Reading the Detectives discussion
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What non-mystery books are you reading? (2023-25)
Judy wrote: "I really love both Dickens and Trollope, but Dickens is my favourite. I love his humour and his amazingly vivid imagination which as you say translates so well to film/TV, and as a fan of 19th-cent..."I love Trollope also, I appreciate how he writes women. And I appreciate his dry humor; I’ve come to appreciate Dickens’s imagination, passion for social welfare, and interesting characters. He’s funny too, sometimes, but seems more given to lurching into melodrama.
I’d love to revisit the Palliser novels, also, Judy, but when I was reading them the first time several years ago, I was so enthused with Trollope’s writing, I bought several used copies of his other books. Feel like I should tackle those first!
Roman Clodia wrote: "I like both Dickens and Trollope too, and would say that Trollope is straightforward and realistic, whereas Dickens has a more sophisticated system of symbolism and extended metaphor that underpins..."Oh, thank you, you’ve expressed so clearly what I feel for both writers.
I never read Dickens in school, we spent a lot of time on Jane Austen, the Brontës - friends one level down spent a lot of time on Dickens, had the same complaints. Sad, in both US and Britain, adults who are avid readers don’t have fond memories of reading these authors in school. I wish they did a better job teaching literature and history in school- I was lucky to have a couple of excellent English Lit teachers, and one amazing history teacher, but they seem rare! To this day, I love reading history, and am trying to make up for the classic literature I did not study back then.
Timothy West reading Trollope - both the Barchester novels, and the Pallisers, as well as some stand-alones like The Way We Live Now, really is superb!
Rosina wrote: "I prefer Trollope's women though!"Same here!
Susan in NC wrote: "Rosina wrote: "I prefer Trollope's women though!"Same here!"
Definitely, me too!
Susan in NC wrote: "I never read Dickens in school, we spent a lot of time on Jane Austen, the Brontës - friends one level down spent a lot of time on DickensOddly, growing up in London, I never had to read any of those nineteenth century classics at school. We did do Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. Apart from Shakespeare, Chaucer and a bit of Renaissance drama, everything I had to read for school was twentieth century.
I read Austen, the Brontes, Trollope, Dickens and so on myself - I was obsessed with Penguin Classics as a teenager and wanted to own them all for the lovely covers!
Roman Clodia wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "I never read Dickens in school, we spent a lot of time on Jane Austen, the Brontës - friends one level down spent a lot of time on DickensOddly, growing up in London, I never ..."
Interesting - I wonder who designs the curriculums, and why they choose certain titles and authors? I went to high school in suburban Chicago in the early 1980s, and when I look back, it seems each of my excellent teachers had clear favorites that influenced how long we spent on an author - lots of Shakespeare, dip into Austen, lots of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, then jump way up to “Lost Generation” American writers after World War I (lots of Hemingway- who I’ve never wanted to read again!)
When I went to school in north suburban Chicago in the '60s we read one Dickens - Tale of Two Cities, To Kill a Mockingbird shortly after it came out, The Grapes of Wrath. A couple of Shakespeare - about one per year. Dipped into short stories - Hemingway. I discovered his Nick Adams stories - which I think mostly took place in Michigan. We were supposed to read The Plague but all the girls in my class (including me) objected to the rats. So we moved on to something else which I don't now recall (it was 1967).
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I found Audible in the US has many Trollope's books available for free, narrated by Timothy West. Hours and hours and hours of listening!
Confession: I had to read "A Tale of Two Cities" in my second year in high school, but much preferred "The Scarlet Pimpernel," which I read on my own, for a taste of the French Revolution.
I too enjoy Trollope, and I love the narration by Timothy West on Audible. I always think of his books as being more fun to read than Dickens. For anyone in the UK, both authors have several books in the Audible Plus catalogue, so as a subscriber you can listen to any or all of them. I think this new(ish) business model of theirs has really improved the value of a subscription. I rejoined recently purely so that I could download the Agatha Christie books read by Hugh Fraser, and I was really impressed at how many good books were included in the Audible Plus section. I've bookmarked so many that there is no way I'll be able to get to all of them!
I'm just about to start Nicolas Nickleby, and will read the book alongside listening to the Audible narration.
Has anyone seen the TV adaptation of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock? I thought it was great!
Sue wrote: "Has anyone seen the TV adaptation of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock? I thought it was great!"It was excellent - and persuaded me to listen to the audio-book.
