I'm listening to Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure by Rhys Bowen and am really enjoying it ! I wish it was a movie so that I could see it all.

I don‘t know how many of you remember me from when I was a regular here, but I finally decided to drop back in and check on how things are going and I am happy the forum is still active.

Some of you have squirrels eating your plants – I have the wind tearing them to tatters. I did manage to grow snap peas this summer, but only because I made a little greenhouse for them to shelter them from the wind. That‘s what I get for moving from the relative shelter of Reykjavik to the windy south coast of Iceland. But at least I have a garden now, even if it's just grass, shrubs and hardy wild plants. I enjoy watching the different plants and fungi that pop up seasonally – right now it‘s mushrooms and in August it was crowberries and bilberries.

I am currently reading a book of historical snippets and essays about the area I live in, and I just finished Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. It's one of my perennial rereads and is always delightful.

Yoyobon, I have the audiobook of Miss Benson‘s Beetle – I think you just pointed me to my next read/listen!

netla, good to see you back after what must be several years! I'm glad you are now a land-owner. I too enjoyed Miss Pettigrew . . . and have found several re-prints by Persephone Books celebrating 'forgotten authors' from the 1920's to 30's.

Vee, thank you. I tried posting on discussions about books on Reddit, but it's so big and impersonal and you don't get to know people like you do here.

If you have been reading books from Persephone Books: have you read Miss Buncle's Book and its sequels? I found them highly enjoyable and recommend them as light, entertaining reads on par with Miss Pettigrew.

I haven't bought many books since I got a laptop and can download from the library and can make the print as large as I like, but this month has been a bonanza. I have bought My Beloved, new by Jan Karon, a new Thomas Lynley by Elizabeth George, A Slowly Dying Cause, a long-awaited Morland Dynasty book, The Gathering Storm, and Ken Follett's latest historical mystery, Circle of Days. This is truly a gleeful abundance of riches.

netla I have only read the first Miss Buncle and it serialised 'on' the BBC a couple of years ago.

Just found the facebook site (below) which deals with 'vintage' crime/who-dunnits/lots of intelligent chat about writers (many of whom I had never heard) etc. It looks very interesting. Some wonderful book covers.

Dean Street Press

We had a discussion about the Buncle books a few years ago.

I saw a Miss Pettigrew movie which was a little different from the book but well done.

The author also sold rights to a musical movie but that does not seem to have been made.

I tried to read a murder mystery but it was badly written so I DNFd it. I think it was from a TV script as it read like one with many descriptions of clothing and furniture placements.

I can't settle to reading or watching much TV at the moment. Spring Fever!

I am on several waiting lists for new publications from favourite authors. They might all come at once!

Hello, Netla! Nice to have you back.

Carolyn, it sounds like you are set for a while!

My sister and I went to the annual library book sale last Friday. They had SO many books! Also DVDs and puzzles. Hardbacks were $1.00 and paperbacks 25 cents. We picked up a few new reads.

I’ve just started Bleak House. My sister just read it and enjoyed it a lot. I’ve never read any Dickens. We’ll see if I like it, too.

Donna

I just finished another Florentine mystery, The Marshal and the Madwoman, by Magdalen Nabb. Very good with a background of the terrible flood of the Arno in 1966. And such a picture of daily life in Florence.

I also finished and loved In the Time of Five Pumpkins, the latest No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. A crocodile and a puff adder make their appearance, shudder, and Mma Makutsi's shoes have something to say. These stories of universal human experience are so full of wisdom and humor. I'm tempted to underline many quotes to save but can't as it's a library book.

Carolyn, your list of new books sounds so inviting! Nothing raises one's spirits like a stack of new books. That sounds like enough to keep me reading all winter, but for you, Carolyn, those might only last a couple of weeks.

Welcome back, Netla!

Ginny, I am looking forward to getting Five Pumpkins but I have always found the talking shoes a bit of a stretch! Spirits, yes, but shoes, NO!

Nice to hear from you again, Netla. I hope you come to see us often.

