Vee - Haven't read The Marriage Portrait, but I'm aware from Internet buzz that it was well received.

EDIT: A day later, Hamnet has become a DNF for me, sigh ...

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith. It has a very long prologue of a bunch of correspondence between characters. I almost gave up on it, since the last Cormoran Strike book had long sections of social media posts all through it that were annoying to read. But the correspondence ended after the prologue so I’m continuing on.

Donna

I finished The Close last night. It is the last published book of the Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey. The new one is due next month, and I can hardly wait. I love these characters.

I have been rereading the earlier Murderbot books to refresh my memory before I start Netwrok Effect. i know there is a newer one after this one but I have to read this one first.

I really enjoyed The Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz. Some of his books are a bit too graphically violent for me, but this one wasn’t. I am currently reading a fantasy series by Jeff Wheeler…The Dawning of Muirwood…and enjoying it. I’m already on the second book.

I read Killers of a Certain Age quickly as it is 100F out so I am stuck indoors with nothing much to do! I quite enjoyed it but was "yanked" out of the story by the British woman using American terms when she meets the girls.

Luckily she doesn't appear again.

I shall try another of Raybourn's books though as they have been mentioned with approval here.

Annapanagain, I am a Raybourn fan and have read both her Veronica Speedwell series and her Lady Julia Gray series as well as a few of her other novels. For me, she rarely disappoints !

I'm curious about your statement that you were " yanked out" .

I wonder what American terms you found ?

Yoyo, English Constance Halliday says "wash up for dinner. I will see you in the dining room in quarter of an hour." It should be more like "have a wash for dinner time. I will see you in the dining room in "A" quarter of an hour." Just little changes but they make a difference. Picky, moi?

Wash up sounds like washing up or doing the dishes!

I enjoyed reading the various ways to kill! Well researched.

I just began reading The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg and am enjoying it so far.

Bon - I read The Confession Club a few years ago, but I hardly remember it. I checked my reading journal and found that I had positive and negative things about it, but apparently overall enjoyed it. Let us know your opinion when you've finished.

I'm reading Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James, dated but good.

I hope you enjoy it. P.D. James is one of the best and worth reading and re-reading. And the TV series with Roy Marsden is also superb. I can't find it streaming anywhere in the US but was able to buy the DVDs of the series at a good price awhile ago.

Just finished Go As A River by Shelley Read. It's a well-written book, but a very sad story.

I think my next one will be Blue Monday by Nicci French. I didn't know until I looked at the book jacket that Nicci French is a team of two writers. I don't usually like the idea of two writers. We'll see how this goes.

I am still reading Beryl Markham's memoir, West with the Night. She's a fantastic story-teller, but because each chapter is a self-contained story, I find the book easy to put down. I tried to fit in my library book The Reckoning, by Charles Nicholls about the murder of Christopher Marlowe, but didn't get far when I had to return it. Odd that a 30-year-old book has suddenly become so popular - after I borrowed it with no wait for it at all, 7 holds popped up on it, so I couldn't renew it. If anyone has read Ann Swinfen's Elizabethan series (in particular, That Time May Cease), the Nicholls book seems to have been a source for Swinfen.

A book that improved as it went on The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican. EH has been studying the lives of the three daughters of the famous Dublin-based brewing family. The book is fiction and she introduces an imaginary character and 'poor relation' (think Fanny Price in Mansfield Park) to tell the 'real' story of Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh. Once they left the constrictions of the mansion in Dublin in the early 1920's and moved to one of their London home, their lives as Bright Young Things took off. After they 'came out' as debutantes the three became increasingly wild and were part of the 'smart set' partying, fooling about and getting their names in the society pages of the papers. They all married very young to wealthy aristocrats but none of them found long-lasting happiness.

The author, in a long end-piece explains the political situation in Ireland during this period, the term Anglo-Irish, the fears during the Civil War between the conflicting parts of the Irish Free State, the Wall Street Crash etc.

Kathy, I really liked the Day of the Week series by Nicci French. I read a couple of her other books and found them too violent for me.

Thanks for the info, Carolyn. I didn't even know that Nicci French had a series of Day of the Week books. I don't remember how Blue Monday got on my TBR list. I will probably stick with it, although it seems a bit gritty for my taste. I'm not very along though.

