Ginny - I posted a February thread 3 minutes after you did (great minds...), but I quickly deleted it when I saw your post. Here's what I have to say about my February reading so far:

Having just DNF'd both of my awaiting TBRs, I am in the midst of a "what to read next" crisis. I spent time online this morning looking at book websites, selecting several titles, and checking the number of copies available at my local library - because I would like to find a title to suggest for my book club's line-up. I plan to visit the library tomorrow and check out the following books to "sample." Comments and suggestions would be most welcome.

The Ride of Her Life - Elizabeth Letts

The Echo of Old Books - Barbara Davis

The Briar Club - Kate Quinn (already read this one and know it's a contender)

Sandwich - Catherine Newman

Bear - Julia Phillips

That is a coincidence, Kathy! Wish I knew something about any of your titles but I'm no help at all. Let us know what you pick.

I am currently reading Crooked House by Agatha Christie. I needed something fun to take my mind off of work. This is just the ticket.

PAM

Pam, not my idea of fun! I have the DVD which is quite good.

I want to get A Haunting in Venice (an A. C reworked) but will have to bestir myself to go to a DVD shop. There are few left here now streaming has taken over!

Kathy re your possible book club choices. The only one with which I am familiar is The Briar Club which I enjoyed, so can't help you with the others.

I've never joined such a 'club' and often wonder if the choices are wide-ranging eg from popular/latest big-sellers to well-loved old favourites, SF or the 'classics'. Do the discussions have enough to get your teeth into or is everyone very polite and wary of giving offence if they disagree with a point-of-view?

Kathy, I enjoyed The Briar Club also.........kudos to you for joining a book club , oh brave soul !

Do you know the others in the group? I would think it would be more interesting if everyone could be brutally honest. Being "very polite and wary of being offensive" might be a tad restricting in a book club.

There are many kinds of book clubs--fiction, non-fiction, friends, strangers etc. The book club I'm part of is perfect for me. It evolved out of a group of friends wanting to get together to discuss books. There are about fourteen of us and as each person joined, she knew at least a few of the others. We are all women and they couldn't be nicer. Our book choices range widely tho the group seems to prefer modern fiction and not too 'literary'. We disagree but politely and I'm very grateful for that. This world is full of quite enough rudeness in the public sphere.

The books we read are rarely ones I would have picked but our discussions are always interesting. Many of us know each other's families as well so there's plenty of catch-up time. We're mostly not originally from New England--all over the Eastern US and a couple of women from other countries. This book club is one of the blessings of my life.

I read Gone, a Michael Bennett story by James Patterson. It was the conclusion of a story line started in the previos book, about capturing a cartel leader. It was extremely violent and gory, to the point that I had decided to skip the next book in the series if that story line was going to continue. Fortunately, they got him, so the next book will have a different subject.

I also checked out a digital book that contains the first three novels in the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn. I just started the second one. These are set in London in 1813-1814. I found the first book pretty predictable but it was an engaging story and light reading. I enjoyed it.

Donna

Update on my book sampling for book-club-worthy books - I was not able to pick up all the books I had chosen because, although I only chose "available" books, I was forgetting that my library is regional and some of my chosen books were available at a library in another town. I had to put holds on those so they could be transferred to my home-town library. I now have a list of holds that are waiting at my location which I will pick up soon.

First, I believe my suggestion for our next book-club line-up will be The Briar Club, because I liked it, Vee liked it and Yoyobon liked it. If it's good enough for we three, I figure it's good enough for my book club.

Here is how my list of contenders stand at the moment:

The Ride of Her Life - It's a NO, a nonfiction book about a woman who rode her horse from Maine to California in the 1950s when she was in her sixties. While I expected this to be an interesting and even exciting read, the portions I sampled were unfortunately rather slow and boring.

The Echo of Old Books - I'm #7 in line for 3 copies at my library.

The Briar Club - It's a YES. I'm going suggest it our Feb 17 book-picking session.

Sandwich - It's a NO, a novel about a woman going through the time in her life when her adult children are still somewhat dependent on her, and her parents are starting to become dependent also. While I'm certain my book club friends can relate, it didn't seem funny enough or inspirational enough to make it a good read.

