Reading a Elizabeth George mystery. Omg it is so long. She writes well but 500++ pages is just too much. Title something about “sinner.”

Vee, we flew BA over to London and back earlier in the summer, and both times the plane looked like a tornado had gone through it. I don't know how they can clean and reset them as quickly as they do.

I finished A Career of Evil by Robert Galthwaite (JK Rowling). She writes very well, but the story was quite gruesome. The previous book The Silkworm started with a gruesome murder, but Career of Evil was about a serial killer so the gruesomeness (?) continued through the book. It also seemed a bit long to me.

I'll try to find something lighter for my next read.

Donna

I usually take my litter with me off the plane and that was a mistake on one occasion. It was a banana skin and taking fruit between States is forbidden. Luckily the drug and fruit sniffing dogs were more interested in a burly chap at the other end of the airport.

I burned it when I got home to be on the safe side. Importing diseases can wipe out the crops, as we are sternly warned.

We have orange and lemon trees in our Village and the dropped fruit gets removed quickly to discourage fruit flies etc. However in spite of our care, I have a couple of rats nesting in a tree nearby! With so much untended area of bush land next to the Village, it can't be helped. I just hope they don't attract any snakes but I have never seen any. I think the bob tail goannas keep them away...

Annpan, your rats nest in trees? My husband always calls squirrels 'tree rats' and they do look very similar, except for the tail!

The bob tailed goannas sound very exotic; I've never heard of them before.

re sniffer dogs. My brother was returning by train from a cold and wintry Romania. He even slipped on the icy floor inside the carriage. Once settled he was just about to eat a sausage sandwich prepared by his hosts (no meals on the train) when a policeman with a huge Alsatian entered and the dog grabbed the packet of food and ate it all including the wrapping. My terrified brother just quivered, too scared to complain until the man explained the dog was searching for drugs. During the very long journey the other passengers became very agitated with one old lady packing and re-packing what appeared to be dishcloths. Late at night the engine stopped in the middle of 'nowhere'. A guard/customs official came on board, checked passports and ordered everyone, except my brother, off into the snow. None of these passengers got back on the train and my brother travelled on alone. He was very glad to reach 'civilization'.

Of course this was back in the '80's when the communist regime was still going strong. I think things are somewhat easier now.

kathyt - oops! it was an accident!

Vee, my hubby calls squirrels "tree rats" too. Though we have citrus rats here in FL and I think they nest in trees.

That story about your brother is scary! I'm glad he got where he was going in one piece (though probably hungry).

Donna

Vee....egads. Sounds like a very scary plot for a novel.

My brother lives on a farm and regularly picks up trash that people driving down the highway toss out. It's disgusting.

I saw a sniffer dog stop a woman in an airport. His handler searched her bag and found that she had some herbal cosmetics that the dog had smelled.

I'm reading two books--The Billy Boyle one I mentioned upthread and an e-book I downloaded from the library, Murder by Accident by Veronica Heley. It is one of the early ones in a series, and they only have it available electronically. I got it before my current requests had begun to come in and have just begun to try to read books this way when I can't get a real one. I lost the first one I tried somewhere in space. I finally found it, but I'm not sure how I did it. Now I know to bookmark them. They go away automatically after two weeks. Old dogs can learn new tricks, some by trial and error.

In New York state in the 70's there was a huge campaign called " Give A Hoot, Don't Pollute ! " with a cute owl as the logo. It was taught in all the schools and children were encouraged to clean up their environment and not toss garbage along roadsides. It worked nicely, then over time it seemed to have been abandoned and forgotten. I often wish that the governor would reintroduce that slogan . I cannot understand why someone throws trash out their car window. Where do they think it ends up? Who do they imagine cleans up their filth? Is this the result of entitled, spoiled generations of "let someone else do it " ?

Vee, the bobtails are a protected species. Although they are wild and roam around the complex being useful by eating snails etc. some residents feed them mince. They come out in the sunny weather and bask on my back paved area under the washing lines. I have to watch where I tread when I am pegging out the clothes.

I found it was best to keep that place well swept of dead leaves as they liked to conceal themselves and blended in too well. I nudged one with my soft shoe once and got a very basilisk stare! He was enjoying a snail and wasn't going to share it with me!

My son called to see me today and knocked down some of the leaf litter in the tree where the trunk forks with a branch that could be a potential nest site.

I have started the Brett mystery but haven't had time to read today. I think he has been reading Jane Austen as he is echoing her cynical wit in a main character!

anna....:0)........."pegging out the clothes ", we say " hanging out the wash"

Never heard of rats in trees --- snakes there, often, however.

As for "sniffer dogs", they are now being used professionally to track and find bedbugs and other pests in city buildings -- very accurately.

I'm just finishing up "Everyone was so Young" by Amanda Vaill. Waiting on the TBR pile are the autobiography of Michele Obama and "Denmark Vesey's Garden", which is about the history of slavery in Charleston, SC.