I'm not reading any particular book. What I've been doing is picking and reading Psychological concepts. Currently, I'm reading about a concept called Observational learning - "a type of learning that occurs when an individual observes the behavior of another and then models their own behavior after it. It is one of the most common forms of social learning, and it has been studied extensively in psychology since its discovery by Albert Bandura in the 1950s. In observational learning, people learn from observing others' behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes; they then use this information to shape their own actions or beliefs. This form of learning can be beneficial as well as detrimental, depending on what someone chooses to observe and imitate."

Children being the most common imitators and parents being the usual models of behavior. Therein lies the problem in many cases today.

Do you think they mean deliberately choosing someone to be like when one is old enough to make that decision, or the observed behavior from childhood--perhaps things not to do as well as the following of a family pattern?

I'm about to begin Prussian Blue, a Bernie Gunther book by Philip Kerr. I found a site that lists the Bernie books in time order rather than the order in which Kerr wrote them, which was haphazardly. Bernie is a policeman before, during, and after WWII.

I’ve been working on The Running Grave for 15 days. I have 12 more chapters to go. Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are investigating a cult that is involved in child trafficking in addition to the usual brain-washing and manipulation cults are known for. It’s a well-written story by Robert Galbraith, aka JK Rowling, but in my opinion is at least twice as long as it needs to be. My android phone and my iPad can’t seem to figure out how many pages it is, but it’s at least 1,600, and it could be 600 and would still be too long. Hope to finally finish it this weekend.

Donna

Just finished The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg and enjoyed it very much ! The characters were women of a certain age who were all very endearing.

Awake at 3 am and couldn’t go back to sleep, so The Running Grave is finally finished. Way, way, way too long!

I’m reading Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen. I like her writing but can’t help thinking she is a ”poor woman’s” Alice Hoffman…one of my favorite authors.

Rabbit Stew by Maggie Smith Bendell is about growing up as a Traveller/Gypsy during the 1940's to 50's; a way of life that was fast disappearing. She was born in a pea-field and lived in a horse-drawn wagon with a large extended family all working on the land, pea, bean, potato and hop picking. Selling clothes pegs and bunches of wild flowers was a hand-to-mouth existence and they were often 'moved on' by the police. She talks of the discrimination they suffered, often shunned and mistrusted and later the difficulty of trying to fit in with living in a house and missing the freedom of the old ways.

Interesting to me as I remember occasionally seeing a convoy of their wagons rolling by and DH can remember his mother buying clothes pegs from them.

Worth reading for a look into the traditions and language of an almost lost civilisation of people. nb. They do not like to be confused with New Age Travellers or the Irish Tinkers.

Sounds like a very interesting book, Vee. I also enjoy first-hand non-fiction accounts of people's lives. One point tho is that the Irish people in that group are also called Travelers and also suffer a lot of discrimination.

vickitg.......I read Other Birds and wasn't sure whether I liked it or not.

I'm currently enjoying Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris, a continuation of the tale of Vianne and the Chocolat series.

I read Other Birds several years ago and recall liking it very much.

I finished reading Blue Monday by Nicci French. It certainly held my interest because it was such a weird plot, but not much about it was appealing to me. I can't relate to characters who are so very isolated from family and friends and have no appreciation of their home life, like the woman psychoanalyst loner who is the main character in this book. Her life sounds really awful, walking the streets of London's less desirable neighborhoods when she can't sleep at night, even though she's brilliant and intuitive and can find criminals and kidnapped children that the police cannot. She reminded me of the Dana Scully and Fox Mulder characters in the old X-Files tv show - no personal lives and usually depressed.

I'm reading John Banville's latest Quirke book, The Lock-Up. I'm not very far into it, but Quirke seems to be his usual melancholy self only worse since losing his wife in the last book.

A Mind to Murder - P D James. One of her early books (1963) and set in a London psychiatric clinic. The murder of a member of staff brings Inspector Adam Dalgliesh onto the scene and a good half of the book is given over to his interviews with the staff and the many descriptions of the lay-out of the elegant Georgian building. As there are at least a dozen 'suspects' I found it rather difficult to follow who was who (the fault is mine rather than Miss James'). Interesting to read about a London I used to know back in the day! And what an excellent writer she is. Many a so-called author of today could learn much from her use of the English language.

I'm on a mission to read (or reread) the P.D. James books in order and agree that she is a very good writer.

