What are you reading now 2

Currently reading ‘The Keeper of Stories’ by Sally Page, and really enjoying it. Recently read ‘Last Night’ by Mhairi McFarlane - sad, funny, witty and clever!

Currently reading Diarmaid McCulloch’s excellent biography of Thomas Cromwell. Not to everyone’s taste, but I’m very interested in this period of our history. We are still living with the effects of those events.

I'm reading one of Ellie Griffith's books, The Postscript Murders. Not quite as riveting as I'd imagined. More cosy crime than exciting crime. It's not bad, though.

I've started re-reading Amanda Craig's books. I started with The Golden Rule last week which is quite entertaining and ultimately dramatic. Just finished The Lie of the Land which is more gripping, though I can't find much sympathy for the main female character.

Just started The Art Of Happiness - Epicurus. Not entirely what to expect as of yet but the opening chapters have been wonderfully insightful.

Appropriately I’m reading The Palace Papers by Tina Brown.
As with any royal biography, there is nothing really that we didn’t already know, but I am always fascinated by the Royal Family, especially the Queen, who I really like a lot.
I agree about The Essex Serpent, vastly overrated, didn’t enjoy it.

The Spy and the Traitor - Ben McIntyre (sp?)

About a third of the way through. Revelatory. Michael Foot - KGB informant???

You should start that thread Chocolatelovingran

I'd like a thread on "books I'd like to boil "!
I nominate Kazuo Ishiguro- The Unconsoled. Hours of my life I'll never get back....

I have just finished The Dictionary of Lost Words. Loved it.

I’m reading Stephen Fry’s take on Troy. I don’t care for Stephen Fry or his books (my grandson gave me this one to try) and this one is no exception. It is self indulgent, trivialising and has acres of totally unnecessary footnotes (mostly referring the reader back to Fry’s other books). I’ve read many excellent fictional books based on the Trojan wars. This is not one of them.

I've left books to stand for 30 minutes , 30 hours even! but have to admit have never added them to a pan to heat gently until all the sugar has dissolved, I'm thinking Barbara Cartland?? not that I've read any of hers, but she looked like the human version of candy floss. There has been the odd book I've wanted to boil though, The Lovely Bones and Time Traveller's Wife for example, possibly longer than three minutes if reducing to pulp

Thanks Alfred, here's hoping you don't burn the cakes, or jam

Next morning, add them to a pan and heat gently until the sugar is all dissolved.
Boil for three minutes and no more - no need to test for setting.
Leave to stand for 30 minutes.

Seeing a topic on another thread right now: to be "fed up with renovations of a neighbour's house" reminds me of a book I read this spring.

I found informative and at times humourous: "Open House: A Life in Thirty-Two Moves", by the author Jane Christmas.

Just from reading a few of the posts on the thread mentioned above put me in mind of the author's experience, from being the 'neighbour' doing the renovating.

Interesting how things are done, not at all enviable, but a good read.

Now I'm struggling to read Lise Bourbeau's "Listen to Your Body - Your Best Friend on Earth". It's a good book but I'm terribly depressed right now and it's hard for me to do anything at all. By the way, the book helps me a little bit.

I'm nearing the end of "The Nowhere Child" by Christian White for my book club, and my God it's Purgatory.

On the other hand about to begin the second volume of the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn. The first volume was outstanding: superb writing, and compellingly odious characters.

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One of my favourites is The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier. Instead of just wondering what it is like to live in the past the main character finds himself in his Cornish holiday house but in 14th century Cornwall. Persuaded to try an experimental drug he switches between the past and present until he slips between them a bit too easily, muddling the two. It’s so believable, you can see how that could happen but when he sees a murder in the past, things get even more difficult.

I’m currently reading Abandoned In Death by J D Robb and I have a couple of other books on the go.

Have just downloaded Thrush Green ?

PinkCosmos thanks for your recommendations. Very helpful.

Miss Read is great. I love books that have a positive vibe. OK the characters have problems but work their way through to a good conclusion
The jockey books were like that. You know the ones I mean.

nadateturbe

Which Miss Read book should I read first please?

Thrush Green by Miss Read is set in the Cotswold in the 50's. I read them all along with the Fairacre series when I was in my teens. Have always thought I should re-read them. Looking on Amazon, it looks like they have been reprinted as I couldn't find any of them when I looked a year or two ago. Lovely books.

I have just bought Wilt by Tom Sharpe after finding one of the later ones in the series in a charity shop. I also read this as a teenager and remember it being very funny. Not sure how I will feel about it decades later.

I am currently reading The Dutch House by Anna Patchett and enjoying it, though I wasn't really sure what to expect.

I have also just finished Rites of Spring by Anders De La Motte. It is set in Sweden and is scandi-crime. It was a bit long winded and I guessed the ending. I don't usually read crime thrillers.

I can recommend My Life in Houses by Margaret Forster, or anything else by her.

Anita Shreve is also a favourite of mine, along with the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake

Which Miss Read book should I read first please?

A Perfectly Good Family by Lionel Shriver. Absorbing, dark humour, well-described characters. I didn’t enjoy “Kevin” which is probably her best-known work.