What are you reading now?

Hallam Square was great, am now on the next, and last, in the series, Spinners Lake, it promises to be as good as the others.

Hi trisher I just wanted to say that I am really enjoying "The Mystery of Princess Louise" - Thank you for posting about it.

Sisters, Secrets and Sacrifice, by Susan Ottaway.
Two sisters who volunteered for the SOE in WW2.
Well written and gripping.
Based on the notes etc left by the younger sister when she died, a recluse, in 2010 in Torquay.
I also keep dipping into The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, ed. Frank Muir. Nearly 1000 pages!

Liz46 DH is ploughing his way through that, hence a lot of muttering coming from wherever he is sitting reading.

Just finished 'Miss Bronte's Dilemma' by Coreen Turner. Charlotte Bronte consults her publisher, William Smith Williams, about love and marriage. He gives her insights into the home lives of Leigh Hunt, George Eliot and Thomas Carlyle as well as Byron, Keats and Shelley.
Meticulously researched and well written, this book takes the reader into mid 19th century London, its elegance and its squalor.
'A wonderfully charismatic mix of historical fact and fiction this book will have you captured from the very outset.'
The author's previous work, 'Dear Saucy Pat' tells the story of Patrick Bronte, impecunious Irishman, Cambridge scholar, and enlightened father who, sadly, outlived all his remarkable children. She is now working on 'Mrs Dickens' Friend', an exploration of the life of free spirited Julia Leigh Hunt, who makes a brief appearance in 'Miss Bronte's Dilemma'.

I finished Spinners Lake, it was a lovely story, the last of 5, the saga of a family in Lancashire from about 1840 up to 1863, they`re by Anna Jacobs, I recommend them. My next book, to be started later tonight, will be Like No Other, another by Anna Jacobs, also set in Lancashire, but in the 1700s.

Can someone please tell me how some authors (and I use the term loosely) manage to get awful books into print? I have just read one that I downloaded onto my Kindle that had the potential to be a good story, about the Russian revolution, but the author had no hold on the chronology, the characters were poorly wrought, the dialogue was sloppy and in some cases inconceivable, and towards the end, when it began to resemble a Whitehall farce, it was as if she was saying, "well, this is all falling apart anyway so why not make it really ridiculous" - and it was! I've a good mind to ask for my £1 back! .

You have to be careful with those 99p Kindle books on Amazon. Some of them really are awful. I have just stopped reading a few after a couple of pages because they were so full of spelling and punctuation mistakes, or, as you say, factual errors, that I couldn't bear it. Better to order a "proper" book - i.e. one that has been recommended by a book club, for 5 pounds than 5 lousy ones for 99p.

One book I just gave up on even had a foreword where the author said he didn't care if he had spelled "your" or "you're" correctly.

At the moment, on my Kindle, I am reading my first David Mitchell (The Bone Clocks). Not sure if it's my kind of thing, but at least it is well written.

To be honest, I usually steer clear of them and just download authors I know are good, but sometimes your curiosity gets the better of you..... It just made me wonder whether publishers actually have any sort of criteria for what they set down in print.

I have had very few awful ones from the 99p list, but I try to do the "Look inside" before I buy. You can see what the writing is like and whether the book is going to appeal to you. As I can get through three books a week, I don't pay more than I can help unless something is praised really highly.

greyduster anyone that wants to can publish whatever they want to on Kindle. Scroll down the Amazon website to the Kindle self publish bit. There doesn't seem to be any quality control at all.
My book is on Kindle but it was specially formatted by the publisher. I'd not have had a clue how to go about it.

Just finished Mark Billingham's 'Rush of Blood'. Others of his I've read have been compelling but this was more a case of 'I've started so I'll finish'.
Victoria Hislop's 'The Sunrise' next, love her books, especially set on Crete.

I've just finished reading the three Cormoran Strike novels written by J.K.Rowling, under the Robert Galbraith pseudonym:The Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm and Career of Evil. Page turners all.
The main protagonist, Cormoran Strike, is a complex character: ex-army turned private investigator, deeply flawed but entirely believable and immediately sympathetic. As is his assistant, Robin Ellacott.
What really set these books apart for me was the quality of writing, depth of character, intelligent plot development and the vivid descriptions which bring the stories to life.
After the ending of Book 3, I can't wait to see what comes next!

Gemini - me too! Cormoran Strike is right up there with Marcus Didius Falco as a protagonist and Robin with Helena! I have to admit that the gory descriptions in 'The Silkworm' we're both unforgettable and stomach turning for me!

Elrel....Good to know!
I agree re. some of the descriptions in 'The Silkworm'.
Above all though, I was so disappointed at the ending of Book 3. Hopefully not a spoiler for anyone who might read these...and I'm sure that Matthew will continue to make his malign influence felt in future books...

Another fan of Cormoran Strke here, have read all three and again am looking forward to the next one, especially to see how his relationship with Robin will proceed now! She assumed a much larger role in the last book if I remember rightly.

My last two books were both very good, Tim Weaver's "Broken Heart" latest in his David Raker series and better than any of his others. I followed that with "My Husband's wife" by Jane Corry a very good multi layered psychological thriller. I have just started Richard Madely's "The Night Book" which I have been told is good.

I didn't know that jane10. I read your book and I can assure you that, unlike the one I just read, I didn't have any issues with it. I have passed it to a friend and she is reading it.

When away from the hospital, I`ve ben keeping my mind occupied reading more of Anna Jacobs books. I`ve read Our Lizzie, Our Mary Ann, and have just started A Pennyworth of Sunshine. I love her books.

I've just finished small wars by Sadie Jones. I can't say I enjoyed the story but she writes very well. You feel the undercurrent of the story and so I found it a bit unsettling Then like lots of theses type of story's it just ended. Abruptly. The sort of novel that gets under your skin and lingers there long after you've finished reading. It's not really a holiday. Read while I'm here on the beech so I've swop it for bay of secrets by Rosanna Ley which is definitely a beech holiday read. Nice and light.

I have just finished reading "The Devil's Consort" by Ann O'Brien, a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine's disastrous marriage to Louis of France, and her subsequent marriage to Henry Plantagenet. Many good novels have been written featuring Eleanor but this wasn't one of them. It suffered from being written in the first person, and it dragged until she became involved with Henry toward the end of the book, when it finally came to life. Sharon Penman's Plantagenet trilogy is much better and more entertaining.

I am now reading another Elly Griffiths book featuring Ruth Galloway, called The Woman in Blue, again set in Norfolk. Very good so far.

I've started reading The Soldier's Return by Melvyn Bragg. It's about a soldier returning from the war in Burma to his home in Cumbria and trying to pick up the pieces of his life.

My uncle was a POW and worked on the Thai-Burma railway and survived but according to my grandmother he was never the same person.

The Woman in Blue was very good. I`m now reading 15th Affair, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, another in the Womens Murder Club Series, and it hasn`t disappointed.

I just started 'The Brief' by Simon Michael. It is set in '60s London and based upon real cases and genuine court documents. The strap line is 'He lived for the law, now the law wants his life'.
'He' is Charles Holborne, charismatic criminal defence barrister. I'm re-entering the London I used to know, gaslights along the Thames and 1s 6d all day breakfasts in smoky greasy spoon cafes. I can almost smell them already!

Loved 15th Affair. Am now reading Playing With Fire, by Tess Gerritsen, it`s interesting, goes back and forth between pre-war and wartime Italy, and modern day America.