I've just finished reading two very, very good non-fiction books.

Wild is Cheryl Strayed's account of hiking the Pacific Coast Trail in an attempt to resolve many emotional issues in her life. I chose this book to read (not knowing Oprah had recommended it, which may have changed my mind) because I so much enjoyed Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about his hike on the Appalachian Trail. Wild is not funny like Bryson's book but is very well done. She carried a backpack that weighed more than one-half her body weight, wore boots that were a size too small for much of the hike and then lost them and wore sandals mostly consisting of duct tape for a while until new boots were delivered to one of her stopping points. She suffered but stuck it out. While I got a little tired of her dealing with her mother's death, it is an extremely readable book.

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton I chose because of my newly found interest in cooking and chefs and restaurants and everything associated with them. Hamilton also had demons in her past but she started working very early in restaurants and, even though she received a master's degree in fiction writing, she ended up starting a small restaurant in New York City and is an award-winning chef. Much of the angst in this book has to do with her strange and overall unhappy marriage but she writes so well that the book is difficult to put down.

On audiobook I'm listening to The 500 by Matthew Quirk. It takes place in a consulting firm in Washington, DC and is moving along well but not as good as I had hoped since I had seen it compared to John Grisham's The Firm and Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, two of my favorite books of that type ever. I do enjoy the Washington references (since I live in the suburbs) and the author gets them right so far. I'm only halfway through so it has time to improve.

Frances have you read the Mike Lawson series that takes place in DC? Joe De Marco is an aide to Senate Majority leader in in this series he has to 'perform' various favors & investigations for the Senator. I just picked up the latest in the series from the library and plan to start it after lunch-House Blood.

Yesterday I finished Taken by Robert Crais in his Elvis Cole & Joe Pike series.

Pat

I'm reading 'Simple Abundance' by Sarah Ban Breathnach and 'The Pleasures of Walking' by Edwin Valentine Mitchell.

I love the 'Pleasures of Walking' and just as soon as I get done, I'm going walking!!!

nola anne

Thanks for the suggestion, Pat. I have not read that series but found that it is available on Audible so I will be listening in the future. It is always nice to have a new series available.

Finally finished Josephine Tey's The Franchise Affair, which I enjoyed (but was too busy to finish for several weeks). The book was another offbeat, though elegantly written, mystery by a writer who seems to slipped into
obscurity.

I am not sure what to read next, though I should finish The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor. This mystery has a fascinating historical setting which I was enjoying. For some inexplicable reason, I seem to have developed the very had habit of getting half-way through a book, setting it down, and not picking it up again for months. Obviously I am having some attention problems this year.

I have been making slow progress on books for various reasons, but it's not the books' fault, I don't think.

I have been working on emptying my TBR shelves a bit, and in doing have picked up some interesting titles. One thing I wanted to read a bit more were short stories, so I have been reading an anthology of American short stories collected together by the folks at Barnes and Noble. A good selection, mostly late 18th and early 19th century so far, with authors like Ambrose Pierce, Henry James, Poe and others. It's been a far better experience than I had expected so that's been nice. However, I still have to work at enjoying short stories on the whole.

At the same time, been reading a Victorian sensation novel (a la Wilkie Collins) by a female author called M. E. Braddon, the book titled Lady Audley's Secret and enjoying this a lot. Thanks to Project Gutenberg for typing it all up and making it available on line.

And then, reading The Country Diaries, Alan Taylor's collection of diary entries about a year in the British (or perhaps English?) countryside. I am *loving* this (as I loved the Assassin's Cloak anthology). It's often quite funny (albeit accidentally in some cases). One entry is from a bloke called Thomas Turner living in 1756 in Sussex on a farm. He is writing his list of new year's resolutions (as it's a January diary entry) and one of his vows is about drinking....

If only beer is available, he will limit himself to "never drink more than four beers" (to allow for toasts to the Queen, the royal family, the country and his loyalty to all). If, on the other hand, wine is only available, then he will only allow himself to drink up to eight glasses of wine in one evening. Holy. Cow. I would be under the table way before I reached that limit.

It rather struck me as kind of funny that he was setting himself such a large limit... :-)

Lemon, I suppose it would depend on the size of the glass!
I have just finished "That Woman" by Anne Sebba. A biography of Wallis Simpson. I saw a TV doco and wanted to read the book it was based on.
I haven't been able to read much recently as I had a problem with new glasses made to an incorrect prescription. Luckily the long sight was fine, so I could watch TV or I would have been in real trouble! I have gone back to using my old ones while a replacement is being made.