Annpan, I had to look-up 'bobtails' as in my ignorance I thought they were some sort of fluffy creature . . . and find they are lizards! I live and learn.

Vee.....yes, like a little bunny . Far cry from a reptile !

Yoyo, I refer to dealing with the washing in various ways! Sometimes it is "pegged out" if it is clothing or "hung out to dry" if it is bedlinen which I throw over two lines to get air in between without necessarily using pegs. Whatever, it is a troublesome job as I have a stiff right shoulder! I can ask the cleaner when she comes but am very fussy how it is done, so prefer to manage it myself.

Re, the rats! I have a good view of the tree they are climbing up as it is about six feet from my sitting area picture window. Today there was a flurry as the small grey one hurtled down the trunk with a magpie swooping on it. It is breeding season and although they don't inhabit that tree, they are very territorial.

I hope the rats get the unfriended message!

Ann...."pegs", we call them " clothes pins " . I am wary of hanging out any bed linens , though I love the fresh smell, because I'm afraid a spider will hide in them and end up sharing the bed !

yoyo. 'pins' is the word used in Scotland, rather than 'pegs'.

Re 'linens' over here it is always used in the singular . . so we say linen for one sheet or many sheets. The same for 'meat' 'fish' 'cereal' etc. although someone may pick me up on it . . .

To add to the confusion of terms, bed linen needn't necessarily be made from linen! Could be cotton or a mixture of synthetics.

Also in Australian stores, the department where one can buy sheets and towels etc. can be referred to as the Manchester Department, as that was where this type of goods came from. Nowadays, it comes from all over!

I have sheets from Portugal, Pakistan, India and China and a blanket from France, curtains from the UK and a bedspread from the USA.

Courtesy of the internet, I shop from the whole world!

I am still struggling to read my library book. There seems to be so many other things taking priority! I am reading far fewer books than I used to. I could get through three of four a week at one time. Once I hit eighty, the days seem to fly past a lot faster too! I can't believe September has only one full week left!

Currently reading The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny , the 8th book in the Gamache/Three Pines series. I am really enjoying it, as always.

I'm reading The Long Call, the first of a new series by Ann Cleeves. So far, it is pretty good. I really liked her Shetland books; have only read a few of the Vera Stanhopes. This one is set in North Devon, and the description of the scenery makes you want to go there. The main character is a young male detective.

I just finished an enjoyable light book, one of the Rumpole series by John Mortimer. It is a collection of some of his original stories put together by Penguin Books. I remember watching some of them on TV. Apparently they used to be very popular in the US. Does anyone remember them?

Vee, I remember them well. They are available in series form in the US and my English friend, Derek, and I used to watch them together every week. I admire Mortimer's writings as well: e.g. "The Narrowing Stream."

Yoyobon, I remember that owl and the 'give a hoot' slogan! I was still living in New York (state) in the 70's, so I guess that's why. BTW, I read somewhere that NY is ending its Regents exams, after all these years? What will teachers do for the last quarter of the year since they won't be needing to coach the students through the regents exams? :)

After a dry reading spell in August, I seem to have returned to normal this month, having just finished my 8th book so far, Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists. It certainly held my attention, since I read it in one day, but most of it was pretty grim. Four siblings sneak out to visit a fortune-teller, who tells them individually the date on which he or she will die; the story then follows each sibling in turn until that date is reached.

Speaking of critters, I spent about 5 minutes yesterday morning chasing a baby skink around my bedroom before I finally captured him and let him go outside. How a skink got into my upstairs bedroom, I have no idea! He was placidly curled up on a sunny spot of the carpet when I saw him.

We had the Give a Hoot campaign in FL, too.

Donnamira, I gave up on The Immortalists a couple of chapters in. I think it seemed very cliched and, as you said, grim.

Donna

Donnamarie......there is also a movement in NYC to dumb it down so that the percentage of students able to graduate with a Regents Diploma ( supposedly more significant educationally ) will increase significantly. The Board of Regents is one of the reasons that cursive writing ( yes, that gnaws at me ) was dropped because they no longer required a written essay on the Regents exam.

Indeed, most HS teachers always taught to the Regents exams the last month or so. Ridiculous. Right now, in my opinion, the only diploma that signifies any kind of excellence is an IB diploma ( International Baccalaureate) because it is a rigorous course of study that actually has value. Students must be accepted into the program based on their academic achievements.

I read The Immortalists and did not love it at all. It was ok but I see it getting mentioned and keep hearing of it for book clubs lately. I don't know why it is getting so much "play" . I am going to try Carnegie's Maid next.

I've been listening to The Testaments Margaret Atwood's follow-up to her Handmaid's Tale. Although some so-called critics say it contains dark humour I obviously missed those references. Don't read/listen to this if you are in a low mood and keep all sharp instruments, lengths of rope, strong medication well out of reach.

I finished the Simon Brett murder mystery and wonder if he was feeling down when he wrote it! It was rather depressing and even the usual two women who investigate seemed flat! I like my cosy murders to have some humour about them!