I may take a lot longer on these real books, Donna. I checked out the huge new Robert Galbraith and cannot read it. It's 897 pages of tiny pale print which I will just return unread and hope the library eventually gets it in e-book format, although I recently read that converting to e-book is quite expensive.

I got the Morland Place book in paperback and started it right away. (I love these books.) It's also long and small print, but the print is darker. I ordered some magnifying pages, but they have to be held just right which is tiresome. My daughter said there is a stand to hold the page and a book which she will explore for me. I don't mean to whine, but it is sort of like looking through a bakery window with no money!

Annpan, I don't think Mma Makutsi really believes her shoes are talking. I think we all have an inner voice, a barely conscious voice that speaks to us. For instance, "Maybe I should be careful in this situation" or "Watch out for that person". Mma Makutsi grew up poor in a remote village. She likely wore hand-me-downs or no shoes at all. Shoes, especially fancy or beautiful shoes, were something she longed for and finally attained, as we learn in earlier books in the series. They are a symbol of her 97% in her exams and of her new life. For her, the inner voice is embodied in her shoes, it seems to me.

Ginny, a good explanation! I also have an inner voice but in my head rather than from anywhere else! Anyone like Mma Makutsi would be proud of their progress and her shoes would reflect the hard won life she now has.

Carolyn, one of my libraries has the Galbraith book in electronic format, so it is available. I got on the waiting list yesterday.

OT but I have long wondered. Does anyone remember Martin who used to post here a long time ago? He always gave the list of Booker Prize winners altho I'm afraid to say I didn't read any of them.

Netla, glad to see a post from you again. Welcome back.

I read the Miss Buncle books after the discussion here a couple years ago too. I enjoyed the first one so much that after I talked about them at my monthly zoom book chat, everyone else in the group read and liked it too, including the one man in the group. A couple of us read all 4 in the sequence, and have gone on to enjoy other D.E. Stevenson books. I particularly like Listening Valley.

I finally worked my way through to the end of Paula Fredriksen's Ancient Christianities:the First Five Hundred Years. She's very thorough and inundates you with data, so it's not an easy read (at least for me). The timeline at the end of the book turned out to be very useful in keeping track of the changes.

I remember Martin and his book shelves! I don't recall why he stopped posting but I think he explained his reason. It is sad when we lose a contributor, as this group gets smaller every year.

I am in another group that got together for the first Australian Masterchef and stayed to chat but we have shrunk from around thirty to about ten allowing for occasional pop-ins. A number have retired and now go cruising or on trips to Europe and it is interesting to read about their travels. One has been to Bath during the Jane Austen celebrations.

Happy memories for me of Bath in the late 1950s before I moved to Australia. I stayed at a modestly cheap B&B in Royal Crescent in a beautiful front bedroom.

I hear it is very expensive and upmarket there now.

Killing Time by Alan Bennett, who I always think of a playwright rather than a 'book writer' was a short read about a group of OAP's (seniors) living in a 'home' in Yorkshire during the time of Covid. Several, especially the men who I wouldn't want to end my days with; one a 'flasher', another who offers sexual favours to elderly females (and some men) in the garden shed. Covid does for them and several of the women. So not a very jolly book but at least it was quick!

Ginny, some years ago Martin moved to the city of York to be nearer his daughters.

Carolyn had met up with him in London during one of her trips.

Annpan, I haven't been to Bath for many years although 'as the crow flies' it is not so far away (the River Severn gets in the way). While at College in the early '60's we spent some time there as part of an Art course. We 'did' the costume museum, Pump Rooms, Roman Baths, American Museum (lots of eg's of quilting) and I spent time sitting on a high stone wall at the back of the Sally Lunn Bakery trying to draw one of the Georgian buildings which could only be viewed from the rear. You are right it is now v v expensive, but so is everywhere touristy these days.

I should add that Persephone Books (they do re-prints of mostly pre-War female writers) has relocated there from London.

Persephone Books Bath

Yes, I did meet Martin and Ana...something at Hatchards bookstore. She also moved,home to Germany, I believe. I also ate lunch at Sally Lunn's. I love England and Scotland, and my family all love Sticky Toffee Pudding which I have a recipe for courtesy of another e-mail friend.

