I am reading "The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions" by Kerry Greenwood. This is a collection of short stories featuring Phryne Fisher. Some have already been published in an earlier book but have been rewritten and four new stories have been added.

Greenwood also writes about the different positioning of the characters in her books and those on-screen. eg in the books Jack Robinson is married with children but is a love interest in the TV series and the movie.

I prefer the books and never saw the movie but the actress Essie Davis is a perfect Phryne.

Last Sunday I counted the books I was in the process of reading that I had in my bedroom and office and counted 20, so I decided to make an effort to finish at least some of them. Most I started reading so long ago that I'll probably have to start most of them all over again...

I decided to start with something I wouldn't have to start over and chose Paris, a Literary Companion by Ian Littlewood, and finished in it an hour, the first book I have finished this month. It's an interesting 'guide book' to Paris that takes you through the city, one area at a time, through passages from (mostly) novels and memoirs/diaries that describe certain neighbourhoods, streets, parks or houses. They range from 16th century travelogues to 20th century novels and the author - in his introductory notes to each passage - is especially concerned with enumerating all the famous artists and authors who have lived in each area. I found this a bit annoying, since I like to read about the lives of ordinary people more than about the extraordinary ones, but there is also some of that. It was fun to compare it with a book about Venice that I read last year that was based on a similar premise, but went about it in a completely different way - using themes rather than dividing the passages up by area.

And what did I do next?

Did I pick up another book from that cursed stack of half-read tomes and start reading it?

I did not. Littlewood's book gave me a taste for more about Paris, so now I am reading Paris, the Secret History by Andrew Hussey. That book is based on an idea and structure similar to that of Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography, and should add some of the "people's history" that I felt was lacking in Littlewood's book.

"Knight's Acre" by Norah Lofts was a quick read set in the time when men were bold and fair maidens had to be rescued from high towers.

I was introduced to Lofts' work by friends who lived near her in East Anglia and many of her books were set in and around Bury St Edmunds as was this one. The story was predictable . . . poor landless knight who earns money from tournaments, builds his wife a house, goes to the Wars in S Spain leaving her to plough the fields, grind the corn, bake the bread (shades of the Little Red Hen?) Meanwhile he is captured and enslaved by the Moors . . . the usual adventures follow through the help of a 'dusky maiden' . . . I think Lofts got rather lost towards the end so wrote a couple more follow-ups to get the story back on track.

Vee, I think I have all of Norah Lofts' novels. Those Englishy stories fascinated me back in my younger days. Now I like English murder mysteries (but not terror or horror).

I've just finished Bad Blood by Aline Templeton, and it was really good. Set it Scotland and featuring D.I. Marjory Fleming, this one of the series has a young woman looking for a not very good mother who disappeared when she was 11.

I have just read "The Long Call" by Ann Cleeves. She has started a new series with a detective, Matthew Venn, who is same-sex married. The mystery was very interesting and as I had one of my disturbed nights I read it quite quickly while trying to catch the sleep bus! This sometimes takes several attempts.

I have a new Simon Brett waiting for me at the library and thankfully the wet weather has dried today. The rain has done the gardens and my newly planted bushes a favour though.

After I finish my current book, The Ghost Manuscript, I plan to reread Mutant Message Down Under. I read it a long time ago and remembering being very moved by it.

It seems that it would be especially relevant to the times now.

I finally finished Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (since book group is tomorrow) and loved it. It was an impressive feat of imagination and beautifully written. The story focuses on Anne Hathaway (here called Agnes, the name given in her father's will) and her relationships with her husband and children. The book alternates between past and present as her son Hamnet falls ill, telling the story of his illness and recalling her meeting and marrying Shakespeare and their lives together to this point.

O'Farrell has created an amazing character in Agnes, a woman both civilized and wild, with an uncanny ability to read people and a gift for healing. It's a slow and dreamy book and I thought the writing was simply exquisite. Some reviews have complained that not much happens, but I thought the whole point of it was that everything happens in the most quotidian moments. Hamnet's death is the center point of the book and Agnes' grief is overwhelming, but I did not find the story depressing. It was just magical. I'm looking forward to the discussion tomorrow night.

Needing something less emotional, I also finished a short story by Taylor Jenkins Reid called Evidence of the Affair, told in letters between two people whose spouses are - surprise -- having an affair. Light and quick, with a couple nice name drops of characters from her other books.

Sheri, thanks for the info on Hamnet which I have ordered from the library, although I am way down a long list for the few copies available, I hope to get it sometime during 2022.

