I have put in a request for My Husband's Wife in Large Print as the waiting list is shorter!

9/43 no contest! I like these intriguing mysteries of identity swaps etc.

I'm reading a collection of essays about The House of Mirth in the Norton Critical Edition. Isn't it funny how differently various people can view the same book? I also got the DVD of same from the library, with Gillian Anderson. It was good but if I hadn't just read the book I would have been saying 'Huh?' as the story unfolded. They had to leave out so much that a number of plot points made no sense at all. It would have been much better as a mini-series.

Just started my new book club book, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

Only on page 27, haven't read enough to have a firm grasp on it but so far, it seems remarkably light and trivial. Fingers crossed that there is more to it.

PAM

I'm currently reading The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. I'm liking it so far, although there is some gruesomeness.

I've just begun reading Circle of Days by Ken Follett. It is a new book, and his usual huge size, about the building of Stonehenge.

Carolyn - that sounds fabulous!

PAM

There is a lot of story that doesn't deal with Stonehenge as such, but Follett's story telling ability is fabulous.

As usual, I am cycling through several books.

I'm on the third David Attenborough Zoo Quest book collected in Adventures of a Young Naturalist: Zoo Quest in Paraguay. His writing is engaging and it's interesting to read about what things were like in the early days of nature film-making.

The other book I am actively reading is Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot by Antonia Fraser. I have just finished the part about the eponymous British warrior queen and am about to start on Queen Zenobia. Fraser has chosen to try to tease apart the historical woman, Boudica, from the legend, Boadicea, which is no mean feat considering how little is known about the real woman, and all of it written by her enemies, the Romans, while her legend, Boadicea, looms large in British history and legends. She uses Boudica as the staring point of an examination of women war leaders through history. What I enjoy about Fraser's history books is how accessible and engaging they are - she is a novelist as well as a historian and it comes through in her non-fiction writing without being sensationalistic or dramatic.

Other titles I occasionally grab include The QI Book of Animal Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson - a fun compilation of interesting animal facts; More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - a comfy read; and a guide to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Villa Jovis on Capri, as I am planning to visit the first two in May.

I accidentally pulled up a very old thread and was saddened by how many names have vanished. It also reminded me that I started a series by Betty Webb and forgot about it as I usually didn't get to W when I picked books at the library! I checked out her later books and the library list confused me by adding a code breaker story by a Bletchley Park worker!

A very light 'bedtime book' has been Tyler Row by Miss Read. The everyday doings of her Fairacre characters going between Miss Read at the school and a couple who have bought a row of dilapidated cottages in the village and the troubles they face with the 'sitting-tenants'. I don't know if this term means anything to you in the US!

Vee, It means a lot to me as the parents of a work friend had a very difficult job getting rid of sitting tenants. They had a bungalow to retire to but had to go to court with a doctor's letter proving ill health to get a removal order. The tenants pleaded hardship and were given six months to find another home!

As I left that workplace I do not know if they finally got satisfaction.

I have seen "sitting tenant" and wondered what it meant so would be glad of an explanation. Also, in an episode of a British TV series set in our time, squatters have the first right to buy a property. How can that be? Isn't squatting illegal?

Nash Falls by David Baldacci…hmm. I liked it at first, then about halfway through wasn’t sure if I would finish it. I found the main character, Nash, unbelievable and many of the other characters loathesome. (There’s a word I don’t use every day!) I did finish it, but Baldacci didn’t end it but just cut off the story, as the next book is coming out in April.

Carolyn, what did you think of it?

Donna

Ginny, 'sitting tenants' are people who have rented a property, often for many years but after the original tenancy agreement has ended they stay on. Sometimes they have a 'right to remain' or protection from rent increases. It can be very difficult to evict them and a Court Order has to be sought, as Annpan explains.

Yes, squatting is illegal but there are 'squatters rights' whereby if you have 'squatted' in a premises for over ten years you may be able to stay there. I don't think you are even expected to buy the building. It used to be popular among the hippie communities who would find an empty building and move in often rigging the electricity supply and generally causing damage and trashing the place.

Often the Law seems to be on the side of the tenant (illegal or otherwise) rather than the landlord.

Thank you, Vee, for the very clear explanation. In the episode I watched, four hippie-type young people had squatted in a building and bought it cheaply when it became available. They all went on to fame and fortune in various fields but it turned out that the actual original squatter who had the right to buy was buried in the backyard after they 'done him in' to gain the rights. I have never heard of squatters' rights in the US but who knows? Thanks again.

Ginny, was that a McDonald and Dodds episode? I enjoyed that series very much.

Another peculiarity of British Law was that a private path, open for general use had to be closed off one day annually to keep it private!