I have too much reading on my plate right now. I have to read House Rules by Jody Picoult for book club #1. I've just finished a third re-read of Life of Pi for book club #2. The library informed me that I have two books waiting - one digital(The Knife of Never Letting Go), one hardcover (To Fetch a Thief). These must be read in the next three weeks. And I haven't finished the previous digital library book - The Buddha in the Attic. It wouldn't be so bad but I'm also spending 6 to 10 hours a day editing a proposal on the computer, so my eyes are pretty tired at night. :-(

I tried a book in the Medieval Mysteries series.
It appears that several 'whodunnit' authors are given a title/theme? and each produces a chapter.
This one was House of Shadows and set in and around Bermondsey Abbey the Clunic monastery on the S bank of the Thames opposite the Tower of London.
Each writer made much of the marshes, mist, mud and rain to lend atmosphere to the dastardly deeds. I found the various murders became very 'same-y', usually done by a deranged monk and the remains buried in the cellar . . . Interestingly (in real life) an archaeological dig has just been carried out on the site and several skeletons show marks of trauma blows so probably not the most 'religious' of communities in which to devote your life to prayer. :-)

The memoir Mango and Mimosa by Suzanne St Albans was a delightful read. The writer describes her upbringing spent in both Malaya, where her French father owned a rubber plantation and in the S of France, where the children, with almost no formal education ran wild. She is suddenly forced to grow up with the outbreak of War and last minute escape to England. Her brother joins the SOE and she joins a group that produces information for the troops first in Algiers, then Italy and finally as a translator during 'War Crimes' trials in Venice.
When one considers that English was not her first language this is a most enjoyable book and I would highly recommend it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mango and Mimosa

I've been re-reading Sherlock Holmes stories as I've fallen head over heels in love with the BBC TV series "Sherlock" with Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. I know I'm late to the party, but I'm so glad I found it! The TV series is brilliant, and I've enjoyed revisiting A. Conan Doyle.

I just started The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach for my book group, and so far, so good.

I just bought a copy of a simply gorgeous book called The Art of the American Book Cover 1875-1930. The book itself is made just like those old books with decorative embossed covers, simply lovely! It is heavily illustrated with examples, but also full of information about the artists and why these covers stopped being so widely used. Basically the reason was that paper dust jackets were cheaper to make. Every once in a great while, a modern book is still made this way. The most recent example to come my way was Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a book of short stories based in the same fictional world as her novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I love these books so much that when I see one for sale, I'll usually buy it, even if it's not a book I would otherwise purchase. They are so beautiful.

Other than that, not reading anything in particular, other than my standard half an hour before bed. I've been madly sewing to prepare for the Jane Austen event; I got drafted all unwilling into some committee work for an organization I belong to; and most important of all, one of my daughters is getting married this September! None of this will last very long. I'm nearly ready for the event; the wedding is coming up soon; and when my year is up for the committee, I'm going to run like mad away from any and all committee work! Seriously, my co-members are very nice people, and I like them very much, but I loathe this kind of work.

I'd much rather read a book.

Rosefolly

I've just finished a wonderful book by Theodora Kroeber: "Ishi, Last of His Tribe." It's a recreation of true events occurring at the turn of the last century in the Mt. Lassen area of California. All but 7 Native Americans of the Yahi tribe were wiped out by Whites seeking gold. These few managed to survive in a hidden canyon, in caves and escaped the massacres of their tribal brothers. They lived in secret places for many years, until all had passed save Ishi, who stumbled into a White Man's settlement in 1911. He was taken into the protection of a prominent anthropologist who ran a museum of Native American and other ancient artifacts. Gradually, Ishi adapted to his new culture and recreated the tribal themes, spirituality and art for the museum. This book was the result of the observation of his remarkable story by the wife of the anthropologist. It found it to be both inspiring and sad, at the same time....

Theodora Kroeber and her husband (the anthropologist in question) were the parents of famous science fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin. Her fiction has very strong descriptions of societies, no doubt something she got from her parents.

Paula,
What an interesting tidbit. I love learning things like that about authors. I've not read much of LeGuin, but I always like what I read. (Left Hand of Darkness and one of her mysteries.)

