I had the latest book by John Lescroart on hold and it was just digitally checked out to me yesterday. I always enjoy his books, so I'm looking forward to it! I'm in the middle of The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly so will finish that before I start the John L one. Then I can let you know if it was worth waiting for!

Donna

Anticipation exceeds realization.

In most everything !!

I have a list from the Stop, You're Killing Me site of authors I especially like that are due out within the next few months. One is a new Ruth Gallaway, a series I really like by Elly Griffiths, and a new Simone St. James coming out in April but not yet available at my library.

Carolyn, I rely on the SKYM newsletter for mysteries to request from the library. They usually have the UK publications but I have to wait for US ones to arrive.

I was so pleased to see a new Mrs Pargeter as I begged Simon Brett to continue the series! I like to read books about senior ladies who solve mysteries. Although Poirot has been written about in post-Christie books, I don't think that there are any Marple ones.

I was finally able to obtain the latest Rose Tremain novel: "The Gustave Sonata." The author is highly praised and it looks like it will be an interesting story.

I had been looking forward to "Moonrise" by the wife of the late Pat Conroy. Having started it, I find it less than pleasing. It's about a group of middle aged friends and each chapter is told from the point of view of the various friends. To me, this is confusing and I am having a hard time keeping the characters straight in my head. The author is Cassandra King. Has anyone else here read this?

Mary/woodnymph, I haven't read The Gustave Sonata but hope to find a copy of Merivel: A Man of his Time by Tremain. It is a follow-on to Restoration her novel set in the time of King Charles II. She has the considerable ability to get into such a wide range of subjects/time periods. One of the best books I have read was her Music and Silence about the young musician who travels to Denmark to serve in King Christian's court orchestra.

I'm waiting for books by two of my favorite authors to arrive: Come Sundown by Nora Roberts in May, and two by Ilona Andrews, White Hot and Wild Fire in May and July.

I'm also anticipating promised sequels from Emily Croy Barker (The Thinking Woman's Guide To Real Magic) and Deborah Harkness (The All Souls Trilogy), as well as the 10th (and last I think?) Kate Daniels book by Ilona Andrews. May 2018 is the date being floated about on GoodReads for that one, so at least one of these seems like it may actually happen.

I am eagerly waiting for Megan Whalen Turner's newest book, Thick as Thieves, to come out next month. I have already preordered the e-book and will also buy the hardcover. It's been a long wait but her books are well worth waiting for.

I really like Becky Masterman's Brigid Quinn (retired FBI agent still solving crimes) series and her third one, A Twist of the Knife, just came out. It was well worth wait, but since it seems to be a two year wait between books, I'm going to have to wait a while for the next one.

Ooh--a new Simone St James? Thanks carolyn_ky!

I am also anticipating Thick as Thieves. Rouan is the one who got me started reading these books.

I never read Restoration - in fact did not know it was a novel. But I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

I just received the Shapard annotation of Mansfield Park, completing my collection. I am very much anticipating reading it!

I bought a copy of An Irish Country Doctor about a month ago and have been saving it for a flight this coming week.

How about The Winds of Winter? Is anyone else reading George R. R. Martin? Talk about a long wait!

Rosefolly, I am a huge fan of the series "Game of Thrones" taken from the George R.R. Martin book "Song of Ice and Fire." I have not read any of his books. Is this part of that series, or is it a new one? What is the setting?

It is the next-to-the-last volume of the book series, Song of Fire and Ice being the name of the series. A Game of Thrones was actually the first book. They switched them for television. However, the most recent television series nibbled at the early parts of it the next book, not yet published. The author has not caught up yet. Who knows if we'll ever get the final volume! This last one took him six years, provided he releases it before the end of this 2017. Which as yet is still a maybe. If we ever get to the final volume, it is supposed to be called A Dream of Spring.

As an aside, I read somewhere that Martin told the series producers how the story ends, so that if he dies before he finishes it, they will be able to complete the way he intended.

Rosefolly, thank you. I love this film series but there are so many families and characters that I have trouble keeping them all straight in my head.

