Register

Book Club

TV & Radio, Gardening, Who's Who, etc.
User avatar
Posts: 967
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:28 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby halfateabag » Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:43 am

Heather Barnett lives in the next village to ours and Acts of Kindness is her debut novel. The local rag ran a story so I found a 2nd hand copy on the net. It is ready for the suitcase next month.

Some good pointers on this thread, thanks for the thumbs up.

The Family Upstairs is also on the holiday pile.

User avatar
Posts: 1812
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:21 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby aero280 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:55 am

I haven’t been on this thread for a while. I have read quite a few Donna Leon books and quite like modern police procedurals. Since I found I can get on with reading on the iPad, I’ve been reading the free books from the local library offers. It’s allowed me to catch up up on the earlier books in some series which the library no longer have as actual books on the shelves.

If you like forensic science, I’ve enjoyed the Rhonda McLeod Scottish by Lin Anderson. Maybe a bit noir for some tastes. And the long series of American (mainly Minnesota) police thrillers by John Sandford featuring Lucas Davenport. A bit violent for some tastes.

Period stuff. Rosemary Rowe and her Libertus the pavement maker series set in Roman Gloucester. And Edward Marston with his Victorian Railway Detective series, or his Elizabethan theatre series featuring Nicholas Bracewell. He has other series set in different historical periods - First World War, Bow street runners, etc.

User avatar
Posts: 967
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:28 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby halfateabag » Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:52 am

Whilst in Marlborough yesterday, Hubb. picked up 4 Chekov books for holibob and a P G Woodhouse one. All the read books will not be coming back to the UK!

User avatar
Posts: 421
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:16 pm
Location: Cheshire

Re: Book Club

Postby OneMoreCheekyOne » Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:30 pm

Ive read The Midnight Library and Adults (as linked by herby upthread) in the last week and enjoyed both. I’m starting Ghosts by Dolly Alderton next.

I’m reading a Cornish cook book by Emily Scott too (Sea and Shore). We have friends coming round for a garden dinner over the weekend and there’s a red camargue rice with feta and summer herb salad in the book which I will probably make.

I’ve been reading The Secret Island by Enid Blyton with eldest DD. It was dated when I read it as a kid but the sexism feels even worse reading it now!

User avatar
Posts: 4920
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:52 pm
Location: North West London

Re: Book Club

Postby Pepper Pig » Wed Jun 16, 2021 7:53 am

My holiday reading is mostly very light but long winded series. I’ve been reading Santa Monteriore’s Deverill saga which I managed to both hate and enjoy at the same time. Similarly books by Lucinda Riley who very sadly died last week. Erica James is another in that category.

User avatar
Posts: 967
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:28 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby halfateabag » Thu Jun 17, 2021 11:05 pm

Has anyone heard of Jennifer Barclay ???? I read she lives on a Greek island and has written quite a lot about them so have ordered 3 of her books, An octopus in my ouzo, Wild Abandon and Falling in honey....

When visiting The Waterfront pub this lunchtime, there is a telephone box on the edge of the property it is full of books including HFW River Cottage book, so I nabbed it for bedtime reading.

User avatar
Posts: 4598
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:02 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby herbidacious » Fri Jun 18, 2021 12:17 am

I just read Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by by Cho Nam-joo. A short book - took me two days to read it! I enjoyed it.
Not sure what to read next. The two things I read before this one were not that great tbh. (Both fantastical: The Absolute Book and the sequel to The Library of the Unwritten - The Archive of the Forgotten. Nevertheless enjoyable.)

Posts: 3511
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:42 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby KeenCook2 » Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:57 pm

Our BG book this month is https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00X7UHWB0/ ... TF8&btkr=1
Have just started it and had to get OH to explain Vietnam to me :oops:

User avatar
Posts: 967
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:28 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby halfateabag » Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:04 am

Spent some time yesterday afternoon (while the footy was on downstairs) reading HFW River cottage. Delightful ! I really like his style of delivery. Very restful.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Book Club

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:27 pm

I have just finished Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh

It’s an interesting premise, one of two sisters killed their father, and is in fact a serial killer. Both are on trial but which is guilty?

