Hobbies and Crafts

Reading The last letter from your lover by Jo Jo Moyes. Really enjoying it, beautifully written and very readable.

Loads of free kindle downloads but the latest was one of OH's Christmas Books (I have to wait until he's finished them before I can start)

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett featuring the young witch Tiffany Aching.
This 'young reader's' book was published postumously earlier this year.
The story starts with the death of Granny (Esmeralda) Weatherwax who was the crabby senior witch with a heart of gold. Despite opposition Young Tiffany is confirmed as her successor. The plot describes how she grows into the role and defends not only her 'Chalk' lands but the Ramtops from an invasion by the feared Faeries. They are the total opposite to the benevolent creatures of Fairy Tales!

The book touches on equality of the sexes; Tiffany and her 'boyfriend' both love the work they do, he in the city training to be a doctor, she in the country helping the villagers and protecting them. Neither are able to give up what they love to be together. TP also introduces a male who wants to become a witch. Until this point in the Discworld series, Males were Wizards and only women could be Witches.
The theme might have developed further if TP had the opportunity to continue the series.

Terry Pratchett's books may not stand the test of time but, for those of us who enjoy them, he will be sorely missed.

OH and I both like Terry Pratchett and we have a shelf full of his books. OH has just spent a Christmas Amazon voucher on another four.

I've been working my way through a series of books from the library.

Murder on High Holborn by Susanna Gregory. This is one of her Thomas Chaloner mysteries. If you haven't come across him before, he is a sort of spy cum detective in the 1600s. Quite well written and enjoyable if you like this genre.

The Detective's Daughter by Lesley Thomson. "A woman follows in her father's footsteps by taking on the murder case he couldn't solve." It was an interesting story but I didn't find any of the characters likeable and most of them were not very believable.

The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell. "When the bones of two severed hands are discovered in a box, an investigation into a long buried crime of passion begins. And a group of friends, who played together as children, begin to question their past." Not really a whodunit as we know that from early on, more why and how everyone was affected by it. Very well written as you would expect from Ruth Rendell.

Miss Carter's War by Sheila Hancock. Easy to read. It is the story of Marguerite Carter. She lost her parents in sad circumstances and had a past in SOE. She then qualifies as a teacher. This is the story of her life until she is in her 70s. Interesting as it covers a lot of changes in education, including the introduction of the comprehensive school, and was a bit of a trip down memory lane. But I did find the tying up of a couple of loose ends and the ending too pat.

The Island by Victoria Hislop. "A dramatic tale of four generations rent by war, illicit love, violence and leprosy, from the thirties through the war to the present day." If I had read that blurb first I wouldn't have picked the book up and would have missed a well written, good story.

Happy reading folks

The Island is an excellent book Vera, I agree, read it quite a while ago. I do like her books.

Only discovered yesterday that I can download ebooks for free from my local library.

You can have them for three weeks and then they are deleted.

Not a huge choice but I guess it's early days yet for our library.:-D

Yesterday I downloaded the Gourlay Girls by Margaret Thomson Davis.

A very easy read.. It is set in Glasgow and as I lived in Glasgow for a while in the 1970's I could relate to the areas described.

It's book two of a trilogy so I will probably read book three.

Just Downloaded The White Queen of Middleham by
Lesley Nickell price £3.83 on kindle.

The story is about Richard III wife Anne Neville and her
unhappy life till she married Richard.

I am reading on the Kindle, The Other Son by Nick Alexander. I knew nothing about this book but it was either very cheap, or free (can't remember) on Kindle. I am enjoying it, he is a very good writer. Basically about the characters of two sons and their parents. More about how the characters of the parents and their attutudes to the sons have affected the sons. I can't say more about it because to elaborate would give the story away. :-) :-)

Just finished reading 'The Orange Lilies' by Nathan Dylan Goodwin on the Kindle.
He has written a series about a forensic genealogist, although this novella can be read as a stand alone. His books feature Morton Farrier, who was adopted and is trying to find his birth family, and this is woven into a main story where he has adventures after being hired to investigate someone's background.
This novella concerns his research into his grandfather's WW1 death. It describes using Ancestry's WW1 diaries where you can read reports actually written on the day your ancestor died, so I have been inspired to try to find more about my relatives (between my and OH's extended trees we have 11 deaths) which has been very interesting.

