I liked the books that had a character list included in the front pages. For some reason you rarely get that now. I sometimes write one for myself if I like the book enough to continue after about ten people appear.

As I have mild facial bllndness, I have problems when watching TV and have to make mental notes especially when the women have similar features and hair colouring. I have to select something distinctive about them or I lose the plot!

Annpan, I used to enjoy those family sagas back in the day and always found the 'family tree' provided at the front very useful.

I also suffer from facial blindness (it has a long Greek name) and in the past have found it very embarrassing when I 'meet' someone who I should know but fail to recognise. I try to work out who is speaking to me but it's not always possible without clues.

Middle-aged woman in the street to me " You just walked straight past me,"

Me " I'm so sorry I was miles away and just not concentrating . . ." I still don't know who she was!

Vee, my sympathies! I find it is very hard to place someone when they aren't in their usual locale.

I don't initiate a conversation until I recognise the person. I have never enquired about a relative after I spoke to a member of the wrong family and got a very surprised look!

I finished Daylight by David Baldacci yesterday. It’s the third or fourth book “starring” FBI agent Atlee Pine. Atlee’s twin sister Mercy was kidnapped when they were six years old and Atlee has been trying to find out what happened to Mercy. She also helps her friend, Army CID investigator John Puller, bring down an international blackmail ring. I enjoyed it; I really like DB’s writing.

Donna

Several years ago I started reading An Instance of the Finger Post by Ialn Peters and found it such heavy going that I gave up. It had been recommended by Pat/Sherwood who was here at RP for many years. She encouraged me to try again and keep going. Well, I picked it up recently and tried . . . and tried. But I have found it so difficult to even find the plot . . .set in Oxford University in the late 1600's and full of talk of the really famous scientists of the day, Bacon, Boyle. Descartes etc I am just overwhelmed and don't find it helpful that it is written in the first person . . .but by different first people, so doubly confusing.

By contrast This is Going to Hurt; Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay was a quick and, for the most part, amusing read. He describes his years working in NHS maternity wards (obs and gynae) with long long hours, little time off, a huge range of 'problems' but great rewards when a healthy baby is born or the rare times when a senior colleague thanks him.

I imagine medicine as practiced under the cash-strapped NHS is very different from the money/insurance-led US system but some of you might find it interesting. A warning some of his language is 'near the bone' and he was ticked off by a senior consultant for once saying "Hell".

Vee, I feel that way about Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. A very dear friend says it’s her favorite book, ever. I’ve tried three or four times but just dislike all the characters so much I can’t get far.

I’m reading Rough Country by John Sandford, one of the Virgil Flowers series.

Donna

I just finished The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Using two timelines, one present day and the other 1791, the book tells the story of a secret apothecary whose proprietress dispensed poisons to women desperate to rid themselves of the oppressive men in their lives. A present day researcher stumbles upon an empty vial with a mysterious marking while mudlarking in the River Thames, and begins to investigate where it might have come from, connecting the two timelines. While poison sounds rather gruesome, it was a good story. This is Penner's debut novel, and while a couple odd inaccuracies distracted me (would a poor girl applying for a lady's maid job approach the front door of a titled employer? Were women ever referred to as Ms. -- perhaps short for Mistress, but it looked funny to me), overall I liked it a lot. Not a keeper, but a very enjoyable page turner.

Sheri, I don't see that a poor girl would get a position as a lady's maid anyway without some training. It was a superior position. An applicant with references could go to the front door if she had an appointment rather than go to the back or the area door of a town house, I think. I haven't read the book so I can't know the exact circumstance.

Annpan, I think you are right. The only time a servant would come to the front door was when arriving for an interview.

I also think 'modern' writers assume that 'poor' people became servants but this wasn't the case. No-one would want to employ someone who had grown up in a slum or from the bottom of the heap because these people a) wouldn't want to work under the tight restrictions of those days and b) they wouldn't have any understanding of how everyday life was lived in a middle class or upwards house. If you have never used a knife and fork you wont be too keen on polishing the silver. If you had slept on the floor, making beds would be something unknown to you.