I'm reading away on The Gathering Storm. I got the page magnifier from Amazon today and am not sure I'll keep it. I ended up not getting the one with legs ($40), and it seems like it would be tiring to hold the book and the magnifier for extended reading.

Thank you all for the update on Martin. I hope he is well and enjoying life in York.

I have also been fortunate enough to have made various trips to England and Scotland and elsewhere. I had a free day in Bath and spent it at the Roman Baths, an unforgettable experience. On another trip, my friend and I spent a week in York and another week in day trips in Yorkshire and the Lake District. I did enjoy Betty's Tea Room, if we're talking about baked goods. :) York is a university city so there must be plenty of bookstores and libraries to keep Martin happy. Now my travel is limited to family visits, books and television shows with beautiful locations. The now-canceled McDonald and Dodds, which I really enjoyed, is set in Bath. Great photography.

I'm enjoying Rhys Bowen's Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure which is quite a nail-biter. Has anyone read any other books by Bowen ? Do you have a favorite ?

Netla, do you mean that no one has translated Bleak House into Icelandic yet? Shocking!!

Well done for the attempt! Are there colloquialisms that would be hard to express?

I have read the Evan Evans books, too, and enjoyed them.

Netla, in pursuit of a degree in English Literature, I had a whole semester of Dickens. For the final exam. we had to write a paper in the Dickens manner. Upon hearing the assignment, everyone put their heads down on their desks and moaned, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I got an A- on mine, of which I was very proud.

Hi, Netla, glad to see you back.

I have also met Martin, several years ago when he was in Australia, and we had lunch together on my lunch break from the bookshop.

Carolyn, I am keen to read the new Morland book but I have a complete matching set of those books and the new one is both a different size and a different style! I'm not sure they are going to publish it to match my lot though.

I finished listening to The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami, about a Spanish expedition to New Spain in the 1500s. It's based on a real story, where only 4 of the original party survived, plus 'a Moorish slave'. The author took this as a starting point, and gave his account of the many years they lived with the native people, which didn't altogether agree with the Spanish accounts. It was very interesting, and I am glad I listened to it as there were many foreign names, both Spanish and in Native languages, that probably would have tripped me up if I were reading it.

I am currently reading The King's Mother, a follow-up to Cecily, by Annie Garthwaite. It's about Cecily Neville, the mother of Edward IV and Richard III, and while it is interesting, it annoys me no end that it is written in the present tense.

Kath, I have the Morland books in paperback, and this new one does match, and just think of the money I've saved down through the years, Still reading . . .

Welcome back Netla! i have become a somewhat infrequent visitor here, mostly because I am not reading as much (shocker, I know). I seem to have a problem finding books I want to either read, or finish reading. If they don’t catch me within the first couple of chapters, back to the library they go.

I am trying to finish The Retired Assasin’s Guide to Country Gardening by Naomi Kuttner. I thought the title was intriguing so picked it up. I’m about 65% of the way through it so will probably end up finishing it alrhough it’s only minimally holding my interest.

I read all of the Miss Buncle books; the first one was my favorite of them, although I did like the others.

Mrs. Endicott’s Special Adventure sounds interesting, I am going to see if my library has a copy.

I have started the newest mystery by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera series et al. This one features Jimmy Perez of Shetland but now in the Orkney Islands. It begins with a lot of difficult personal names and place names, so difficult that I'm finding it hard to follow. What's wrong with John and Mary, I ask you? I like her books so will persist. He's now married with a small child and another on the way. Title is The Killing Stones.

Welcome back Netla!

I read The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte for book club. It's a murder mystery about a young woman who is restoring a 15th century painting and finds the painter has painted the question "Who killed the Knight" and then painted over it. I like the premise of the book, but there is a lot of chess involved that I pretty much skimmed over. There were some details I didn't like and the end didn't make a lot of sense, but over all, it was ok. There is a movie based on the book with Kate Beckinsale called Uncovered I'll watch when I get a chance.