I'm reading Klara and the Sun for an in-person book group. so far it's intereting, but I can't get over the feeling that it will end sadly.
Rosina wrote: "Sue wrote: "Has anyone seen the TV adaptation of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock? I thought it was great!"It was excellent - and persuaded me to listen to the audio-book."
I'm glad you liked it too. And yes, audiobooks can be a good way of reading Dickens, for me anyway, because there are often so many different characters and it can be hard to remember which is which. If the narrator gives different (and memorable) voices to each character, it can really help.
Sue wrote: "Rosina wrote: "Sue wrote: "Has anyone seen the TV adaptation of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock? I thought it was great!"It was excellent - and persuaded me to listen to the aud..."
So true, about Dickens and audiobooks, this made Bleak House so entertaining.
As a change from the mid war mysteries of Sayers, Christie et al. I found an old favourite from my younger days and have started re reading them. Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' series. Just kids having fun sailing in tjhe English Lake District, the Norfoolk Broads and the Naze.Very gentle stories of kids with imaginations just being kids like I was way back in the '30s, 40s - I'm no spring chicken! This series really is a classic and well worth another look after a lifetimw
Kindle tells me it will take over 45 hours so it will keep me out of mischief fo a while.
Keith wrote: "As a change from the mid war mysteries of Sayers, Christie et al. I found an old favourite from my younger days and have started re reading them. Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' series. Jus..."I'm sure you will sail through it (Sorry)
Keith wrote: "As a change from the mid war mysteries of Sayers, Christie et al. I found an old favourite from my younger days and have started re reading them. Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' series. Jus..."That sounds delightful, enjoy!
Jill wrote: "Keith wrote: "As a change from the mid war mysteries of Sayers, Christie et al. I found an old favourite from my younger days and have started re reading them. Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazon..."I love that Jill, a lovely pun!
Keith wrote: "As a change from the mid war mysteries of Sayers, Christie et al. I found an old favourite from my younger days and have started re reading them. Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' series. Jus..."I love that book Keith! Such adventures! And in a beautiful location too. For me, it is just that first one in the series that I keep coming back to. I don't know how many times I've read it over the years, but the others in the series I only ever read once.
Ok. You have both talked me into adding the books
I foound the series dead cheap on Kindle and couldn't resist it. I first read them way back in the early '40s. so long ag I had forgotten the stories although all the children 'stayed' with me all my life. Life was different when I was a kid, the amount of freedom I had, even during the war was amazing compared with today. we used our imagination as these kids do. I had similar sorts of adventures to these kids although in a different rural environment in the Derbyshire Peak District . I learnt to sail on the Trent in a similar dinghy to the Swallow. Lot of fun. As you see. I am no spring chicken and have had 'adventures' all my life, the biggest one was moving to NZ 60 years ago.
Keith wrote: "I foound the series dead cheap on Kindle and couldn't resist it. I first read them way back in the early '40s. so long ag I had forgotten the stories although all the children 'stayed' with me all ..."Sounds like a grand adventure, moving halfway round the world!
Yeah, we wanted a better life and although it was a bit of a scary leap into the dark (sort of) it really paid off. This is a beautiful country, a laid back lifestyle and to me is Paradise! love it here. I live on the shores of the large lake in the centre of the North Island, Lake Taupo with active volcanoes on the skyline. It is a very active geothermal area and I work as a volunteer at a geotherml park with fumeroles, very hot ground, boiling mud. Our seasons are the other way around like in Australia, right now it is autumn (fall to you Americans)I'll be back to 'normal' books again before long
Keith wrote: "Yeah, we wanted a better life and although it was a bit of a scary leap into the dark (sort of) it really paid off. This is a beautiful country, a laid back lifestyle and to me is Paradise! love it..."Sounds like paradise, I’m so glad your leap of faith paid off all those years ago. I have several other NZ pals in groups here, I know the horrible cyclone did a lot of damage, I hope you fared all right Keith. Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Keith wrote: "Life was different when I was a kid, the amount of freedom I had, even during the war was amazing compared with today. we used our imagination as these kids do. I had similar sorts of adventures to these kids although in a different rural environment in the Derbyshire Peak District . ..."It's interesting that you say that Keith, about the amount of freedom you had as a child. Whenever I read Swallows & Amazons, I wonder if children would actually have been allowed to camp alone on an island at that age. We went off to play for hours on the common (open fields with woodland areas) with just the instruction to keep together and be home before dark. This was in the 60s. But we probably didn't have quite the freedom that Mrs Walker gave her family! Or maybe we just weren't such adventurous children to begin with in my family.