I live in a village that until recently had a ready 'supply' of cleaners*. These women came from backgrounds where their own Mothers had been in service, either at our local Big House (know as The Mansion) or with professional families as far away as London. These jobs were found for them after their parents registered them with an Employment Agency. Only clean/tidy girls with some education from an honest background would be chosen and then they had to 'work their way up' through the ranks . . . a ladies maid would have been a top-job.

There are many books on the subject written by those (by now) elderly women. My favourite is always the local to me A Child in the Forest by Winifred Foley.

* I think you call them house-keepers in the US. Over here a housekeeper is a sort of Mrs Danvers character in soul charge of the female staff and the running of an establishment.

Annpan and Vee, just to clarify, my description of the character as "poor" was sloppy. She was very young (only 12), had been raised on a farm, but was literate and had (through an employment agency) already worked as a maid in a fairly wealthy house. I still thought it was odd she approached the front door, but if that was appropriate for a job interview, then it makes sense. No spoilers, so I can't say why she was applying to be a lady's maid when it was obviously out of her reach.

Thanks Sheri, probably going for a lady's maid post because that is what the author has decided for her! I don't know any lady's maids but am guessing 12 would be rather on the young side. Twenty five might be nearer the mark.

OT I occasionally do some 'looking-up' of ancestors for friends and found, in the 1841 census, a girl aged 10 years, working at the Royal Naval Hospital Greenwich and described as a cook's mate . . . shades of Treasure Island and "shiver me timbers" . . .

It isn't easy to get a permanent cleaner these days!

I get sent a Support Worker from an Agency, who cleans and has a car so helps me with the shopping. I have had a number of women who work at this Agency for various reasons.

Their stories are always interesting. One was paying for a horse agistment, another hated having to curtsy and left because of that when she worked at a place that had minor Royalty as guests!

A few were students doing training for careers. One elderly woman was worse off physically than I was and worried me that she was going to strain herself working the vacuum cleaner. Another fell over the electric cord, hurt her back and that finished her as a cleaner for good!

Twelve years with the Agency and a lot of memories!

Vee, your cleaners were customarily called cleaning ladies here, but now there is some hesitancy as to what to call the people who come in to clean. I think I will begin to say cleaner when referring to my angel who is the monthly delight of my life. I'm pretty much a neatnik and live alone, so I get by with a once-a-month schedule and maybe a quick dust back when people used to come to visit.

Carolyn, my elderly father was visiting once while the cleaner was here and said how useful it was to have a reliable 'good woman'. Afterwards the cleaner said it would have been nice if he had called her a 'good lady'.

Over here there used to be a saying "All ladies are women but not all women are ladies" Dad had not meant to be disrespectful but would never have referred to any female as a 'lady' unless it was spelled with a capital L .

I wasn't comfortable calling my fortnightly helper a cleaner, it seemed rather derogatory as these helpers were capable of other duties if required by the Agency clients. When I heard one describe herself as a Support Worker I felt better using that term.

At one time a stay-at-home housewife was referred to as a "Domestic" here. Several of us were required to bring our children to a Traffic Court as witnesses and were paid a small sum for expenses. I described myself correctly as a journalist and got a couple of shillings more!

Annpan, a UK war-time census has recently become available on line. It was carried out in Sept 1939 and besides giving address, d.o.b, people's occupations are given and wives 'at home' are classified as 'unpaid domestic duties' which really sums it up . . .

Oh, doesn't it just!

I wonder if the Census was due at that time or because of the war starting then?

Annpan, it was because of the war. The UK Census has always been from 1841 to . .. this year. Only the 1941 census was left out. I am hoping to see the 1921 version soon to find out where my very few relations were at the time.