Some laws are archaic and have been changed since I left the UK so I left your query about sitting tenants to Vee and just used the example I knew about.

I am getting so out of touch that I no longer recognise some of the quiz show games celebrities who have come to prominence and have to look them up! Or I am surprised to see old ones who are still around.

Annpan, It was indeed McDonald and Dodds. I really enjoyed that series but it ended all too soon. Such beautiful views of Bath!

Donna, I just finished Circle of Days this afternoon and did enjoy it. Floating in the back of my mind is that I read some time ago that the best theory is that the Stonehenge stones were floated down rivers from Wales. Not so in this book where one inventive man devised a way to lever them out of the ground and pull them via manpower with braided honeysuckle vines on a huge sled with runners, all made of wood, of course. I enjoyed the book, but what I came away with is to thank heaven I live in the 21st century. There was a great deal about the way of life in prehistoric times; i.e., only the smartest priestesses could count. Regular folks flashed their fingers and toes.

I found The Private Patient by P D James an unsatisfactory read. As far as 'plot' goes I had difficulty keeping up with the various characters working in a converted manor house, now used as a private hospital where someone meets a grizzly end. Nor did I find her detective Adam Dalglish either convincing as a renowned poet, or the slightest bit interesting as a person. I know this was the final one in her series about him and although I have read several of her books either I have missed something along the way or am just not bright enough to get the many literary illusions, plus words I should look up in a dictionary. However she is good at describing each character's 'looks' and setting the scene in and around the old buildings . . . a plan of the area would definitely have helped.

Reading My Husband's Wife and wondering......Is the author trying too hard to be clever?

Reading Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning for book club. I think this is going to be a DNF. I'm sorry to say that I have a prejudice against historical fiction. To me, it's more "fictional history". It's hard enough to be accurate in researching and writing history; mixing it with fiction just adds to the mental chaos. I'm a minority of one on that opinion in my book club and probably in general.

Also, it's not very well-written and the plot developments are entirely predictable.

Carolyn, I was wondering what you thought of the Baldacci book, Nash Falls. 😁

I’m currently reading The Monkey’s Raincoat by Robert Crais, and Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. Next up is Circle of Days by Follett.

Well, msmeow, it was so terrific rhat even after looking at a summary on Google I still can't remember anything about it except that the ending clearly indicated that there will be more of him in the future. It's my daughter who likes him so much and passes the books along to me. I will read most anything, and I don''t want to hurt her feelings but the books I really liked of his is the series about a bunch of old men who set out to find some bad guys.

Thanks, Carolyn! I doubt I will read the next Nash book. I liked the series you mentioned, too.

FInished The Correspondent and am underwhelmed but we all know I am persnickety. Did not particularly like the main character and thought the ending was rather, well, dull. Perhaps a separate thread if several people read it so I don't spoil it for anyone still looking forward to reading it.

PAM

Currently in the middle of Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard about Pres. Garfield, and it's excellent so far.

Also enjoying The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

I have embarked on a reread of The Morland Dynasty by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I aimed to read one and then read something different in between, but here I am on number 5 LOL.

Pam, I have a theory that any book that becomes so wildly popular frequently is not as we expected. The anticipation far exceeds the realization.

Yoyobon, That could explain why, after I have bought a book with a long library waiting list, I have regretted the expense as the book was not that good!

Annpan I have almost stopped buying new books. If it is something not available at the library I might pick up a second hand copy 'on line'. The last 'new' book I bought was Greengates by R C Sherriff which I had wanted to read for years but could find NO copies anywhere so waited until a new edition was published by Persephone Books and 'splashed out' (it's only a paperback but nicely printed). I think you would enjoy it!

vee - did you enjoy Greengates? My only experience with RC Sheriff was A Fortnight in September which I absolutely loved.

PAM

Ann....I had the same experience when I bought The View From Lake Como.

UGH. I hated that book .

PAM, yes I did enjoy Greengates a book that could be read slowly as there is very little 'plot' so no need to follow many different characters chasing clues or indulging in over-excitable lust. Briefly, the 'hero' Mr Baldwin, retires from his safe City job and his plans to write a history of Britain come to nothing (it's been done before) and there is only so much garden-digging one can undertake, plus he is annoying his wife and ancient servant . . . Help comes in the form of a country walk where he sees a new development of 'modern' (1920's) houses being built. Could this be the answer to his remaining days?

I also very much enjoyed A Fortnight in September.

I finally finished The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. It's quite a story, heavily loaded with human difficulties and suffering. I liked the way the river played such an important part in the lives of the characters and the theme of the book. I unfortunately was not enchanted by the fox; I found it a distraction in the grittiness of this novel.