The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal by Jodi Taylor is my current read. It took a while to get into it but now I am far enough into it that I want to see how it ends. I haven’t been reading as much lately as I’ve been watching the figure skating on the Olympics, but I have also started Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. It’s the third in her Wayfarer series and funnily enough, I read the 4th one first not realizing it was in a series.

After finishing and enjoying R C Sherriff's Greengates I went back to Mudlarking easy to pick up and put down as there is no 'story' to it.

Listening to, on the BBC James by Percival Everett, the first person account of Jim the runaway slave from Huckleberry Finn. So far mostly brutality by the 'whites'.

Re cooking/meals. Carolyn did you know that peanut butter and jelly is only a thing in the US? I remember my family being surprised when a visiting US Aunt cut a banana 'longways' and filled the centre with peanut butter. The look on the faces of our three children as she munched her way through it said it all!

Although our supermarket is only a few minutes away we have always used their delivery service as it saves lugging heavy stuff back home without a car. However now there are only two of us it is taking some time working out how much food we will need for the week (youngest son who has Down's S lives with me). He picked up a newspaper from there this morning and as an 'extra' added a pot of strawberry jam!

When we lived in the UK for an extended working holiday, we had a small Berlingo van to do courier work and put the weekly shopping in the back. One time I left it to my husband to load up and was surprised to find on unpacking when we got home that he had taken the supermarket's shopping crate. He said that the Security guard had given him a funny look but said nothing! For some reason, my husband had thought it was ours and took it with confidence!

Of course we returned it.

I like smooth peanut butter on toast but without jelly/jam. Which flavour is most popular?

Annpan, I like tart, not sweet, so I vote for raspberry. I also love an English jam, Tiptree Christmas jam, which comes but once a year. Alas, the store where I buy it didn't get any this year. There is a Midsomer Murders episode which was filmed in their wonderful old-fashioned factory (the murder was fake of course).

MaryAnn, I'm a NYC native so your books sound interesting. I requested Picking Up by Robin Nagle from the library. Growing up, the mob-controlled garbage industry was constantly in the headlines.

No, I didn't know PB&J was an American thing. Unlike Elvis, I don't like PB and banana.

I've been reading some books on the phone my daughter handed down to me when she got a new one. They are fair reading and good to have on the phone while waiting in doctors' offices, etc. Getting tired of them, I downloaded a new-to-me Miss Julia book from the library. Every so often, I just need a dose of Miss J.

I think Elvis' thing was PB and bacon sandwich.

The Elvis sandwich, according to an Elvis cookbook I have, is white toast with peanut butter, banana and bacon. Slap it together into a sandwich and fry it in lots and lots of butter. I had my doubts about the banana, but it is delicious. I only made it a couple of times, but have also made a healthier version, using toasted whole-wheat bread, a sensible amount of butter and no frying. Still delicious.

As for the PB&J, the one time I tried it, it was made with Wonderbread, sweetened peanut butter and that awful purple grape jelly that's really just sugar, colourant and grape flavouring. I hated it, but I think I might try making it with good sourdough bread, non-sweeteted peanut butter and some quality preserves, e.g. raspberry.

Enough about food. I recently finished Lita Ford's autobiography, Living Like a Runaway. It was interesting to read about her life, especially the Runaways years, since I really didn't know anything about her years as a solo artist. I wouldn't especially recommend it unless you have a deep interest in rock 'n' roll history or are a fan of hers.

I also finished The King's Speech by Peter Conradi and Mark Logue. I enjoyed it, not so much for the two men whose story it tells, but more for the historical context.

My third finished book was Gerald Durrell's Beasts in My Belfry. It tells of his year as a student keeper ar Whipsnade Zoo in England and contains the usual delightful descriptions of animals, people and events. Chronologically, one should read it as the third (or fourth, if you include the snippets from his early years in Fillets of Plaice) Durrell book, after My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts and Relatives.

I am now taking a break from Durrell and reading a volume of David Attenborough's Zoo Quest books, titled Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest Expeditions. The first one, Zoo Quest to Guiana, covers some of the same territory as Durrell's Three Tickets to Adventure, and at least one person who appears in that book also appears in this one.