Better than here as late as the 50s when stay-at-home wives' jobs were described as "none." I never was one of those, though.

I know that I will never catch up with Carolyn in reading mysteries, but I've been on a mystery-a-day binge for several weeks now. My latest has been The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C.W. Grafton (first published in 1943 and reprinted as part of The Library of Congress Crime Classics in 2020).

The purpose of The Library of Congress series is to rescue certain vintage books from obscurity for new readers. I'm grateful for this, but I'm beginning to wonder why these particular books were chosen. It's not too hard to deduce that the interest of The Rat Began . . . is in the author, Grafton, who was the father of crime writer Sue Grafton, author of the "Alphabet" crime books with detective Kinsey Millhone. Sue can probably be said to have been more prolific and successful than her father. Was she the better writer? I don't know since I didn't like the idea of being rooked into reading daughter Grafton's long-running series (25 books, Sue died before she could write "Z"). I do recall that some RPers collected the alphabet titles and often had very good things to say about the series, (Annpan? and Carolyn?)

As for pere Grafton's book, I enjoyed it. It is very much of its time and I appreciate that the Library of Congress editors do not expurgate the original author's choice of words. Duh! I think that should go without saying, but in this age of hypersensitive potential readers a warning has to be given that particular words and descriptions may trigger offense (rage, anxiety, depression, etc.) in some readers.

There are many footnotes at the bottom of pages (in all the LoC reprints I've read so far) that I found a bit distracting, but I actually liked them. Two that I remember: wrecker* (tow truck) and squeegee* (yes, the same word for the same thing that we use today was current in the 1940s and was first mentioned in writings of the mid-19th century).

Oh, I should probably say i think C. W. Grafton.'s plotting and characterizations are excellent and I thought the wrap-up was fine . . . but then I very much like the hard-boiled style.

In the LoC Crime Classics series, I also recently read:

Final Proof by Rodrigues Ottolengui

Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh

Case Pending by Dell Shannon

The styles vary considerably! Apparently there are plans to reprint other outstanding but largely forgotten mysteries.

Frieda - Thanks for telling us about the Library of Congress classic mystery series. I had not heard about it. Very interesting.

Frieda, yes I did collect all the Sue Grafton A-Y books but my D houses them for me and keeps saying she should pass them on to a charity shop as she has read them so often she knows them too well!

We were so sorry when Grafton died and the series was never completed. She wouldn't allow anyone else to do that apparently.

I've been reading Privateers by Ben Bova and There There by Tommy Orange. Privateers, a SF published in 1985, prognosticated today's present about private firms taking over space. The story though is about a private firm's greed for monopoly over mineral resources available in space, something we could witness in the near future. There There is a fiction which is a pioneering work of the New Native Renaissance. It revolves around the lives of modern Urban Indians, and the changes these Urban Indians have gone through with centuries of displacement.

Just ordered The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. It has great reviews.

Another new release that sounds really interesting is The Lost Apothecary.

Yoyobon, I just finished The Lost Apothecary. I thought it was very good, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

I just finished John Preston's The Dig, and plan to watch the movie version this weekend. It's a fictionalized account of the Sutton Hoo discovery, and it's led me to all sorts of research on this early Anglo-Saxon ship burial and the people involved in the discovery and excavation. Absolutely fascinating.

This morning I finished Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson and I thought it was terrific - much higher quality than the average mystery, in my opinion. The protagonist, who owns a mystery book shop in Boston, publishes on the store's website, a list of eight well-known mystery books (The A.B.C. Murders, Strangers on a Train, etc.) that, in his opinion, describe a perfect murder. The FBI contacts him for assistance when they suspect that a copycat killer is duplicating the murders on his list.

I only ever read one Sue Grafton book and didn't like it much, so I never tried another. I'm not sure why because so many people do like her a lot. Too many other books out there, I suppose.

