Carolyn, I am so sorry to hear about your reading problems. I have just ordered some slightly magnifying reading glasses as I had to sew on a button recently and found I could barely see to thread the needle!

The optician's assistant who saw to the order asked if I used a computer as I would need glasses to look up as well as read lower. I assured her that I did and had done so for many years working in libraries!

Just because I am 88 there are so many assumptions of what I am capable of doing!

Carolyn, Thank you for that recommendation. I'll look into it. I have been waiting for another of Elizabeth Goudge's books from the library since May. I think someone has not returned it.

Annpan, Yes! Assumptions about age and ability are very annoying.

I'm a ;little ahead of you, Ann. Today is my birthday, and I'm 89. People are kind enough to say I don't look it and I do have generally good health, but I notice a difference in energy levels, and such things as standing on one foot just don't work anymore.

I went to a bookstore this afternoon and treated myself to James Lee Burke's new book, Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie.

Happy Birthday, Carolyn!

P.S. I love that book title; I'll have to look into it.

Happy birthday, Carolyn!

I meant to say that I have finished reading Jane Casey's latest book The Secret Room. I really like Maeve and Josh.

Happy Birthday, Carolyn!

Carolyn, Happy Birthday!

I never had much energy to start with! For my first twenty years people in the UK kept telling me to get a move on, then I went to Western Australia where people moved slower because of the heat. Perfect!

I get annoyed when I use a word one minute and lose it two minutes later!

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

I haven't posted lately, but have finished a couple of books.

I continued on a road of reading historical fiction set in Asia with The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang. The cover had a lot of recommendations from other authors, but I found the story had promise that wasn't fulfilled. It's set in the 1880s in China, with two girls, one a slave to the other. The story was interesting and pointed out the many problems for women of all classes in Chinese culture (not the least of which was foot binding, hence the title) but the dialogue was stilted and the thoughts of the girls much too philosophical for children of their ages and education.

I enjoyed The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough, about Sulla and Gaius Marius, although I did have some trouble keeping all the names straight. Unfortunately, the edition I had (a cheap hardback from an op shop) had more typos than I have ever seen, at least one on every page. Sometimes it took a bit of rereading to work out what was meant, like 'what' for 'wheat'.

I also finished The Secret Hours by Mick Herron, who wrote the Slow Horses books. It was interesting - great start, boring middle and good finish.

Carolyn A very Happy Birthday for yesterday. As for energy levels I've always been amazed by those long trips and cruises you do with your daughter. I'm sure you have more get-up-and-go than many people half your age!

I'm booking a ticket of next year's Big Party.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I'll be looking for you, Vee! You can visit your Virginia relatives on the way.

I'm reading The Life Intended which is a strange concept where a newly engaged woman is having experiences in her present life but with her husband who died 14 years ago and the 12-year-old-daughter they never had. It's an intriguing story.

Happy Belated Birthday Carolyn! I have been very lax about visiting here recently, mainly because I had a virus that wouldn’t go away, that affected me for a few weeks, including very low energy levels. Fortunately, I am nearly back to normal and I have managed to reread a few books. I reread the first 4 books in the Dreamhealers series by MCA Hogarth. And am currently rereading The Wizard’s Butler by Nathan Lowell. I have not found any new to me books that hold my attention so am rereading books I know for now.

I like to reread from my collection when I am not feeling too well. I have many favourites and can pick a chapter or scene over and over again. I can picture them and was surprised to find that some people can not. I do not know how they interpret a book as I can usually see a character but not always as the author did!

I may have mentioned before that I had a problem with the age of a young woman in a story and wrote to the author who kindly replied that she had got it wrong, visualising a much younger character than was possible by the dates of events.

I have to make the adjustment when I reread that novel!

Reading The Book Of Speculation by Erika Swyler ( a debut novel).

Although I'm not a fan of any circus- themed tales, I'm giving this one a try based on the reviews. ( I DNF The Night Circus for that same reason! ).

Rouan, I am glad you are feeling better!

Thanks msmeow, I am too! 😊

Just sent back to the library Murder at the Monastery the third in a series by the Rev'd Richard Coles which I found rather heavy going. Coles, who used to be a C of E clergyman and sometime radio 'personality' and part of a pop group in his youth (I think now retired) makes much of the monastery setting and not so much of the murder. His sleuth Rev Daniel is accomplished in both Latin and Greek, has a fine singing voice and plays the organ, all the while lusting after a burly police officer who is on hand to solve the crime. There is only so much one can take of the finer points of the liturgy, or how much incense should be wafted about during a service, or if a mitre is worn in the same way by an abbot as a bishop. The services at the monastery made those that take place in the Vatican seem positively Puritanical by contrast.

I've begun my daughter's new David Baldacci book, Strangers in Time. He certainly is a prolific writer, and she buys all of them.

