I just finished Jewels That Made History by Stellene Volandes. It could easily be described as a miniature coffee table book. It's loaded with beautiful photos of jewelry and rather short commentary linking world events to the jewels being discussed. Definitely a fun book if you like jewelry.

I'm nearly through Frederik Backman's Anxious People, which is excellent. I've liked his other books and this one does not disappoint. After a failed robbery, a bank robber accidentally takes several people hostage at an apartment viewing and then vanishes without a trace. How the story unfolds as the hostages are questioned by police is fascinating and fun, and each character's tale reveals more of the story. I'm loving this so far, and Backman has so many brilliant observations sprinkled throughout - I will need to re-read with a pencil to underline the best ones.

The newest Ilona Andrews book, Blood Heir, arrived today and that will be next. It's set in their Kate Daniel's world, with Kate's daughter Julie as the protagonist. I cannot wait to get to it.

Netla, thanks for mentioning the Fraser book - I've put it on hold from our library. I've read Fraser's Warrior Queens; this sounds as if it might be a good companion piece.

I've been making progress on Gordon Childe's The Prehistory of Europe, and although it isn't serving as the sort of introductory work I was hoping for, I'm learning from it, especially Childe's concept of the Urban Revolution, of which I'd never heard before. I am going to try an intro to archaeology textbook from Brian Fagan next, before I tackle Gimbutas's book The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, which has been sitting on a tottering Mt TBR, and will clearly be there a while longer, since adding the Fraser and Fagan books will bring my library book commitment to 3.

Our library just closed to in-branch service again, but at least the curbside pickup is still available!

Our library has been on curbside pickup-only for 7 or 8 months, ever since they opened for business at all late last spring. Before that they were closed altogether. I'm grateful to have it available on any terms.

I never much liked Theroux as a writer, though my husband likes him. I find his sneering at pretty much everyone he encounters or observes to be distasteful. I suspect he is a rather nasty man in real life. Bryson does sometime get on my nerves, but since he laughs at himself as much as he does at anyone else I can find it in me to enjoy him.

I've been reading Kelley Armstrong for the past few days, but I just got a couple D E Stevenson novels from the library. I'll give them a try. I don't always like her books, but sometimes I do, and I've never read these.

Reading again from my extensive home library, I just finished the first four books of Dolores Stewart Riccio's Wiccan series (Circle of Five is the first of 10 books). Lots of fun to join these crazy ladies in their adventures, so I ordered the other six books I didn't have and they came today. Happy dance!

I finished Louise Penny's How The Light Gets In last night, another Inspector Gamache mystery. In this one, he solves two mysteries: Who murdered the last living quintuplet (based loosely on the real Dionne quints of Canada) and what evil thing the corrupt Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec is up to.

Yoyobon - While the book starts out with the quint murder, the second topic takes over the last 2/3 of the book. That might be why you didn't remember the quint murder. Its resolution is almost incidental in the wild ending pages of this novel.

I'm reading The Brutal Heart, another Joanne Kilburn book by Gail Bowen. I just love this series.

Vee, Paul Theroux seemingly doesn't like anyone - I've read three of his travel books and while I was fascinated by his descriptions of the places he visited, I disliked his sneering attitude to people. I expect not many of those he interacted with would have given a favorable description of him - he comes off as sour and curmudgeonly.

Netla, I think the following passage sums up what you say, taken from Theroux's time in Calcutta where he meets a Mr Chatterjee, a Bengali, of whom he says of those people in general . .." they were the most irritable, talkative, dogmatic, arrogant, and humourless, holding forth with malicious skill on virtually very subject . . ." I use this as an eg only because I had just read it, but there are many similar.

It appears that he made this railway journey as part of a lecture tour. I hate to think what he hosts thought when they later saw his 'views' in print.

I finished The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett today, and I really enjoyed it! Kinda makes me want to read Pillars of the Earth again, but I’ve already read it twice. :)

Donna

That's a long one to read twice, Donna!

I finished Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews (another excellent outing by this author) and my copy of Victoria Thompson's City of Schemes finally came from the library yesterday. So far, it's a really fun read.