Earlier this week I read Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet and didn't like it much either. It turns out that I had read it before several years ago and didn't remember it at all. I have recently found her series featuring Max Tudor who was an MI6 agent and left the service to become a village vicar in an Anglican Church. He is very handsome, so the local ladies are all aflutter. I have really enjoyed them, but my library is missing a couple of them. I don't know why they just get some of a series. I've found that to be true in a number of cases, including the Stella Rimington books that are excellent. It's very frustrating.

I'm now reading One Dog Night by David Rosenfelt. I like him in small doses, so I'm pretty far behind in that series. Also recently read China Lake by Meg Gardiner (blah) and The Nesting Dolls by Gail Bowen that I love.

I do like the old books and have several of them. I didn't know about the LOC list but do have some other lists of "best of" older books and recently discovered Jill Paton Walsh's collaboration on Dorothy Sayers' unfinished and some new by her books. Ms. Walsh died in October. I liked her take on Lord Peter Wimsey and think I'll have to revisit the Sayers books.

Annpan, it was Sue Grafton's family that decided not to hire a writer to finish the final book, which apparently she had started. I'm not quoting this accurately, but they issued a statement along the lines of saying that as far as they were concerned, the alphabet ended with the letter X. As a fan, I was disappointed, but as someone who had lost beloved parents, I was quite moved.

My husband and I went to hear her speak at a local bookstore a few years earlier. She was absolutely delightful, courteous and warm and kind. I'm so grateful I got a chance to meet her. She exceeded my expectations.

I have never met an author in person but I was in a UK book shop when a very tanned Jilly Cooper was there to autograph her latest one. For some reason no one had come and she was sitting at the signing table talking soothingly with a rather distressed manager. I felt like I should help out by buying one but was too shy to approach her before I left!

Annpan. I've never read anything by Jilly Cooper but I'm sure she would be great fun to meet!

I just finished June in her Spring by Colin Macinnes. a strange story of 'young love' set among the wealthy sheep stations owners of Victoria (Australia).

Macinnes had grown up there, the son of famous writer Angela Thirkell and a homosexual father (I don't even know if I am allowed to say that) but the theme is partly based on Macinnes' own experiences of young people he knew in the 1930's, the children of well-off sheep farmers, who seem to think the world owes them a living, with too much partying, drinking, fast cars, galloping around on horses. Our hero, living with an 'Uncle' who in today's world would be locked up as a paedophile, spends the whole book trying to get away from this monster and into the arms of a very young woman (the June of the title). As you might imagine it all ends in tears.

Although the above must sound slightly unpleasant/revolting (depending on your POV) there are some well-written passages about the still unspoiled country and the vast area of outback. And as it came out in the 1950's we are not subjected to blow-by-blow scenes of sex and debauchery.

Sheri, thanks for that endorsement. I will try to get a copy of Lost Apothecary.*

I saw the movie, The Dig, and enjoyed it. I will be curious to see how it compares to the book.

* just called our library to reserve it and I'm no. 21. That'll be years from now ! And the book was just released. Apparently everyone wants to read it.

Bon, maybe you won’t have to wait too long. I’m often surprised by getting a book on hold much sooner than I expected.

I started Three Women Disappear by James Patterson. I disliked the format (short chapters written in first person by different characters - too choppy) and it’s about the Mafia in central Florida ( do we have the Mob in Fl?) so I returned it. Then I started The End of Her by Shari Lapena. At first I thought I’d give up on it, too, but ended up finishing it pretty quickly and enjoying it.

Now I’m on the next Virgil Flowers story, Bad Blood.

Donna

I've just finished Aline Templeton's Dead in the Water. The series is set in Scotland, and I like it a lot. It has lots of character development as well as good mysteries. And I am fond of Scotland!

The Rose Code - Kate Quinn

First, thank you Rosefolly for the post from November on logging in. I have been unable to log in for months and remembered a post you made on the same issue. I found the post, and following the link you provided I am back in.