I also read Ingrained by Callum Robinson. I listened to the audio book on my walks. This is a beautifully written memoir by a Scottish craftsman who makes fine furniture. It's about his relationship with his father, also a craftsman, the struggle to build a business and make a living, and his relationship to his craft. One of my favorites I've listened to this year.

I’m reading The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers. It’s about two women who each had a sister who went missing from small towns which are close together. They have teamed up to compare the cases and try to find out what happened to the missing young women. It’s pretty good.

Also still working on Bleak House.

Donna

Annpan, no, Bleak House has not been translated, or at least there are no published translations of it. Translation of classic literature is mainly done as a side-gig or hobby rather than a profession in Iceland. You can get a job translating genre fiction and new literary fiction but if you want to translate a classic and get it published, it‘s a labour of love rather than a job, and so people tend to choose whatever books they like, rather than what is considered a „must translate“ book.

As for translation difficulties, there are always things that are hard to translate, not just colloquialisms, but nuances and cultural things as well. One either works around them, localises them or translates directly and hopes people will accept it.

--

Writing like Dickens must have been fun! I would have enjoyed doing a Dickens course much more than reading this single novel.

Speaking of Dickens, I recently read The Mystery of Charles Dickens by A.N. Wilson, an exploration of Dickens‘ life and how he drew on his experiences for his fiction and hid the particulars of his life from his audience, especially the early years. I found it very interesting.

Started The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen and am enjoying it .

Just found a copy of one of my favorites from years ago .....The Mirror by Marlys Milhiser. Has anyone else read it ?

“The Mirror” by Marlys Millhiser intertwines the lives of two women across generations. This time-travel tale unfolds in Boulder, Colorado. The characters, Shay and her grandmother Brandy, face an impossible conundrum. On the eve of their weddings, each gazes into an antique mirror, triggering a body swap. Shay, from 1978, awakens as Brandy in 1900. Conversely, Brandy finds herself in Shay’s body, facing modern challenges. This novel paints a vivid picture of their struggles, identity crises, and familial ties.

Yoyo, I have read The Mirror. I remember the modern girl making her children chew twigs to clean their teeth.

Has anyone read The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin ?

I am considering it for my next choice.

I finished Ann Cleeves' latest mystery, The Killing Stones, the other night. It was good but not great. It's set in the Orkney Islands and there is some interesting archeology, which I liked. There is a plagiarism theme which touched a nerve as I have been a victim of that. But the book is slow to move until the last third of the mystery. And I think the author cheated a bit by not giving any clues at all as to the solution.

A quick but interesting read has been Island on the Edge by Anne Cholawo. The island is Soay , a small blob in the ocean just off the Isle of Skye to the West of the Scottish Highlands where Cholawo bought a small house, site unseen, more or less on a whim in the early 1980's. She describes the difficulty of learning how to survive in an area with no electricity, water supply, shop, Dr's etc and having to rely heavily on the help of the few residents; at the time about 17, now down to three.

Post WWII the island had been used by the writer Gavin Maxwell in a failed 'experiment' to produce whale oil.

You may be familiar with his book Ring of Bright Water about the taming and raising of an otter cub.

I have just read with shock that a number of students who are going for exams in Queensland have been told they have been taught the wrong subject! They have been given the details of the Emperor Augustus instead of Julius Caesar. They have been told to cram for the exam in two days as well as revising for the other exams!

What a nightmare situation even though they have been assured of favourable marking.

Have any here been in a similar situation?

What a crazy situation. Why didn't the teachers notice that the information was wrong? And as both men are so important in European history, why weren't the students taught about both to begin with?

I have never been in that situation. The only remotely similar thing is when I took the GREs, Graduate Record Examination, for post-university study. There were a number of questions on African and Asian history. I had only studied American and European history so was out of my depth. Neither African nor Asian history, non-Western related, was ever taught during my education.

Not really a similar situation, but funny/sad. One of the schools I applied to for my Master’s degree in finance gave me an accounting test. I was embarrased that I only scored 60, but the school official said, That’s great! Hardly anyone does that well!” I did not choose to go to that school!