Just finished The Ghost Manuscript by Kris Frieswick and although I enjoyed the story, I absolutely hated the ending. I cannot understand why she chose to write it that way.

Has anyone read this book?

I started The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny earlier this afternoon. Her books always make me want to go live in Three Pines. I have read some people's comments who didn't like this book or the previous one as well, but I'm not much of a critic when it comes to her books. I just like to read them.

I felt her last book should have ended the Three Pine series. I have decided to skip this Madness of Crowds....she has had a good run. Time for her to graciously step away.

I've burned my Louise Penny fan club card.

Simon Brett's "An Untidy Death" was sad. I don't know if he is having a bad time but I didn't like the book. Too much focus on depression and abuse of different kinds to the characters. They all seem left without hope at the end of the book. Not a cosy read at all!

Many years ago I used to read Dick Francis's books. My Mother had been a big fan of his and had most of his work in paperback. On our recent book 'clear-out' I had to get rid of most of them and thought perhaps I would just keep one. To my surprise it was a signed copy! Probably worth nothing as the signature was just a scrawl and the books is tatty and yellowing but a nice memento.

And on the 'Francis' theme I picked up a Felix Francis Pulse which seems to have more of a medical setting plus the usual horse racing.

Does anyone know how father and son compare? Is one better than the other?

Carolyn, I would be interested in hearing your review of Penny's latest mystery when you finish it. Maybe I will give her a second chance. I do miss "Three Pines."

I just gave up half way through Imogen Clark's Postcards From a Stranger. Normally, I'd stick it out until the end, but all the male characters were abusive and all the female ones were downtrodden and trapped in horrible relationships. I decided I'd had enough and deleted it from my Kindle.

Now I'm reading Kate Quinn's The Huntress, and 40 pages in I'm completely hooked. She is such a wonderful author.

Here's the Amazon blurb:

In the aftermath of war, the hunter becomes the hunted…

Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.

Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.

Growing up in post-war Boston, seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride is determined to become a photographer. When her long-widowed father unexpectedly comes homes with a new fiancée, Jordan is thrilled. But there is something disconcerting about the soft-spoken German widow. Certain that danger is lurking, Jordan begins to delve into her new stepmother’s past—only to discover that there are mysteries buried deep in her family . . . secrets that may threaten all Jordan holds dear.

Good stuff!

Sheri, I have really enjoyed all of Kate Quinn's books and appreciate that she does much research into her topics.

I'm reading One Summer ...American 1927 by Bill Bryson. I love his writing and can hear him tell the story as I read his books. This one is full of amazing facts and stories as only he can relate them. Who knew that in 1927 the country suffered an epic , historical, record-breaking flood of Biblical proportions .....long before the term "global warming' had been conceived. The flood levels remained all along the Mississippi for 153 days ! In essence, it created another great lake during that time.

I finished The Huntress in one huge marathon last night and it was excellent. I will definitely be reading more by Kate Quinn.

Yoyobon, I have One Summer in my TBR pile (which is actually shrinking just a little) and will be moving it up to the "read this soon" pile. Thank you for reminding me of it!

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading a novel titled How Lucky by Will Leitch. I can't remember who brought it to my attention, but I sure do thank them. It's a fascinating book that tells a compelling, can't-stop-reading type of story, while also describing what life is like for a severely disabled young man. I keep thinking about how much I liked this book in spite of the fact that it contains three things I normally shy away from in my pleasure reading - a first-person narrator, a disabled protagonist, and the use of quite a bit of technology. I can't explain it, except that it is really well written, a great story and a quick read. Also, this is key - as the title suggests, the protagonist, in spite of his disadvantages in life, is a genuine optimist and expresses a lot of gratitude, which is pretty unusual in current popular fiction.

Vee, regarding your question above about Felix vs Dick Francis: Felix writes as good a story but doesn't have his father's gift of characterization, so while his books are fun to read, none of them stick with me very much.

I have been in an unending reading slump this year, having finished only a fraction of the number of books I normally have read by this time. I think the last time I posted I was still slogging through A Gentleman in Moscow. I did finish it and while I appreciated it (and the ending), it wasn't a favorite. If I'd finished it in time to have participated in our book club discussion, I suspect I would have appreciated it more.

