Reading the Detectives discussion
Archived threads
>
What non-mystery books are you reading? (2021-2022)
I've started the wartime diary of Margaret Kennedy,Where Stands A Wingèd Sentry. It is only the period in the 1940's, when the French lines had failed and France has surrendered, and Britain was facing a very grave situation, with people thinking for the first time (according to the diary) that they might actually be defeated. I think it stops before the Blitz started. It was published in 5the US, but this is the first time it has been made available for UK readers.
Sid wrote: "... Cricket, on the other hand...but please don't mention the cricket! :o)"
😂
Tell me about it Sid. Normally when the men's team fail miserably I can at least rely on the women's team to cheer me up but even they're letting me down at the moment. I think the rain has posed more of a threat to Aussie victories than either of our teams have!
Tania wrote: "I've started the wartime diary of Margaret Kennedy,Where Stands A Wingèd Sentry. It is only the period in the 1940's, when the French lines had failed and France has..."
That sounds really interesting Tania. How are you finding it so far?
Just about to start The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. It’s a group read in Historical Fictionistas in February if anyone’s interested.
I'm about 25% through A Gentleman from Moscow and enjoying it so far. It's for a bookclub meeting on zoom tomorrow night so I need to get busy.
Jackie wrote: "I'm about 25% through A Gentleman from Moscow and enjoying it so far. It's for a bookclub meeting on zoom tomorrow night so I need to get busy."I really liked that one.
I am currently reading Thirteen Moons right now, a historical fiction.
Katie wrote: "Tania wrote: "I've started the wartime diary of Margaret Kennedy,Where Stands A Wingèd Sentry. It is only the period in the 1940's, when the French lines had failed
That sounds really interesting Tania. How are you finding it so far?..."
It is great so far. I've read quite a lot of 'Blitz lit', but this period is largely ignored. She was aware that she was living through history, and so had the diary published. I'd recommend it based on what I've read so far.
Mod
Started The Foundling
by Georgette Heyer for the upcoming Heyer group read in February - a fun and funny favorite! After enjoying a visit with Jeeves and Wooster, I wanted another humorous read.
Susan in NC wrote: "Started The Foundling by Georgette Heyer for the upcoming Heyer group read in February - a fun and funny favorite! After enjoying a visi..."I used to read her years ago and I remember I enjoyed her writing. Okay, so I just checked the library and they have a book that I think I'm going to download. Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester. I blame you! LOL Oh and they have more than a dozen of her books available for download so just goes to show that people are still reading her!
Susan in NC wrote: "Started The Foundling by Georgette Heyer for the upcoming Heyer group read in February - a fun and funny favorite! After enjoying a visi..."I reread it for the group read and really enjoyed it.
I'm currently reading Canary Yellow a retro author I have enjoyed before.
Loved my reread of The Foundling, and just finished a delightful book for my Retro Reads Book Pool, Dear Hugo
by Molly Clavering. I’d like to read more nonfiction this year, so working on Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
. Who’d have though midden piles could tell us so much? Fascinating stuff.
Mod
The Ticket Collector from Belarus: An Extraordinary True Story of Britain's Only War Crimes Trial
and
Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 2): 1938-43
Haven’t checked into this thread for a while; sorry for the lack of book links but I’m on my iPad. Read Miss Austen by Gill Hornsby, about Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra; finishing up The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, and reading an allegorical melodrama from the 1890s, The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli. Looking forward to starting Holy Disorders next! Always have an appetite for Edmund Crispin.
I'm about half way through Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A-Z of Literary Persuasion from NetGalley (not published until October) and loving it. I'm laughing regularly, nodding in agreement and finding it fascinating. There's some brilliant, witty stuff about use of language, some really interesting history, great examples of book blurbs both good and bad and so on. I'm completely hooked. She quotes lots of pithy book comments by others, too. I really liked Margaret Atwood's 6-word story: "Yearned for him. Got him. Shit!" and the summary of Crime And Punishment: "Man talks about an axe for three chapters. You put down the book never to return." (I have twice struggled to about page 150 of C&P before losing the will to live...) Or someone's translation of adjectives in book blurbs:
"Charming: there's a child in it
Heartwarming: a child and a dog
Moving: child dies
Heartrending: dog dies."
