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[David]

Just finished The Great University Con: How we broke our universities and betrayed a generation . An excellent but ultimately depressing read about yet another societal big idea turning into a massive cockup.

Just about to start Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career Of British Democracy.

[Jess]

Carol wrote: "Just finished Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa. Liked it but I feel like I'm missing part of the subtext, will read it again in the future.
Starting Strange Weather in Tokyo..."

I read that book this year. I found it quite chilling as the subject matter was quite horrible but it was told in such a detached style. The combination was effective for me.

I've just finished Reckless and was not overly impressed.

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

Now reading Dalila which is just heart wrenching. I'm reading on with baited breath as I feel that something awful is going to happen.

[Tracy]

Just finished

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was a very good book and the premise was unique.. quite complicated and definitely deserving of another read :)

Did start Milkman but I couldn't stand the writing style after 3 pages ! So DNF

Now for a light read and starting Dear Mrs Bird good so far

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished Written in Blood and started my first classic of the year The Early Classics of Agatha Christie

[Pam]

Another catchup:

Colin Dexter's The Daughters of Cain, fairly late in the Inspector Morse series - reviewed: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2733267886.

Clark Ashton's Smith's collection of short fiction, Genius Loci and Other Tales - reviewed: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2740851097.

Diana Wynne Jones' The Pinhoe Egg - reviewed: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2740855047.

[Kath]

Offstage by Jonathan Hill. Just as gripping and emotive as you'd expect if you've read some of his other literary fiction.

http://ignitebooks.blogspot.com/2019/...

[Pam]

Re-read the first of Lian Hearn's Otori novels, Across the Nightingale Floor and updated my previous review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1404829504.

[Jess]

I've finished Dalila which was a really affecting and important book. I would definitely recommend it for anyone interested in the plight of refugees even once they meet their destination.

Now reading two very different types of thrillers I Will Never Leave You on Kindle and By the Light of the Moon on audiobook

[John]

I just finished reading the whole Aubrey/Maturin series of Patrick O Brian.

Now I'm reading a biography of him which is raising my eyebrows more than a bit. But he could write! He could write like a demigod of script. His powers of description and depth of vision leave me agog- and envious I have to say.

After that I shall read Emma-Nicole Lewis's 'A Shadow beyond' for it looks interesting.

[David]

Just finished The Book Thief .

Very good indeed.

Just started Let Not the Deep.

[Pam]

Finished Phil Rickman's first novel Crybbe (called Curfew in the States) and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2747889601.

[Natasha]

Just finished Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe, which I didn't find as funny as I'd assumed it would be.

Just started The Last Days of California by Mary Miller, about a family who believes that The Rapture is imminent.

And also started The Nature of Personal Reality: Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know by Jane Roberts. This was written in the 1970s, channeled by a spirit called Seth.

[Jim]

It's a lot of years since I read the Tom Sharpe books. I think those set in South Africa were funniest
Actually they could probably be read now by students of the era :-)

[Tracy]

Just finished Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig 5/5 from my review on goodreads:

I was wary about reading this book thinking to myself: how would reading about someone else's depression and anxiety help me with mine. However knowing you aren't alone in the experience of these illnesses is about half the battle, knowing other people have been through what you are going through and have come out of the other side is another quarter of the battle. When in the midst of depressive episodes where you can't even see yourself in the next minutes never mind a few years from now..... and yet someone who had the exact same thoughts as yourself and are still 'around' and thinking 'happy thoughts' .... it is possible maybe to overcome the demons ...
I wish Matt well ...
would love to have more information on how you tamed the demons though, is that covered in other book?

now reading The Overstory

[Pam]

Read book 1 in a cosy crime mystery series - The Herring Seller's Apprentice and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2760711382.

[Karen]

Persevered and finished Amnesia, can't say I particularly enjoyed it. Just wanted them to get on with the story. Bit daft really.
Read book 3 of the wonderful Arctic crime series, The Bone Seeker. What a treat these books are. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and learned a lot about survival in the high Arctic and Inuit culture! I do hope there are more books to come.
For a completely different feel, read Jane Harper's The Lost Man - again a brilliant read. Wonderful evocation of that arid heat and desert environment of the outback - and how to survive, or not...
And just finished Five Quarters of the Orange, which I'd somehow missed reading before. Enjoyed it. Another great evocation of time and place, and those uncertain vulnerable years of late childhood/adolescence.
Have now started Red Snow which is shaping up well. Enjoyed Dark Pines previously.