I started reading the Inspector Morse mysteries by Colin Dexter in January thanks to some Christmas presents (prompted by hints of course). I love several of the detective shows, and decided it was time to start reading the novels. I usually read the book before the movie or show, so this is a little backwards for me. I started with the first one Last Bus to Woodstock. I enjoyed it, though his writing style took some getting used to. I also read Inspector Lynley A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George which the library did have, love the writing and it certainly filled in some of the background, but I am finding the same issues that I think Carolyn brought up about the library. They carry some of the books, but not the whole series. Next is the Miss Fisher series (what they have) by Kate Greenwood.

The availability of downloading Kindle books from the library has been discovered over this past year. I have three books on hold which have been sitting at "at least six months waiting time" for weeks now.

A Long Petal of Rose by Isabelle Allende

The premises for a return to the author's origins were all
there. Historical events that actually happened. Instead, historical events are
barely touched . The story unfolds around the main protagonists, without
delving in them. The writing is flat, you get to the bottom by force of inertia
and the finish is really sickly. I had read Allende's first four novels and
they have impressed me, the other ones had never aroused my interest, I relied
on this, but as I said it was a disappointment. I think she writes , because is
just enough for her to put her name on the cover to sell , but it is clear that
she has nothing more to say.

Now a re-read “To a
God Unknown” by John Steinbeck, I got for this author a special place in my
heart, because when I was around 14/15 I saw the movie “Tortilla Flat” starring
Spencer Tracy, and I wanted absolutely read the novel, this was a watershed for
me, “Tortilla Flat” brought me from YA literature to adult literature.

Now I have to do a premise, many years ago, always in my
teen I read “Burmese Days“ by George Orwell and I was hooked by the story. Many
years after , in my honeymoon I had
finished the novels I had brought. I had brought one also for my wife (to was)
and I had chosen “Burmese Days”by George Orwell obviously she read the first
pages and then did bleha, but she always acts this way she is not a reader, so
I re-read Burmese Days and understood why , so many year early I was so hooked
by the story.

After having read “Tortilla Flat” I carry on reading Steinbeck
novels, and the one that elicited most my sentiment was “To a God Unknown” . I
want to re-read it in order to understand why I was so engrossed by the story.

While fulfilling his dead
father's dream of creating a prosperous farm in California, Joseph Wayne comes
to believe that a magnificent tree on the farm embodies his father's spirit.
His brothers and their families share in Joseph's prosperity and the farm
flourishes - until one brother, scared by Joseph's pagan belief, kills the tree
and brings disease and famine on the farm. Set in familiar Steinbeck country,
TO A GOD UNKOWN is a mystical tale, exploring one man's attempt to control the forces
of nature and to understand the ways of God.

Ended my current record of two-mysteries-in-a-row last night when I finished The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. It's about a group of friends at an upscale old-folks apartment complex who get together to solve cold-case (and sometimes current) murders. It's amusing and cozy and I enjoyed it a lot ... almost all the way through.

Kathy, I listened to The Thursday Murder Club as a BBC 'reading'; very enjoyable and has been very popular over here.

At the moment the 'reading' is Jack London's White Fang.

I just finished two new books from two of my favorite authors, both supernatural romances. Patricia Briggs' Wild Sign was the latest installment in her Alpha and Omega series and Elizabeth Hunter's Saint's Passage is the start of a new sub-series in her Elemental world. I've read nearly everything by both authors, so these were very enjoyable, light-but-satisfying reads that revisited worlds and other characters that I've come to love.

I've also been trying to work on getting to the non-fiction in my TBR pile. I finished Bill Bryson's contribution to the Eminent Lives series, Shakespeare: The World as Stage. This was published in 2007 and evidently I had a great interest in Shakespeare around that time, because I have several other books about him on the shelves that I have never touched. I figured Bryson would be a light-weight look at the Bard, and his trademark humor and ability to find and include super-odd biographical info about the people around Shakespeare was amusing. I'm glad I read it, but I think the other Shakespeare books will be going into the donate bag.

