Reading Heart Liberals

[sally maclennane]

I just finished Forever Home which is Graham Nortons latest book. It was OK but nothing great, and a bit daft in places.

I have the Whalebone Theatre on my tablet as I've seen it recommended a few times but the new Strike book comes out on Tuesday so I have pre ordered that. I want to read it straight away but I doubt I'll have finished the other one by then.

[Cerise]

I just finished Forever Home which is Graham Nortons latest book. It was OK but nothing great, and a bit daft in places.

Yes, I thought much the same!

[Dutchie]

I finished the last DI Helen Grace book by MJ Arlidge and it was good. Much better than the previous one. In the mood for something different, I have started the Keeper of Stories. Really enjoying it already!

[Disco]

I have started the Keeper of Stories. Really enjoying it already!

I'm reading this at the moment too. Also enjoying it.

[Flora Poste]

I liked The Whalebone Theatre Sal, but it felt quite long!

I've read a few of the Booker longlist, but the only one I've really enjoyed so far was Pearl. I'm reading I Have Some Questions For You now (not Booker :lol: ) and really enjoying it so far - narrator goes back to the New England boarding school where her old room mate was murdered in the mid 90s and starts to think the wrong man was convicted.

[Turtle Bean]

I finished the latest Thursday Murder Club book which was light but enjoyable. I also am not starting anything new pending Strike and Robin, but am halfheartedly reading a ghost story called The Funtime Show.

[sally maclennane]

I liked The Whalebone Theatre Sal, but it felt quite long!

Yeah, I felt it could have been a bit shorter. I finished it yesterday as we were travelling so had plenty of time hanging around, and I did enjoy it. I'm now reading the new Strike book and loving that.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I’m stuck in the card without my current book so I’ve started Lark Rise to Candleford.

[Bat Macdui]

I read the new Thursday Murder Club on holiday, and it was exactly as required, light, amusing, entertaining. I also read the new Ann Cleeves and it was a bit paint by numbers. I remember the Shetland ones being better than this, though maybe I just liked the whole Shetland thing. I am currently in the middle of Prophet by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blaché and am thoroughly enjoying it. I love the characters and the writing. I think it might benefit from a good under a blanket on a cold afternoon read, rather than in snatches of half an hour or so before bed.

[Cerise]

I finished The Island Home. Whilst you wouldn’t win any prizes for predicting the outcome, it was an enjoyable read with the right combination of gentle action, drama and mild peril.

[wendy james]

The Maureen fry book is 99p atm Bats if you think you might read it at some point.

Oh, thank you. I shall scoop that up and leave it in reserve. Or promptly forgot I've bought it, that's also highly possible. :))

The second one is now 99p if you want to fill the gap.

[sally maclennane]

I just finished The Running Grave, I really enjoyed it but as with her other books, it was too long.

[Morganna]

I’m reading The Song of Achilles for reading group, but have double booked a brioche knitting class, so it doesn’t matter that I won’t finish it in time. It’s a bit slow so far, but I’ve read it in small bites rather than big ones, so it hasn’t really had a chance. I’ll pick it up again soon.

[Bat Macdui]

I shall add that one into reserve as well, thanks, wenderbee. :))

I finished Prophet and it was excellent. Iain M Banks level sci-fi, with a love story that I ended up far too deeply invested in. :)) I have started John Banville's Snow, which I am enjoying so far; well written and nicely arch in tone. Strafford is very likeable. Though I am very cross to learn I have accidentally started with book 2.

[Pippedydeadeye]

How To Be A Renaissance Woman was really good. Apparently plague didn’t kill quite as many men as it officially did and women knew damn well what was poisonous. Simpler times. :wistful:

[lazzbo]

I also finished Shrines of Gaiety and wasn't keen on that either. It didn't make sense! Also my pet hate is when people want you to finish their story for them in your head. You're the writer, you do it! I haven't enjoyed the last two Kate Atkinson books as much as the previous ones, she's always been a must have pre-order writer for me in the past.

Yes Bean! Not a patch on her earlier work. I thought the ending was weird and rushed. It felt a bit like she was trying to copy Small Pleasures, for me.

[Lily]

I read Claire Fuller's The Memory of Animals and it wasn't really worth the effort. It's set in a fictional pandemic, and it kept me chugging along wondering how they were all going to sort themselves out but it was all a bit disjointed, then wrapped up improbably and in a highly unsatisfactory way in about five pages at the end. I think she was aiming for some kind of great symbolism to do with octopi and the nature of humanity but it was basically just meh.

I have finally read this. I thought it was beautifully written in places, but a bit - meh, ultimately, as you say although I couldn't put my finger on why. The octopus bits made me cry though.

I've just finished Paris Hilton's memoir. I know it was ghost-written but it's still very good, it's her voice, and her story is horrific. I have totally changed my opinion of her.

I haven't done much reading in the last month or so which is getting to me so I'm trying to force myself to do more. I enjoyed Good Behaviour, by Molly Keane, much more than I thought I would. The Escape Artist, about a man escaping from Auschwitz (Jonathan Freedland) was gripping although obviously upsetting reading and rather "bitty". Violeta by Isabel Allende was sadly just "OK". Ghostland by Edward Parnell was very enjoyable although it's right up my street so not for everyone. The Chamomile Lawn (Mary Wesley) was disappointing and dull. The Women of Troy by Pat Barker was fabulous. Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry was well written. Hags by Victoria Dutchman-Smith was excellent. With thanks to Rosy for Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter by Carol Ann Lee!

It feels like the last Strike book only just came out! Another to add to my library list.

[Turtle Bean]

Recently I have read The Joy and Light Bus Company and something about comfortable chairs. I also read The Confession which was interesting with dislikeable characters. I enjoyed the latest Thursday Murder Club and now have Strike and Robin which has started well.

[wendy james]

Having already read the last round of book club books (A Man Called Ove and The Vanishing of Margaret Small), I've been able to clear a bit of my backlog.

I finished Bitter Orange and have settled on my opinion of Claire Fuller books being lovely to read but dissatisfing in their conclusion. So I shall read more, but am going in prepared.

The Last Goodbye was probably a freebie, one of a series about somebody who finds missing persons. I got through it, but am not inclined to seek out the rest.

The Other Girl was set in an asylum and about a young girl who had been placed there as she claimed to have lived a past life. DIRE.

The second Clare Mackintosh book about a detective in Wales was not great. I think a couple of Turtles disliked her first one, which was passable IMO but the follow up has put me off any more.

The Silent Companions was a gothic horror about a bad things happening in a house. The story itself was hogwash but the writing kept things moving so I did finish it.

Stone Blind was a rewriting of the Medusa and Perseus story which was fairly simple to read and did make me laugh a couple of times.

I'm about 3 books away from my 2023 target, which I upped a couple of times along the way. I went from a book a month to a book a fortnight then a book a week and am currently on target for three books a fortnight. I don't think I'd make it to two books a week with the time I have left, but I do have a fortnight off at the end of the year.

I've just started on Swimming for Beginners but whether I'll finish it is still tbc.

I have no intention of reading one October book club choice - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Owning-Your-Ow ... 0062507540 - and need to crack on with the other, which is Vernon God Little. I have a feeling I tried it back in the day but didn't finish, though I could just be imaginging that!

[Pippedydeadeye]

I bought Vernon God Little but never read it & I think it then went in a charity shop run at some point.