After a very busy day of doing laundry, picking blueberries (6 lbs) and removing the sod for a new garden area (thanks to the Herb and Flower Festival I worked for the Master Gardeners of my county, where I picked up too many plants for my existing garden beds!!!). I am now settling down, blisters and all, to drink a cup of tea and re-read an old favorite, The Dancers of Arun by Elizabeth A Lynn before I fall asleep from all the fresh air

I just finished "Agatha" by Kathleen Tynan. The novel is a take off on actual events, when mystery author Agatha Christie vanished mysteriously for several days in 1926.
Too hot here to do much other than read....

I'm reading Mantel's Bringing up the Bodies, her 2nd in the saga of Thomas Cromwell. Very good, but Ann has just been arrested and the novel is sagging a bit, which it probably wouldn't if we all didn't know how history turned out. Should I have added a spoiler tag? How incredibly hard it must be to keep a well known tale at an elevated energy level.

With this heat, I'm thinking it's time I picked up Lansing's The Endurance and spend some time frozen in the Antarctic.

I read Smilla's Sense of Snow one scorching August and it was quite refreshing. I actually felt cold at times.

I also have Mantel's book, finding it very good although for some reason I don't seem to be able to read more than a few pages at a time. Must be summer, I can't concentrate!

I'm reading two Forster novels, A Room with a View and Howard's End. For some reason, I've never read his work, although I saw and enjoyed the Merchant/Ivory films. While I can't say I find him a "classic" writer in the sense of beautiful prose, images, or thought, I find he tells a good story--page turner type stuff. What I like most is how refreshingly "modern" his Edwardian women are versus the earlier Victorian period--they are just beginning to sense liberation although still mired in the British elite customs.

I just finished re-reading Anya Seton's novel Dragonwyck, set in the Hudson River Valley in the 1840's. I first read this as a young girl. There was a murder committed using oleander, an tender exotic plant I had never seen growing up in Pennsylvania. Here it is used for roadside plantings, common as dirt. I never look at oleanders without remembering this novel so it has a distinct horticultural connection for me. Re-reading after so many years I caught the author in a horticultural gaffe, a mention of yellow roses in the 1700's. Europeans (and through them, Americans) had no yellow roses before 'Persian Yellow', first introduced to the western world in the 1830's. I was able to enjoy the novel despite this error. Is it a sign of maturity that I could accept the fact that not everyone gets roses? On the whole, Anya Seton researched her settings very rigorously.

Rosefolly

Just finished up an anthology of American Short Stories which I found at Barnes and Noble ages ago.

Not having had a lot of positive experiences in the past with short stories, I was curious how this book would pan out. Suffice it to say that this was a better reading experience than before - perhaps I had just chosen annoying writers before. (I am looking at you, John Cheever and John Irving.)

So - bought this book earlier in the year and thought it was a pretty good selection of American "classic" short stories. In the past, the short stories that I have read have always ended too early - as though the story wasn't finished in some way.

In the intro to this anthology, editor Corinne Demas describes the short story referencing Poe in that a good short story should be able to be read in one sitting, and so the majority of the stories here can be done like that (depending, of course, on how fast you read). I would also add that the end of a short story (for me) should not leave you hanging too much. I am all for post-modern endings, but not endings that end just because...

This anthology is pretty inclusive, although based as it is on nineteenth century authors, it's automatically heavier on white males although, to be fair, I don't think this is a fault of the editor. I think that that is really what has been considered the Western Canon in the past, and although I don't particularly agree with the homogeneity of it, you get what you get from what's available. There is an entry from Charles Chesnutt (one of the first Af-Am fiction writers to be published by The Atlantic monthly) and a couple of (white) female writers.

However, moving on to the stories themselves, I enjoyed it overall. There were a few I skipped over (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Melville). Hemingway and Fitzgerald are authors that I don't particularly enjoy, and I had already read Melville's story. Some of the stand-out stories for me included Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" and that Cask story, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (new author to me), Sherwood Anderson, and Ambrose Pierce. I hadn't read any of these writers' short stories before (and some were completely new to me as writers) and I enjoyed their work. Poe is especially good, I thought.

I found that the best way for me to enjoy this book was to pick it up, read a few stories, and then put it down for something else. I don't really like to plough my way through story after story, just because I like continuity between stories, and with these being complete short stories in and of themselves meant a change in strategy. I am quite surprised at how much I enjoyed these stories actually - I think that I had been so burned by the crap put out by Irving and Cheever that I had sort of lumped all short stories into the same pile. How wrong I was.

