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[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

Lexie wrote: "Do you read his sci-fi/fantasy stuff, too?"

I tried the dragon series but couldn't get on with it all! Strange because I'm a big fantasy fan.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Just finished Syndrome - struggled with the errors, but intrigued enough about the concept to continue. Also didn't like the product placement - who switches a Dell on??

Reading The Macabre Collection now.

[Michael]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Just finished Syndrome - struggled with the errors, but intrigued enough about the concept to continue. Also didn't like the product placement - who switches a Dell on??

Reading [b..."

I'm a big fan of David haynes - he has a new one out today!

[bookcover:The Way of Wyrd|767358]

I've just finished re-reading Brian Bates' The Way of Wyrd and I enjoyed just as much as previous readings:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[Kath]

I've just finished Rebecca By Adam J Nicolai. I loved his book Alex and bought this back then but never got around to it. It covers some difficult subject very well. I felt the beginning was a little slow for a five star but it's a very good, solid 4* from me.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just started 600 Hours of Edward. Shaping up very well so far (10%).

[Kath]

Just finished Edward - see above. I really loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Michael]

I've finished reading Wayne Barlowe's God's Demon - it's a decent read and a fascinating vision of Hell:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[Kath]

Just finished An Impossible Dilemma by Netta Newbound. I enjoyed reading it but I found some of it hard to believe!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[David]

Just finished The Shut Eye , not quite as good as Rubbernecker, but still very good.

Just started Red Country.

[Kath]

Katie Stewart's fantastic picture book Famous Animals: Volume 1 is delightful. I bought a copy for my grand-daughter - but another for myself! Informative, witty and charmingly illustrated.

http://www.ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk...

[Michael]

Kath wrote: "Katie Stewart's fantastic picture book Famous Animals: Volume 1 is delightful. I bought a copy for my grand-daughter - but another for myself! Informative, witty and charmingly ill..."

Just bought this :-)

[Kath]

You'll keep picking it up and chucking!

[Michael]

I've just finished reading Kit Tinsley​'s The Smoke In The Photograph and it's an excellent horror read:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[Michael]

I've just finished reading David Haynes' latest release The Cage and as with his previous books it's a damn fine horror read:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[Kath]

Just finished The Half-life of Hannah which I've had for 2 years and just hadn't got around to reading. Couldn't stand some of the characters but I loved the book. That always means good writing to me.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Heather]

I finished Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter on Sunday. I've had the book in paperback for ages but only just got round to reading it and only just posted the review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Kath]

I enjoyed this - read it years ago. I also liked the next couple of books in the series but then, for me, it fell away a bit.

[Heather]

Kath wrote: "I enjoyed this - read it years ago. I also liked the next couple of books in the series but then, for me, it fell away a bit."

I think I'd definitely want to read more in the series Kath. The trouble is, I've already got so many other books to read. I'm definitely due a holiday when I can read to my heart's content. :)

[Lexie]

Just started Holy Island by L.J. Ross, which has grabbed me from the first chapter. Just finished Cecilia Peartree's Closer to Death in a Garden, which I enjoyed just as much as the previous ones in the series - lovely light reading but peopled by characters you care about. Still reading The Devil's Recruit by Shona Maclean and Chisholm's Murder of Crows, really enjoying all of them and really ought to be working instead!

[Jim]

Picked up the paperback of Bulldog Drummond, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bulldog-Drumm... the Peterson Quartet.

£2.99, only slightly more expensive than the kindle. Provided you can cope with the attitudes and the era, I'm enjoying it :-)

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

That's the thing isn't it Jim, you have to put it into context.

[Natasha]

Third of the way into The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Bit bonkers. Rather enjoying it.

[Jim]

Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "That's the thing isn't it Jim, you have to put it into context."

yes, it's a bit like John Buchan, authors who catch without effort the spirit of their time.
Let it wash over you and enjoy the story.
I've just finished the non-fiction book(The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in Fifth Century Athens.
This has been utterly fascinating. You have 5th century Athens being described in a book first written in 1911, but with footnotes added to later editions. So the footnotes both predate and postdate the First World war and the economic discussion takes place in a world that was still on the gold standard and before the Great Depression.
There is this growing realisation that the Author is almost as different to us as we are to the Athenians he is discussing.
Yet at the same time whilst it's a scholarly book it's almost a gentle book with the writer almost chatting to you. It's as if you're in a railway carriage with him in 1911 and he's using things you see out of the window to illuminate his tale.

[Lexie]

Jim wrote: "Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "That's the thing isn't it Jim, you have to put it into context."

yes, it's a bit like John Buchan, authors who catch without effort the spirit o..."
What a fascinating description of a book! It sounds wonderful.

[Jim]

I can sell anybody's books but my own!

[Lexie]

Jim wrote: "I can sell anybody's books but my own!"

