I finished listening to The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and thought it was excellent. This was a book that I think was better listened to than read for me, because the narrator had a Southern US accent. I also have a copy of the book and I found that in reading it I wouldn't have put quite the right emphasis on some of the words and phrases, but the narrator did. I would recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it.

I am also working my way through the Poldark novels, and I am impressed at the adaptation the BBC did with Aiden Turner. They managed to put in everything important and weave their way through the parts that wouldn't translate to film very well.

Finally, I am reading The Rose Code by Kate Quinn but couldn't really recommend it. The protagonists are working at Bletchley Park in WWII, but there is too much emphasis on romance and not enough on the history for my taste (including a dalliance with Prince Philip of Greece).

I could not finish No Two People as it felt like a weak composite of short stories that had a common thread. I never got to know any character enought to care.

Now I'm enjoying another Beatriz William's historical novel, Her Last Flight.

I enjoyed The Rose Code very much and have recommended it to others who have also liked it. It is historical fiction. I followed up with a documentary on Bletchley Circle to flesh out what I had learned about it's function at that time.

I also enjoyed The Rose Code a lot, but I guess I was more interested in the people than the historical details.

Ergo, 'historical fiction' .

If I recall, she based one of the characters on a woman she interviewed .

I really liked The Rose Code, too.

I've just finished another Joy Ellis e-book, Fire on the Fens. I discovered on vacation how handy reading on my cell phone is. These books are addictive mysteries, not wonderfully written but good time killers when not ironing summer clothes to put away.

It seems I'm alone in not liking The Rose Code :) It's great how different books appeal to different people. I like a big dose of history in my historical fiction, as it is my favourite way to find out about other times. In this case, I haven't connected to any of the characters much either, so that never helps with the enjoyment of a book I think.

I got a shock when I noticed a book with Historical Fiction on the cover and it was about events I remembered! To my mind, this labeling should be about events before the 1800s but seems to be before the 1950s!

Kath, re The Rose Code (which I admit I haven't read). But on checking some reviews by people in the UK several said they wished it had been translated into English or at least proof-read by someone who was familiar with English expressions.

Annpan, I too feel that historical fiction should be 'placed' at least a hundred and fifty years ago and preferably well before that. At least there would be less possibility of using 'living characters', ie making Prince Philip someone's love interest which seems in very poor taste.

Of course the reader notices mistakes when the book is about the familiar! I am probably happily overlooking lots of errors when reading about countries I have never visited or situations I have no knowledge about.

However some things I do notice have me giving a loud scream of horror! The worst one I recall was saying that an illegitimate unmarried elderly woman was actually the Dowager Duchess! What?!!

Margaret Osla, Lady Henniker-Major (née Benning; 23 August 1921 – 29 October 1974) was a Canadian debutante, who worked at Bletchley Park, was Prince Philip's first girlfriend, and later married Sir John Henniker-Major (who became the 8th Baron Henniker after her death).

Kate Quinn’s 2021 novel about Bletchley Park, The Rose Code, features a character named Osla Kendall, who is based heavily on Osla Benning.

I know nothing about this book but just want to mention that Prince Phillip did not marry Elizabeth until after WW2 and Bletchley Park. So if the writer of the book made someone his girlfriend, however unlikely, he was still single at that point.

Ginny, as cited in my post , one of the women at Bletchley Park was his FIRST girlfriend and she was the basis for the character of the same name in the book.

I am reading a story where a man wants to ride off with the girl on his saddlebow. Google pix wasn't helpful so I don't know if she sat before or behind him. Any riders here who could explain?

I must admit that I feel uncomfortable when an author brings in a real person to engage with a fictitious character. I can't explain why other than it seems impolite! Even my favourite author Georgette Heyer did this in Regency Buck in a scene involving the Prince Regent.

She did mention Regency persons in later books but I don't think she did an actual plot line like that again.

yoyo, I don't doubt that Prince Philip had a girlfriend who worked at Bletchley Park, it is just as Annpan says rather 'impolite' (to English folk) to use this particular relationship especially as PP was still alive at the time.

I don't know if Osla (in the story) ever mentioned her work at BP as it was very hush-hush and it is only within the last few years that people have 'opened-up' to what their War-Work actually involved . . . everyone had to sign the Official Secrets Act (even my late mother who was in the Signals division of the Women's Army.)

nb. On the same theme we had local school friends when young who's mother had been a 'real' spy! Of course no-one knew this except her husband who had been her 'controller' during her 'career'. The truth only came out after her death.

Here is Kate Quinn's interviews with the three women in Rose Code:

https://booksbywomen.org/kate-quinn-interviews-osla-mab-and-beth-from-the-rose-code/

I must confess that i'm not a fan of historical fiction at all because of this very issue--mixing real people and real events with things that are totally made up. And no matter how much people--my book club of very nice women, for instance--say they know it's fictionalized, in fact people are left with all kinds of misinformation and things they really beleive are true and are most emphatically not. For myself, I read fiction or non-fiction and never the twain shall meet. Just my two cents.

