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ALL NEW Just finished - just started
Am a bit behind, finished The Missing Children - first in the series, I enjoyed it and glad I have the second in the series. Then read Something Wicked - another first in series, but not as enjoyable. Then read Dead Letter Drop - this was the first book Peter James had published and published the year I was born, but it doesn't live up to his Grace series, or his later standalone books. Now reading Look For Me, 20% in and enjoying.
Read Scott Bartlett's Finished with Life but Unable to Die - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4085059366and
Wanted by Tim Arnot - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4085078386.
Just finished Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I found a real drag.Just started something light to recover: Frank Derrick's Holiday of A Lifetime by J.B. Morrison.
Finished The Watchmaker of Filigree Street the other week, which was pretty good.I'm giving up halfway through Rabbit, Run by John Updike. Utter, boring toss.
Finished S J Parris Execution which was excellent as usual, it's a great series - you can almost smell London... And then read Pearl S Buck's Imperial Woman which I've wanted to read ever since the BBC's Gormenghast used her likeness for the twins. A terrific book, a fictionalised account of the Empress's reign, with lavish costumes, complex traditions and secret rooms and hidden courtyards in palaces worthy of Gormenghast, The book seeks to explain her thought processes and her grip on power. After that, I just had to read the Pulitzer winning The Good Earth to see the other side of the coin - the abject poverty and hard work of the peasant farmers. Again, a terrific story, which never loses its pace or power - the depiction of famine is truly heart-rending. So after that, I need a rest! I'm joining the Dangerous Women in a convict ship bound for Australia - there is a strong quilting/textile thread to the story which appeals to me.
Finished Look For Me, quite enjoyed it, and St Clare's Collection 1: Books 1-3 - I never really got into St Clare's as a child, and have to say, not as enjoyable as Mallory Towers. Then read Death du Jour which I wasn't looking forward to, as I didn't like the first due to the differences between the book and TV show, but managed to read the second as I pretended they weren't connected, so can read the others, but won't buy any more. Classics this month, I picked an Agatha Christie collection for my bathroom book, not realising it was nearly 1k pages!! Started Rebecca yesterday.
Finished Rebecca yesterday, think I'm going to give 3.5, but round up to 4*, I struggled with the beginning when it swapped times, and then didn't enjoy the ending, I had to look it up to understand it. The middle bit I enjoyed enough to find it hard to put down, hence rounding up.
Big catchup on reviews:52 Ways to Get Unstuck: Exercises to Break Through Writer's Block by Chris Mandeville - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4110099854
The Colossus trilogy by D F Jones:
Colossus:The Forbin Project - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4114093933
The Fall of Colossus - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4114139204"
Colossus and the Crab - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4114559855
The Raven by Aderyn Wood - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4110369778
The Banished of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1619655811
One more - just reviewed - Robert Louis Stephenson's Treasure Island - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4119475786
Just finished Frank Derrick's Holiday of A Lifetime by J.B. Morrison, which I didn't enjoy as much as the first book.Just started The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, which is pretty engaging so far (10% in).
Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Finished The Thirteenth Tale this pm, 4*"Oh I love that book! It's on my top 100 list (for which I am - very slowly - making a quilt!
I finished Dangerous Women which I very much enjoyed - quilt making on board a convict ship bound for Tasmania. I have now finished Peter May's The Night Gate which was a fairly quick read as I skimmed through the boring bits! He is writing it during the current pandemic so I am guessing it didn't see much of the editor. There is a lot of mansplaining too. That said, it was entertaining - reminded me of a really good WW2 story I read recently with a young woman trained in Scotland and parachuted into France - can't remember title. And also The Tuscan Contessa.
Yesterday I finished Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories and today read More William not often I read a book in a day, but not often I read books less than 200 pages! Still a week left of classics month and not sure what to read next.
Enjoyed this freebie read which I hope will help me to improve my book marketing skills.Let's Get Digital: How to Self-Publish, and Why You Should - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4072171770
A couple of 2 star reads:Old Testament Legends: Being stories out of some of the less-known apocryphal books of the Old Testament edited by M R James - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4140366957
Watcher's Web by Patty Jansen - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4134433859
Enjoyed this story - hope the author doesn't pass out because I finally got round to it! - Few Are Chosen by M. T. McGuire - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1638826879
Pam wrote: "Enjoyed this story - hope the author doesn't pass out because I finally got round to it! - Few Are Chosen by M. T. McGuire - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."I enjoyed it as well :-)
Read a Margery Allingham book The Allingham Casebook, never read any of hers, and won't be in a rush to buy/read any more. Now starting Westwind
Just finished House of Lies by D S Butler which wasn't bad, & just started Ian Rankins A Song for the Dark Times which I wish I didn't have to put down!
Just finished The Night She DisappearedThe night she disappeared by Lisa JewellLisa Jewell. Here's my 3.5 - 4* reviewhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished Not Fade Away which was just great. Started Hard Rain Falling - a book one of my mates lent to me. Just astonishing!
Just finished The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.Just started Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal.
Bit of a catchup on reviews:John Bude's The Cornish Coast Murder - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4123353959
M, T. McGuire's Escape from B-Movie Hell - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1605378579
The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present by Ronald Hutton, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4136618280
Just finished
. Having just put the down a good hour ago, I remain astonished. As visceral as it gets. I don't mind admitting it has fair blown my mind. Next up is a book my mate Dave bought me (he also got me the aforementioned Hard Rain Falling!) -
Big catch up on reviews:Stephen King's Under the Dome - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4183947458
The Bear Pit by S G McClean - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3494502002
and in the same series
The House of Lamentations - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4184499200
Forbidden Books of the Original New Testament by William Wake - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4171253572
and Later by Stephen King - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4123218748
Finished Sleeping Beauties, it picked up a bit, but not enough for me to give it 4*, I was a bit disappointed with the ending.
Just finished Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman and starting Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
Just finished Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal.Just started The Assistant by S.K. Tremayne.
Just finished The Assistant by S.K. Tremayne, which was really rather good.Just started Nobody Walks by Mick Herron.
Just finished Nobody Walks by Mick Herron, which was pretty gripping and enjoyable.Just started Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
Catching up on a few reviews:Koko by Peter Straub - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1840410487
Mystery by Peter Straub - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1840407531
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4193896521
Catch up on reviews of reads since mid Sept:The first two by Christopher Fowler, in the Bryant and May series (but not both book 17 as Goodreads has them):
The Lonely Hour - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3184700055
Oranges and Lemons - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3849911968
and the third, the final book in Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy, The Throat - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1840407457
I confess that I've never really got into Stephen King. But then Horror isn't a genre I've ever taken to
Not all of his are horror, I'm not a big fan of his fantasy stuff, and some is more psychological
I confess I've never come across his fantasy, but the couple of books of his that I started (one about a gunslinger) I never finished
I would class that as one of his fantasy books
Don't worry Jim - that one turned into a seven book series of doorstoppers and I found the later bits a slog.
I really hated book number 5, really struggled with it and contemplated not bothering with the rest, yet I really liked books 6 and 7.
Read a couple of Peter Straub's, unfortunately wasn't keen on either, especially the second:Lost Boy Lost Girl - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1840410324
In the Night Room - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1840410763
Just finished some random reads.Just started Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin and Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire by Pete Brown.
Finished a short fiction collection by Peter Straub, Houses Without Doors and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1840410802
It's always useful to know what to avoid :-)
Cheers Jim.Just finished V2: A Novel of World War II by Rober Harris - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4334086904
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Far more interesting having been done 'after' the event