Bear - Waiting for me at the library.

Somehow, my list of possibilities has grown to include these additional titles:

So Long, Chester Wheeler - Catherine Ryan Hyde. It's in my possession. I'll sample it next.

How to Read a Book: A Novel - Monica Wood. - Waiting for me at the library.

Sipsworth - Simon Van Booy - I'm #9 in line for 3 copies.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife - Anna Johnston - I'm #12 in line for 3 copies.

Vee - Regarding your question about belonging to a book club, I would say a lot of the same things that Ginny said about her book club, except I was acquainted with only one member when I first started attending. I'm now friends with all of them to a degree. Our numbers vary a bit because we have a few "snow birds" in the group. (Those are women who leave the cold Midwest during the winter months to spend a few months in the south. All of our snow birds winter in Florida.) We try to keep the number at about 5-10, or a living room full, since we take turns hosting meetings at our homes.

Along with enjoying the comradery, I like hearing what others have to say about the books we discuss. Usually, I come away from a meeting with a better understanding and appreciation of the book (even if I didn't like it) because I've been exposed to things I had not thought of on my own. And, it makes me actually spend some time thinking about the book, rather than just breezing on to the next book, which is so easy to do.

I read Want You Dead by Peter James in huge gulps and am now reading The Black Tower, an old mystery by P. D. James, at a much slower pace although it is a good book.

I'm another who really liked The Briar Club, as I do all of Kate Quinn's books.

PD James is one of the very best. Her books are ones to read and read again, imho. And I loved the TV series with Roy Marsden playing Adam Dalgliesh. I bought the DVDs at a good price some time back and I'm glad I have them as I can't find them streaming anywhere.I don't care for the new version.

Currently reading The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict and am enjoying it, as I do all of her novels.

I just finished another violent and gory book by James Patterson (one of the Alex Cross series). Next up is the third book in the Bridgerton series.

Reporting back on 3 more of the books I've been sampling as possible future reads:

So Long, Chester Wheeler - I'm really liking this one and I'm 76 pages in, so I'm sticking with it as my current read, and I suspect a future contender for my book club.

Bear - I read 33 pages of this one and though I probably will not suggest it for book club, I do intend to get back to it sometime in the future. It's not a compelling read, but I love the setting, the San Juan Islands, because I visited there on two recent vacations and I like the familiarity of the islands and the ferries. There is a bear involved in the plot, by the way.

How to Read a Book - This afternoon, I sampled fewer than 20 pages of this book, but I'm already sort of in love with it. The opening chapter describes a book club meeting that takes place in a women's prison and it immediately drew me in. I'll be reading this one soon. Not sure if it will be book-club worthy, but I suspect so.

I will stop here with this little saga, even though there are a couple more books on hold that I will consider once they become available. I think my "what to read next" crisis is over. Thanks for listening.

I finished The House of the Seven Gables the other day. I really enjoyed it until the end. The ending was unbelievable and not up to the rest of the book. A real let-down, especially as reading Hawthorne's prose is a commitment. This is a book I'd like to be in a classroom to hear discussed and analyzed.

On another note, for fans of Jean-Luc Bannalec's Brittany (France) mystery series, a new book is coming out shortly. I got on the library's reserve list as fast as possible so hope I won't have to wait too long. The title is An Island of Suspects.

As I do my daily walking I'm listening to Diane Chamberlain's The Lies We Told.

Wow ... that woman can really write a compelling story ! I'm actually looking forward to walking just to get back to it.

I enjoyed Big Lies In A Small Town , also by her. I might consider another one as they are currently being offered free on Audible.

A couple of books recently finished . . .

The House at Seas-End another in the series (the third, I seemed to have missed the second) with the archaeologist finding ancient bodies along the North Norfolk coast.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I must be one of the last people on the planet to have read this and found it 'interesting' and, although quiet a serious subject, there was enough humour to carry the story through, much of it caused by poor Eleanor's lack of awareness of how the modern world works.

I finished Pachinko by Min Lee and have mixed feelings about it. The basic story of Korean people living in Japan and how they are viewed by the Japanese was interesting, but the writing style didn't grab me. There were long passages of fairly detailed description, then the chapter would end with 'and then he died' or something of that nature. It seemed like large portions of people's lives were glossed over while we heard descriptions of clothes and hair.