I signed the Official Secrets Act in 1956 because of something that was dealt with by the British Government office I worked for. I didn't know about the secret at the time though! Many years later, I found it was something to do with special telephone poles and their destination. Not very exciting but speaking about this at the time would have blown an operation which has now been totally forgotten about.

Ginny, I think that fact and fiction can get blurred, read any autobiography!

Ginny I think you could say much of the above in connection with 'The Crown' TV series!

yoyo I have just read the 'interview' by KQ and it rather worries me. Is it meant to be genuine?

If it is meant to be real/accurate why are the women using American expressions that we don't use over here. Things such as "I was raised in the East End", in the UK we say 'brought up' not raised and 'Tempest in a teapot'? Never heard that over here. The nearest would be 'Storm in a teacup'.

And I know I am being a pain in the rear-end . . . but the 'real' Margaret Osla Benning died in 1974 so I doubt KQ would have been old enough to interview her.

Vee, that's a fictitious interview. I've seen it before when authors 'interview' their characters to give insight into the story or encourage people to read it.

Yoyo, I did know a couple of the characters were real - I tend to Google things like that. I was just expecting more about the workings at Bletchley Park and less romance, so I was a bit disappointed. :)

All interesting POV's. And ultimately, what can we really believe when people claim to know historical facts ? Even history itself is someone else's opinion or experience.

We're left to decide.

I enjoyed No Two Persons quite a bit, and would look for other books from this author. I liked the linked short story format.

Currently working on Verity, this month's book club choice. Not my style, but I'll get through it.

I recently finished an unusual little book - What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. It is translated from Japanese and the dust-jacket cover claims it to be an international best seller. Hmmm... I found it overly simplistic and mostly uninteresting. A friend who also read it told me I just don't appreciate Japanese culture. Perhaps that is the problem.

i just finished The Survivors by Jane Harper. It was set in Tasmania and I was excited to read it. I was picturing Bicheno in my mind, but it honestly could have been set at any small seaside town with a rocky coast. It was pretty good but I don't feel pulled to read more of her books. Thanks to RP for the recommendation.

PAM

Kathy........perhaps it lost something in the translation :0) I'm afraid I'd be on your team with this.

I finished Lord Peter, a collection of the Sayers short stories featuring him. I liked the last two best, probably because they have his wife and sons in them. I liked all the Wimsey books, some more than others, but didn't love them.

Now I'm reading the new Daniel Silva book, The Collector. Now Gabriel Allon I do love.

Funny you mention Lord Peter Wimsey. I am re-reading Gaudy Night, which I read many many years ago. It's set in a women's college in Oxford and I went to a women's college here in the US so I found many similarities. I first read soon after graduation and really enjoyed it and am doing so again. It make me very nostalgic for college days.

So far, it's mostly about Lord Peter's true love Harriet Vane before she agrees to marry him. She went to the college in the book where dark deeds are occurring. Sayers was brilliant and really shows off her scholarship in this one. I'm not crazy about Peter Wimsey--too perfect and too much money, a butler for Pete's sake--but this and The Nine Tailors are among my favorites. It's really a novel with a mystery in it rather than just a straight-ahead mystery.

Ginny, Bunter was more of a "man" than a butler. His former batman when Lord Peter was in the Army he got Peter through PTSD and assisted him on cases as a photographer among other things. Sayers liked to give her character things she would have liked herself. She said that when she had a hole in her carpet she gave Peter a Persian rug!

Thanks, Annpan. That's a funny story about the rug. But man or butler, he always had just what Peter needed at the right moment. It's all too 'deus ex machina' for me.

Ginny, I don't like stories where things are made too easy either. I went right off a series I was enjoying when the character got rich. It spoiled the balance.

I am on the library waiting list for three books, so in the meantime I'm reading my second Lucas Davenport story in a row.

I am really enjoying Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams.

In the author's notes she says:

"This book isn't intended as a veiled biography of Amelia Earhart, and certainly not as a theory regarding her famous disappearance over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. But Earhart's story has fascinated me since I was a girl, and a few years ago I posed myself a certain 'What if? ' that eventually reimagined itself and grew into Her Last Flight. "

A couple of quick reads, The Golden Pillars by Alice Thomas Ellis, a clever 'look' at the lives of the well-off self-satisfied inhabitants of a fashionable area of North London Camden/Kentish Town. Adults who claim to be worried about a missing neighbour but do nothing except talk about it and who have no interest in their teenage children or their whereabouts. Do they ever bother to go to school, why are they in the pub when under age? Written in the '90's and already dated as no-one has a mobile/cell phone attached between their hand and their eyes.

No Fancy Life by Charlotte Grey is a shortish work about buying a farm in the Scottish Highlands (handy for Balmoral Castle if you need to borrow a cup of sugar) The couple seem to have acquired their knowledge of farming from books and their is no information as to why they made this move. Luckily for the most part they have friendly neighbours who are able to offer help and plenty of free advice especially of the "Why don't you go back to London" variety . . . although they had moved from Yorkshire!