Carolyn, I like this series just as much as the Gaslight Mysteries. I think Elizabeth is what (Gaslight Mystery character) Maeve could have been. With the con element in Elizabeth's skill set, it gives the author so much more room for clever adventures.

At last I've finished The Great Railway Bazaar and glad to see the back of it. I think had it been me spending four months travelling and having to sit opposite him I would have thrown myself onto the tracks. Theroux may be an excellent writer but I vow never to read another of his books again.

Sheri, I just discovered I've missed one of the Counterfeit Lady books and have requested it from the library. They are good, aren't they?

I notice there is a new PBS Masterpiece series starting tonight , Scarlett And The Duke. For those of you who have read the Veronica Speedwell mystery series and the Lady Julia Grey mystery series both by Deanna Raybourn, this new PBS series sounds very much like those characters and story lines.

I wonder if the Masterpiece series was inspired by her books ?

Doing a quick reread of Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson before my book club meets tomorrow. Enjoying it just as much the second time around.

I am reading Spillover, one of my epidemic books. I find it to be well written. The author David Quammen politely dismissed The Hot Zone which I read many years ago as being full of exaggeration. Just as well, as ebola is scary enough without exaggeration.

I've also been reading Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series. I zipped through the first three with abandon, but now with the fourth book Betrayals I find I am losing interest. I think I'll set it aside for a few days and then give it another try.

The library doesn't have ebooks of the last couple of the Veronica Heley series I've been reading, so I have started the first of a different one, False Charity, where a recently widowed lady decides to continue the P.I. agency they had run together. The characters are about as heavily skewed as in the other books, but they are still fun to read.

I have finally finished "The Glass Room" by Ann Cleeves. Until I get my left eye cataract operation, I am using only one eye for close work as the new right eye lens is for long sight. This makes reading difficult as you might imagine! The optometrist tried removing the right eye lens of my glasses but then I saw double. He said I should wait until I have let both eyes settle after the second operation is done then get glasses to suit the adjusted vision.

Everyone told me the op would be simple and quick but not that I could have this trouble afterwards so I suppose it doesn't always occur.

I enjoyed the book as it wasn't a mystery you could solve. The deliberate clues left by the killer were so obscure the police and other witnesses missed them. That makes a change from the usual red herrings!

I'm reading another Michael Connelly, The Crossing, that features both Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller.

Just finished Deadly Appearances by Gail Bowen. It’s the first Joanne Kilbourne book. Several folks here mentioned liking the series so I thought I’d give it a try, and I enjoyed it very much.

Next up is a new Peter Decker story by Faye Kellerman.

Donna

I have the new Decker book on request. I have begun Invitation to Die by Barbara Cleverly. It is a John Redfyre, and I don't like them nearly as well as I did herJoe Sandilands books. I think she is finished with Joe, and I think I'm finished with John.

I quit on the Cleverly book and started The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves. This means I will be at the end of the Vera books.

Winter's Tale - Mark Halprin

It sounds like a good one for a winter read .

Just finished a most fascinating book Kiss Myself Goodbye by Ferdinand Mount.

A wonderful piece of real detective non-fiction. Mount has taken more than 10 years to find out the truth about and behind the life of his Aunt 'Munca', married to his father's brother.

Although Mount and his sister visited/stayed with this family for many years and shared in the rather splendid life style with visits in the Rolls Royce to the theatre, time spent in the permanent suite at London's Claridges Hotel, meals in top restaurants, hobnobbing with the great and the good etc. It was not until a chance remark from an NZ 'cousin' leads him to find that this Aunt was in no way who she claimed to be.

With multiple marriages, some of them bigamous and several name-changes she managed to reinvent herself and her origins many times. The same was true for her son/brother (?) who went through seven brides and was a co-respondent in several divorce cases. And as to where all that money came from . . . you must read on.

The book's title is taken from a popular song of the 1930's.

After reading all the positive comments on the Miss Buncle/D.E. Stevenson thread, I decided I must not be left out. I got Miss Buncle's Book from the library, but didn't start reading it right away. I was about halfway through it when I received an email from the library telling me it was due in two days. My normal reaction to such an email is to login to the library website and renew the book. But that didn't work. Two people have placed a hold on it. (Is there a resurgence of interest that is sweeping the globe?) So I devoted yesterday to finishing it and I'm on my way to the library soon to return it. As so many of your have already reported, it was delightful!