The most recent book I've finished was Charlie Jane Anders's The City in the Middle of the Night. It had been sitting on Mt TBR for 2 years, since I bought it at the National Book Festival and had it signed by the author, just before the pandemic hit. Rosefolly, didn't you read this for the Hugo voting? What did you think of it? While I liked it well enough, I felt that it didn't quite know what it wanted to be: a first-contact novel, a story of humanity adapting to extreme conditions, or a coming-of-age novel. I think all the politics of the 2 human cities overwhelmed the story, which I'd been expecting to be a first-contact novel.

The best thing I've read recently is Gordon Chang's Ghosts of Gold Mountain: the Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad. A fascinating look at an important element of U.S. history, that does a great job reconstructing a comprehensive story from scarce and scattered sources.

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, a paperback passed on to me from my DD was an interesting read for me as it was set in the late'50's a time when I was growing up. Based on a 'true' newspaper story of a woman who claimed to have had a virgin birth. A rather sad 'spinsterish' woman journalist is sent to investigate and the story develops around the v-b's family and the interaction with the journalist and her own very demanding mother.

After starting it I realised I had heard some of it as a 'Book at Bedtime' on the BBC, but luckily only bits and pieces so the ending was not expected.

Vee, Small Pleasures sounds really interesting. Would you recommend it? I took a quick look at the reviews on Good Reads (where you have to be careful so as not to learn too much about a book) and saw several complaints that the ending did not fit the book. Do you agree?

I read my first-ever Harlan Coben novel - The Stranger. I had never been tempted to try one before, as there are so many of them - multiple shelves of them at my local library. I have the idea that his target audience is men, but I don't actually know that. Anyway, I picked this one up because it was praised in a bookish podcast that I listen to. I will say that overall, I enjoyed it. I was expecting a lot of violence, which would have made me quit reading. But the violence was saved for the end. The story was interesting and held my interest and so I read quickly. But (here it comes), I found the ending unbelievable. In my opinion, one of the characters acted so out-of-character to make it end the way it did, that I found it absurd. But other than those last few pages, I did like it. By the way, it's about a man who Is approached by a stranger who reveals startling information about the man's wife. As the man investigates the veracity of the accusation, his world spins out of control.

Kathy, yes I would recommend Small Pleasures. It is well-written and believable . .. not the v-b stuff (no surprise there) but the small and very ordinary lives of the characters, which I much prefer to car chases, nasty murders and totally unlikely events!

And on the 'ordinary lives' subject I have just listened to The Fortnight in September by R C Sheriff via the BBC. Written and set in the 1930's and about two weeks spent by a London family in the sea-side town of Bognor Regis* Just their day-to-day activities . .. playing cricket on the beach, listening to the band, watching a show on the pier . . . I wonder how many modern families would be willing to put up with such mundane and simple pleasures?

*The town of Bognor got it's sobriquet when King George V went there to recuperate from a serious illness. He found the whole experience very boring. The next time he needed to get away for his health, Queen Mary suggested returning to the same place and the King is said to have exclaimed "Bugger Bognor"! And they didn't go there.

Thank you, Vee.

I've just started Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca by Ferdinand Mount. I think it may have been recommended here, if so, my thanks to whoever did! As the author attempts to verify the events in the life of his flamboyant Aunt Betty, he's pulled into a family history of lies and deceit that gets more and more complex. So far it's a fascinating memoir.

I read After the War is Over by Jennifer Robson. I liked it, but not as much as the previous book, Somewhere in France.

I also read Rules of Prey by John Sandford. It’s the first in a series featuring Lucas Davenport, who is Virgil Flowers’ boss at the beginning of the VF series.

Now I’m halfway through Murder at the Mendel by Gail Bowen, the second Joanna Kilborn story. I’m enjoying it very much.

Donna

Sheri, I recommended the 'Aunt Munca' book, which I had received as a Christmas present from my S-in-Law. A fascinating if convoluted tale of the author's mysterious relation . . . worth keeping on to the end.

After going through one of my phases of rejecting or abandoning every fiction book I picked up lately, I broke that spell by rereading a childhood favorite of mine that has been mentioned recently several times by RPers: Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. I also read Anya Seton's The Mistletoe and the Sword which also involves Rome's legio IX Hispana in Britannia. All I'm going to say: They sure don't write historical fiction any more like those authors did.

When I can't tolerate fiction, I fall back on informed speculative nonfiction. Thus I read the following two: The Fate of the Ninth by Duncan B. Campbell and Roman Britain's Missing Legion: What Really Happened to IX Hispana? by Simon Elliott. I enjoyed them so much that I immediately read both again.

