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[Jud]

Finished Brave New World last night. It was insane, I can't believe it was written in the 30s, it read like a more recent book. The concept of people having a dystopian idea of the future 80 years ago has blown my mind. It probably shouldn't but there you are, I have underestimated my predecessors.

Think I'll read Antonina, or the Fall of Rome next

[Pam]

Jim wrote: "Pam wrote: "Will wrote: "Pam wrote: "Read The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...."

I think you've saved me picking it up..."

Thanks Jim, glad to be of help!

[Pam]

Jud wrote: "Pam wrote: "Will wrote: "Pam wrote: "Read The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...."

I think you've saved me picking it u..."

ha ha! Glad to have helped so many people :-)

[Pam]

Read books 2 and 3 of Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy and reviewed them:

Before They Are Hanged - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2963703654.

Last Argument of Kings - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2963703816.

[Jim]

you've convinced me I needed take the time following that particular three book journey :-)

I must admit I cannot really be bothered with grimdark

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

I enjoyed that series very much. I would suggest however that they are not read in immediate succession - I had run out of steam by the last and I suspect if I had left a gap I would have enjoyed it more. However I agree that the third book is the least satisfying.

[David]

I liked the First Law Trilogy, and would recommend it too.

Anyway, started A Symphony of Echoes

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Kind of up to date on the Justice series, just started Whose Body?

[Pam]

Jim wrote: "you've convinced me I needed take the time following that particular three book journey :-)

I must admit I cannot really be bothered with grimdark"

Yes I'd read a very gorey, nasty one recently and thought no thanks, but with books 1 and 2 of the First Law series thought they were more or less very grittly, convincingly and vividly written High or Epic Fantasy. Only in book 3 where everything goes to pot and it becomes very nihilistic would I say the label grimdark is accurate.

[Pam]

Prompted by a re-read on another group, read Garth Nix's Sabriel, first of the Abhorsen series, and sadly found it less involving than the first time around - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1274428027.

[Pam]

Finished Thomas Burnett Swann's Lady of the Bees and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2955794217.

[Pam]

Finished C J Sansom's Dissolution and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2498550682.

[Jim]

I've enjoyed the Shardake novels as well :-)

[Pam]

Jim wrote: "I've enjoyed the Shardake novels as well :-)"

They were recommended to me by an offline friend. Haven't been able to get the next few books sadly but have been tempted into starting a later one - Heartstone, set about 7 years after the first so it does have a spoiler or two about things that have happened in between. These don't seem to turn up in charity shops much and the library only has the few I already managed to acquire. I'm now passing on my copy of Dissolution to another friend as I recommended it to her today.

[Pam]

Read Thomas Burnett Swann's Where is the Bird of Fire? and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2979823508.

[Jud]

I finished The Crimson Petal and the White, I really enjoyed it but it could probably have been quite a bit shorter

[Jim]

Pam wrote: "Jim wrote: "I've enjoyed the Shardake novels as well :-)"

They were recommended to me by an offline friend. Haven't been able to get the next few books sadly but have been tempted into starting a ..."

the fact that books don't turn up in charity shops is a good sign, people expect to read them again :-)

[Pam]

Jim wrote: "the fact that books don't turn up in charity shops is a good sign, people expect to read them again :-)

Yes I think the same. There are some authors who have loads of books in the charity shops! I've had to order book 2 of the Shardlake series online by contrast as the library doesn't have it or if they do it is never back in on the shelves!

[Natasha]

Just finished The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. Didn't see those twists coming!

Just started Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. It's pretty bonkers.

[Jim]

Because daughter insisted I read Northanger Abbey

I love the way Jane Austen plays with the fourth wall.

[Kath]

Just finished and very much enjoyed Bad to the Bone by Tony Forder.

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

I'm currently beta reading and then I have to choose another - not decided yet.

[Jud]

Just finished Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland which was very interesting but skims over so much of what life must have been like during the troubles. I suppose because it focused more on facts (or hearsay) than the emotional side.

Also listened to The Salt Path read by the author and it was brilliant. Listened to it all within one day.

Just started Still Me and listening to Love in the Time of Cholera

[Natasha]

Jud wrote: "Just started Still Me"

Ooh, though I rarely read beyond book 1 in a series, Me Before You smacked me hard in the heart. Are the next two books as good as the first?

[Natasha]

Just finished Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, which I found a bit of a drag, frankly. Perhaps rather dated?