I finished The Iron Storm by Jack Du Brul. It was a typical Isaac Bell story - lots of action and guns and heroes getting out of impossible scrapes.

I read a couple more chapters in House of Mirth and still haven’t decided if I will finish it. House of Mirth was a Jeopardy clue last week!

I tried a little bit of Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas and decided it wasn’t for me. It’s set in 2090 and the earth is ruled by Titans and Spartans and humans are scraping to survive.

Last night I started Obsessed by James Patterson. It’s a NYC detective Michael Bennett story, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read it before.

Carolyn, I asked the library about the Viorst book you mentioned but it is too expensive!

I have been able to get the DVD of "A Knight's Tale" which was raved about in a recent Guardian article. Although Heath Ledger was from a local family, I never watched it but it sounds fun and like a pantomime genre!

I am finding it more comfortable to watch DVDs than read excepting with a book propped up while I eat! Back problems make it hard to read sitting crouched in an armchair.

I've just finished Jojo Moyes' The Horse Dancer. One of her earlier books and a rather convoluted story. It really hangs on French haute école the method of training horses to a very high level of ability where animal and rider almost become 'as one'. Interwoven with this tale of a young girl and her horse is a 'couples' theme and one in which I found I had NO patience with the female go-getting lawyer and her bad temper. I find it hard to believe that she and her almost ex-partner ended up being so luvvy-dovey.

I finished The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal. it wasn’t bad; I might even reread it one day. I also read A Gift of Luck bySarah Wynde; also not bad. I am still working on Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. i keep putting it down to read something else and then pick it back up again later. I think I will finish it, maybe even by the end of the month!

I have just finished Murder at Somerset House by Andrea Penrose. It's part of a series, and I like it less than its predecessors. I'm a sucker for 18th century mysteries, but this one dealt with the London Stock Exchange, Napoleon's escape from Elba, trying to develop electricity (with never a mention of Benjamin Franklin), and mathematics. All in all, it was pretty boring.

Anyone seen the new "Wuthering Heights" movie? A friend said it was good but less grim than the book. I could never get past a couple of chapters when I tried!

I finished We Do Not Part by Han Kang. It did not get less bleak. It's about two women dealing with generational trauma from the massacre that took place on Jeju Island, Korea in 1949, but the book takes place during a present day snow storm. It is beautifully written. It is not a great book to read in February if you are at all prone to seasonal depression.

I'm listening to The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It's an epistolary novel about a retired lawyer. This book has gotten a lot of buzz, I'm not yet sure why.

Bedside book I'm reading is SPQR by Mary Beard. Still at the beginning, a bit slow going but interesting.

I have not seen the new Wuthering Heights, it's one of my least favorite books. I read a very funny one line review of the film that said, “Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis 177 years ago yet this adaptation is still the worst thing that has ever happened to her.”

Merryworld, Ouch!!

Hi all -

Recently tossed both Hail Mary by Andy Weir and The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman across the room. DNF both of them. Eventually I picked them up and will deposit them in my neighborhood Little Free Library.

Currently reading McKee of Centre Street by Helen Reilly - she is considered to be one of the first women to write a police procedural mystery. Set in NYC in the 1930"s, I am only as far as the death of the dancer in a speakeasy called The Sanctuary. (aka page 18). So far, so good.

Also just started 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin - touted as an extremely thoroughly researched narrative about the 1929 stock market crash. I am finding it to be quite engrossing thus far.

SPQR has been on one (of four) TBR piles next to my reading chair... I may just have to pick it up soon based on Merry's recommendation.

Also heard lousy things about the new Wuthering Heights movie. In my little world, the bar is forever highly set with the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice so doubtful I would see Wuthering Heights. Hated the book, so there is also that...

PAM

Wuthering Heights is a DNF for me, despite at least 3 tries. I don't plan to bother with the movie. :)

PAM, someone else who didn't like Project Hail Mary! I finished it, but was unimpressed - I thought it too predictable as well as feeling like every chapter was a physics class assignment.

