I bought a paperback copy of a book at Shakespeare & Company in Paris just so I could have their stamp in it.

Mary, Amazon has the new Airth book if you want to order it. It is evidently only out in paperback and was released in January 2020.

Found this and thought how true it is.

"In consonance with what every wholehearted reader knows — that we bring ourselves to the books we read and what we take out of them depends on what we bring — William Godwin adds:

The impression we derive from a book, depends much less upon its real contents, than upon the temper of mind and preparation with which we read it "

Very true, Bon! I think it applies to most things in life, not just books.

I’m still working on the Baldacci book...finding it a bit dull.

Donna

Carolyn, I visited the Shakespeare and Company bookstore the year I lived in Paris., n the early '60's. It was run by George Whitman and very picturesque -- wall to ceiling books, room after room. I was surprised to learn that it is still going strong. I believe it is run by George's daughter now. It left an indelible memory.

I recall with pleasure the "bouquinists" along the river Seine. If you bought a book, you had to cut the pages in order to read it!

Yes, Mary, S. & Co. is quite a bookstore. I climbed around those rooms for a while. The funny thing is that I can't remember what book I bought--but I have it somewhere, alphabetically by author.

I have just started Of Books and Bagpipes by Paige Shelton. It is the second book about a girl from Kansas who moved to Edinburgh to be independent and works in the bookstore of a rich owner and collector. It starts off with the murder of a young man she was meeting in Doune Castle to pick up a rare book for the shop. It's not great literature, but I'm a sucker for both bookstores and Scotland.

Vee, how do you pronounce Doune?

Now reading Mythos by Steven Fry. It's his very entertaining take on Greek Mythology.

Just started Ted Chiang's new book of short stories called Exhalation. He wrote the original story that was the basis for the movie Arrival. I enjoyed the first story called "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate".

Carolyn, I think Doune is pronounced Doon . .. but could be wrong!

Carolyn, you might find this website helpful: A Guide to Scottish Placenames

Merryworld, I've just spent a while reading that guide. While interesting, I don't think I've retained much! Guess I'll just have to go live in Scotland for a few years. Vee, you were right on Doon.

I know, I’m dead late. 34 years late.
The fact is I read an Atwood novel, “The Blind Assasin” and I wasn’t impress.
But lately thare has been such a fuss , about “The Testaments” , the sequel of “The
Hanmaids Tale”, that intrigued me, so I thought to give to Mrs. Atwood another
chanche, there also the fact that on FB her master class comes up very
frequently and I found her a very likeable woman. So far I like her writing ,
and I am only at the beginning, 3 chapter ,18 pages. I can’t tell is the story
has a kind of plot, I don’t think so, or if a long tale narrates by the main
characther. But so far so good, besides I wanted to read a peculiar novel

I'm almost finished with The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley and I love it ! I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys her stories.

I finished One Good Deed by David Baldacci. I thought it was a bit dull at the beginning but I ended up enjoying it a lot. He tells a good story!

I started The Missing Corpse by Jean-Luc Bannalec. I haven't read enough to have an opinion yet. Is anyone familiar with the author? I think it was in a list of "new e-book additions" on the library website.

Donna

Reading Passarola Rising by Azhar Abidi, about 2 Brazilian brothers, living in Lisbon, and their adventures in the Passarola, a flying ship in the 1700's.

Still reading with a focus on Black History Month: I finished up the American classic, "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison (not the easiest read in the world, I must say). Glad I've read it, but pretty sure I'm not going to read it again. A very broccoli book. :-)

I've also just finished a quick read of a autobiographical look at a time when an African-American police detective infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs. How did he do this? By pretending to be white and sending in a surrogate for the actual F2F meetings. Very interesting story but in the end, it didn't have that much impact. Plus the guy who wrote it REALLY really needed a ghostwriter or editor prior to publication. (Weird as he thanks an editor in his Acknowledgments in the back of the book, so who knows what the text was like prior to that guy's editing.)

Now, I'm reading a book about Ethiopian immigrants in Washington DC. Fiction and I'm really enjoying it. After that, hmm. Not sure. I'll have to trawl my TBR/BHM shelf.

Lemonhead, I like your term "broccoli book". I take it you mean good for you, but maybe you don't really like it?

Donna

Donna - exactly. There are levels of broccoli book as well: a RAW broccoli book is terrible. A COOKED broccoli covered with cheese book is ok. ;-)

I'm reading A Great Reckoning .....happily back in Three Pines.

Don't we read for enjoyment or edification ? If a book has to be tolerated because it is somehow good for you. why bother ?!

I finished Of Bookshops and Bagpipes which was not very well coordinated and am now reading Secret Asset by Stella Rimington which is quite well done. MI5 stuff.

Yesterday I finished reading Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. I just loved it! I liked it so much that the first thing I did when I finished was return to page 1 and start reading it again.

I have just read Grown Ups by Marion Keyes. It is 633 pages and too heavy for a bedtime book! With a long waiting list at the library I bought the paperback and certainly got my $A16 worth!

I groaned when I saw the Family Tree on the first page. I am not good with a big cast of characters or some of the Irish names.