Roma Clodia pointed me to it, and it's one of the best recommendations I've had for ages. If you're on NetGalley don't miss it, is my advice.
Mod
That sounds great! I've added it to my TBR and hope I remember why in October.
Love the quotes you give from Blurb Your Enthusiasm!
Abigail wrote: "Love the quotes you give from Blurb Your Enthusiasm!"I read the section on Literary Fiction over breakfast yesterday and almost spat out my muesli several times. Here are another couple of gems:
From Jonathan Coe: "I have a joke about literary fiction. Well , less of a joke, more of a ‘compelling meditation on love and loss, couched in prose of pellucid beauty.’ "
and this from Willder herself:
"...Thomas Pynchon’s notoriously ‘difficult’ (in other words, mainly read by show-offs) novel Gravity’s Rainbow... I wonder how many people have read it and then not told anybody they’ve read it? Zero, I suspect. Because the point of books like these is that they are an Iron Man literary challenge, and once you’ve been macho enough to read them you can boast about it.
It's great - and genuinely enthusiastic and perceptive about books she does like, too. More risk of muesli buckshot this morning, I suspect.
Just finished Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 and have started Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale.
I'm currently reading an ARC of The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. Although there is a mystery her books seems more thriller and suspense to me. This one, just like The Guest List is told from multiple POVs.
Reading Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz. Zeppelin is my favorite band of all time, and although I own a bunch of biographies on the group and individual members, I haven't read many of them yet. This is proving a fantastic and fascinating read.
I am supposed to be reading The Kitchen House for a book club that meets on zoom this weekend but I can't get started. Just downloaded Ramona the Brave from the library. More in the mood to read that.
Tara wrote: "Reading Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz. Zeppelin is my favorite band of all time..."Wow - that takes me back to university days, Zeppelin often playing in rooms, my roommate pompously accusing someone of being "the sort of person who would say that Led Zeppelin went acoustic on their third album" (he was young - give him a break!) and seeing them live at Earls Court in 1975(?). They were good, weren't they?
What do you make of Robert Plant's latest collaboration with Alison Krauss, btw?
Just finished a quick reread of The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh by Molly Greeley for a group read. Loved it just as much the second time!
I just started a biography - Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood by Jill Watts. Apparently she's a historian and includes footnotes, bibliography. Not sure yet about an index, but there probably is one. When she was a teenager, her father received a survey for African-Americans who had served in the Civil War. Her father was ailing from his wounds and Hattie had to take down his story. So the beginning of the book is more about Henry McDaniel than Hattie. He was born into slavery and it is a harrowing tale.
I am now starting An Elephant in My Kitchen by Françoise Malby-Anthony This is a follow up to The Elephant Whisperer which was written by Lawrence Anthony the husband. I can't tell why I left this book so long, as I read the first back in 2013 and loved it. I learnt so much about elephants and really hope this offering by his wife is also of the same standard.
I pulled one from the TBR shelf today A God Against the Gods by Allen Drury. I bought this and the sequel years ago and finally I'm reading at least one of them.
Always feels good to lighten the load on the groaning shelves!
I've read one chapter of The Spanish Bride. It's been a long, long time since I've read a Heyer for the first time.
Hah, Jackie, to have that experience I’d have to read The Great Roxhythe! (Which I’ll do later this year.) Hope you enjoy it!
Sid wrote: "Tara wrote: "Reading Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz. Zeppelin is my favorite band of all time..."Wow - that takes me back to university days, Zeppelin oft..."
Sadly they were already broken up by the time I was born, but I believe that Earl's Court performance is on DVD of a bunch of their performances and is a great watch.
I have listened to some of their post-Zep work, particularly Plant's solo work in the 80s, The Honeydrippers, and The Firm, but I have to say that I prefer the bluesy rock that their original work had to offer.