I finished The Lost Boys by Faye Kellerman today, and it was very similar to her other books in the series. The main character, Pete Decker, is nearly 70 so I thought this may be the last of the series, but she left it wide open at the end so maybe there will be another.

Donna

I finished Miss Buncle Married, which is not as good and Miss Buncle's Book, but still enjoyable. I have the third book on order from Book Depo but there's no knowing when it will arrive.

The Antonia Fraser book I mentioned in my opening entry has become my breakfast book and I am reading it little by little in the mornings.

In the afternoon and at night for the last few days I have been listening to an hour or two of the Audible audio version of Dracula and highly enjoying it. It's a multi-cast edition - not a play, just separate actors for each character who speaks directly to the reader. It has been many years since I last read it and I am enjoying hearing it read to me for the first time.

I have also returned to a little reading challenge I started in 2018: to read some of the early Gothic novels, and my current read is Ann Radcliffe's first published novel: The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne. I plan to put in the effort to finish it once I am done listening to Dracula.

I read The Windsor Knot by S J Bennett, and enjoyed it very much. There is a death following a 'dine and sleep' at Windsor Castle and all is not as it seems. The Queen manages to solve the mystery by using her staff and various contacts in the police force. The author has done good research, as all the outfits and appearances by ER are genuine, and there is some delightful dialogue between her and Prince Philip. The mystery is also of good quality, something I find is often lacking in a book with a fun twist like this.

I read an ARC of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. it is the first book of his I have read, and while I enjoyed reading it, I was disappointed by the ending which left me hanging,

I also read Bloodline by Felix Francis, and was disappointed here too. I love Dick Francis's books, but this was lacking in both plot and characterisation.

Finally I read Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. This came highly recommended by a work colleague, and while the idea was good, I found most of the characters unlikeable, and I really need at least one I like to enjoy a book.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned the series I am reading by Cindy Brandner, set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. I have listened to these, and the narrator, Gary Furlong, is excellent. They are possibly a bit long winded at times, but are full of interesting characters and the sense of place is well done. The first is Exit Unicorns.

To pay homage a John Le Carré I am reading "A Murder of Quality" It is not a spy-novel. It is the second novel Le Carré wrote, it is set in a public school. A woman wrote to a magazine she feared to be klilled by her husband, the day after she is found dead. Smiley is summoned by a friend of his , in order to help the investigations.

I finished Spillover and have moved on to a science fiction novel which is due back to the library in a few days, The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. I can't renew it because there are several requests. While I don't love it, I suspect it may be nominated for an award this year because it hits all the current trendy buttons. And really, it is interesting, so it's not a chore.

My book club discussed Piranesi last night. As I suspected, no one much liked it, though a few found it at least interesting. Ah well, I did suspect this might happen, and I chose it anyway.

I just finished Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, which was clever and funny. It had been in my TBR pile for ages, and I only read it now at the urging of a friend. It took me a while to get into it, which surprised me as this type of book is pretty much always my cuppa tea. I'm not sure what caused the initial disconnect, but I'm glad I persevered.

Next up will be Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, which I've been eager to read for quite a while.

I'm reading A Song for the Dark Times, the latest by Ian Rankin. John Rebus is finally retired and has just moved to the ground floor flat in his building due to COPD when his daughter calls him to say her partner is missing. So he is off to help her, finds the man's dead body, and is interfering like mad with her town's local police force as they are looking at her as a suspect. That story line is interspersed with Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox looking into a murder in Edinburgh. I think the cases will intersect.

After having read a few novels in a row, it is time to change and read an essay, my choise went on “Adrift” by the Lebanese author Amin Maalouf, who is both a novelist, I read a couple of his novel , and a essayst.

In this essay he tryes to analyze why the west lost is moral value Europe is ricketying, and is a dream that probably never comes true, to Africa where there is a battlefield everywhere

What brought us into this sate of affairs, when things went wrong and why? Might us have done different choses?