Keyes has used the book to draw attention to asylum seeker's needs in Ireland as well as give us good insights into the various characters and their problems.

My D scored a library copy and we were able to discuss it per phone. We both agreed that it wasn't an exciting page turner but interesting once you sorted out all the families without resorting to the Tree.

Annpan re 'Family Trees'. I once went through a phase of reading those heavy books by Edward Rutherford Sarum, London etc and each has several Trees for the different groups of people 'through the ages'. I spent as much time checking them out as actually reading the various stories. By the time I reached his book about the New Forest I had had enough . . . although I understand Dublin had good reports.

Vee, by the time he got to New York things had calmed down quite a lot. Then, again, I suppose he didn't have such a lot of material to work with!

Vee, we have found Rutherfurd quite variable. We loved the two Irish books, Paris and New York, thought London was OK but a bit long, and found The Forest tedious and didn't get very far into it.

I just finished The Real Thing: Lessons on Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter's Notebook by Ellen McCarthy. She's a features writer at the Washington Post, has covered a ton of weddings, and wrote their "On Love" section. This book is what she learned from all the couples she interviewed, some just about to marry, others in long marriages, others in between. It was an easy read, funny, and actually full of good advice.

One of my favorite book titles is After Every Wedding Comes a Marriage. It, too, has some good advice.

I am just starting Dead Lions by Mick Herron. It is the second in his series about the "Slow Horses" made up of disgraced MI5 spies sent to do grunt work in a run-down building called Slough House in the hope that they will get so bored that they will resign. The first one, Slow Horses, was a hoot as the agents manage to solve a crime the professionals can't.

I'm halfway through
the novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and I really like it,
writing is neat and the story is unfolding, after a long, but not boring,
interlude, Atwood keeps you always sitting on the edge, you never know where
you are.

I think it won't be the last Margaret Atwood novel I will read

I'm finishing up "American Heiress" by Toobin. This is a well-written, well-researched NF about the troubled times in the Bay area of radical, violent groups of the young who claimed to be at war against the police. Patricia Hearst came from a wealthy family and was kidnapped. Later, she joined in with the revolutionary captors and became their biggest advocate, participating in bank robberies and rejecting her former life of wealth and privilege. How this unfolded within a few years and how the "Symbionese Liberation Army" was on the run from California to Pennsylvania where they hid out is an amazing story. Not least interesting is how or why Patty was converted and whether she was a "Stockholm Syndrome" victim. In the end, having served some jail time, she was pardoned by the American president. She married an "ordinary" man, had children, led a quiet life, and now competes in dog shows. Not your average read.

Woodnymph, that sounds like an interesting book! I remember Patty Hearst and the SLA being in the news when I was probably high-school age. I remember seeing pictures of her in a beret and holding a military-looking rifle.

Donna

Thin Paths by Julia Blackburn, bought to send on to an Italian friend, describes Blackburn's life in a primitive mountain village in Liguria Italy. A place of terrible rural poverty where the population lived largely on a diet of chestnuts eaten roasted or raw or made into flour for bread and, until the 1960's was under the 'control' of a feudal system that enabled one family of 'overlords' to take a half of everything the farmers produced. The Pardrone (head man) was even able to pick the best looking of the village girls to become his housekeeper/mistress. Even the village priest (who also kept a housekeeper/mistress) could do little to help.

These villages are now almost deserted with the stone houses falling back into the mountain side.

Written in short chapters Blackburn's work is moody and atmospheric in style rather than "On Friday I went to the market . . ." and she tries to understand the lives of the peasants and learn their language, often quite different from Italian.

vee I was born in Liguria not in the mountains my little town is
called Busalla and it is in a inland valley, that for a little trait links
Genoa with Milan. But all around Busalla there are plenty of mountains, but for
us they are not mountains but hills, the highest little village is , more or
less, 900 meter and our highest peak is 1.570 meter high. But the wood are
really thick, and there are a lot of gully. I gave a look at Blackburn book buti t is not related
to the inland hills but at the hills of the coast.

This morning I finished reading The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg. It was a pleasant, sweet book about an elderly man who helps a young woman down on her luck. The book reminded me of Kent Haruf's Plainsong, which has a very similar plot, but provides a much higher-quality reading experience. Though I enjoyed Truluv, it pales in comparison to Plainsong.

masgar, thank you for your reply about Liguria. Blackburn does not mention either the name of the village or the nearest town, but says it is just possible to see down to the coast. She talked to the local people of their memories of WWII, which left many of them almost starving, especially when the men went to war and later when the Nazis rounded many of the remaining population up and 'removed' the strongest. Many never returned. Rather as in the story of Heidi small children were sent up to the mountain tops to care for the sheep and goats in the Summer.

vee Yes, I read what was possible to read on amazon preview and understood she wasn't referring to inland hills, but to coastal ones. Either way nature is rather tough in both cases.

I'm reading The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. It is written as a Dr. Watson story of a Sherlock Holmes adventure and is quite good. I've enjoyed all the Horowitz books I've read.