I'm reading Olive Kitteridge and enjoying it. Knowing that Frances McDormand stars as Olive in the movie version has unfortunately given a face to this character. I am tempted to watch it after I finish the book.

I wish I didn't know that she is Olive because I'd prefer a different face to that character.

Donna - I agree with your assessment of Project Hail Mary. For me, it started off with such a small little plop that despite the fact that the Earth is going to be destroyed, I just didn't care. Plus, I didn't think the attempts at humor were funny. I had such high hopes after thoroughly enjoying The Martian.

PAM

Yoyobon - I know what you mean about a movie star taking over the persona of a book character. That's one reason I pretty much always prefer to read the book before I see its movie adaptation. Although I consider Frances McDormand a great actress, that's not how I envisioned Olive either. But once I've finished a book, I'm almost always open to spending two hours watching the film version, even with a "wrong-faced" protagonist.

Another example was the film A Man Called Otto in which Tom Hanks did not look at all like my mental vision of Ove in the book A Man Called Ove.

On the other hand, I'm looking forward to seeing the film version of Remarkably Bright Creatures with Sally Field as the protagonist, Tova. Even though that is not how I pictured Tova, I think Sally Field will do just fine in that role.

Kathy, I loved RBC. Is the movie out yet?

Carolyn - Remarkably Bright Creatures is a Netflix production and due to be released on May 8, 2026. I seem to be one of the few Americans who does not yet subscribe to Netflix. This will make me subscribe.

Kathy_t, I'm one of the few non-Netflix people too. And non-Facebook too, probably even fewer.

Ginny - chalk me up as another non netflix, zero facebook person. I already spend way too much time on screens for work.

I absolutely hated Remarkably Bright Creatures and while I am glad some folks enjoyed it, we eviscerated it at book club a few months ago.

PAM

I don't get Netflix either, but my daughter does.

I only have the Free to Air channels and borrow or buy a DVD if I want to follow a series I cannot get on them. I don't want to see most of the output on the paid content anyway.

I could afford it, just do not fancy getting it.

I have tried and failed to get into Wuthering Heights despite advice from Diana/dido who used to be at RP, to 'keep going'. Nor will I see the film . . . I haven't been to the cinema since 2016! Neither do we have Netflix and only watch the so-called free TV services. The BBC imposes an annual licence fee soon to be raised to £180 which is almost impossible to avoid paying. A hefty fine is demanded if one of their 'detector vans' catches you out.

That licence fee is a burden but I did not have to pay as I was in communal housing when I lived in the UK.

The Australian Govt. tried to bring it in but the printers refused to print them, so I heard!

Anyway we do not have to pay anything except through taxation!

I have read a couple of amusing stories about the detector vans. An inspector was met on the path by the housewife who said the paper licence was behind her kitchen clock. He knocked at the door and told the husband he was here to check on the licence which was behind the clock. "Blimey, you know everything!" said the astonished householder.

I am another Netflix free person. The only way I would subscribe (and it would only be for a month) is if they had something I really wanted to see.

I did not finish Project Hail Mary; it just didn’t catch me although I know many people found it engrossing.

I read Wuthering Heights several years ago. It is not a reread for me and I have no interest in seeing the movie either.

Now that my favorite part of the Olympics is done(figure skating) I intend to get back to serious (as in for fun) reading. Maybe I will even manage to finish Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers which has been languishing on my to be finished pile!d

Well it seems we are largely a non-Netflix crowd here at Reader's Paradise. Perhaps those of us who fancy watching Remarkably Bright Creatures can gather at Carolyn's daughter's house to do so.

Speaking of Netflix......and this is OT, unless it was a book once! ......I watched a really good movie last night based on a true story of spies during WWII .

The title is Operation Mincemeat starring an older Colin Firth ( sigh ).

I was just reading about the musical version of Operation Mincemeat. Done with a cast who play many parts and about to do a world tour!

I have seen both movies based on this true story and a picture of the grave with a proper attribution. A remarkable story.