Hello loverlies......its is so lovely to catchup with the thread and see so many
people posting and giving us a variation of all the different books that are enjoyed....

Pammy,AnnG,Emma,Von,Vera,Det,Tess, Stephen and anyone else not mentioned...a GREAT BIG THANKYOU <3 <3 :-D for keeping the thread flowing :-D

I have read quite a few books lately so here goes.........


**Ann** mentioned this book to me and I read it straight away.....I thoroughly enjoyed it so thanks Ann :-D <3

A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams - Jeff Pearce

Jeff Pearce was born in the slums of Liverpool in 1953, and from the moment he could walk he sold second hand clothes on a market stall with his mother. Leaving school at the age of fourteen, unable to read or write, he embarked on an amazing journey that would see him make and lose millions in the 'rag trade' before eventually winning the highest accolade the fashion business had to offer. He is retired and lives on a small farm in Cheshire with his wife Gina and two Argentinean polo ponies, Susie the dog and Daisy the cat. Jeff now spends most of his time committing his memoirs to paper.



The Lake House - Kate Morton

A missing child...

June 1933, and the Edevane family's country house, Loeanneth, is polished and gleaming, ready for the much-anticipated Midsummer Eve party. Alice Edevane, sixteen years old and a budding writer, is especially excited. Not only has she worked out the perfect twist for her novel, she's also fallen helplessly in love with someone she shouldn't. But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever.


Early One Morning - Virginia Bailey

A grey dawn in 1943: on a street in Rome, two young women, complete strangers to each other, lock eyes for a single moment.

One of the women, Chiara Ravello, is about to flee the occupied city for the safety of her grandparents' house in the hills. The other has been herded on to a truck with her husband and their young children, and will shortly be driven off into the darkness.

In that endless-seeming moment, before she has time to think about what she is doing, Chiara makes a decision that changes her life for ever. Loudly claiming the woman's son as her own nephew, she demands his immediate return; only as the trucks depart does she begin to realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, single, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead of her, and now a child in her charge - a child with no papers who refuses to speak and gives every indication that he will bolt at the first opportunity.

Three decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained, self-possessed woman working as a translator and to all appearances quite content with a life which revolves around work, friends, music and the theatre. But always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, the boy from the truck, whose absence haunts her every moment. Gradually we learn of the havoc wrought on Chiara, her family and her friends by the boy she rescued, and how he eventually broke her heart. And when she receives a phone call from a teenage girl named Maria, claiming to be Daniele's daughter, Chiara knows that it is time for her to face up to the past.

This epic novel is an unforgettably powerful, suspenseful, heartbreaking and inspiring tale of love, loss and war's reverberations down the years.


The Winter Children - Lulu Taylor

Olivia and Dan Felbeck are blissfully happy when their longed-for twins arrive after years of IVF. At the same time, they make the move to Renniston Hall, a huge, Elizabethan house that belongs to absent friends. Living rent-free in a small part of the unmodernised house, once a boarding school, they can begin to enjoy the family life they've always wanted. But there is a secret at the heart of their family, one that Olivia does not yet know. And the house, too, holds its darkness deep within it .

I have almost finished The Lake house. Love this book. I can't read it in bed though as our daughter in law bought it for me and it is a hard back..... A big one. Gripping story, great characters.

Hi Ann, yes I totally agree Ann, I was waiting for it to be released
and used some of my Christmas Amazon vouchers...well worth
a read...... :-D

I'm glad you started this thread Mersey as, because of the mentions on here, I have read some books that I wouldn't normally have picked up and found some authors new to me.