NZ sounds like a fabulous adventure, especially the geothermal work. :)
Yes they would. I did! When i was 8 as long as I was home for dinner about 6, I could roam anywhere I liked with my friends and wandered up to 8km (5 miles)' from home. That was in 1940 so I had to have my gas mask with me and had my school satchel with food and drink for the day. As I got older I could go further afield and did. We used our imagination for our adventures which were really very simple but we had fun which is what life is all about. Sure the S&As were in an easier situation on Lake Windermere in the English Lake District, plenty of lake and wild country on their doorstep but that rural environment was ideal although they are maybe slightly larger than life for Ransome's stories. As for camping, when I was 11 I was away almost every weekend in the summer camping with a scout patrol and without adults and we used our imaginations for our adventures then. Scouting taught me lots of outdoor skills, how to use a compass and map (navigation and surveying) tie 'proper'knots and when (bowlines, sheetbends, carrick bends et al), rock climbing and how to use ropes) etc.etc. I learned to sail in a dinghy somewhat similar to the Swallow, a 12ft clinker built gunter rig on the River Trent. I finished up as a very fit teenager when I did my military training in the RAF and because of the skills I had and my level of fitness found the recruit training easy going unlike some of the recruits from big cities,. My parents encouraged my outdoor adventures which they said made me self reliant and self confident and well able to look after myself. I had a brother 5 years younger than me and being a 'big brother' is a definite responsibility and job of its own as he grew up. There is all of that in the whole series of books of which now having the whole set, I find there are one or two which I hadn't come across before! It all adds to the charm thoughYes, some of their adventures are most unlikely such 'We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea' but overall. those children are pretty true to life in their rural environment even with Morse and Semaphore which I also learned although I am very rusty now (lack of practice). If you don't use it, you lose it!
You’ve had some amazing adventures, sounds like you could write a book yourself! Poor modern kids, heads often buried in a screen, parents fearful of letting them go out alone (understandable, in some cases).
Life in those days was much simpler than now. No internet, social media like Facebook.(I do not 'do' Facebook') not all homes had a phone and mobile phones were science fiction. However there was the war during my childhood, I was bombed quite heavily, even now if I hear a warbling factory siren, my stomach does a little flip but that was life, you just got on with it, Most of the Swallows and Amazons (and the Ds etc in the Norfolk Broads} were between the wars.As you can tell from this I am getting older although inside myself I am still a young person, it's just that my body will no longer do what I want it to do all the time but I am still here and ready for more years of life. It's all in your mind you know! I certainly don't sit around twiddling my thumbs, I keep busy and involved in the community, it helps pass the time and is good for one's mental (and physical) health and self esteem.
Growing up in the Chicago area in the '50s and '60s we were pretty free to come and go, as long as we were home by the time the lights came on. Living in a smaller town in the '50s my father would whistle for us to come home. His whistle could be heard blocks away but whistling wasn't exactly conducive to the larger suburb that we moved to in the late '50s. But there we had bicycles and public transportation so we could go further afield.
Jan C wrote: "Growing up in the Chicago area in the '50s and '60s we were pretty free to come and go, as long as we were home by the time the lights came on. Living in a smaller town in the '50s my father would ..."It was the same for us growing up in the Chicago area in the early 1970s - home when the streetlights came on! But same when we moved out to the ‘burbs, times were changing, I guess.
Keith, you’ve got a lovely, lively attitude, I agree - positive attitude, staying busy and active are important!
Keith wrote: "Life in those days was much simpler than now. No internet, social media like Facebook.(I do not 'do' Facebook') not all homes had a phone and mobile phones were science fiction. However there was t..."Keith it's wonderful to hear about your childhood and all the adventures you had. No wonder you had the "get up and go" to travel right across the world to start a new life in NZ.
My adventures have mostly been of a literary nature! I love reading about other places, even imaginary places as in science fiction or fantasy novels, but I'd rather stay safe in my little home, curled up on the sofa, while I explore! :) I went up to London a few years ago and was practically hyperventilating at all the noise and the rush and bustle. Well I'm exaggerating a bit of course, but I was glad to get home.
