I read Murder in Paradise by James Patterson. It was three different novellas written with three different co-authors. I liked the first one a lot, hated the second, and sort of liked the third. I haven't read any other Patterson books. Does anyone have any comments on his books?

Carolyn, I’ve read lots of Patterson. I think it depends on the co-author. I enjoyed most of the Women’s Murder Club series, but the last few have been meh. I’ve read most of the Michael Bennett series and I like them. The Alex Cross series is more violent than others, though I like the characters. In general they are violent, with many murders that are often gruesome.

Thanks, Msmeow, I may let him rest in peace. There are so many books, aren't therea?

I am now reading Nemesis by Patricia Wolf, a series of four books.

yoyobon - I just remembered the book we both disliked due to its bathroom humor - The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife. I found it mentioned in the "Books We have DNF'd" thread.

I finished The Secret Life of Bletchley Park a couple of days ago. I had been reading it at a leisurely pace since mid June. It's mainly about the people who worked at the Bletchely Park code-breaking centre during WW2 and their daily lives and relationships, and only a little about the decryption work itself. I think it would be a good starter book for people planning to delve deeper into the subject. One thing that did annoy me is the author's assumption that the reader already has some knowledge about the methods and machinery used at Bletchley - he starts mentioning a machine called a bombe early on and only later explains what a bombe was.

I am currently laid up at home with lumbago with nothing to do but read, eat and watch TV. I have reverted to old habits of juggling books and currently have three on my night table, one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. Got through about half of Here's To Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera yesterday. It's a sweet, second-chance YA romance about exes who still have feelings for each other and keep running into each other. Their earlier relationship was covered in the previous book, Maybe It's Us, which I enjoyed.

Poor Netla, so uncomfortable!

I am having a few health problems too. Many years ago, I had chronic fatigue syndrome which meant I suddenly fell asleep anywhere and it seems like it may have recurred! There is no cure, just management.

I am getting used to wakeful nights and making breakfast at 4am when a weekday Australian TV news program starts, watching the beginning and then crashing until noon!

Just as well I am retired and mostly a stay-at-home. I had to take months off work the last time!

Like you, I have several books on the go, mostly rereads I can open at favourite chapters for comfort without taxing my brain too much.

Netla, a while back I read The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming. It was specifically about women working in code breaking. Some were listening in to German radio transmissions and others were working at B Park. It was very interesting, focusing more on their lives and the mental and emotional aspects of their work, though there was explanation of different types of codes and how they were broken.

I hope you feel better soon!

Donna

Currently reading Bryant & May Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler.

Two of my favorite detectives.

PAM

PAM, you do know that Bryant and May is the name of a well-known firm that, back in the day, made boxes of matches

I read and enjoyed all the Bryant & May books, but I didn't know about the boxes of matches.

I finished Nemesis late last night. That is two of the short series I have read; the others are not available at my library. I like the stories a lot

I finished reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. i liked it but I didn’t love it so it went onto my library donation book pile

Bryant and May info.

Match Girls Strike

The area of Bow East London was a heaving slum back in the day but now much 'tarted-up' ie become gentrified and an expensive place to live.

I have finished with my Hugo reading, but not with reading SF. Right now I am reading Radiant Star by Ann Leckie. I really like her books, set in a distant gender complicated future

I am also reading Led Zeppelin:The Biography by Bob Spitz. I have been reading biographies of rock musicians lately after taking a class in the history of rock and roll. Led Zeppelin has long been one of my favorite bands. I knew they led a wild time in the late 60's and early 70's, but I had no idea just how very wild they were. The word 'vile' comes to mind. I was actually shocked to discover just how shocked I was. I hope they toned it down as they matured, but I will have to read further to find out. Right now I'm putting it down for a while.

Vee - thank you - I was not aware of the matches... Such an interesting historical tidbit!

I've read in two separate series about a section of London called "Chalk Farm". It is mentioned in Bryant and May Off the Rails and also is the location of Haver's flat in the Inspector Lynley series. Can anyone provide any insight beyond the Google version?

PAM

Rosefolly, I started a biography of Little Richard some time ago but was so grossed out that I couldn't get past about ten pages. No more rock and roll biogs for me. Someone gave me Vol. 1 of Peter Guralnick's much lauded biog of Elvis but I do feel I know enough about him.