Now I am wondering if there is a twentieth century equivalent of this collection (or even a twenty-first century). (Dates are when the authors are born, not...

Lemonhead, the anthology you describe sounds interesting. Perhaps I will look for it.

I've been thinking of Poe recently. I think it is time for me to read all the stories, and reread the ones I have already read. When I was in university, I had a professor who loathed Poe, usually dismissing him as a "hack". Any Poe admirers kept their opinions to themselves.

I keep a "mental list" of authors I would like to read whenever I go to secondhand book stores or charity book sales. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman is one of the names on that list. I believe she was a contemporary of Sarah Orne Jewett, and that Freeman wrote some great American ghost stories. That's all about all I know about her.

Tim

Here is a link for you about Wilkins Freeman... Quite prolific, but I don't seem to hear or read much about her...

Here is a link that might be useful: Wiki link for Wilkins Freeman

Oh, and tons of her work is on Project Gutenberg...

Just FYI.

Thanks Lemonhead. I have just read her story, "The Gentle Ghost", which I enjoyed very much. It feels very like a typical New England tale, in its matter-of-fact depiction of graves, ghosts, and gossip, balanced with the day-to-day business of just getting on with life.

Interesting to see Mary Wilkins Freeman's name here. I did my dissertation on her and subsequently published it and several other books on her stories: e.g. "A Web of Relationship: Women in the Short Stories of MWF" and "The Uncollected Stories of MWF." I was fascinated with her work at one time. She was quite a prolific and well paid writer in her day (at her best were stories such as "A New England Nun" and "The Revolt of Mother"), but she also wrote a lot of magazine hack work. She's best known for portraits of women, often impoverished, struggling to survive in post Civil War New England. Freeman lived much of her life in Randolph, MA and also spent time in Brattleboro VT. I still read some of her stories, including the ghost stories, with great pleasure.

I've just a read a couple of her stories - sometime the internet is a wonderful thing - and quite enjoyed them. So many writers of the past deserve a wider audience today.

I don't usually read books with supernatural elements but as my daughter does, I ordered the latest in the Lizzy and Diesel series "Wicked Business" by Janet Evanovich for her upcoming birthday. However, I was stuck for something to read in a largish print while getting accustomed to new spectacles, so......
Actually, I am quite enjoying it!

I just read "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult for my book club #1. The story was interesting, but I felt it dragged a little in the middle. I kept wanting the characters to cut to the chase already. I think there will be lots to discuss about this book, a story about a young man with Asperger's who becomes involved in a crime investigation and becomes a suspect.

Friends who work with austistic students were eager to read this dispiction.

sarah-House Rules is my least fav. of J. Picoults' books-I love her others. I have an autistic sister and worked with many students throughout my teaching career with varying degrees of autism and the book just didn't ring true to me. My daughter also felt the same.
Just finished the latest Karin Slaughter-Criminal which was as good as all her books.
rosefolly-I have read all of Anya Seton's novels, some numerous times but not lately. My favorite is The Winthrop Woman.
frances-I agree that Ms. Strayed's Wild was excellent.

pam53 -- That's good to know. I"m curious to see what my fellow book club members who work with autistic children have to say. I thought that, based on the way the book described Asperger's, that the character wasn't always true to the description.

Still ploughing through Zola's NANA. You might say it was the 19th cantury equivalent of L Shades but with more characterisation and little of the sex, except beatings. Nevertheless, it is very tedious: she's a courtesan in Paris who has a string of affaires. Just keep going, I say to myself - a page at a time will beat it in the end......

Just finished Lady Audley's Secret, a Victorian sensation novel by M. E. Braddon, which was really really good. A whodunnit, but so much more and must have been very shocking for the Victorian women readers who must have read it in their father's/husband's drawing rooms and felt very daring! Lots of adultery, madness, murder... Luscious! :-)

And then finished up a book called The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasure of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson, a slyly funny writer who has been immersed in the world of obits for years. Reminiscent of Mary Roach in some ways, but not *quite* as funny. Still very interesting though.

FWIW, she recommends the obits of the Daily Telegraph (UK newspaper) as being the best. They are funny.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daily Telegraph obit page

Woodnymph, I love Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

I've mostly been reading fluff lately. I did read and enjoy PB Ryan's Nell Sweeney historical mystery series (6 books, set in post Civil War Boston) when the first (Still Life with Murder) was offered as a freebie.