I'm working on The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis, and finding it somewhat dull and slow. Maybe it's the switching back & forth between past & present, which breaks the two story lines into little pieces.

Donna

I have finished The Long Call by Ann Cleeves and gave it 4 stars on Goodreads. I'm glad to see she has started another series.

Last night I finished Iced in Paradise by Naomi Hirahara. This book was set on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, but it looks as if others by her are mostly set in Japan. Has anyone read any of them? I enjoyed Iced, but then I like anything Hawaiian.

I finished The Doll House by Fiona Davis yesterday. I ended up getting caught up in the story about halfway through the book and I enjoyed it.

I've just started Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson.

Donna

Donna, have you read any of her other novels : The Address , The Masterpiece ? She constructs her stories the same way so that we can understand and appreciate the historical aspects of the building . I really enjoyed her way of writing and found I learned things in each one....in fact for each story I did research to find photos or more info about the building.

She also has a new one, The Chelsea Girls , which I have not read yet.

Bon

I have been reading the thriller/crime books by Mick Herron, starting with Slow Horses. It involves operatives from MI5 who have made a variety of mistakes, and are sent off to a building nicknamed Slough House to do menial paperwork, with the hope that they will resign. Of course, somehow they get mixed up in more operative things. Herron's writing style is very dry British wit, and I think it is bordering on unique. The leader of this group is a very strange man, politically incorrect, and physically repugnant, but somehow likeable.

Bon, this was my first Fiona Davis book. I did find myself Googling the Barbizon Hotel! :) My only time in NYC was long enough for a cab ride from Penn Station to the cruise port and a subway ride from the port to Penn Station. Maybe we'll go there some day for a real visit.

Donna

As I said, I enjoyed her others very much......especially The Address because of the back story.

I read Simon Brett's The Killer in the Choir and agree with Annpan. I like Carole and Jude to work as a duo, and I'm tired of hearing how uptight Carole is.

Carolyn, I am relieved that you thought as I did! Sometimes what one reads in a book is a reflection of your own mood and mine is still a bit bleak after the recent rotten Winter!

I am trying to get into "The Spook in the Stacks" by Eva Gates, one of the Lighthouse Library Mystery series and this time I have trouble with the "cast of thousands"!

I am still getting them sorted out, plus recalling "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" plot mentioned in this book. I think I read a digest version in a book for children some seventy-five years ago, so remember little about it.

Of course I could look it up as well as where the Outer Banks are! But I don't feel I should have to do research before I read a cosy...

Ann, I don't know the whole Sleepy Hollow story, but the Outer Banks are the chain of barrier islands that run down the east coast of North Carolina. Cape Hatteras is the easternmost point, I think.

Donna

Donna, thanks! I find it easier to read a book set in a familiar scene if I want to just relax into it but I suppose we have to get out of our comfort zones sometimes!

I actually did that once physically when I went to Dublin to see the places mentioned by favourite Irish authors. There is nothing like being in a place, however much one reads about it!

I glanced at travel literature before I went to Adelaide in South Australia many years ago but the first thing I noticed when I arrived was the fresh air, blown pure and clean from the Antarctic. It reminded me of a plain vanilla ice cream!

I had heard good things about Pat Barker's book The Silence of the Girls so ordered a copy from the library. It is based on Homer's Iliad and some of Euripedes telling the gruesome story of the long wars between the Greeks and the Trojans through the 'voice' of Briseis captured daughter of a king, who has been made a slave to Achilles.

What a bloodthirsty hate filled, revenge seeking, brutal lot the Greeks were . . . Endless scenes of stabbings, decapitations, blood-soaked ground, plagues of rats, endless rapes of the slave women. Even knowing that the 'story' came from such a great and ancient work did little for me and I only finished it because I thought I should and not to see if there was a Happy Ending, which of course there wasn't.

Finished reading The Wolf Wants In by Laura McHugh last night. I liked it fine, but not on my list of top favorites.

Up next is This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (thanks to Skibby's post about it).

Oops, I think I might need to change my "next up" book to The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. According to my library website, I'm now #1 in line for it, and I need to read it for my October book club meeting. Darn! Isn't that how it always goes when you put books on hold? They become available at the most inconvenient times.

Well, on second thought, I guess it's a nice problem to have - two reputedly very good books knocking at my door at the same time. Better than a wolf wanting in.

Let us know how you like the Krueger book Kathyt. I've reserved it at my Library but I don't know how long I'll have to wait.

Will do, Skibby.

I'm reading Gallows Court by Martin Edwards, whose books I like. This one is set in London in 1930 where a rich young woman seems to be entertaining herself by investigating murders and then dealing with the murderer by making him commit suicide. I'm not very far along in it, so I don't know where it is going.

How The Light Gets In - Louise Penny ( #9)

Bon, you've caught up with me! :)

I cannot help myself. I tried reading another kind of fiction between the Three Pines books but had to go back to them. Especially this one, since how The Beautiful Mystery ended was disturbing and I needed to continue that story !

No spoilers !!