Kath - I've had Pachinko on the way-back burner of my TBR for a long time, so I appreciated reading your comments. I might just remove it from my TBR now. I've been trying to cull down that list anyway. On a personal note, I'm using a real keyboard to type, not my phone, and I found it impossible to type "Kath" without my fingers adding the "y". Had to use the backspace.

I'm reading Murder in the Tea Leaves by Laura Childs. This is an author I've followed for years (like her China Bayles books the best, but I do love teashops) and found that Stop, You're Killing Me has fallen sadly behind on listing the teashop murders. I have noticed they are not up to date on several series I like and found by googling that they have become lax in their information. Wonder why? It seems they would either keep up or drop out altogether.

Carolyn, you might like to try the site Fantastic Fiction. I checked the Laura Childs entries and they have the teashop books up to 2025.

Thanks, Kath. I suppose I'm spoiled by not having to look up individual authors, but I'll probably get over it.

Carolyn, I noticed that about SYKM too and have gone to the author's website to double check for the latest favourite authors books for a while now. It used to be good. Should we write and complain?

SYKM has a blog twice a month that you can sign up for. Free. It lists new books coming out. That might be an answer but for myself, I just check my favorite authors' websites. That Fantastic Fiction site Kath mentioned has also been very reliable for me. I copy/paste their list into my 'Mystery' doc and then I can mark which I've already read. I try to keep it updated.

I get SKYM's blog, too, but it isn't as complete as it used to be. Ann, I don't know if complaining will help, but I think the next time I get an email from them, I'll let them know I'm disappointed.

I'm reading Booked to Death by Victoria Gilbert, a new author for me. The book is Goodreads 3 star, so far.

Carolyn, it probably won't do any good but worth a try! I emailed them about an author update once and it was ignored.

I check the upcoming book list they provide to give me time to request library books. I have to select from online these days unless I can get someone to take me to the local branch for a browse.

Just finished a second read of Carolyn Hart's Ghost Ups Her Game. I'm trying to get better at looking on Goodreads to see if I've already read a book, although I don't suppose it matters because I don't remember the stories anyway. At least I've gotten the hang of how to post a reread.

I am finding it slow going to find books I feel like reading so I stsrted a reread of the founding of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey. As in other series she has done, I am finding inconsistancies, even from one chapter to the next, and with the second volume I have found myself wishing an editor had gone through and red lined a large portion of the main male character’s thought processes. It would have moved the story along so much better if that had been done.

Just finished The Other Einstein and was glad to get to the end of it. Albert Einstein was an unlikable person and his wife was frustratingly committed to the marriage even though he was a serial philanderer. Not one of my favorite Marie Benedict books.

I had heard that about Einstein. Unfortunate.

I finished The Wicked Redhead by Beatriz Williams yesterday. It’s the second of a trilogy, so I decided to go ahead and read The Wicked Widow while Redhead is fresh in my mind. There are two storylines, one set during Prohibition and one set in 1998, but they are tied together. I’m looking forward to seeing how BW concludes the stories.

Donna

I finished reading So Long, Chester Wheeler by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I really enjoyed this book about a young gay man who through a series of unfortunate events finds himself broke and without a job, wondering how he's going to pay his rent. He lives in a house next door to an extremely cantankerous old man (Chester Wheeler) who spends a great deal of his time sitting on his front porch in his wheelchair hurling loud insults at the unfortunate gay man, mostly about his being gay. The old man's daughter is in a bind because all the caregivers she hires eventually quit due to the old fellow's negative disposition. I suppose you can guess who she talks into being a temporary caregiver when she needs to leave town for a few weeks. Much hilarity ensues.

I read a very exciting but violent book by John Hart, The Unwilling. I could hardly wait to find out how it ended, and guess what was on Goodreads as having been read in February 2021. I never had a clue I'd read it before, and it doesn't seem that forgettable. I'm beginning to wonder what's going on in my head.

Enjoying A Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg.

Barbara,,,,,,bonne chance !