I'm reading Dead Like You, another Roy Grace book by Peter James. It is, of course, a murder mystery, and the setting is Brighton. I spent a night there in 2001 on my month-long tour of Great Britain and retain a memory of the seashore and the Lanes. Saw the outside of the Prince Regent's castle but didn't tour.

Carolyn, there was a short TV series about Grace mysteries.

I used to live in Brighton and once went to an office staff dance at the Brighton Pavilion which isn't really a castle. It is hard to describe what it really is!

What fun, Annpan! A nice memory. That TV series about Grace mysteries is ongoing. I have watched the three?? seasons so far on BritBox or Acorn TV and have enjoyed them altho, as always, too much sex and violence for me.

I checked my Retirement Village library and was pleased to see several Peter James books there. He is a very prolific writer! I have plenty to read ATM but will try one of them later.

We have two good mystery series on TV, Annika and Shetland but they are both about Scottish police. I prefer a mixture for Sunday night viewing.

Annpan, are you watching the new series Shetland where there is a new female (this time) boss? My brother has a house up there on Mainland and says since the series has become so popular many more tourists are making the trek so far up North and quite a number of them seem to think the stories are non-fiction and want to be shown the various murder scenes!

No, we are always behind with the latest series on the Free to Air TV channels! I sometimes get them faster as DVDs from the Public Library! A lot of the popular programs are on the Pay to View channels.

I get uncomfortable sitting for too long so I limit viewing to short bursts in the afternoon and a couple of hours in the evening and have plenty to watch then.

I recently borrowed a little book of advice to seniors around retirement age. It was quite interesting but I didn't agree with the author about hire purchase. He said it was better to save up for goods. I have always bought now and paid off. Saving is hard and by the time the goal is reached, the cost has gone up! Get the best interest rate on the loan and have the use of the goods.

What do you RP'ers think?

Annpan, I tend to go by the " . . . never a borrower be". I have never suffered from consumer-envy (if that is the right expression) and never feel the need for 'stuff'. And if I do need rather than want something it will only be if I can afford it, then I'll buy it.

I have also always been worried about people who want to borrow everyday stuff. "Will they give it back? Must I ask for it?"

An embarrassing eg although really of no financial worry was when a friend noticed my young DD had a set of paperbacks ('Simon and the Witch' I think) and said how much her DD would love to read them. She couldn't wait until my DD got back from school to ask her but would return them soon.

Fat chance! Lots of excuses with me feeling stupid for occasionally mentioning it. Finally after over a year friend said "Well, they were only paperbacks so no big deal." I was left feeling bad for my daughter.

Ann hope I don't sound too 'Holier than Thou' Really I'm not!

Life is short, buy on credit.

Vee, no, if that is what you want to do and you can wait until you can afford something, fine!

When I returned to Australia I was lucky to have enough cash to buy necessary items like a fridge and vacuum cleaner. That had not always been the case. When we finally moved into a home of our own with two young children I had to buy a few things on credit. In those days you could get vouchers for 10% interest that had to be spent at certain shops. A fridge is a must-have in this climate and so was a washing machine with two toddlers!

My husband was a cash only guy, and I have continued to follow that principle. I like being debt free.

I am another one who doesn't care for loans or credit cards. I agree with Carolyn.

PAM

Fortunately I don't use credit cards now as I have set myself up with what I need. However I get calls all the time from people who tell me that someone has tried to make a purchase on my credit card and implore me to call back!

Are scammers a daily nuisance where you live?

I have been able to block some calls but they slip past somehow!

Just finished Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Normally, I like her books, but the premise of this one just does not make for enjoyable nor enlightening reading for me. The setting is the U.S. after the government has turned into a Big Brother entity. Criticism of the government is not allowed and the Chinese are not to be trusted. Therefore, people of any Asian heritage are discriminated against, attacked, and sometimes killed. The worst offense by the government is that they secretly remove children from homes where the parents are suspect (either for speaking out against the government or appearing to be Asian). I've never read a dystopian book that I liked, and this one is no exception.

Annpan, I think scammers are a world wide problem. BBC radio has been running a 'beware of scammers' week and one programme mentioned that there are now 'conventions' for scammers! These scumbags get together and discuss how they can get more money out of vulnerable old ladies. Apparently they take the line that if you are stupid enough to fall for their 'patter' you have only yourself to blame . . .

I have had three scam calls and it isn't 8am yet!

I have just had a death in the family so I need to answer the phone for condolence calls.

I almost got sucked into giving bank details once and I am more careful as a result! The give away was when I hesitated and the caller shrieked that my phone service would be cut off if I didn't comply!

I never give any information to anyone who calls. No one. In the rare event I think the call is legitimate, I call the place myself.

On the rare occasion that I might pick up a "spam risk" or unidentified call I enjoy playing Bruce Springsteen's " Born In The USA " at full volume. I keep it handy in my bookmarks heading on my computer !

I am reading The Corpse on the Dike by Janwillem van de Wetering. Set in Amsterdam in the 1970's, the series has been described "what Simeon might have done if Albert Camus had sublet his skill". I enjoy his detectives, Grijpstra and de Gier very much.

PAM