Vee, thank you! His tenacity with the genealogy research is what has really grabbed me, in addition to Munca's extraordinary life. Sadly, most of the British cultural references from the 1930s, '40s, and '50s sail right over my head, but his struggles with genealogical brick walls is perfectly relatable. I'm nearly finished and it has to go back to the library next week.

Tom and I have been catching up on traveling so I have been away from the forum recently. Donnamira, you asked what I thought of Charlie Jane Anders's The City in the Middle of the Night. I did indeed read it, and like you I found it readable but not amazing.

One good thing about traveling was that I took several of my TBR books along with me to read while in transit. The stack at home is reduced by several volumes. Some lived up to my expectations, others were not so great. I really enjoyed A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, sequel to A Memory Called Empire, both SF explorations of empire, culture, and gender. I found I liked Seth Dickinson's The Monster Baru Cormorant (sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant) much less, to the point where I stopped reading before I reached the halfway point. The themes are tha same as the Martine books, but with a lot more violence, and it wasn't enjoyable to read. I do not plan to read the last volume. Then I read Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett. It is the middle book in a trilogy. I had forgotten a lot of the first book so I was a bit lost, but a quick refresher got me back up to speed. I'm glad I read it and do plan to thead the final installment. I read Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro's latest. Well written, and I ended with a kind of peaceful, settled feeling. Odd book, but then all of his books strike me as odd. I read half a dozen other light reads not worth reviewing. They filled airplane time but I forgot them by the next day.

I was just thinking how common trilogies have become. Inspired by Tolkien but I think driven by marketing. It's okay when the story deserves the depth. Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. It reminds me of the multivolume novels published 150 years ago. I suspect markteting was the force behind that as well, though the volumes were I believe sold as a set, not one by one.

I have been reading a book where the author and I have a different view of the characters!

Her hero is a freckle faced redhead and there is a Maharajah who is big and muscular.

I have mentally changed the hero to a dark haired man and as all the Indian gentlemen I have known were small dapper men, so too is my Maharajah!

I suspect readers here similarly alter characters to suit themselves. I can't be the only one?

I also change or expand endings too...

Annpan - You are an imaginative reader. In all my years of reading, it has never occurred to me to change the looks of the characters or change any endings. Such interesting thoughts to ponder!

Interesting Annpan. I don't think I see the characters in my mind's eye as I read. So often the author goes to such great lengths to describe the height/hair-colour/style of dress of the protagonists that nothing is left to the imagination. Nor do I change the endings . . . although I might be very disappointed with how the story resolves itself.

Rosefolly mentions those books published as 'multi-volumes' during the Victorian period. I think it must have been Dickens who started the 'trend' over here as his installments appeared within his various very popular magazines. A clever way to sell his wares as he knew people would be eager to know 'what happened next'. Is it true that New Yorker's waited at the dockside for the ship from England and called to the passengers "Is Little Nell still alive?"

My English Lit professor taught that the Little Nell question was true, Vee.

I have been traveling, too, and similarly to Rosefolly read some unremarkable books. I did take the new James Lee Burke hard cover along, Another Kind of Eden, which is one of his Holland family series. I much prefer the Dave Robicheaux books. I ended up on the plane ride home starting Little Women on my Kindle. It has been a really long time since I read it, but I'll finish it--it never gets old for me, and I know it does mean more tears to be shed for poor Beth.

Visualising the characters and scenes in books has a downside. I notice errors too.

I may have mentioned here that I wrote to an author about an age discrepancy with a character and she kindly wrote back and agreed that she had miscalculated and made the person five years older which messed up the story! I was sorry I had seen it!

This expanding of books is something I have done since I was small and started when I would tell my nervous little sister stories at nights, while bedded in the air raid shelter in our London garden so that she would go to sleep. They were mostly cribbed from Enid Blyton's magazines "Sunny Stories" then as we had limited books available. I would get so involved I would continue after she fell asleep until the adults came to join us later!

Hello!

I'm feeling rather guilty that it has been such a long time since I posted here.

In April this year the owner of the book shop I worked at retired, so I did too. I thought this would give me much more time to read, but actually I think it is less, as my commute was 45 minutes each way!

Since Diana Gabaldon is publishing a new Outlander book in November, I have gone back to read the whole series. I know the first four books inside out, but don't remember the details of the latter books very well and thought I should brush up on the story

.

Some other books I have enjoyed since my last posting:

I have listened to the first two of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. They are very wordy and I think my concentration would slip if I were trying to read them, but the narration keeps me on track.

I have listened to, and read the last one which isn't yet available as audio, Cindy Brandner's Exit Unicorns series, set in Ireland during The Troubles. Great characters and a good story.

