is an interesting read. Not my favorite, but I enjoyed it.

I'm reading Ron Jonson's The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry. I saw him interviewed on The Daily Show and was intrigued. So far, it's still intriguing me.

I randomly pulled a book from the teetering TBR pile and spent a wonderful afternoon reading Tryst by Elswyth Thane. I have no idea why I had that book, it must have been something recommended here that I picked up years ago and only just found again. I loved it!

(Vee, I'm still chuckling over the "braces and a belt approach"!)

Sheriz6, I love Elswyth Thane's Williamsburg series, and I read Tryst and one other non-series of hers from the library a long time ago.

I started Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy this afternoon. It's vintage Binchy--more than one story tied together by a neighborhood in this one, but not so loosely as in some of her other books. I am enjoying it.

sarah canary - What Alice Hoffman books would you recommend? This is the first of hers I've read and I do like her writing style. Drove home today and got in a few more hours of listening. I did want to reach into the story and slap Will upside the head :~)
I agree with you - The Daily Show's Ron Jonson interview was intriguing.

astrokath - "Until Tuesday" sounded interesting ("and the dog sounds just wonderful" got me) so I looked it up and put it on hold. Thanks!

Just finished Isak Dinesen's beautiful memoir of her years in Kenya, Out of Africa. The last section of the book almost broke my heart. What an amazing book!

jaxnsmom -- The first Hoffman I read, and still one of my favorites, was Turtle Moon. I also liked Practical Magic, which was made into a film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. I found Blue Diary very thought provoking. Here on Earth is a modern-day retelling of Wuthering Heights. And I remember liking Second Nature and Illumination Night, although it's been years since I read them.

sarah canary and jaxnsmom, I like sarah have read most of Alice Hoffman's novels, "Here on Earth"was wonderful, and I just loved "Turtle Moon", another that I can recommend is "Black Bird House" it is a gem, all of her books do have a touch of magic. To-day in my local library there looking at me was a brand new copy of "The Red Garden" by Alice, I have not been able to put it down, it does remind me some of "Black Bird House", lots of interlocking stories.
I had forgotten what a good a writer she is.

jaxnsmom, I did find the book a bit repetitive towards the end, but definitely worth reading for the dog *g*

I have started A Vicious Circle by Amanda Craig, having read and enjoyed Hearts and Minds. The two books have some of the same characters in them.

Tim, I had the same reaction as you did to "Out of Africa." It made me want to read more of this amazing woman's life and times, so I found a couple of biographies on Isak Dinesen which shed some light on her unusual life, given her singular upbringing.

Woodnymph, Dinesen is a new author for me. But so far, I am bewitched by her writing. I will definitely search out other titles. She certainly did have an unusual life, which is reflected in her unusual way of story-telling.

I don't want give anything away, but I was incredibly moved by the last section of Out of Africa. It is still haunting me the following day.

sarah canary and junek - This is too funny. I have a bunch of books on hold and two are available now. One of them is "The Red Garden". I didn't even realize I had an Alice Hoffman book on hold. I'm going to try some of the other ones ya'll mentioned too.

Today at work I started listening to "Mr. Chartwell" by Rebecca Hunt. I have to say I wasn't sure what it was about, and I'm still not sure. I think Mr. Chartwell (who is a very large dog) is a physical manifestation of Winston Churchill's depression. I have to find out where this is going.

jaxnsmom,

I am really enjoying "The Red Garden", I am itching to get back to it!!!

Happy reading.

Hub went out of town over the long holiday weekend here in the US, and so I buckled down and immersed myself in reading for most of the weekend... Blissful.

Read Jest of God by Margaret Laurence (she who wrote Stone Angel which I loved). Jest.. wasn't quite as good as Stone, but it was not bad by any means. The story revolved around an unmarried school teacher in Canada somewhere who lives with her mother, and has to come to terms with the fact that, most likely, her life is not going to change much more unless she takes some steps to bring that change about. A good study of relationships and the dynamics between sisters and parents, this wasn't a really fast-moving book, but I did enjoy it as it delved into the minds of the characters. Like I mentioned, not as good as Stone Angel>, but not bad by any means...

Then pulled a book from the old TBR pile: The Summer Book by Tove Janssen, an Finnish author who thought up the Moomintroll character (if any of you are familiar with that). I hazily remember this character from early days, but it is rather vague. Anyway, this book is more a series of vignettes of the summer spent on an isolated island just off Finland. A six year old grand-daughter is spending the summer on the island with her grandmother and the vignettes are just closer examinations of life on the island for the pair: finding shells, climbing rocks, etc. Nothing exciting particularly, but a rather lovely slow read (refelcting the pace of life on the island, one imagines). Janssen was brought up in a similar environment and it's likely that some of the things that happen to the characters probably happened to her.

The little girl is very realistic - gets into a strop about things, plays nicely, is sweet, is not... And the grandmother too is allowed to have various moods. Written with no contractions (that I noticed), this is a rather gentle read that helps you float in and out of the lives of the characters. There is another book by Janssen called The Winter Book and I am planning on reading that when it is really really hot outside later this summer in the hope that it might cool things down..!

Then picked up another been-in-the-TBR-pile-too-long book, this one called Ship of Paper by Scott Spencer. Set in contemporary northern New York state, it brings together two couples (and their young children) and how their relationships change over time. It also addresses the issue of race and how that can affect people even though they may do their very best to not let it do that. Enjoying this read a lot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Review of The Summer Book by The Guardian