Keeps getting more complicated. He's starting to pull it back together now. Of course it helps that he killed off half the characters.

rosefolly, LOL. Yes, as soon as he adds new characters, he has old favorites murdered....

rosefolly, how many pages are in the actual trilogy? (the entire set of books).

The series has five books so far with two more to come. They range about 600-900 pages each, not counting appendices and other extras. If you assume an average of 750 per volume, that is 3750 pages so far. Of course I read them over a several years' period, not all at once. I think that would be mind numbing.

He originally planned a three volume trilogy but clearly it took on a life of its own and got away from him. Not as bad as Robert Jordan, and I find it to be a much better story.

Who is Robert Jordan?

Wheel of Time series. IMO, needlessly repetitive. At about volume 8, I wanted all the characters to die horrible deaths. The author is no longer with us, and to my dismay, someone else picked up where he left off to go through to 12 volumes.

If Tolkien could give us the richness of Middle Earth in 3 volumes (4, if you count The Hobbit) then 12 volumes is simply self indulgent.

Just my opinion, but I stand by it. Didn't we get The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in a mere 6?

Rouan & Rosefolly - I am also looking forward to the next Megan Whalen Turner book. But why oh why do they keep changing the cover design?!? My set of the books is already in 2 different formats.

Donnamira, I also wish they would not do that. I suspect they cheapened the binding process, though I have not checked to see if this is the case.

I have that problem with sizes. Some of the various mystery series I collect have changed from the usual paperback to a larger format. It makes the bookshelf look so uneven!

Ann, don't let the uneven-ness bother you too much. A number of people have told me they like the arrangement of my books, which is alphabetical only. It always amuses me. I do have hardbacks and soft bound in different bookcases.

My sister and I met someone last night who was wearing the tee shirt that reads "It's not hoarding if it's only books." Her friend who was with her said in awe, "She has four bookcases." Sis and I raised our eyebrows at each other, silently communicating "Only four?"

My two tall bookcases are a mess, actually!

I have DVDs stacked sideways on top of the books, any front spaces have all kinds of things such as remotes and phones in chargers and books with cat jackets facing forward on display.

Not a good look for a former library worker! The subscription library where I started my career was tidied and dusted daily by the junior staff before we opened!

I have at least 4 bookcases, plus various wall hanging shelves that house books. The case in my bedroom is a mess, because I also have a movie collection there, plus various notebooks and magazines. I do not do alphabetical order, but I try to group books together at least according to country or time period. I've had people come to my apartment for the first time and seen their jaws drop open at the size of my book collection displayed so openly. It runs in the family --- my aunt was a librarian, I worked in libraries most of my life, and both parents and my late husband also collected books. I remain, unapologetically, a bibliophile!

Good for you, Mary. I haven't invited back a casual friend who came to lunch, looked at my living room bookshelves, and said she hated books.

The reason I alphabetize is because it is the only way I can ever find my books. I really enjoyed Susan Hill's book Howard's End Is on the Landing.

How could anyone hate books? The doors to other worlds, the space ships of the mind? What poverty to condemn yourself to!

I imagine the book-hater must be someone who views them as just so many knick-knacks/ornaments to be dusted and organised. I know quite a few house-proud folk who would never keep books on display (assuming they owned any) The same for magazines and periodicals. One neighbour used to hide hers under cushions when visitors came and another would read the daily paper and immediately throw it out. The same with letters, as soon as she read them she would tear them up and put them in the bin. Of course this led to problems as she couldn't then remember when Great Aunt Annie was coming for a visit or what time the dentist has sent her an appointment.

The book-hater loves TV and also collects antique dishes. I'd much rather dust books than wash dishes! But I didn't tell her. Aren't I kind and sweet?

rouan, my copy of Thick as Thieves just arrived from Amazon! Have you gotten yours yet?

I am anticipating a good read as I just got a copy of "The Aviator's Wife" from our library. This is a fictionalized version of the marriage of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and their stormy lives. Has anyone else here read this?