Also enjoyed Alan Furst's new one: Mission to Paris. Not as good as his early ones, but still the kind of atmospheric read I look forward to when picking up one of his books.

Finished Hilary Mantel's Bring Up The Bodies. I liked it very much, although it didn't get going for me until about halfway through. Mantel has set herself up for quite a chore - writing a compelling novel when her readers all know the ending - but she is up to the challenge. I imagine this will be up for the Booker. I wonder what other works will make it onto the long list?

I have started The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths, a new-to-me mystery series, and am really liking it.

I read some pitiful losers on my trip as a result of downloading some freebies for my e-reader. Next time, I'll know better. I took a couple of paperbacks left at one of the hotels which were not great either, but I did have Jane Eyre and Window at the White Cat on the reader. It had been a long time since I had read Jane, and I had forgotten just how good it is.

I'm quickly burned out of buying cheap e-books, unless they are classics, not in translation, and free.

I read Connie Willis's Lincoln's Dreams and enjoyed it, particularly after having read a couple of not so nicely crafted novels. I couldn't tell you what it is that makes Willis different, but I certainly recognized it.

I read A Red State of Mind: How a Catfish Queen Reject Became a Liberty Belle expecting hilarity and recognition. This is a memoir of a Tennessee girl who moved north to blue state territory, like myself, and it didn't make me laugh, it made me angry. I don't like being angry.

I reread an old Elizabeth Cadell mystery "Parson's House" and was reminded how much I used to enjoy her gentle storytelling. She was the first author I came across who wrote conversations as they can actually happen, with people interrupting each other and not in the usual way of one person speaking at a time, which isn't always the way in real life!

I've just finished Anderson Cooper's "Dispatches from the Edge." This autobiographical work is quite an eye-opener, insofar as his journalistic reporting from Africa, Bosnia, and New Orleans, in the aftermath of the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I'd not realized that Cooper is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt. There is quite a lot about his painful childhood with losses of brother and father, as well. I find the author admirable for his extraordinary sensitivity and compassion.

Carolyn I have read and enjoyed the Elly Griffith series.

Siobhan I confess that the Hilary Mantel book is still sitting here untouched-not sure what I am saving it for!

I recently finished two English psychological thrillers. The Other Woman's House by Sophie Hannah which kept me guessing and with some bizarre twists. I also just finished Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes. I wasn't sure about finishing it at first as the chapters jumped around a lot back & forth in time, but I soon got into the swing of it. I found it quite thought provoking.

Time for a complete change of pace & country-I am now reading a kindle freebie called State of Rebellion by Gordon Ryan which takes place on my doorstep so to speak it is about California trying to secede from the USA...lots of corrupt politicians LOL!

Pat

I spent a whole lot of yesterday reading Tana French's The Likeness. I hadn't read anything by her before and found this one fascinating. An undercover Dublin police officer replaces a lookalike using one of her undercover names who is murdered. She enters into living in a house she adores with four young people who make her feel more at home than anything since she lost her parents at age 5, but someone, somewhere is a killer.

I've definitely been in beach book mode after finishing the incredible The Art of Fielding -- I can't say enough good things about that book, I loved it.

Since then, I've been zipping through Nicole Peeler's "Jane True" urban fantasy books, Tempest Rising, Tracking the Tempest, Tempest's Legacy, Eye of the Tempest, and Tempest's Fury only to discover she's ended the fifth book with an utterly hideous cliff-hanger and there's no publication date available for the next one yet. I had been hoping I had them all, darn it!

I'm also reading another fantasy book set in an alternate reality American wild west (and cleverly dubbed "bustle-punk" rather than steampunk by its author, M.K. Hobson)The Native Star and The Hidden Goddess, both very enjoyable if you like that sort of thing.

I've just finished my first in the mystery series of mother/son team, Charles Todd. I read "A Pale Horse" and was charmed by the rural English setting during WW I, in the vicinity of the Uffington White Horse, carved in chalk on the hill. The descriptions were intriguing, but the story a bit tangled, in my opinion. Has anyone else here read any of this series?