I'm reading A Chance for Kallie Mae by Ann H. Gabhart. She is a local author who has written dozens of books that are fairly simple but very good.

I have just finished listening to The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett, and like several others here, really enjoyed it. The narration definitely added a lot to the experience too.

I have moved along with my Morland Dynasty reread, and I am about to start listening to Did I Ever Tell You This, Sam Neill's memoir. I was sad to hear of his death earlier this week.

I've just begun Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank. Looks like another fun read.

Finished Return To Sullivan's Island and although it was enjoyable, it was not one of my favorite DBF books. The main character was disappointingly naive.

Two totally contrasting books

The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West. Written some sixty years ago, the story of a Russian priest who is unexpectedly elected Pope. It was often regarded as a look into the future by West as many of the themes he deals with did take place, but for me it was a deeply depressing read. A mixture of the power of the RC church and the corruption of the Italian state. Good men subjected to the iron fist of a series of dogmas, handed down through the millennia. Men (and here it is always men) tortured both physically and mentally for their beliefs. The ending was sudden as I suppose Kiril, the Pope, had no way out under the weight of history that hung over him.

There are a couple more books in the series but I'll give then a miss.

By contrast

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple, written back in the early 1950's detailed the story of a comfortably-off English family who's life is turned on it's head when a young French woman comes to act as a companion to an aged parent. She is a spoilt manipulative female who through boredom makes a pass at the weak self-satisfied husband with the inevitable consequences. Very much a book 'of its time' with discussions on food rationing and the 'servant problem'. For me the only fly in the ointment was the characterisation of the daughter of the family. She is 15-16 years old but acts as a child of 10 would today. I cannot think kids have become so much more mature these days and that a girl of 'then' would still be mad about her pony and despise boys so much! But still an enjoyable read.

Vee, I started High School in 1948 at age 11 and it was noticeable how babyish the girls from the private schools behaved. I think we were all kept rather young back then, with crushes and enthusiasms and no time for the boys in the gender segregated High school system.

With no brothers or close young male relatives we sisters and our friends were very naive.

I finished a reread of Shadows of the Past by Sharon Shinn, a selection of short stories gathered together in one volume. I also managed to make myself finish Magic & Mischief at the Wayside Hotel, by Elizabeth Everett. It was barely okay and is joining the pile of books being donated to the library. Current reads include a reread of The Wizard’s Butler by Nathan Lowell as a refresher before starting the followup The Wizard’s Cat, as well as a book recommended to me by Rosefolly, A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko.

As an aside, and totally off topic, does anyone remember Rayma and her stories about her dog Rocky and bird she called Psycho Bird? i came across a link from the old RP where she was mentioned. I remember actually laughing out loud at her stories about the two and their antics. In the same thread I came across names of members I haven’t seen post in a long time. Frances-md, lemonhead101, sheriz6! sherwood38, woodnympg2-gw, and timallen are some of those who posted in that thread.

I do not remember Rayma but do recall the others. I thought that Frances md was a doctor for a while! We had fun with virtual feasts based on literature and making up poems by some of the clever posters.

I am not reading as much as I did. With one thing after another it is easier to slump and watch TV than sit up and read!

I 'arrived' at RP in about 2002 and don't remember Rayma, just many conversations about her and her dog.

I know Pat ie sherwood, Dido/Diana and liz lemonhead died (liz much too young), woodnymph moved to Charleston SC and I think is OK. I miss the posts by Martin (and the Booker prize!) and Frieda among several others.

Re: how girls bodies and behaviors have changed since I was in high school ( early 60's).

I think there might have been one girl I can recall who had a "figure". The rest of us wore AA bras with a few tissues if needed to round out things ! I think we were patterned after the Sandra Dee version of a teenager.

Today girls are patterned after the music celebs du jour....and the sluttier the better.

Around town I see many high school girls dressed very suggestively ( IMO) and I wonder where their mothers are when they leave for school ? Low cut tops showing all their over-developed wares, short shorts with a 1" inseam...leaving nothing to anyone's imagination.

And this goes for the lovelies as well as the very overweight girls. It astounds me.

There used to be dress codes in schools, now apparently there is no one willing to enforce them for fear of stepping on someone's "rights".