Woodnymph, I know someone else here has read that, b/c I remember hearing about it here! LOL I hope you enjoy it. I think I would like it, too.

Donna

Donnamira, I ordered the e-book from Amazon which I got right away. The hardcover I ordered from Loganberry Books as MWT was going to do a book signing there and I thought it would to nice to have an autographed copy.

What did you think of it? I was a bit confused after I read it but got help from a community of MWT book lovers at live journal who have been discussing the book (the whole series in fact, but right now are concentrating on this one) and am now going to re-read it with their comments in mind.

There are a number of clues that I missed the first time as I was trying to finish it before I fell asleep. I am now going to read it again, much more carefully, so I don't miss anything.

The map was interesting too...

Hi Rouan - I raced through Thick As Thieves today. I thought it dragged a bit during the journey, but the ending more than made up for it. Eugenides the god showed up too, didn't he? I did catch a number of clues, but there were some I missed. I wondered all the way through why Eugenides wanted Kamet, and why Kamet so readily accepted 'spite' as the reason. I'll have to check the online discussion,

Check out live journal/Sounis. Reading their comments helped clear up my confusion quickly. Those people really dissect the books and caught things I didn't even think of! Sounis.livejournal.com

I must admit that my whole TBR pile is something that I'm anticipating! (However, this doesn't explain why I continue to go to the library!...) :-)

Welcome back, Liz!

Not a book but I have been waiting for the DVD of "Witness for the Prosecution" Vee recommended around Xmas when it was on UK TV.

I finally got a copy so hope to watch it shortly. My library kept trying to give me the Charles Laughton classic! The latest one isn't even on order yet but I shall be getting "Death in Paradise" Series 6 from them soon. Yay!! Although I have a similar semi tropical setting here, which I believe makes the show so popular in wintery UK, I love it for the solving of impossible "locked door" mysteries!

Vee, I watched the "Witness for the Prosecution" DVD and was rather surprised at the treatment given the original short story. A lot of fleshing out!

What did you think?

Annpan, I haven't read the 'original' so difficult to comment. Did they keep to the facts or add gratuitous sex-scenes? I'm sure dear Agatha wouldn't have written anything so vulgar . . . and I honestly think modern producers/directors feel without at least some stripping-off or rolling in the hay audiences wont be interested.

Vee, the central plot is always kept in adaptations. I thought you had seen this one as you mentioned it around last Christmas when it was shown on the BBC TV.

This re-telling was done in a very atmospheric way, all kinds of mood lighting of the scenes and the sex scenes tasteful as part of the plot. One never knows how this will work out as Christie changed the ending herself when the story was adapted as a play. So a new production can keep you guessing.

I found the first half rather slow but in the second part things livened up a bit with the added twists. I am not familiar with the lead actors so that made it easier for me to get engrossed in their roles by not recognising them from other productions.

Annpan, I had watched the TV series but not read the book so I was just questioning the amount of sex shown and wondering if the book contained any or just 'veiled references' to what might have taken place. As you say there was plenty of 'atmosphere' throughout.

You may have come across the actress Kim Cattrell and Toby Jones who played the down-on-his-luck solicitor though no matinee idol, is an excellent actor. Have you seen the TV adaptation of Conrad's The Secret Agent in which Jones is the haunted anarchist/spy? By no means a feel-good story and possibly the Edwardian equivalent of the terror-threats so prevalent in the UK today.

Vee, no, I haven't seen any of these actors before. I read a review that lists some of the previous work done by the principals and haven't seen any at all.

Nor have I seen The Secret Agent.

A lot of good TV is now on Pay per View stations which I don't have. I get a catalogue which lists DVDs and select ones I fancy either from the library system or occasionally buy one.

For fans of Daphne duMaurier, there is a film coming out in June of "My Cousin Rachel." This is my favorite of all of her books and I look forward to seeing this movie, wondering why it took them so long to do this.

Woodnymph - That's good to hear. Thanks for the heads-up.

Interesting. They did make it once before in 1952 starring Richard Burton and Olivia de Haviland. I have no idea if it was well done.