Vee, I gave up on reading the Rev Coles books after the first! I did not like the style or content and found it boring. Thumb down!

Annpan, for me, a much more enjoyable contemporary writer is Richard Osman who does a much better line in characterisation without the 'over-educating'.

I should have added (above) that the Coles' books are set in the 1980's . . . which is like yesterday for me . . . so some of the references/explanations he gives rather throw me!

I prefer the Osman books too. I did not realise at first that the Coles book was set in the 1980s until a reference put me straight. I was in Australia then and only returned to the UK in December 1990 so also missed out on some of the pointers. Now back in Australia since 2003 I have lost touch and find the UK TV quiz shows I enjoy can baffle me, especially naming faces which are not familiar.

I have mild face blindness anyway which is a hindrance even with the Australian versions!

The weather is so dull and dreary that I am viewing a lot of daytime TV to cheer me up.

We get the US version of Family Feud which is noisy and cheerful and good for a laugh at the questions and answers.

Annpan re face blindness (doesn't it have a fancy Greek name? I should ask Rev Coles) I have always suffered with this. It can be SO embarrassing when I'm introduced to someone only to not recognise them five minutes later. I now have trained myself to think "Middle aged man in a red pullover" . A bad eg was when DD brought home the university photo of her modern history degree group. There seemed to be a hundred or so young people there wearing their gowns and mortarboards and DD said "I think I am about third from the left in the front row." Well I knew to look for a female but it wasn't until DD came over and checked "Oh no. I'm the fifth from left." Then I recognised her!.

Vee, My worst face blindness was when I did not recognise my parents! I saw them in a shop and thought that I knew that couple! I had not long left them sitting at home so I did not expect to see them in the town. It took quite a few seconds for me to realise who they were!

I tend to look at watches as workmates etc usually wear the same ones and that helps but I try not to address people by name until I am sure who they are.

I have trouble with two teenage great-granddaughters, who look very similar, if they are not together. I go by height when they are.

Annpan my late mother used to tell how, one morning, she was cycling through our town and passing the bank thought "I'm sure I recognise the chap standing outside. Didn't I spend the night with him?" Yes, it was my father.

Carolyn’s description of The Life Intended intrigued me, so I started reading it. I can hardly put it down!

Different, isn't it, meow?

Vee, that is so funny! I do recognise my family usually but one occasion my husband did not see me! We had gone to Canberra in the Winter and it was freezing cold. I popped into a clothing shop and bought a thick hooded cape to wear right away so he did not spot me coming over to the car and got a shock when this strange woman rapped on the window!

I finished The Life Intended by Kristen Harmel. Carolyn, thanks for mentioning it! It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time.

Carolyn, I read To Die For by David Baldacci, and I thought it was pretty recent. It’s hard to believe he has another one out already!

Donna

This afternoon, I finished reading our community's One Read book for 2025: North Woods by Daniel Mason. I've read and been told that this is an outstanding book, and I can kind of tell in a way that it is. But ... for the most part, I did not enjoy it. Sigh... I will look forward though to the interesting activities and the author talk that is always a part of our One Read September activities.

I finally got around to reading a book from my tbr pile, Caught in Crystal by Patricia Wrede. I bought the ebook edition with all the Lyra books on it a while ago but so far have only read The Raven’s Ring feom it. Caught in Crystal was okay, I gave it a 3 rating on Goodreads (which to me is average, but not great). Next on my reading from this series is The Harp of Imach Thyssel.

Vee, That sounds like a gripping and very interesting book. I don't know if I have the stamina, tho, to read about domestic abuse like that. People here in the US scorn the temperance movement of the 19 c and the early 20c constitutional amendment about prohibition (selling alcohol) but it was this kind of domestic abuse, widespread at all levels of society, that was behind a well meant but failed movement.

Later--I checked and this book is unfortunately not available at any library in my state.

Ginny.......it's available on Amazon and there are lots of copies on Ebay.

Thanks very much, YoYobon. I had seen that but am trying to avoid buying books. But we'll see.

Ginny, I should point out that the Hilda Kemp book isn't particularly well-written. She has used the Cockney speech patterns that would have been used by her grandmother (and possibly how she herself still speaks) The letter H is almost never used and words such as 'with' are always written as 'wiv'. And there is a great deal of very foul language as used towards his family by 'Pa'.

Interestingly we never had prohibition in the UK but there were many temperance movements and groups such as the Salvation Army preaching against the evils of the demon drink. My own in-laws (who I never knew) would cross a road rather than walk past a pub, yet a diary-entry of some 80 years ago mentions DH's G'father 'knocking the old girl about' . . . and no alcohol had been taken . . . Different times and attitudes.

msmeow, I'm glad you liked the book. I'm now reading James Lee Burke's Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie. It is one of the Holland family series set in Texas in the 1920s during hard times. The story is depressing, but his writing is always beautiful whether coarse or not.