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny has been discussed. I personally feel she has recovered from a period where I didn't like the books much - I wonder if it was when her husband got dementia and then died?

My two best books so far this year are Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, and City on Fire by Don Winslow.

The former is set in New York, and I loved it so much I was tempted to go back to the beginning and start again, which is very rare for me.

I really like Winslow's books, although they aren't for anyone who doesn't like violence. This one is set in Rhode Island and is reminiscent of The Sopranos, with two groups running all the businesses in the area and fighting over it.

My husband and I have a joint audiobook that we listen to in the car mainly, and have just finished The Passage by Justin Cronin. This is a dystopian world after a nasty virus has emerged which changes humans into feral creatures.

And finally I have been listening to a lot of books by Elizabeth Chadwick. She is a historian who writes fiction set 1000-1250 CE (or thereabouts). Her more recent books are about real people, and I can recommend her trilogies about Eleanor of Aquitaine and William Marshall, in particular.

I shall endeavour to be a more reliable correspondent, as I really enjoy reading about what you are reading!

Kath

Happy to have you with us once again, Kath. I had noticed your absence. I always enjoy your comments.

I too liked Rules of Civility.

Astrokath, Good to hear from you! I suppose you will miss getting books early now your bookshop job is finished. Did Covid affect you very much in SA?

I'm still reading Paris, the Secret History by Andrew Hussey, and have found the claim that it has a structure similar to Peter Ackroyd's biography of London to be untrue. It's simply a rather superficial history of Paris and doesn't (so far - I'm just about to get to the Revolution) delve into life in Paris in nearly as much detail as Ackroyd's book.

I also picked up again The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England by Antonia Fraser, which I started reading earlier this year. Unlike some history books I have read, it has become more interesting as I get further in – the first couple of chapters felt a bit dry, but I'm glad I persevered, because it's really a very interesting piece of women's history.

Hi Ann. We have been lucky here in SA - we had a month's shut down in April of 2020, then two separate lockdowns of one week each since then, Thankfully we have kept the borders closed and not had many cases.

I will indeed miss the easy access to books, but I still go into the city every few weeks and they are happy for me to bring home anything that interests me, so long may that continue :)

Gosh Astrokath, I still remember when you first got the job at the book shop. You were very excited, as I recall. And now you've retired. Time is going by too fast.

Glad to see you back Kath! It's good to have another person on board . . . including Annpan, who is able to understand and hopefully make allowances for my English peculiarities.

Glad you are back, Kath!

Like Carolyn, I never tire of "Little Women." Am I the only one here who periodically re-reads her girlhood favorites?

I just finished Sleeping Giants, the first book in a sci-fi trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel. Told in interviews and documents, it recounts humankind discovering that aliens do exist and were on our planet some 3,000 years ago. They also left something behind. It had an interesting set up and was a quick, easy read with enough intriguing plot lines left dangling to entice me to read the next two books (which I've already requested from the library). It's not great literature, but I'd still like to know what happens next.

I'm also a quarter of the way into The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab, a medieval-style fantasy tale about witchcraft and missing children. So far, I'm enjoying it.

Everything else I requested from the library arrived at once today: Nightb*tch by Rachel Yoder, That Sounds Like Fun by Annie F. Downs, and How Lucky by Will Leitch. As How Lucky was recommended here, I'm starting that next.

Welcome from me, too, Kath, and especially for the news of a new Galbaldon book. I had not heard that.

Woodnymph, you asked me earlier for my opinion after I finished the new Penny book, and I don't think I answered you. I did like it, as always, but its subject matter was a post-Covid world and that is a subject I would rather avoid!

Thank you all for the shout outs.

Kathy, you have a very good memory - I got the job in January of 2004!!

Astrokath - Gosh was it that long ago? I probably remember because I was kind of envious. I know you enjoyed that job. It's so nice to find work that is a pleasure.

Sheri - I'll be interested to hear what you think about How Lucky.

I'm reading Night Hawks, the latest Ruth Galloway by Elly Griffiths. She continues tp entertain me.

I'm working my way through The Huntress by Kate Quinn. Several members here have said how much they liked it. I'm not liking it nearly as much as I enjoyed The Rose Code, I think because the majority of the story focuses on Nina and that's my least favorite story line. Also, it's very choppy with short chapters bouncing between Nina, Ian and Jordan. I've finally gotten to where all the characters are in the same place at the same time. I hope to finish it this weekend.

Donna