Vee - Apparently The Thursday Murder Club is quite popular over here also. I happened upon it on my library website while searching for something else. I saw that there was a pretty substantial number of people waiting in the "hold" line to get one of the eight copies the library owns. That intrigued me, and in fact, is the only reason I put my own name on the "hold" list. I enjoyed the book very much (great humor!), but in the last few chapters, I began to grow weary of the number of possible solutions the author was throwing at us. And just when someone has confessed, we find out he's lying to cover for someone else, etc. And the whole subplot about the Greek vs the Turkish Cypriots was a bit complex for my taste.

P.S. I wish we had a bedtime-story hour on the radio, as you've mentioned a time or two. If we have such a thing, I'm not aware of it.

Kathy......I wondered about reading that but based on your experience I'll pass !

Don't you hate it when authors try to be so clever they ruin the story.

I've just finished Lost Books and Old Bones by Paige Shelton. I really want to like these books. They are set in Edinburgh, which I love, the heroine works in a book store, which I love, and they are mysteries, which I love. Unfortunately, they are not well written, and I'm through with them.

I understand where you're coming from, Carolyn. They ought to be good, right?

I picked up an historical novel from my Retirement Village library with no return date as I am having to read slowly, still without my proper reading glasses.

I have finally been able to get tested by an optician after a sudden Lockdown delayed my second eye operation and new ones are being made and on their way from Germany as soon as possible. I have to attend my youngest GD's wedding on Easter Saturday and would like the glasses by then.

The book is "The Boleyn Inheritance" by Philippa Gregory. It is written by three Tudor women so is easy to put down between chapters. I seem to recall RP'ers being rather dismissive of this author on the grounds of accuracy, I think?

She included a chapter about Anne of Cleves and her brother I thought distasteful and unnecessary! I nearly dumped the book then but kept going as the rest was quite interesting.

Annpan, re Philippa Gregory. Sometimes when 'book discussions' take place (radio or TV) the heavyweight Oxbridge historian writers/commentators give their views and then Gregory is wheeled in as the light-weight voice and listened to with almost disdain. I think she does her homework on the period about which she is writing. . .. but perhaps feelings/ emotions are not regarded as necessary when dealing with historical characters in the eyes of the professionals?

I hope your specs arrive before granddaughter's Big Day!

Vee, I agree that she has a good knowledge of the period.

I am amused at the various "takes" on Holbein who painted Anne of Cleves. Some writers have him in love with her, Gregory thinks he was dismissive as he went around the European courts making portraits of likely brides for Henry the Eighth.

I too hope for the new specs for the wedding. Otherwise it is a choice between reading glasses or wraparound "sunnies". My naked eyes are not very attractive. Having been around for 83 years, they are now sunk in baggy pouches. They used to be a good feature once. (Sigh!)

I have begun Cruel as the Grave, the newest Bill Slider mystery by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. It is a great relief to read a book by a really good writer after recent experiences, although I always get annoyed again because her publishers made her stop writing her Morland Dynasty books, which I loved.

Finished the Harrod-Eagles and read The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear. I'm on a roll.

I'm reading The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. Set in 1840, there is an aboriginal girl, Mathinna, who has been taken to Hobart Town in Van Dieman's Land, to be the "pet" of the wife of the colonial governor. There is also a young woman from London who was falsely accused of theft and attempted murder, thrown in Newgate prison, then sentenced to 14 years transportation to Australia. She is currently still on the ship on the way there. I'm enjoying it; interested to see how or if the lives of the two exiles intertwine.

The author used the term "cooking the books" and I immediately scoffed at using such a 21st century term for a novel set in 1840, then did a bit of research on the idiom and discovered it first came into use in the mid 1800s!

Donna

I am really enjoying The Rose Code . It is one of those hate-to-put-it-down books.