Book Club

[Stokey Sue]

I liked Heidi but I think the copy I read was a retold version with lovely illustrations, the original is fairly heavy going.

Like I think many other children I was intrigued by the concept of the Borrowers, which I think is what adults remember fondly, but frankly they are a mildly unpleasant family; Mary Norton’s prose is turgid and the books are far too long, proper door stops.

Has anyone mentioned Alice? I still have my facsimile copies of both books, over 60 years old, knew them by heart.

[herbidacious]

I had to proof read Heidi and it struck me that so much cream and full fat milk was consumed in the moutains that this must ultimately have counteracted the beneficial affects of mountain air It's not a favourite. I didn't read it as a child.
I did like the Borrowers. (Fantasy again.)

I read all the Little House on the Prairie books but these are now deemed unacceptable by many.

As a younger child, Mrs Pepperpot, anyone? My Naughty Little Sister...

I think a lot of what I read was written from the late 60s onwards. Nina Bawden, Catherine Sefton (who apparently is a mad), John Christopher etc.

[Uschi]

I had to proof read Heidi and it struck me that so much cream and full fat milk was consumed in the moutains that this must ultimately have counteracted the beneficial affects of mountain air

At a time when people were stuck in polluted, dark cities without decent food and with rickets and tuberculosis rife full fat anything was more than fine. And it isn't just the good mountain air that is keeping people healthy and slim, but hard work and an extremely active lifestyle. Even the children have to work and they certainly move about enough to need calorific food.

I loved Heidi, when I was a child, mainly because I would have loved to go to my grandparents' farm and couldn't - it was too close to the border. All my cousins had a whale of a time there, except for little me. It may not have been an Alpine idyll, but they still had horses there, a communal wood-fired baking house, fetched drinking water from a well and so on.

[herbidacious]

My remark was intended to be tongue in cheek, Uschi...
They do go on rather a lot about the creamy milk though

[Uschi]

They would.
My father was one of these slightly malnourished city kids ... he was sent to a huge farm in Oldenburg for weeks in summer and he loved it. For him, butter was never just butter, but "gute Butter" - good butter.

[scullion]

having worked my way through the medieval murderer series, lately, and a couple of books by one of their contributors, i have started on the 'rotherweird' trilogy suggested by herbi.
i'm only a little way in but am liking it.

[Smitch]

I recently read ‘the very secret society of irregular witches’ and absolutely loved it. It’s a charming book featuring magical children, found family, acceptance, witchcraft and a sub plot of queer love. It had a similar feel to the house in the cerulean sea which I also loved.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60018635
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45047384

[Pepper Pig]

Caught this chap on LBC the other day and downloaded the audiobook. Absolutely riveting and in places horrifying.

Education is all. It really delves into the bad and the good. It's very balanced (So far . . ).

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/317240/ ... 0241445310

[Pepper Pig]

Anyone read this? I'm loving it.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61414913

[herbidacious]

I do like Joanne Harris but not read anything of hers for ages. (I didn't like the one set in the school...)

Will add this to my list.

[scullion]

i'll keep an eye out for that.
i've just had a look to see which of her stuff i haven't read - it's more than i thought!

[scullion]

just finished the rotherweird trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed it. it left me with something to think about.

[herbidacious]

I really liked it. I sometimes got a bit lost, though, which I think, after reading all three, and book one of his next series (no 2 is on its way to me) is him rather than me being a bit dim.
A (male) friend thought his female characters were a bit 'made for men'.
There is some quite conceptually horrific nastiness in it too...

I am currently reading Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde. I needed a bit of silliness. Although it's probably time to read a proper grown up (serious and challenging) book, as the one I read before was a Lockwood and Co.

[scullion]

I sometimes got a bit lost, though,

yes, there were a few confusing bits, it wasn't you.
maybe he was holding too many scenarios in his head at the same time!

i've started 'falconer's crusade' - the first of ian morson's series set in the 13th century.

[Pepper Pig]

I’m rereading Bleak House at the moment. I love Dickens.

[Earthmaiden]

I do too. He absolutely nails the period he lived in IMO.

[scullion]

have you read terry pratchet's 'dodger'? - a good yarn about the dickens character.

[Pepper Pig]

I have this on Audiobook at the moment. It’s terrific.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-ap ... 1788165303

(I can do cosy crime)

[herbidacious]

I have Armistead Maupin's new Tales of the City book on my bedside table lined up to read

[Smitch]

I have this on Audiobook at the moment. It’s terrific.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-ap ... 1788165303

(I can do cosy crime)

We read that at book club last year and I really enjoyed it.