[Kath]

I found Red Snow hard going after loving Dark Pines. Just finished Mustard Seed which is the sequel to Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim.
A bit slower to get going but a good story that makes you think.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finally finished The Early Classics of Agatha Christie - enjoyed the Poirot story, which I may have read before, never read a Tommy and Tuppence book, wasn't overly keen but then I'm not a fan of espionage. Now starting Mad Dogs for my colour challenge

[Pam]

Forgot to post that I finished P T Barnum's autobiography recently, The Life of P.T. Barnum and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2760789909.

[Pam]

Read Clark Ashton Smith's collection Lost Worlds: Volume 1: Zothique, Averoigne and Others and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2764449018
and
book 1 of Midori Snyder's Oran trilogy New Moon - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2769771728.

[Pam]

Read book 2 in Lian Hearn's Otori trilogy - Grass for His Pillow - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1404848121.

[David]

Just finished rereading For Whom the Bell Tolls and now wondering why I bothered.

Just started rereading The Maker of Universes, which like the above I first read a long, long time ago and really liked at the time. It will be interesting to see if I feel the same about this one as I did with the Hemingway.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I'm going to give up on Mad Dogs - realised I'm 143 pages in and don't particularly care what happens to the characters, I appreciate the confused bit is because the characters are crazy, but it's not for me.

[Patti (baconater)]

I've not had time to look into this thread for ages.

Made time yesterday and downloaded eight new books.

You lot are such a bad influence.

[Jud]

Which 8 did you get?

[Patti (baconater)]

Can't recall now. I copy n pasted them into an email to Dave and told him to download them and email them to my kindle.

It's nice having staff.

:)

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Started House Rules yesterday and finished Fancy meeting you here yesterday, having a break to catch up on blogs before reading the third

[Natasha]

Finally finished A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript: The new approach that uses technology to cut your effort in half by Mark Myers.

Still reading The Nature of Personal Reality: Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know by Jane Roberts.

Looking forward to a much lighter read once I've hefted myself through the above.

[Jess]

I've just finished By the Light of the Moon

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

and am currently reading 3 books

[Pam]

Read book 2 of the Queen's Quarter series - Sadar's Keep - by Midori Snyder and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2776880761.

[Pam]

Read Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2781789897.

[Patti (baconater)]

Started Love in the Time of Cholera on the flight yesterday.

Loving it. The prose is gorgeous. Gabberflasted that's it's a translation.

[David]

Finished The Pale Criminal - Very good.

Started The Chess Men

[Kevin]

Just finished Remember Me by Daisy White Remember Me

Just started Ghost Tree by Barbara Erskine The Ghost Tree

[Pam]

Read Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1398214749.

[Pam]

Read a utopian/dystopian novel from the nineties with a difference - Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2783199523.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished Trust Me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor - some funny anecdotes, but not much different to others like this. Had to get prime for a parcel this week so got a few kindle singles that were included, so reading those next, started one with the girls last night, but one sentence was nearly 70 words long!

[Kath]

Oh, I hate that. Desley!
My 'finisheds' are on my the blog thread. Ignite.

[Natasha]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Finished Trust Me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor - some funny anecdotes, but not much different to others like this."

Well, I'm 36% through This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay, and it's laugh-out-loud funny and my favourite read in a long time.

Just finished The Nature of Personal Reality: Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know by Jane Roberts, which was really hard work.

[Jim]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: " but one sentence was nearly 70 words long! ..."

I don't think I've ever quite done that, I'm sure I would have been told

[Kath]

I suspect so, Jim. ;)

[Jim]

I'm certain :-)

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Jim wrote: "Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: " but one sentence was nearly 70 words long! ..."

I don't think I've ever quite done that, I'm sure I would have been told"

It's very hard to read when you are reading aloud, and as there weren't even commas, made for quite hard reading

[Jim]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "It's very hard to read when you are reading aloud, and as there weren't even commas, made for quite hard reading..."

I agree with you entirely, the punctuation is there for a purpose, and one purpose is to make it easy to read aloud!
Actually reading aloud is an excellent way of edition and picking up on things like this

[David]

Just finished The Chess Men

The last in the trilogy. Not quite as good as the first two, but still very good.

Just started A Column of Fire

Co-incidentally, another third book of a trilogy (so far).

[Steven]

just finished The Kill by Jane Casey and moved straight on to the next book in the series, After The Fire. I love this series...

[David]

Finished Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career Of British Democracy , which was pretty good.

Just started Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

[Pam]

Read The Cat in Magic, Mythology, and Religion by M Oldfield Howey and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2787372230.

[Natasha]

Just finished This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay. Laugh-out-loud funny and brilliant.

Just started Stig of the Dump by Clive King--which was read to us by a school teacher when I was eleven.

[Jim]

Yes I vaguely remember Stig in the Dump. My sister was given a copy so I read that when I was about eleven or so :-)