Another vote for PD James. Her books are well worth reading and re-reading. Right now, I am reading Empty Mansions, the very strange but true story of Huguette Clark. She inherited multi-millions from her father who made one of America's great fortunes in mining in the 19c. I had never heard of either of them but the father, W.A. Clark, was right up there with the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers etc.

Huguette married only briefly and lived the rest of her life in New York. The incredible mansion in NYC her father built was sold when he died and torn down. She and her mother moved to palatial apartments in Manhattan in the same building. They also had a spectacular estate in Santa Barbara and another in Connecticut. After her mother died, Huguette never visited either or even left her apartment altho the estates, autos etc etc etc were immaculately maintained by large staffs who were generously paid. Huguette received no visitors but kept in touch with some people by notes and phone calls. She never gave out her phone number and always called others.

She lived the last thirty years of her life in a Manhattan hospital, despite being perfectly healthy. She died at age 104 in 2011. As you can imagine, there was an immense fight over her will.

It's an incredible story and a real page-turner. I recommend the book for those interested in this type of thing.

I am really enjoying The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris.

I have read all the books which precede this one and each one is very good.

Having seen the movie, Chocolat , first I can visualize each character and place myself in the quaint village so easily , making the whole series that much more enjoyable.

I have just barely started The Running Grave. Here's hoping I don't get too bogged down in it. The download on my laptop says it has 2,110 pages. I do have the font set to a bit larger print size.

Carolyn, how many pages in a book would that be ?

Bon, according to Barnes & Noble, 960. It was 1,655 on my iPad.

I’m currently reading The Granite Coast Murders by Jean-Luc Bannalec. I love his vivid descriptions of the Breton scenery, and I like that the books have no graphic murder scenes and are rather light-hearted.

Donna

Yoyobon, Google says 960 pages. On my laptop I have now read 354 of the 2,110. (This has not been a reading day.)

Just finished am interesting read given as a Christmas present Life at Full Tilt a compilation of excerpts from many of travel writer Dervla Murphy's books. She wrote about 24 books so this selection is just a taste of the countries she visited. I felt that her editor and friend Ethel Crowley, an Irish sociologist, has chosen rather too many of the violent areas of the world visited by DN . . . the Balkans, Garza, parts of Russia even down-at-heel areas of the UK during rioting. And I'm probably treading on eggs here, but Crowley in a long introduction, takes several pot-shots at the Ireland of the 30's-50's in which Dervla grew up.

The last remaining articles are those DM wrote for the Irish Times, always perceptive and often funny.

I just finished reading The Lost Man by Jane Harper. Annpann, you may have read her books. I like her stories and characters. I previously read The Dry by her, and plan to read the next one in that series.

Vickitg, I have read all the Jane Harper books and seen The Dry movie. Dry 2 is showing here but I can't risk going to cinemas as Covid is still around! I await the DVD eagerly.

They are not my usual cozy mystery genre but was recommended here so as I had access to her books in my Retirement Village library, decided to try a change!

I'm down to 650 pages in The Running Grave and reading on for awhile tonight. It's a good book.

Carolyn, I'm impressed that you would take on such a long book. I don't mind reading a long book if I anticipate a really good read, but the thought of nearly 1,000 pages certainly gives me pause. However, in my eyes, you are an amazingly fast reader and I'm sure that helps. I'm curious about the title, The Running Grave, does it have an appropriate meaning once you've read the book?

Carolyn, I thought Running Grave could have been about 1/3 as long and I wouldn’t have missed anything.

Kathyt, it’s a reference to a poem but I can’t remember now whose.

Donna

Thanks, Donna.

The title is from a long poem by Dylan Thomas beginning " When, like a running grave, time tracks you down,"

Kathy, on my laptop the book was 2,110 pages long (with the zoom set at 125), and I began reading it on February 26. I am a pretty fast reader, but I spend a lot of time at it, accomplishing very little else. I liked the book at lot but the subject not so much.

Carolyn, my feelings exactly! I liked the side stories and the interaction of the characters, but the story around the main investigation, not so much.

Donna

Carolyn and Donna - Thanks so much for the information. Very interesting!

Yesterday, before doing my taxes (grrr...), I finished reading Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. It was light-hearted and amusing. Some of the stereotypes of Asian mothers felt a little cringe-worthy, but over all, a fun read.