Ooh, I know that feeling! Perhaps we should be like an acquaintance of mine who kept a pig: when it came to the time for slaughter, he found a neighbour who also kept a pig and they swapped pigs so they wouldn't be eating their own pets! Well, I mean swapping publicity, not eating each other's books, I suppose.

[Michael]

Jim wrote: "I can sell anybody's books but my own!"

Now there's an experiment - sponsor another author's book and try to sell it :-)

[Jim]

Well not managing to sell somebody else's book can hardly be harder than not managing to sell your own :-(

[Lexie]

A kind of co-operative endeavour. Would one stay in one's own genre, though?

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

I am reminded of Strangers on a Train...

[Patti (baconater)]

This is a good idea!

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

I was thinking the exact same thing. An authors co-operative.

[Patti (baconater)]

You lot already do it on Facebook, though.

[Sam]

Just finished Gone Girl



Mixed feelings. Brief review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Lexie]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "You lot already do it on Facebook, though."

I don't! I'm not very good at Facebook.
I remember reading something though about a few authors getting together to put, for example, adverts for each other's books at the back of their own books. That probably would have to stay genre-related.

[Jim]

I think authors do promote the books of other authors, or their blogs or whatever. Normally I think it's because they reckon the work they're promoting is worth promoting. (Because it's our friends who will then ask us what sort of drivel is that you suggested I read.)

[Kath]

That's actually pretty much what I felt about Gone Girl, Sam. Good writing wasted.

[Sam]

Kath wrote: "That's actually pretty much what I felt about Gone Girl, Sam. Good writing wasted."

Ha! 'Good writing wasted.' Precisely, Kath.

[Patti (baconater)]

So, I actually managed to read for a couple hours yesterday. First time in what feels like ages that I've been able to settle into a book.

I bought The Known World in paperback back when we were on the island and it was among the books I had to cull when we left. It was part of my Pulitzer jag.
I thought I had read it and enjoyed it so I thought I'd re-read it rather than starting something I'd have to concentrate on fully.

Turns out, I've not read it before or have completely forgotten it and it's excellent.

It's describing aspects of slavery that I've never known to exist from perspectives that are completely new to me.

It took some getting into as it starts with a huge character dump and flits about on the time-line but I'm glad I've persevered.

At 38% now.

[Alison]

I find it really difficult to get into books about serious issues. Tend to just go for nonsense.

Finished The House on Cold Hill by Peter James last night. It's a classic haunted house story brought up to date with ghosts sending text messages and emails as well as lurking behind people and generally getting up to no good.

I thought it was a bit slow in the middle (there are only so many times you can read about someone feeling a presence or being terrified before it gets a bit meh) but overall really enjoyed it.

Probably shouldn't have spent so much time reading it last night though as didn't have a great sleep. Lots of weird dreams.

[Vanessa (aka Dumbo)]

I like Peter James but I haven't read that one.

That's odd...just went to put it on my wish list and it says it's not available till 8th. October!

[Alison]

I use NetGalley to blag advance copies. It's hit or miss whether a publisher will approve a request but it's a great source of books.

[David]

Just finished The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way .

Note for Patti: If you like Bryson's style and are more than a little interested in the English language then it is a decent read.
But:
It was published in 1990 - around a quarter of a century ago now - and so it seems rather dated, especially with various political changes and the internet changing some of the assumptions and so on, he makes.

Just started Eureka!: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Ancient Greeks but Were Afraid to Ask.

[David]

Just finished Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction which is a very interesting read. About building up a character of some depth and then allowing the plot to emerge from that character.

Just started The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue & Vice for Box Office Success.

[Michael]

I've just finished reading the second book in Jim Webster​'s Tsarina Sector series - War 2.2 and it's a superb sci-fi read:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[Jim]

Michael wrote: "

I've just finished reading the second book in Jim Webster​'s Tsarina Sector series - War 2.2 and it's a superb sci-fi read:

http://thecultofme.blogspo..."

you can come again Michael :-)

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished The Macabre Collection, really enjoyed it. Reading Wrath next

[Lexie]

Just finished Holy Island, by L.J. Ross. Sadly a disappointing book - should have believed the one star reviews and not the over-enthusiastic five star ones.

[Kath]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Finished The Macabre Collection, really enjoyed it. Reading Wrath next"

I met Mr Macabre on Saturday. What a lovey, lovely man. You wouldn't guess from his writing! ;)

[Michael]

Kath wrote: "Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Finished The Macabre Collection, really enjoyed it. Reading Wrath next"

I met Mr Macabre on Saturday. What a lovey, lovely man. You wouldn't guess from his writing! ;)"

Indeed :-)

[Stuart]

He is indeed a wonderful fellow - an absolute pleasure to have been bought a drink by him (a pint of Old Rosie no less!)