Donna

Donna......" That's great ! ".....as in " Great ! Now we can collect your tuition !"

Annpan, re your exams query. Very many years ago (1960-ish) we were studying for O'level history. The teacher, who had arrived the year before had a very cavalier attitude to exams and we were aware that the pupils (they weren't called 'students in those days) of the previous year had ALL failed the exam. Our British History syllabus was in two parts. The first from 1760 - 1815 and the second from 1815 - 1914. As the school year dragged on we realised we would never know enough to answer questions from the second part. In fact by early June we had staggered only as far as about 1850! Someone asked the teacher "How are we going to reach 1914 before the exam; it's in two weeks time? The woman blithely answered "Don't worry, we'll do the rest of the work after the exam!"

This teacher hadn't even shown us examples of old exam papers. These came as a booklet with all the different periods of world-wide history from Ancient Egypt to WWII and everything in between. You answered from the relevant section. Nor did we understand that all the answers had to be in 'essay-form'. Our lessons consisted of note-taking followed the next week with a simple test on dates and a few facts.

This time one person (not me) passed the exam by borrowing the notes from a former pupil who had been taught by a different member of staff.

That particular teacher left that Summer. Rumour had it she became a nun!

Annpan, I read about the Queensland incident yesterday and I really feel for those students! I have never been in such a situation myself, but in elementary school I once misread an exam timetable and read for the wrong subject – I can‘t remember if I read geography before a history exam or vice versa – but it turned out okay, since I was the kid who read the school books for fun at the beginning of term and then irritated everyone by knowing most of the answers in class. While I didn‘t ace the test, I did pretty well on it.

I was in the mood for something short yesterday and picked up and read a Ruth Rendell novella, Heartstones, and I really want to smack the person who wrote the back cover blurb. It gives away an important twist to any experienced reader of horror and mystery novels by insinuating too much. I would have been more upset if it was a better story, but Rendell has written so many better ones. To be honest, she chose the wrong narrative technique for the twist to be a real surprise. I do think, however, that it would have made a pretty good TV film because of all the visuals she conjures up.

--

I have been dithering about where to go for my Christmas market fix. The choices were between Tallin and Helsinki, Riga, or Warsaw, because I could get cheapish package tours for these places, but yesterday I had a brainwave and decided to go someplace people don‘t usually associate with Christmas markets and booked a trip to Paris in December, to visit museums, look at the Christmas lights and, yes, go to Christmas markets, of which there are many.

It was therefore a foregone conclusion that my next read would be about Paris and I chose Paris Revealed, the Secret Life of a City by Stephen Clarke. He‘s a British author who has lived in Paris for many years. So far, I am not loving it, as the impressions he‘s giving of the arrondissements of the city seem rather stereotyped and superficial, but I will give it my usual „2 chapters or 50 pages“ before I decide whether to read on or find something else.

I finally finished A Retired Assasin’s Guide to Country Gardening by Naomi Kuttner. I wasn’t overly impressed with it but it was okay. I am currently rereading Bridge of Bids by Barry Hughart. It’s been a few years since I read it so I thought it would be fun to reread. I am also rereading The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong to refresh my memory as I am on the hold list at the library for the sequel The Keeper of Magical Things.

Netla, my daughter and I went to Brussels and Paris last year to our first Christmas markets. Paris was the best for choices, but the street we walked through in Brussels was the best walk of the trip. It was brightly lit with gorgeous shops on both sides, most of them chocolate shops and some gave free samples. Yum!

Carolyn, I have been to Brussels several times because of my job and I love wandering around the city, but I have never been there around Christmas. Will have to do that some time.

Netla, I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the street. It ran straight from our hotel to the market, but I don't remember the name of the hotel either. I do remember all the lovely chocolate, though.

Carolyn, it's likely one of the streets leading to Grand Place if there are a lot of chocolate shops on it. There is a large congregation of them in that area.

I was recently given the a box-set of Elly Griffiths books; about 16 in all! Every so often I read one. I have just finished A Room Full of Bones and despite other distractions managed to keep up with the characters and understand the ending.