I've just finished Philippa Gregory's The White Princess. I thought I had read all the "Cousin's War" books but I must have missed this one before. It's told by Elizabeth of York and is the story of her marriage to Henry Tudor, and her relationships with her various relatives including her mother, Elizabeth Woodville, her sisters, and Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort. It is fiction but meticulously researched as you would expect from this author. She certainly gets over the turbulent times they were living through and the suspicious court life with everyone looking over their shoulder all the time. An enjoyable book if you like historical fiction.

Agree Vera this is a good thread.

To see everyone's choice of reading matter is interesting.

History is my passion but not everyone's favourite.

Happy reading.

Recently read "Journey's End". by Josephine Cox.
I'm not very good at remembering names of authors and books. However, I think that I've read and enjoyed Josephine Cox books before (can't remember which one though).

I was disappointed by this story, especially the parts that spoke about what had happened before the story opens. Just didn't find it believable.
Perhaps, being a researcher of family history, even when I am reading a work of fiction, if a families life is discussed, past and present, I tend to check out how old various people were during important events. To me this just did not hold together.
Maybe I was thinking king too much about it as I read, instead of just going with the flow.
Has anyone else read it? What did you think??

Have just finished reading "Monday Mourning". by Kathy Reich's.
A novel written in the first person by Temperance Brennan, including an appearance Ryan. Tempe Brennan is " Bones". In the TV series of that name.

This Tempe is slightly different from the one in Bones, but is no less interesting. Whereas as Ryan is the love-interest in the book.

The story is set in Montreal, in winter, brrrrr.

If you like Bones, or CSI etc. you will probably like this.. I enjoyed it and will try to get another book Tempe Brennan book by Kathy Relics.

Just to whet your appetite the blurb on the back cover starts.
" Three skeletons are found in the basement of a pizza parlour.
The building is old, with a colourful past, and Homicide Detective Luc Claudel dismisses the remains as historic.,..,....
But Forensic Anthropologist Tempe Brennan has her doubts.,.... "

Have just finished reading "Monday Mourning". by Kathy Reich's.
A novel written in the first person by Temperance Brennan, including an appearance Ryan. Tempe Brennan is " Bones". In the TV series of that name.

This Tempe is slightly different from the one in Bones, but is no less interesting. Whereas as Ryan is the love-interest in the book.

The story is set in Montreal, in winter, brrrrr.

If you like Bones, or CSI etc. you will probably like this.. I enjoyed it and will try to get another book Tempe Brennan book by Kathy Relics.

Just to whet your appetite the blurb on the back cover starts.
" Three skeletons are found in the basement of a pizza parlour.
The building is old, with a colourful past, and Homicide Detective Luc Claudel dismisses the remains as historic.,..,....
But Forensic Anthropologist Tempe Brennan has her doubts.,.... "

At one time, until OH moaned about the groaning bookshelves, I had most of the Temperance Brennan books. This was long before the TV series. Revisting them, its difficult to disassociate the series from the books.

Your synopsis certainly rings a bell. :-)

I have just read A French Affair by Susan Lewis. Really enjoyed this one, she is such a good writer, great characters, good plot, beautiful descriptions, mainly set amongst vineyards with a brief visit to Paris. Very sensual and evocative.

When Natalie is killed in a freak accident while on holiday with her Grandmother, her mother Jessica feels there is something she is not being told. Jessica travels to France to stay in the same cottage owned by Luc the husband of her best friend Lilian. Charlie, Jessica's husband is so traumatised by the death of his beloved daughter that he refuses to discuss Jessica's suspicions about her mother.

well worth reading. I read the paperback but it is available on kindle.

I have read some Susan Lewis books. and really enjoy them. The latest one was. The Truth About You. Which was a greasers book, so will not comment till review date on the greasers thread.

DET, I had read a couple of Tempe Brennan books ages ago. Long before the Bones series appeared on our TV screens. I really liked them, took me a while to realise that this was the same person because I am hopeless at remembering names (author and the Temperance Brennan)

Have also recently read a couple of books for the teenage market, co written by Kathy Reich's and her son (whose name escapes me!). The star, I forget her name too, is a neice of Tempe, an interesting read.