And this is not just in high school.

Many middle school girls are very developed for their age....while the boys seem to be on a more normal progression toward maturation.

Is it the diet ?

Is it hormones in the food ?

Or.....am I just stuck in the values of the past.

Annpan, I started High School in 1956, all girls and run by nuns! Although several girls must have had brothers at the almost next-door boys school fraternization was heavily discouraged. My school was RC and the nuns claimed mixing with the boys might lead to 'mixed marriages' ie when an RC marries 'out of the faith'.

Perhaps not surprisingly several of these nicely brought up young ladies kicked over the traces when they left school and for many years 'Convent Educated School Girls' carried a whiff of danger/excitement . . . just think of Marianne Faithful!

I should add that I wasn't RC so missed the attached stigma and among our group am about the only person who's children were 'born in wedlock' and stayed married to the same person.. . . Now please excuse me while I adjust my halo.

Vee, my husband and I were born in 1961 and we have very few contemporaries whose parents were only married once, as ours were.

Hello, RPers! I do still drop in occasionally because I like to think I’m keeping in touch, if only in my mind, and was surprised to see my name. I do still read lots of books, mostly nonfiction at the moment, but like to see what all of you are reading. I always loved RP!

Hi frances_md, so good to know you are still here checking in with us! I have been here off and on too and am making a concerted effort to stay in touch better.

i don’t remember hearing that liz/lemonhead, Pat/Sherwood, and Dido/ Diana had passed away. I must have missd those posts, or just didn’t remember. Thanks for the update Veer.

It's nice to see people checking in to say hello.

I just finished JD Vance's new book, Communion, about his journey of religious faith. He is a controversial person but the book was very interesting. He writes in a conversational style that is easy to read. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in faith.

Yoyo, I agree with you about the way girls and women dress now. I certainly wore my share of mini skirts but it was nothing like what you see everywhere today.

I was tempted to take a photo of my eldest GD from the rear so that she could see her short skirt and bulging back legs and almost the lower part of her bottom! I did not but the saleswoman and I persuaded her not to buy a column wedding dress but opt for a meringue style to suit her voluptuous shape instead.

Plumbers crack is sadly not confined to plumbers!

Vee, the RC school opposite my home would not take C of E children so we walked a mile to the local school in all weathers instead.

Today I read an article from The Atlantic magazine entitled The Age of Reading is Over. Needless to say, that title made me unhappy. After reading it, though, I would say it was more about how and what we read are changing. i won’t go into details but some RPers may be interested in the article.

rouan, thank you for mentioning the names from the older post. I do remember all of those names and now plan to stop being a lurker.

Annpan, Maybe there just wasn't room for other children. In my New York City Catholic grade school, we had almost eighty children in one classroom, with one nun teaching. No specialist teachers, no cafeteria, no gym, no library. I had a very long walk four times a day as we went home for lunch.

When we moved to the suburbs, I thought it was heavenly that we had only sixty in a class--again one nun--and a cafeteria--that didn't serve food. We brought our lunches. And there was a school bus. This was the 1950s.

Ginny, no, that was not the case. The headmaster was quite adamant that he only allowed RCs as quite a lot of the lessons were religion based. Sadly that meant that few RC pupils made it to the Grammar/High school as they did not pass the scholarship test. We had three in our class of thirty children and they did separate Religious studies.

Thirty pupils was the ideal number but at the local school it was more like 40. I heard our teacher sigh when classes started and she had 42! The classes soon sorted themselves into interested children sitting at the front and those who had to attend playing up at the back!

My mother was a first grade teacher. One year she had 50 six-year-olds and asked the county superintendent what on earth she was to do with so many children. He told her just to do the best she could, and the next year the classrooms were more evenly divided.

I'm reading a Scottish stand-alone, I'll Keep You Safe, by Peter May. It's very good.

Class size is one big issue where the local teachers' union and the school district come to an agreement. The teachers' contract specifies the acceptable size of a class and if there are more students that year , the school has to hire an additional teacher.

I recently finished the 25th anniversary edition of Diana:Her True Story by Andrew Morton. I found it far too long due to a lot of repetition. In general a very dismal book.