No, I don't do Facebook either. Or Twitter or Instagram or any of those mainstream social media places. I like Goodreads because it's full of nice, interesting people, and I have a couple of similar places for my other hobbies. They are all on a "human" scale and small is beautiful as far as social media goes. ;)
I know how you feel Sue, me too! I was born and raised in Chilwell near Nottingham. At the time it was a rural village with farms all around although a very large army base 'The Depot' was right next door so I had lots of country to explore and the river Trent close by. Look on Google Earth now and it is lost in miles of housing as Nottingham expanded, it is all now the Borough of BroxtoweI wanted a better life for my family and my wife and I both had 'itchy feet' So we eventually migrated to New Zealand in 1962 As I said before, it was a bit of a scary leap into the dark although we researched as much as we could. It really paid off! I was put into the NZ public service in the tax dept and was posted around the country every few years on promotion which enabled me to explore everywhere, the only part I have not really lived in although I have visited is the southern part of the South Islamd, south of Christchurch.. Right now I live in Taupo a small town on the NE shore of Lake Taupo. the large lake in the centre of the North Island, a very beautiful place and a holiday town although don't think of say Blackpool. We have lots of adventure activities, sailing, skydiving. mountaineering, trout fishing, you name it!
Really 'adventure' is more of a mindset, your attitude to life. Anything you do can be an adventure if you approach it like that.
Keith wrote: "Really 'adventure' is more of a mindset, your attitude to life. Anything you do can be an adventure if you approach it like that. ..."I like that thought Keith!
I have started a book that seems like both a mystery and a non-mystery:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Did the police capture the right person or is the real killer still out there? The protagonist returns to her old New Hampshire boarding school to reckon with her past.
I've read two of author Rebecca Makkai's previous novels, and loved them both, so I'm looking forward her latest.
I'm reading another (old) Patricia Briggs book Steal the Dragon and, as always, enjoying the story. She can really tell a story!
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I am now reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Lyme Regis , where the book is set, is somewhere I know well. I have holidayed there very often. It was one of my Mum's favourite places, and I have been there with my own children. Unfortunately I have never found fossils there, but can't say I looked much.
Jill wrote: "I am now reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Lyme Regis , where the book is set, is somewhere I know well. I have holidayed there very often. It was one of..."I enjoyed that book. I've not been to Lyme Regis, though I have holidayed along the Jurrasic Coast. I'd love to go sometime. I do rememder going to Kilve Beach; also famed for it's fossils; we didn't have to look much, walking along we were literally walking over them, there were loads of ammonites embedded into the rocks we were walking over.
I am now reading Village in a Valley by Beverley Nichols, the third in the Allways trilogy. Yesterday, I listened to the Backlisted podcast which talked about Merry Hall, another of his books, it reminded me I needed to get to this one.
Listening to the third Junkyard Cats story, Junkyard War by Faith Hunter. Only available in Audible format. A well done story with an excellent narrator.
Just finished a reread of These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer, and am currently reading 1215 and All That: Magna Carta and King John
by Ed West.
I just finished These Old Shades as well, and also Steal the Dragon the only Patricia Briggs so far I can't heartily recomend. It is not too bad, just nowhere near as good as her other books.
These Old Shades was my very first Heyer and still one of my very favourites!
Just about done with Another Fine Myth by Robert Lynn Asprin. Listening to the audio book which is well done. I love this early comedy fantasy novel and the series that followed it.
Finished Surfeit of Suspects (thank the good lord it’s over) and am rewarding myself with the book I’m most looking forward to among my April group reads, Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford.
Abigail wrote: "Finished Surfeit of Suspects (thank the good lord it’s over) and am rewarding myself with the book I’m most looking forward to among my April group reads, Love in a Cold Clima..."</i>I had already decided to substitute [book:Surfeit of Suspects with a different Golden Age of Crime - it seems like that was a good decision on my part.
I am rereading the Mitford books during the course of the year. I haven't read them for about 30 years so I decided it was time. Enjoy.
Some of the people in the Reading the Detectives group seemed to like Surfeit of Suspects more than I did.I’m reading the Mitford book for my real-world Jane Austen group. I think it has been even longer for me since I read any Mitford!
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Sandy wrote: "I recently finished Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson. It is the first I have read by her and I liked the characters and the interweaving of the various plot lines."I really like Kate Atkinson She is one of my favourites I have read all of her mystery books ad a few of her others. Pleased you like her.
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Yes! Audiobooks make “the classics” come alive for me, especially a talented narrator who can act out the various characters.