Kathy, my daughter is a people and a TV person. She would love it!

This week, I read Anne Tyler’s latest book, Three Days in June. It is a lot like most of her other novels I’ve read, except it’s much shorter (less than 200 pages) and to my way of thinking, not as good. It was a pleasant read, but not a book I’d recommend.

On the film/movie front have any of you seen Hamnet? I only ask because our local paper reported that several 'forest scenes', especially the birth of the first (?) child were filmed in/at out local estate Lydney Park all of half a mile away. Luckily there are still odd corners of ancient woodland around here. I know that many people local to Stratford complained that the 'street scenes' were not filmed in the town! In fact they used a rural village in Herefordshire and no doubt had to import several tons of manure etc.

I did read the book but couldn't take to the idea of Ann Hathaway being some sort of 'white witch'.

As often happens, all my books at the library came in at once and now I'm reading too many good books at the same time.

I switched from listening to reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Jury is still out on this one, but I'm liking it more. The audiobook is fine, but because of the weather I haven't book walking as much so it got automatically returned but was available in print at the library.

I started The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne and am liking it very much.

I'm very slowly working my through SPQR.

The next book club read is Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard. There is a Netflix series based on this book called Death by Lightning which is supposed to by very good, but I'll read the book first. Millard's book Hero of the Empire is one of my favorites, so I"m looking forward to it, certainly more than the last book we read.

Waiting for the Spring thaw and given the snowpocalypse outside my window, it should be an epic New England mud season.

I just finished The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, all 586 pages of it. I started it as kind of a challenge, since several readers here didn’t finish it.

Not knowing how far any of you read, I will say the first couple hundred pages about Esme’s unconventional childhood were rather dull. And I felt the whole book was too long, with too much reiteration of the editing prcoess of the OED. That said, I did enjoy it. There is a lot of emotion in it.

Donna

Donna.......better you than me !!

I am reading L. A. Requiem by Robert Crais. It is another California detective series, but I like it a lot. It's helping ease the pain of having read all of Michael Connelly's books. I also received James Lee Burke's new book from Amazon today.

I just started Nash Falls by Daivd Baldacci. I was on the waiting list for a long time - hope it’s worth it!

Carolyn, I’ll check out the Crais series. I’m missing the Harry Bosch books, too. I haven’t read all of the Lincoln Lawyer series. I don’t like him as much as Bosch.

msmeow, The Crais series is best read in order. The one I'm reading is the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike one. There are others; evidently he is quite prolific.

Donna/msmeow - Thank you for reading The Dictionary of Lost Words for all of us!

After reading all but two of the Three Pines series by Louise Penny, I had an image of how the characters and village looked.

When I watched the limited series on Amazon I was very put off by Alfred Molina as Inspector Gamache. Ugh. Not at all as I pictured him.

But as much as I disliked him in that role, I hated the seedy town they chose to portray quaint Three Pines. The novels describe a cozy , quaint village and what appeared in the series was a run-down , ugly old has-been town.

Glad I didn't see that, Yoyo. I think of Three Pines as a place I would like to live!

Carolyn, me too !

I would like to live in Kerry Greenwood's Insula, the Roman style building in the Corinna Chapman series.

With that hunk of a man who visits her, Ann?

Um, perhaps! Delicious Daniel and those bakery delights, too much!

re the Dictionary of Lost Words which I haven't read. My son-in Law's Uncle, an 'academic'with the Oxford University Press, had joined the family for a Christmas celebration and during lunch just to make polite conversation someone asked him how his work on the latest dictionary was going. After a moments thought he replied "We have now reached M." And it is the last print edition to be published as everything is now computer-driven.

I remember encyclopedia salesmen coming door to door years ago. My D signed up for a set to be paid off over two years but when the dozen books came, it was not suitable as the spelling was US English. She asked me to speak to the company as I worked in a library and could suggest a different set. I paid a months fee for a new set to be sent. They told me to keep the wrong set, not worth regaining! We got the new books and the company went out of business so never collected the balance!