Now I’m reading Country People by Daniel Mason. It’s about a California couple and their two children who move to Vermont for a year for the wife to do a visiting professorship. The husband mostly does a lot of nothing, supposedly working on his PhD dissertation. According to the synopsis, they are going to find some very strange goings-on in this small Vermont town. It started off very oddly, but it getting better.

It’s nice to hear from you, frances_md!

Donna

I am happy to hear from Frances_MD. Glad to hear that you dropped by!

I was aware that Pat/Sherwood, and Dido/Diana were no longer living. I don't think that I knew about Liz/Lemonhead, and I am sorry to hear it now.

Does anyone know if Jan Kinrade is still living? I haven't seen her here in years and I have a vague memory I can't quite pull up that something happened to her, possibly an illness. I met her on my first visit to England back in 2003. She very kindly drove me around to see various sights in her area.

I miss Martin, too.

Rosefolly, we lost Jan some years ago. I found info from a site in her area, the Eastern edge of London/Epping Forest.

re Liz/Lemonhead. Maybe 6-7 or so years ago she was visiting her family in Bedford (E Midlands) and got in touch wondering if she should ask her Mother to drive her over for a visit. The car journey, although not far to someone from the US (in miles) would have taken them several hours with no direst route. I pointed this out and am now sorry to have missed the chance of a get-together.

I have been thinking about RP a good deal now and remember that Pat Sherwood and I had a special affinity for ”something” that we communicated about quite a lot. The only thing I am sure of is that it related to reading! I also remember being so sad when she passed away. Didn’t we used to have a way to look up posts from years past? Maybe that capability went away as RP moved around but I would love to go back in time for a little while.

Frances, so would I.

I have just checked and can go back for many years by going to the bottom of the subject menu and selecting back posts. It took me a few minutes to back track and there might be a faster method but I got to a Lemonhead post in 2014 and still it went further back.

I got earlier posts accidentally once when browsing the Related Discussions on the right hand side. A bit sad to see those old long gone friends.

annpan, it just occurred to me that I should be using my computer instead of my phone to access RP and I was able to find posts going back to 2005. I read the last post, new year's resolutions for 2006, and there were familiar names, including sherwood38. Thank you for checking!

I met Martin and the German girl whose pen name here I have forgotten once at a bookstore in London. We had a great afternoon chatting together. Jan was supposed to meet us but didn't feel good that afternoon. The German girl went back home, and Martin moved somewhere else in England and didn't participate anymore. There was a photo of the three of us floating around here for a while.

I remember Rayma and her stories - I actually have one from 2002 that I saved, along with 'Marco's book survey'. Do you remember him?

I also seem to have forgotten that some of our members have died.

Martin came to Adelaide once and we had lunch - it seems so long ago.

Frances-md you are welcome. I am on my laptop quite a lot in the small hours when I cannot sleep and look up all kinds of things using the AI Ask Anything.

I mentioned a pilot UK quiz show in the 1990s called Snakes and Ladders which my husband was on and AI came back in seconds to tell me that the host, who still does quiz shows, set his pants on fire by sliding down the enormous Snake prop. I did not see that but it is on a showreel! The show never took off but my husband did get a performance fee and a meal.

I'm reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It's my book club's choice this month. It's about a woman and all the different lives she could have led if she had made different choices at various points in her life. Would she have chosen one of those lives instead? It's light reading and enjoyable.

Kath, I remember Marco too. I always enjoyed reading his posts.

Do youmthink you coild share the Rayma story here? I had some of them saved on a computer that died on me and I lost everything I had saved from RP

Also chiming in about the RPers of the past. I remember and miss them. Marco was our resident renaissance man, if I remember properly. I remember PsychoBird and Rocky and all of the stories. As the internet was relatively new, I had to keep a list in a little notebook of screen names and real names to keep everyone straight. we also had Russ and Books4Joy, oh, and the list goes on.

So sorry to hear that many friends have passed away. Thank you for sharing... for quite a few years I was popping in and out sporadically and I had no idea we lost them.

FRANCIS! Good to "see" you!!! I also read alot of non-fiction, much of it history.

PAM

It's sort of like a stroll down lovers' lane, isn't it? I participated in the bookmark exchange for several years.

The story I have from Rayma runs to 7 pages, so I will paste it into a new topic.