I also bought a new Richard Jury by Martha Grimes, the first one she has written in five years, and I think she must have needed the money. It's not very good and tells two unconnected stories. The murder is kind of stupid.

I finished These Is My Words by Nancy Turner and enjoyed it very much, despite the title. It is written as the journal of a young woman in 1880s Arizona Territory, living a pioneering life, including being part of a wagon train. The characters are well written and the story is interesting.

I also finished listening to King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett. Many many years ago I attempted to read the Lymond Chronicles, and didn't get very far. A couple of years ago I listened to them, and partly thanks to a very good narrator, I loved them. This book has the same narrator, and I think that is why I was able to finish it. It tells the story of Macbeth, the real Scottish king. Dunnett apparently did a lot of research and decided that Macbeth was the baptismal name of Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, so she has written them as one man. The basic story, including the prophecy of Burnham Wood coming to Dunsinane, was interesting, but the characters were mostly talking heads who described the political and religious intrigues of the day. The Kings of England, Norway and Sweden were always trouble, along with the various English earls of Mercia, Cumbria and Northumbria, but it was a long slog. Macbeth's relationship with his wife and her son from a previous marriage were a big part of the story, but in the end there were just too many characters to keep straight who were like pawns on a chessboard to me.

I’ve just finished A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. It’s a true story of a British couple, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, who were sailing from Panama to the Galapagos in 1973 when their boat was hit by a whale and sunk. It was a very interesting story.

Donna

That's a coincidence, msmeow. I'm on the waitlist at the library for Staying Alive: 117 Days Adrift by the husband of this couple, Maurice Bailey. I wonder how the books might differ.

I'm on the waiting list at the library for a few books which promise to be more appealing than the one I'm currently slogging through : The Book Of Speculation.

The only speculation at this point is whether or not I can finish it or will I just toss it on the DNF pile.

I'm reading A Belle of the Fifties, the memoir of a Southern woman in the 1850s. It was published in about 1905 and she was still an unreformed pro-slavery ardent Southerner. Her husband had been a senator from Alabama and she has a lot to say about social life and fashion in Washington DC in the years leading up to the Civil War. She seems very shallow. I have just arrived at secession in early 1861--she was all for it--so we'll see what happens next. Her name was Virginia Clay Clopton tho someone else put the book together from her diaries and notes and verbal input.

Ginny, that is a coincidence! I think the wife, Maralyn, published a book at the same time he did.

I finished Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie. In the afterword, James Lee Burke said he thinks it is the best book he has ever written. It certainly is good, but I prefer the Dave Robichaux ones.

Finished the new Michael Connelly book, Nightshade, featuring a new character. I still like Harry the best. This book is set on Catalina Island, CA, where the main character has been sent as punishment for acting too much on his own--but he likes it there.

I'm about halfway through Death in Holy Orders by PD James and I'm liking it. I enjoy a good mystery now and then, but in recent years, the good ones have eluded me. I have enjoyed a number of Louise Penny books, but I have grown tired of those, so I've been seeking another good mystery writer. (Lots of mediocre ones out there, in my opinion.) There is nothing new about PD James, but this is the first time I've tried her. So far, so good.

Carolyn, I like Harry Bosch a lot more than Mickey Haller, and I like Renee Ballard. I’ll read this new one and let you know what I think. 😎 (I just got in line for a copy and Libby says it’s about a 9 week wait!)

I’m currently reading The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis. Through research from her office at the Met, Egyptologist Charlotte Cook believes she has made a discovery about Queen Hathorkare. Proving her theory will require her to go to Egypt, but she is haunted by something that happened in Egypt when she was a grad student.

Donna

Kathy T--You can't do better than PD James. I hope you enjoy the book. I reread her Dalgliesh boos every so often and they are always so good.

I also love and reread Agatha Christie. I just finished an umpteenth reading of The Murder at the Vicarage. Of course, I can't help seeing Joan Hickson as Miss Marple as I read. What perfect casting.

I enjoy rereading Golden Age mysteries. Even though I know the outcomes the writing is so good! I particularly like the Georgette Heyer mysteries, some are set in the 1930s and a couple in Regency times.

A friend has given me a load of GH Regency paperbacks. I had a collection of hardcovers at one time but had to leave them when I moved around in the 1960s. I have just finished Venetia, one of my favourites. I was thrilled by the dashing young heroes as a teenager but grew to understand and appreciate the more mature love stories as I got older!

I just borrowed The Martha's VIneyard Beach And Book Club from our local library and so far it is looking like a good read.

And today A View From Lake Como is arriving in the mail :0)

As the saying goes : " I'm in tall cotton ! "

Ann Cleeves has a new Perez book coming in September so I have put in a request with the local library. They have nine on order so I should get a copy quite early. If it gets filmed it will be with a new actor though but the book has a different woman in his life to the TV version. Awkward!