While reading A Great Reckoning I decided to take out To The Gaspe' by Gordon Brinley . It is a delightful travel memoir written in 1936 about a quirky old couple who decide to travel to the penninsula .
In the Louise Penny book she mentions the Gaspe' and I remembered that I had intended to read the memoir and so......I shall ;0)

Finished up the novel by Ethiopian-American author, Dinaw Mengestu called The Things that Heaven Bears - really good... And now on to a NF biography of Ethel Payne, who was America's first notable African-American journalist. Fascinating story... (to me, at least)! Title: Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press by James McGrath Morris. (Very good.)

We have a newly formed bookclub of about ten women and have some very interesting discussions. We seemed to be very critical about the first few, but we all liked The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I have just finished our latest, The Nest, by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. At first, I was tired of the Plumb family, and thought "what a silly book". Then, suddenly, there were new and interesting characters.!!!, and I was hooked!

I finished The Missing Corpse by Jean-Luc Bannalec, and thoroughly enjoyed it! At first I kept thinking "I wish he'd spend less time describing the scenery and get on with the story", but then I got immersed in his wonderful descriptions. You could see the beautiful sunsets and smell the salt in the air. I will read more of his books!

Now I'm reading Undiscovered Country by Kelly O'Connor McNees, a novel based on the long friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickock. I haven't gotten far but I'm enjoying it.

Donna

Msmeow, you have more patience than I. I got so tired of description, lovely though it was, and not much story that I gave up on Bannnalec after a couple of books.

I'm reading Princess Elizabeth's Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal. These books are set in England during WWII, and I just love her character Maggie Hope. In one book, she worked for Churchill, and on introduction he said, "Hope is here, and we need some hope."

February has been a thin-reading month and I had to make an effort to finish Shadows on the Mirror by Frances Fyfield.

Something of a non-story about a fat lawyer who takes up dieting and running and gets very slender and a female lawyer who is very 'free' with her non-legal favours. It is all rather mixed with 'cod psychology' involving a power crazed sexual predator and absolutely nothing happens until the last chapter.

My copy of Hild is now ready to pick up from the library. As usual the librarian waited until our car passed the library door yesterday and then once we arrived home sent an email saying the book was ready to be collected. This has happened SO many times!

Vee, does she actually see you? I make a point of asking if a book I have requested has come in when I call early at my local library. The book van comes and delivers books from other branches but the alerting email gets posted later. I missed "by that much" a few times before I woke up!

Annpan, no I don't really think anyone sees me/us drive past the library! This particular book was actually on the shelves of our town library, but I ordered it anyway just to make sure it went to the 'reserved shelf' . . . from which you take your book/books and self-process them through the new machine for 'ins' and 'outs'. I seldom visit the library as I need to rely on DH for a lift and there is now a 'charge' for parking which he resents . . . so he sits in the car and I run in and collect the book and dash out leaving no time to browse.

As I write this DH and DS have just returned from a hair-cutting session bringing my copy of Hild; almost new and very thick. I may be away for some time.

Carolyn, have you read the Jacqueline Winspear series starting with the book Maisie Dobbs ?

I don't go to the local library too often now either. The bus which ran there has been cancelled and as it is such dreadful weather, either too hot or too stormy, I don't want the walk. My retirement village has books but they are not usually what I want to read. They are usually Relationship or grim murder mysteries.

I am pleasantly surprised to find something I fancy!

Regarding the parking charge, I had to drop off a letter to the rental officer at the UK council offices and quickly to avoid the fee. The officer was there and delayed me so my husband had to pay. He came storming in with the ticket and without a word, the officer scooped up some coins from a dish on her desk and handed it over! Probably had a slush fund for irate rate-payers!

Yes, Bon. I'm very fond of Maisie.

This afternoon I started Death in the Garden City by Jeanne M. Dams. Her books are some more light mysteries that are not great literature but entertaining. I admire those of you who read more informative, erudite books, but I do like just to while away my time being told a story.

I have just finished the last of Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' War at Home series about an English family in WWI (Pack Up Your Troubles). She brought out one book a year exactly 100 years after the events in the books from 2014 to 2019, and the titles are songs of the war, either a title or part of the lyrics. Old RPers will know I am a huge fan of her work and these books were as good as any others. Highly recommended.

I love her, too, Kath. I sigh when her series come to an end and continue to be annoyed at her publishers who didn't want her to write any more of the Morland books. My library doesn't have many of her stand alone books. I'm amazed at her output.

Vee - your last comment was hilarious!!!!! Very sly. :-)

I finished Undiscovered Country, the novel about the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok. I liked it at first but it became repetitious and tiresome. It got more interesting again toward the end.

I just started Country Plot by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I don't think I've read any of her books before, but so many of you here sing her praises I thought I'd give it a try. In the first chapter the main character Jenna is laid off from her job and comes home before lunchtime to find her live-in boyfriend in bed and a woman hiding in the bathroom.

Donna

msmeow, that would be one of her stand alone novels, but she is always good.

Would someone please start a March reading thread? I'm unable to start new threads in RP; they will only post in Gardenweb. I have just read Guilty Not Guilty by Felix Francis. He is almost as good as his dad was, and this one had an unexpected twist to me.