I'm currently reading How to Read a Book: A Novel by Monica Wood. (At last, a book in which the subtitle A Novel seems appropriate.) It starts out well with the first chapter describing a book club meeting taking place in a women's prison. I'm really liking it so far.

I finished The Wicked Widow the day after I started it. I really enjoyed the trilogy. If you like Beatriz Williams, I highly recommend these!

Donna

Yesterday I finished How To Read A Book by Monica Wood and I absolutely loved it. It's early in the year, but I won't be surprised if this turns out to be my favorite read of 2025. It's so much fun to happen upon a book like this!

I might start The Stillman Files .

I'm reading Agatha Christie's Marple, Expert on Wickedness by Mark Aldridge. It's an overview of all of the Miss Marple short stories and books, interspersed with quotations from Agatha Christie about herself, her writing and the Miss Marple tales. There are a lot of black and white illustrations of the cover art of various editions and an account of when they were published. I'm enjoying it but I will say that it's really aimed at readers who already love Miss Marple, as I do. I suspect it would be boring for others. Aldridge has done a similar book about Poirot, which I plan to read.

An overlong read has been Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally I think recommended by a couple of people on the KT thread.

In 1914 many women nurses from Australia answered the call of Empire and went to care for the wounded in the Great War. The story follows several such young women, especially two sisters travelling from Egypt, to Gallipoli, to the Greeks island where the wounded were brought from the battlefields. By 1916 they are at the Western Front serving until and during the outbreak of Spanish flu and the war's end. Much research must have gone into the descriptions of the workings of these field hospitals, the type of equipment available, the terrible wounds suffered by the men and the horrendous living conditions in that part of Northern France and Belgium.

I found rather too many females not easy to follow (and all of them seemed to have stayed together through all those years) and the 'double ending' in the final chapter was something of a cop-out.

The lack of punctuation marks " " made the many 'conversations' difficult to follow and one of my pet hates appeared when the names of the sisters are wrongly placed and I found myself double checking and re-reading to see why sister S had suddenly become sister N.

Ginny, I have requested that book from my library as it was on the SYKM list and looked interesting. I can't remember what started me reading Christie,probably my mother read her books. I think I have read most of them.

It is interesting to recall what started me reading favourite authors. I read my first Heyer around the time her movie of The Reluctant Widow came to our local cinema and I missed the end to catch the last bus home. I borrowed the book but it was a different plot ending anyway!

I found another favourite by looking for a book by a similarly named author and liked the title!

I get a lot of ideas from SYKM as they give a helpful synopsis.

Annpan, SYKM is exactly where I saw this book suggested too. I first read Agatha Christie when she was recommended to me by my husband's parents. I lived with them when my husband was in Viet Nam. We were just out of college and just married. Reading all those Agatha Christie mysteries helped me get thru that dreadful year.

Vee - Regarding your review of Daughters of Mars, which I found very interesting (your review that is, not the book), I have a couple of questions:

1. Did you learn why the book is titled Daughters of Mars? (It's the "Mars" that I wonder about.)

2. Please explain what you mean by "double ending in the final chapter." That sounds very odd!

I'll not mind if your reply contains spoilers. I'm not planning to read the book. Just curious.

Ginny and Annpan - The book about Miss Marple sounds really interesting. I'm far from well-read when it comes to Agatha Christie, but the few Miss Marple novels I read years ago were my favorites. Perhaps one day soon, I will be moved to renew my acquaintance with dear Miss Marple.

kathy, The 'Mars' in the title refers to the god of War.

In the final chapter Keneally gives two possible endings to the story. In the first, one sister dies and in the second it is the other sister plus a variety of 'facts' to back up/round off/tidy away the events. For me an unsatisfactory finish.

I read Game Over, a Bill Slider story by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I enjoyed it a lot. Slider is a police inspector. It was a very involved story starting with the murder of a man who was a former BBC correspondent. The two libraries I use have very few books by CH-E, which is too bad because she’s a very good writer.

I was able to get a copy of An Island of Suspects, the new book by Jean Luc Bannalec, so that’s up next.

Donna

I am finding The Stillman Files to be a clever, amusing read and a nice break from family drama , murder and mayhem.