I've recently been reading quite a few very different books.
The Parasites Daphne du Maurier is one I had never heard of before. Set in London and Paris of the 1920's onwards (and written in the 1940's) it follows the lives of three siblings of 'stage parents'; father a singer, mother an actress. The wild, ill-disciplined children grow up to be selfish, self-regarding adults. D du M uses an interesting mix of first person/third person throughout the text, maybe as an experiment, but it does make you concentrate. As with all her stories this is a good 'yarn' and IMO well worth looking out for.

The Shadows in the Streets by Susan Hill carries on her tale of dark deeds in an imaginary English cathedral city. I enjoy her very believable characters and am never too bothered by the whodunnit part of the story especially as many of her endings seem rather far-fetched and sudden.

A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore. Well written, but I found it rather unsettling/disturbing especially as it deals with brother/sister incest set in a large country house pre WWI. Madness is never far from the surface and at the end I felt like a long walk in the fresh air to clear the oppressive atmosphere it created.

Mary, I really enjoy the Charles Todd books. If you read them in order, they may make more sense. I wasn't too familiar with WWI except for the trenches and gas masks until fairly recently. Anne Perry did a trilogy with brothers serving in that war, then I read Rennie Airth's books, then the Todd books, and then I got to it in the Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Morland Dynasty series. Along with those, someone here--I think Martin--suggested the Pat Barker Regeneration books, and I read them. It's such a heartbreaking period when battle fatigue was not understood at all.

Been reading a mishmash of different titles at the moment, including A Sight for Sore Eyes by Baroness Ruth Rendell. I have no idea why I have not picked up more of her work as I am *adoring* this story and have a hard time putting it down to do other things. The characters are believable, they do believable things and make believable decisions. Rendell is, quite honestly, the best writer I have read for some time (in terms of sheer enjoyability).

Along with that, I am reading Dave Cullen's NF book about the Columbine shooting. I had ordered this weeks ago on ILL and it just arrived last Wed so it was a strange coincidence that I am reading this title when the awful shooting happened in Aurora (only 17 miles from Columbine).

Cullen is a seasoned reporter and has covered the Columbine incident since Day One. It's a compelling read and it mostly focuses on how facts get twisted through media repetition and word of mouth based on that inaccuracy. It's not slamming any one media outlet in particular - just an well-informed observation of how a story can evolve despite the facts being known. Quite curious and I would not be surprised if something similar happened with the Aurora shooting.

And then along these, I am also reading the original Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1906). What a twisted tale this is and very different from the sanitized Disney version! Tinker Bell is mean and spiteful, there are daily grisly murders in Neverland, and no one has enough food. Peter is also a bully, and don't mention the psychological issues of the Lost Boys with Wendy...!

Fascinating read though.

Carolyn, thanks for the reading list re WW I mysteries. I, too, like Rennie Airth's work. I will look for the others.

liz, you have made me want to dig out my old copy of "Peter Pan" from my bookcase! Did you see the film that came out a few years ago about the life and loves of James Barrie?

Wood -

Haven't seen that movie, but will research it a bit. It's my choice for a movie tonight... :-)

Vee - you mentioned reading Daphne du Maurier... That title is a new one for me so will see if I can trace it down. Speaking of du Maurier, I happen to be reading Peter Pan which, apparently, was based on some boys (brothers) who Barrie met one day, befriended them and their parents, and then, when their parents died in middle age, became the boys' guardian.

These boys, called Llewelyn Davies boys, were the sons of the daughter of George du Maurier, who was the grandfather of Dame Daphne.

Fascinating how the world works sometimes...

Liz, The Parasites is probably not as good as Rebecca or My Cousin Rachel but, despite being 'dated' is very readable; as is another I read by her not long ago The Scapegoat.
In the former she uses her first-hand knowledge of the theatre/stage and the bohemian lives of the actors to good effect. As you know her Father was the famous actor-manager Gerald du Maurier and as you mentioned above, her g'father was George du Maurier best-known as a book illustrator (also of many Punch cartoons) and the writer of Trilby.
James Barrie was certainly an interesting character and his connection with the Llewelyn-Davies boys and their Mother has given rise to much modern 'speculation' though no-doubt, all quite innocent and well-meaning.
Mary, I saw the film some years ago on TV. Some inaccuracies as the boy's father knew Barrie for several years before his death and there were five boys in the family (the film leaves out Nico the youngest). Also Barrie was very short (4'10") which I suppose wont do for a 'leading man'.
It seems the boys led trouble lives as adults although Barrie did what he could for them; paying for their educations etc.