Tara wrote: "I have listened to some of their post-Zep work, particularly Plant's solo work in the 80s, The Honeydrippers, and The Firm, but I have to say that I prefer the bluesy rock that their original work had to offer. "Fair enough. I was a big fan at the time, loved the visceral thrill of their music and the genuine heartache/blues they sometimes produced. I still listen sometimes to an old album when the mood takes me, but I'm more of a Raising Sand man these days.
Have you ever seen this amazing video to Trampled Underfoot, from The Old Grey Whistle Test (a rightly revered BBC TV weekly music programme) from 1975? OGWT was mainly about live performance, but they also played album tracks and, in the days before the Music Video, added their own visuals which were usually very clever. This is a stunning piece of synchronisation, I think, (to a brilliant track) and I love watching it from time to time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI1k7...
I am now starting The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore Having read The Siege last year I am interested to see what happened when that had finished
Wandering London with Ian Sinclair The Last London: True Fictions from an Unreal City away from fiction
I requested Fresh Water for Flowers
from my library on the recommendation of a dear friend, and
The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China on an interesting Kindle recommendation. Unusually, my library came through quickly, so I’m switching between these two and a Christie mystery! When it rains, it pours!
Just finished a lovely book about loss and love, Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz, and going to embark on Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym, which is a March group read in another group.
Jane and Prudence was my first Barbara Pym book, and I loved it. I now have only one novel left to read, but then I look forward to going back to the beginning and starting all over again. I was about halfway through her books before I realised she had characters from other books popping up for brief, cameo appearances, so I shall be keeping and eye out for that.
I have just finished Dear Hugo by Molly Clavering, who was a good friend of D.E. Stevenson, and anyone who is a fan of hers will probably enjoy Molly Clavering, so I'm very pleased that several of her books have been recently re-published.I have also been reading A Thatched Roof, Beverley Nichols's follow up to Down the Garden Path, but this one concentrates on restoring the house, whereas the first one was about restoring the garden.
We seem to have very similar reading tastes, Tania! You remind me that I haven’t read any Beverley Nichols in a while.
Oh I do love his books. I think the Merry Hall trilogy was the best one, but perhaps because they were the first ones I read, and I'm really enjoying these ones.
Sid wrote: "Tara wrote: "I have listened to some of their post-Zep work, particularly Plant's solo work in the 80s, The Honeydrippers, and The Firm, but I have to say that I prefer the bluesy rock that their o..."I hadn't seen that before, but its a fun watch! Certainly something about that time and place that resulted in magic. I'm also enjoying Led Zeppelin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, which I read as I listen to the albums. Very cool stuff.
Having really enjoyed my read of The Old Curiosity Shop, I've just started Bleak House. I just adore Dickens' use of language.
I have started Village Books by Craig McLay I got this free from Amazon back in 2012. I would say it does seem what people on gooodreads tend to call "blokey" but is easy reading.The page count however is wrong on goodreads and wonder how it is possible to have it corrected.
Adding a few more books to my groaning currently reading pile:The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The movie was forgettable, but given its a epistolary novel, I'm willing to give it a try.
Now that we are into the Lenten season, I'm reading The Man Born to Be King: A Play-Cycle on the Life of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Dorothy L. Sayers. I've only read Sayers as a mystery writer, so I am keen to see her work outside of that realm.
Just finished Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym, which I found dreary, and moving on to a bit of escapism, The Longbourn Letters: The Correspondence between Mr Collins & Mr Bennet by Rose Servitova.
Reading the Detectives
Books mentioned in this topic
Dragon Bones (other topics)A History of France (other topics)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (other topics)
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? A Memoir (other topics)
Wessex Tales (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
John Julius Norwich (other topics)Vera Brittain (other topics)
Miss Read (other topics)
Craig Holden (other topics)
Karen Abbott (other topics)
More...
Cricket, on the other hand...but please don't mention the cricket! :o)