Hobbies and Crafts

I am reading another book by Laurie Graham, with the lovely title 'Dog Days Glenn Miller Nights'. The central character is a feisty old lady called Birdie living in a council estate. She seems to have had quite a torrid past anf helps out her neighbours who are not as active as she is, has a dodgy ex husband who keeps leaving dogs with her 'for a while' and a faithful follower called Wilf. I am really enjoying her and her dry sense of humour.

ps....Vera, to answer your question...your reviews are certainly not too long, I enjoy reading them even if I never get round to reading the books!

Happy reading BooknKindle Worms

<3

Finished The Savage Years at last...no more Paul O'Grady
for me for quite a while.

Can't make up my mind what to read next.

Emma :-)

Started Jack Duckworth Autobiography :-D

Emma :-)

I am reading John Grisham's latest bool, Sycamore Row and he is back on form with this, after a few rather disappointing ones. Once more it is set in Mississippi where small town lawyer, Jake Brigance, four years ago, defended successfully a black man accused of murdering two white Klan men who raped and killed his child.

He has now been landed with a great case and the small town is bombarded with greedy lawyers who want a piece of the action. A wealthy man who had terminal cancer has hanged himself from a tree and leaves his millions to his humble black housekeeper leaving out his own two children ..who are pretty horrible anyway! . He has never met him but he stipulates he only wants Jake to take on the case

It is really good! :-D <3

I've just finished "Dead Line" by Stella Rimmington. This is a spy thriller. A Middle East peace conference is about to take place at Gleneagles when information is received that an attempt to derail it and blame Syria is going to be made. Liz Carlyle of MI5 has to try to prevent this happening. With the British, the Americans, the Israelis and the Syrians all involved, she has a tough job on hand, not least sorting out who is working for which agency and who are double agents. There are lots of twists and turns in the plot

I enjoyed it and would read other books by Stella Rimmington. As the former head of MI5 she does know about the inner workings and, though she doesn't give away any "secrets", her accounts of how the different agencies interact does ring very true.

Haven't read John Grisham for ages, is that one on the Kindle BC?

Yes, Ann, it is on Kindle, about £7 ish which is a lot more than I usually pay....pity I can't pass it on to you! :-D <3

Never mind, it may come down I have plenty to read at the moment but I will watch out for it. :-)

THE AFGHAN by FREDERICK FORSYTHE

Just finished Bay of secrets by Rosanna Ley which I enjoyed very much. Set in Dorset and Fuerteventura and Spain. about a woman in her 30s who discovers, after her parents death that she is an adopted child. sets out to find her mother. Love interest with artist andre. then flip to convent in Spain and a lot about babies who were taken from their mothers and sold to adoptive parents.

Just read Desperate measures by Kitty Neale. Quite light weight. Good holiday reading or for sitting by the fire in the evening. Not too taxing.

Have just finished the John Grisham and am bereft. One of those books you don't want to end, it was great and intriguing to the end.

Now am at a loss as to to what next. .

Finished Bill Tarmey Autobiography
enjoyable read... :-)

Started Walter Norval the.Glasgow Godfather..a true story.

From what I have read so far looks like I am going to like it.

Starts from his childhood in the slums of Glasgow watching
the gangs that were about then little realising what his future
held.

Emma :-)

I am reading another Laurie Graham Kindle, it is light and very funny. About a long time married couple who have done well and are very comfortable and happy together. Until.......one day, she discovers a dress hanging in a cupboard and it is defo not her size or style! And then a pair of Size 10 shoes fall out of a cupboard. So he tells her the truth and she is devastated. I shall say no more :-)

Very enjoyable.

Happy Reading

edit....oops....it is called The Dress Circle
<3

Sounds good BC will look out for it. Just read Toby's room the genes reading club book. Review on board.

Thanks Ann, will have a look. BC XX

'The Elements of Eloquence' by Mark Forsyth. (Sub-titled: ‘How to turn the perfect English phrase’).

My-oh-my! There are words in it I thought were yet to be invented. Keep the dictionary handy when reading this amusing book - published this year.

Helllooooooo Bookworms..... :-) <3

I have been neglecting our ickle book thread, and for that I apologise, but my reading is getting back to normal now, and will do over the next few days I hope.....

Thanks for all those who have posted and kept it going, im just about to read back now to catchup...... :-)

Happy Reading :-) <3

Just a couple of the many books read in the last few months, both free Kindle downloads at the time

The Testimony by James Smythe
(might have been mentioned somewhere on GR before)

The whole world (or nearly the whole world) hears static, then messages in English.
What do the messages mean, and who is sending them? If the source can’t be explained by science, then a religious element must be involved….they think.
Told as diary entries by different people, it tells how governments, seen through the eyes of the diarists, and individuals react. People of religion question their beliefs. Others find theirs. One country blames another. People die for no apparent reason. People are suddenly cured of most aliments which could have caused their deaths.

An interesting variation of the Apocalypse scenario, while at the same time questioning society’s blind belief in established religions.
………….

Tuppenny Hat Detective by Brian Sellars

A gentle murder mystery set in 1951 Sheffield.
Young Billy Perks believes the old Star Woman was murdered, but the police think it the death was caused by a fall. Billy and his friends set out to prove them wrong, discovering other injustices and getting into scrapes along the way.

Some of the dialogue is in dialect, but that shouldn't put readers off. Aside from the story line, it does give in an insight into the living and social conditions of a city struggling in-post war conditions.

I've been getting through some fairly easy reading books lately.

In The Presence of the Enemy by Elizabeth George. It's an Inspector Lynley book though he appears very little in it; mostly it's concerned with his sidekick Barbara Havers and the victims and possible perpetrators of the crimes. If you like detective/crime novels this is an enjoyable whodunit. Well written but quite long.

One Hundred Names by Cecilia Aherne. Journalist finds a list of 100 names amongst her recently deceased employer's effects and tries to find the connection between them. Traces 6 of the names and we get their stories and journalist works out the connection which I thought was a bit of a cop-out. I didn't find any of the characters very believable.

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. I enjoyed this one which won the Booker prize in 1984. It's the story of a middle aged English woman who goes to stay in the hotel at Lake Geneva after scandalising her friends by an affair with a married man. There she meets a number of other English people, mostly pretty eccentric, and becomes involved with Mr. Neville. Quite a short book; very well written.

Am currently reading Gone Girl which has been on my kindle for a long while. Found the style difficult at first but am now really enjoying it.