Just started Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Read this on the journey yesterday, enjoyed it and didn't see the twist

Lonely Hearts

Hoping to read one more before KU finishes tomorrow, then back on my paid book challenge

[Jud]

Natasha (Diarist) wrote: "Jud wrote: "Just started Still Me"

Ooh, though I rarely read beyond book 1 in a series, Me Before You smacked me hard in the heart. Are the next two books as good as the first?"

No, the second two are just like any other chick lit really, they are good though (third one is better than the second), I'm not a chick lit lover but I am enjoying this series, I love Lou Clark!

[Pam]

After reading book 1 I have got rather into the Shardlake series by C J Sansom so have now read (all I had to hand):

Book 5 - Heartstone - review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2981055422
and
Book 6 - Lamentation -review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2981055866.

[Jim]

Glad you're enjoying Shardlake, the stories have a lot of depth :-)

[Kath]

Third in a series set in the beautiful Norfolk Broads, Moorings by David Blake is another great read. The scenery is almost a character in the stories.

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

[Bernie]

Just started The Works by Joseph Connelly. Was a bit put off at first by the really fancy language and loads of adjectives, but now I realize the humour and am getting quite into it - up to p.199

[Pam]

Jim wrote: "Glad you're enjoying Shardlake, the stories have a lot of depth :-)"

Thanks Jim. Yes, just finished book 2! Have to stop for a while as don't have books 3 and 4 or the latest, and they are all a bit pricey on amazon. No sign in the library and the latest charity shop hunt only revealed copies of 1 and 2.

I realised after I posted my reviews that I had the link on Lamentation wrong so if anyone does want to see what I thought it has now been corrected. My favourite so far anyway.

[Pam]

Just finished a Thomas Burnett Swann which has taken ages as I've been off reading the Shardlake novels - Moondust and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2959469326

[David]

Just finished A Symphony of Echoes - Excellent.

Just started Big Sky

[Pam]

Read Dean Koontz's The Taking and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2992886738.

[Pam]

David wrote: "Just finished A Symphony of Echoes - Excellent.

Afraid I thought that was a 2 star read, far too many problems. Gave up on that series in the end for a number of reasons as I stated in my reviews.

[Bernie]

Just finished 'The Works' and just started The Arsonist

[David]

Pam wrote: "David wrote: "Just finished A Symphony of Echoes -

Afraid I thought that was a 2 star read, far too many problems. Gave up on t..."

I didn't think it was as good as the first one, but I liked it. Have you got a link to your review? I'd like to read it.

[Kath]

Just read The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman. I read one of hers last year and really enjoyed it. This is a ghost story, essentially, and I enjoyed it a lot.

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

[Pam]

David wrote: "Pam wrote: "David wrote: "Just finished A Symphony of Echoes -

Afraid I thought that was a 2 star read, far too many problems. Gave up on..."

You did ask!

[Pam]

Read number 2 in the Shardlake series Dark Fire and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2981055707.

[Pam]

Read Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2982225433.

[David]

Pam wrote: "You did ask!."

I did, didn't I?

[Natasha]

Just finished Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston, which was beautifully written and illustrated. A good indulgence for typography nerds.

Just started Fatherland by Robert Harris. Rather excited about this one.

[Karen]

I loved Jane Harper's The Lost Man and keep recommending it to people!
I'm half way through Ken Bruen's The Magdalene Martyrs - this is the third book in the series and I loved the first two. Quite violent, rather a lot of drugs, ciggies n booze, but wonderfully black humour.

[David]

Finished The Open Society and Its Enemies

Excellent.

Partway through Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think - Very good indeed. Why our perceptions are often wrong about the world because “40 Million Invisible Planes In 2016 a total of 40 million commercial passenger flights landed safely at their destinations. Only ten ended in fatal accidents. Of course, those were the ones the journalists wrote about: 0.000025 percent of the total. "

[Kath]

Just read and reviewed debut author Will Templeton's book, Births, Marriages and Death. Will used to work in the Doncaster Register Office so he writes with authority. I loved it and hope he'll soon write another.

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

[Kath]

Funny, timely, an all round good read - Fiona and the Whale by Hannah Lynn.

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

[Coral]

Just finished The Moonstone and Offshore Loved the former, didn't care for the latter. Just reading The Pursuit of Love and The Poisonwood Bible

[Kath]

I loved The Poisonwood Bible.

Out today is a dystopian novel from Kim Leggett The Grace Year It's an absolute corker.

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

[Natasha]

Just finished Fatherland by Robert Harris, historical fiction about the Nazis winning World War II. A good read.

Just started Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters, lesbian teenage romance.