Masgar14, I do read nonfiction but rarely essays. However on my library request list is a book of them, Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria. Has anyone read it yet? The request list is long, so if it is really good, I may break down and buy a copy. At this point I still have several epidemic books to keep me busy so I'm in no rush. Oh, and several novels await my attention as well.

I finished Susanna Clarke's Piranesi this afternoon. Once I started I couldn't put it down. She is an incredible writer and has an amazing imagination. I can't explain the plot without spoilers, but this was an incredibly original and magical tale of two worlds.

As you know, I loved it, too.

But my book club hated it.

Rosefolly, I knew you loved it, and I can assure you, my book club would have hated it too. I was totally swept up in the story trying to figure it out. I can picture all those halls and statues and the ocean tides ... it was marvelous. Perhaps you have to be a fantasy / sci-fi reader to enjoy it?

Sorry Rosefolly, never heard of "Fared Zakaria"

Sheri, I remember some years ago when you and others 'raved' about Susanne Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell On the strength of those recommendations I borrowed it from the library and try as I might I could not get into it at all! Obviously magical realism, alternative worlds, even fairies at the bottom of my own garden aren't for me. I really need my fiction to contain a great deal of truth, even 'possibility' about it! Probably a lack of imagination somewhere in my genes.

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I have started Hild by Nicola Griffith. It is the first of a proposed The Light of the World trilogy about the girl who will become St. Hilda of Whitby. It opens with Hild as the three-year-old niece of the king and is very detailed about life in 7th century Britain.

Carolyn, I read Hild a few months ago. It took ages to get through but it did eventually 'grow' on me! I don't think Griffith has summoned up the energy to produce the next book . . .

Vee, I can't say I blame her.

Suddenly we have a lockdown here in parts of Western Australia for five days. We have been living almost normally for a long time since last April but a case of the variant has emerged and so drastic steps are being taken. My left eye operation will be on hold I think. As I have difficulties in reading with my right eye having long sight only, I am not a happy bunny! My nose is almost touching the screen as I type! I have been borrowing Large Print books but the library is closed and we can't leave home unless for necessities anyway.

Isn't a book a necessity? Discuss!

So sorry to hear this Annpan. And of course books are necessary/essential for every day life.

Our library is running a collection service. You place an order, they find the book then you take a pickup slot and collect it. Sounds easy doesn't it? I have orders going back months but the copies are in other branches or have just disappeared from the shelves, plus the building has only limited opening during the week.

They offer a second system whereby the reader lets the librarian choose up to 5 books after you suggest your preferences from crime/biography, travel/romance etc.

I haven't tried this method.

A few avid readers in my immediate neighborhood have begun chatting about books in e-mails and offer to give/lend any book that someone else would like to read. The book is left in the mailbox and returned the same way .

Vee, this second system you describe was run at a local library around our lockdown last March. I was allowed ten books, one I had already read and the other nine were ones I wouldn't want to! Police procedurals or vintage mainly.

The librarian did her best to pick cosy murder mysteries from the depleted stock available, ten books per customer was rather a drain I imagine.

Luckily the libraries reopened soon after with some limitations such as wider aisles for distancing, hand sanitiser and returned books kept apart from the borrowing shelves for 24 hours to allow any virus attached to die!

Also we have to contact register.

Ah, ladies, that is the beauty of being able to download ebooks to my laptop while the library is either closed completely or reserving time slots for outdoor pick up. It has saved my sanity this past year. Of course, everything isn't available electronically but plenty to keep me supplied.

I have learned the hard way never to let anyone choose books for me.

Eons ago,and almost certainly here, someone introduced me to the Literature Map website. If you type in the name of an author you enjoy, the screen pops up with other authors who write in a similar vein. It hasn't been perfect for recommendations, but it has occasionally introduced me to a new-to-me author that I've loved.

https://www.literature-map.com/

I just finished Ann Patchett's The Dutch House and it was terrific. She has a gift for writing family dynamics. The narrative hopped around in time quite a bit, but I felt that by doing so, she added layers to the story as each segment helped to bring the main characters' lives more clearly into focus. It was a really good book, and one that I'd meant to read quite some time ago.