I also watched the BBC2 Between the Covers book club program that featured it (S1 ep3), I wasn’t as keen on it as they were, I kept going but it felt more as if I were unravelling a puzzle set by the author than really feeling concerned by whodunnit and I think that’s a lack (someone in book club did hint at that). There’s also a terrible logical failure concerning a critical piece of evidence and motive.

Posts: 2386
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:12 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby liketocook » Tue Jul 06, 2021 1:03 pm

Fifty Fifty appeals Sue I'll see if the library has it on their ebook list.
I've not long finshed a non-fiction book by Val McDermid "Forensics", it was very good and written in a way a lay person could easily understand.
I'm now re-reading some Kathy Reichs and rather enjoying them.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Book Club

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Jul 06, 2021 1:21 pm

I like the Kathy Reichs book, though I wish she's just get on with her boyfriend!

The TV series Traces was based on an outline by Val McDermid, and featured a whole bunch of forensics, as far as I could tell they got the serious forensics right, DNA evidence etc but the forensic lab our heroine worked in was hilarious, peopled by vestal virgins who wondered round clutching a micropipette because they had no workstations with small equipment (working labs are a lot like restaurant kitchens, you have your place and your pipette rack etc as a chef would have a knife rack)

Posts: 2386
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:12 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby liketocook » Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:35 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:I like the Kathy Reichs book, though I wish she's just get on with her boyfriend!

The TV series Traces was based on an outline by Val McDermid, and featured a whole bunch of forensics, as far as I could tell they got the serious forensics right, DNA evidence etc but the forensic lab our heroine worked in was hilarious, peopled by vestal virgins who wondered round clutching a micropipette because they had no workstations with small equipment (working labs are a lot like restaurant kitchens, you have your place and your pipette rack etc as a chef would have a knife rack)

Yes her stuff his generally fairly accurate as far as fiction/TV goes. She's a good friend of Professor Sue Black https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Black ... _of_Strome which probably helps.

User avatar
Posts: 4598
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:02 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby herbidacious » Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:55 am

I have just finished Erin Morgernstern's The Starless Sea. I started Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro - last night.

User avatar
Posts: 421
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:16 pm
Location: Cheshire

Re: Book Club

Postby OneMoreCheekyOne » Wed Jul 07, 2021 11:27 am

I read the Lamplighters by Emma Stonex recently...based loosely on the true story of 3 lighthouse keepers who went missing from a lighthouse in 1900...the tower was locked from the inside, the table was set for dinner and all of the clocks had stopped at the same time.

I'm nearing the end of Olive Kitteridge (finally) and i've got my hands on Hungry by Grace Dent from the library.

Posts: 2386
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:12 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby liketocook » Wed Jul 07, 2021 12:12 pm

Hope you enjoy Hungry as much as I did OMCO

User avatar
Posts: 4598
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:02 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby herbidacious » Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:47 pm

I read The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams after Klara and the Sun. A bit tame and not unpredicatable (imo) but a great premise. A gentle read but made me cry at the end. I'm sure I've read something else too but can't remember what.

I am reading a Tom Holt at the moment. I really should read something a bit more demanding....

User avatar
Posts: 2236
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:03 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby Sloe-Gin » Sun Aug 08, 2021 1:23 pm

I've been a little hit and miss with my reading recently. I thoroughly enjoyed Hungry though.
I'm a quarter f the way through a very long book, called The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn. It's keeping me quite engrossed and is well written.
Some of the books I have started have been in need of a good editor and proof reader and have been cast aside after the first, usually rambling, chapter.

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: Book Club

Postby scullion » Sun Aug 08, 2021 2:01 pm

i'm reading a free ebook (don't know where i found it, don't bother looking) which is in need of a good writer let alone editor. i think it's the modern day version of vanity publishing. I'm only continuing to read it to se if i'm right about the 'baddie'
it's called 'the housewife assasin's handbook' - and i haven't learned anything useful yet...

waiting at the top of the pile is 'food, the history of taste'. a collection of essays edited by paul freedman.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Book Club

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:42 pm

I’m still working my way through Rachel Roddy’s Five Quarters, which like her Guardian columns is a patchwork of memoir and recipes, though she has a narrative structure

PreviousNext

Return to Other Stuff

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests