July reading - Midsummer Madness

I don't know if anyone else is noticing something odd about the forum. It took me several tries to get this to post, with my post twice ending up on the Antique Roses forum instead of this one (and I am quite sureI was on this one when I posted it!) In the end, it posted here twice, so I deleted one.

Reading Eleven by Mark Watson, who is a British stand-up comedian. An Australian DJ works the graveyard shift in a London radio station, where he receives calls from sleepless listeners. His cohost, a clueless guy, invites him to go with him to a speed dating activity.

I finished Gone Girl today. Wow, what unlikable main characters!

Not sure what I'll read next. I've started The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne but it's a so-so romance so I will probably try something else.

Donna

Reading "The Herring Seller's Apprentice" by L.C. Tyler again and I am baffled about two of the authors the hero finds himself copying when writing his book.

I get Wodehouse and his Blandings characters and Milne's Winnie the Pooh but the others aren't familiar. Anyone know? The only clue to one is Rinaldi and the grappa drinking Brigadiere. The other has no names to help me at all!

I'm reading New Tricks by David Rosenfelt. The main character in this series is a lawyer in New Jersey who loves dogs and has inherited enough money that he doesn't have to work unless he likes the case. This is Book No. 7, with nine more to go. I'm not making a point of reading quickly through the list, but they are entertaining.

I Picked up Joanna Trollope's Girl From the South for a few pennies expecting a light read, but found it a story of relationships formed and reformed.

The 'South' part of the title refers to an arty young woman from a wealthy, high up on the social scale family from Charleston SC. It is her coming to London and engaging with new friends that dominates the story.

I felt all the young upwardly mobile characters needed a boot up the backside to help move events forward. I did find the descriptions of 'money-ed Charleston' interesting but amazingly narrow.

Shrimp forks behind the Country Club at dawn anyone?

Vee, that sounds like an accurate description of the "old money" of Charleston families. Many are still living here in the downtown area in century old houses, lovingly restored. Many of the families are descended from French Hueguenots who settled in the SC colony early on and prospered. Charleston is a very closed society, in reality. The First Families tend to socialize with each other and are adverse to letting in "come heres."

I am reading a delightful autobiography: "The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food" by Judith Jones. This is an author I had never heard of but she was important to the culinary life in America. Jones knew MFK Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, Craig Claiborne and many other influential chefs. She was important in getting Julia Child published while she worked for Alfred Knopf. I love the fact that she has included some of her eccentric and unique recipes in the back of the book. She traveled widely in France and was highly influenced by Gallic cuisine.

Woodnymph,

I read The Tenth Muse about 5 years ago. Delightful book, as you say, is a good description. If I remember correctly, she had also to do with the publication Anne Frank's diary, no?

reader, yes, you are correct. She seemed to be in a unique position at Knopf with her networking with friends who were important to bring to the fore hitherto unknown talents. I am just surprised that I had never heard of J. Jones before. I should imagine she would be in her Nineties by now.

I have begun The Last Chance Olive Ranch by Susan Wittig Albert, another series I enjoy. It is part mystery, part herb lore.

Finished Eleven by Mark Watson, a British stand-up comedian. The main character, Xavier Ireland, is a an Australian DJ working the graveyard shift in a London radio station, where he receives calls from lonesome listeners (the radio show scenes were one of the best parts.) His cohost, a clueless guy, invites him to go with him to a speed dating activity. There Xavier meets a cleaner, and he hires her to do his apartment cleaning.

But there is more to the book. A good chunk of it deals with a moment in time, Xavier's reaction to that particular situation and the ripples of it through eleven lives ("One Moment, Eleven Lives, Endless Consequences" says the cover).

There is also the backstory of Xavier, and why he left his life in Australia to reinvent himself in London.

I liked the book but did not like the ending. Still, I can see why it had to end like that.

Just finished Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. An awful lot of Very Important Readers thought this read was incredible, but I'm afraid that I ended up the read feeling pretty "meh" about it. It's a pretty complex plot to keep track off, and I think that perhaps the timing wasn't quite right for me. No worries. I've now picked up the 1959 book, Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, about a nuclear disaster hitting the U.S., and only a small pocket of people survive. I'll be interested to see how the author handles it...

I'm now reading Other Countries by Jo Bannister. I like her books a lot, but she begins a new series without finishing the last one, in my opinion. At least, she leaves me wanting more of a wrap up.

Lemonhead, is "All the Light" the one with the German boy and French girl in WWII? If so, I gave up about a third of the way through it. It was too choppy, switching back & forth between his story and hers.

I'm reading "Friction" by Sandra Brown. It's okay. I needed something shorter and lighter than what I've been reading lately.

We leave on our 2-week cruisetour to Alaska in a month. I need to start thinking about books to read on the trip.

Donna

Donna, our Alaskan cruise ship (Holland America line) had a library on board in case you run out of books..

Carolyn-ky, I have read all of David Rosenfelt's books and loved them especially the Andy Carpenter books.

Currently reading The Unbidden Truth by Kate Wilhelm. Love her books too.

Carolyn, I always scope out the library very early in a cruise! Even if there are no books I want, they usually have daily puzzles and trivia.

Donna

Msmeow, good thinking. It would be best to take out books you fancy reading straight away. They might be on loan to another passenger when you decide to borrow them! Unlike a public library there won't be a time limit or multiple copies to service requests!

My retiree friends, who cruise non-stop have e-readers stocked with titles. They keep telling me to get one but I like actual books and keep putting them off! I do understand how useful Kindles and the like are for constant travellers though.

Ann, I mostly read on my iPad. I'll check out a bunch of e-books from the library before we go. But it's nice to have some real books on hand, too.

Donna

Yesterday I finished my seventh and least favorite Louise Penny book, Bury Your Dead. Obviously, I normally enjoy Louise Penny books, but I had trouble mustering up interest in the historic details surrounding the mystery of where Samuel de Champlain (founder of Quebec City) had been buried ... and there were a lot of details. But luckily two additional interwoven plot lines kept me reading.

Next up for me will be The Turner House by Angela Flournoy, my community's One Read book for 2017.

kathy_t: If you've read Louise Penny's "A Great Reckoning" I would be very interested in your detailed opinion. TIA

I just finished "While I was Gone" by Sue Miller. Definitely a "family" story, with a lot of built in suspense. I liked this once I got into it, as it really kept me guessing. The characters are multi-layered and complex and the pacing of the narrative is well done. I had never read this author before. Did anyone else here read it and what did you think?

DandyRandyLou - I have not yet read Louise Penny's A Great Reckoning and it will be a while before I get to it because early on, I made the mistake of reading one of the later books, The Nature of the Beast, in which I learned of a marriage, a death, and a retirement among the major characters that I now wish I did not know about. So I'm trying really hard to stick with the chronological order of the books from here on out.

Woodnymph - I read Sue Miller's While I was Gone a few years ago. Well, now that I'm checking my reading journal, it says I read it in 2006. Gosh, more than 10 years ago ... really? Anyway, my journal entry says the book was "compelling reading" and that I liked it. I also wrote a short synopsis to aid my memory (good idea, I now realize), and yes that was a very interesting book!

I picked up Nicola Barker's The Cauliflower from the library, based (I thought) on a recommendation here? But I now can't find the post - does anyone remember it, or has anyone read the book? I've picked it up a half dozen times now, and put it back down again after only a page or 2, so now wondering if it's worth trying again, or if I should just give up and return it, unread.

Rosefolly, re: Thick As Thieves, you mentioned the previous book as dark - are you thinking of Conspiracy of Kings vs King of Attolia? KOA is the one book of the set which I re-read the most, but I agree that The Thief is still the best one. I often wonder if MWT set out to write a classic "hero's journey" or if it just turned out that way. :)

I loved Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. But it is a different kind of book that requires that you let go and take the time to adjust to its meandering pace. Very much worth it, IMO.

I finally finished D-Day and moved west to the Pacific theatre of WWII with James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific. I have read almost everything that Michener wrote but somehow had missed this one. Found it lurking on a bookshelf. Must have picked it up at a garage sale. Anyway, what a gem of a book! Really quite different from books that he wrote later, being a compilation of related short stories. I realized how much I miss Michener and was thinking it is time to revisit some of his works...thinking I need to run down a copy of Chesapeake, one of my favorites of his. Laugh out loud funny, it was.

Just finished Le Bal by Irene Nemirovsky. It's a short novel about a girl who takes devastating revenge on her abusive mother. I hope that by finishing it I will have managed to break out of the reading slump I have been going through.

Ci-Lantro - what a coinkidink that you're reading a Michener about the Pacific WWII situation. I was visiting Santa Fe the other day, and accidentally met an old man who turned out to be one of the original Navajo Code Talkers who played an important role with the Japanese troops. So interesting to hear and learn more about this piece of history... Does Michener mention any of them in your reading?

Just finished Julie Buxbaum's "Tell Me Three Things" which may have been written for young adults although, except for the language, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Lemonhead--How cool to meet that man. The code talkers were mentioned briefly in Ambrose's D-Day but not, so far, in Tales of the South Pacific. I'm about two-thirds of the way thru the book. The book has been human interest type stories...military, French plantation owners, native islanders. There's a war going on but it's pretty far in the background.

I read Tales of the South Pacific years ago after seeing the movie. I'm another Michener fan, with Hawaii and Centennial being my favorites.

I have just finished A Healthy Body by Gillian Linscott and am now reading Murder Is for Keeps by Elizabeth J. Duncan. This is one of the Penny Brannigan series and is set in Wales.

I loved Centennial. I know that I read the book but the pictures in my head are from the mini-series...that's when I fell in love with Robert Duval. He is such a great actor.

I finished Friction by Sandra Brown, and enjoyed it more than I thought I would! She wove a good plot with some surprising turns.

I just started No Man's Land by David Baldacci. The main characters are the Puller brothers. I haven't read enough to get into it yet.

Donna

I had a hankering for a novel with a setting by the sea. Checked the multiple TBR piles around the house and eventually found The Sea House by Esther Freud (daughter of Lucian, the painter, great-granddaughter of Sigmund).

There are 2 alternating stories:

In the first chapter it is the summer of 1953 and a deaf painter has arrived to the seaside village of Steerborough to paint the house of his late sister's friend.

In the next chapter it is the summer of 2000, and a young woman, an architecture student, has arrived to Steerborough to research the life of an architect that built his home in that village.

I just finished Susan Vreeland's "Girl in Hyacinth Blue." I had skimmed this years ago and it went over my head. I am so glad I found this wonderful book and re-read it. I love the descriptions of Holland, one of my favorite countries, and the art interest is just my cup of tea, since I was a art history major. The characters are all vibrant and interesting and clearly the author did careful historical research.

Woodnymph,

I read that book years ago and loved it. I recall that the last chapter is particularly poignant.

Most of Susan Vreeland's books revolve around art. I have Life Studies, short stories by her. Have just read a few of them and they are okay.

Yesterday I finished Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch. I have had bad experiences with mass-buying books by authors because I liked one of them, so I am ordering the books in this series (Rivers of London) one by one as I read them. Happily, I liked this one enough to order the next one, but I'm already beginning to worry because once I get the next book, there will only be one published book left for me to read, and then I will have caught up with the series.

I'll probably finish Johannes Cabal the Detective byJonathan L. Howard next. I have already read the first book in this series and a couple of chapters from this one, and I hope I can get into the series. It has a protagonist that one can not help rooting for even though he is deeply unsympathetic, because he is just so deliciously cranky and sarcastic and most of his opponents are even less likeable.

I like "deliciously cranky." I felt that way a day or so last week, for no known reason.

Its old age Carolyn!

I decided it was quite permissible to be cranky once I hit eighty and started to practice it on the lead up!

I am wallowing in books by LC Tyler at present and have lent the first three books in the Ethelred and Elsie series to my daughter.

I found all the six novels of Jane Austen in one book and passed it on to her but she can't handle the "old-fashioned" language. Has anyone ever updated the novels other than spin-offs? I tried to translate a few of the words like "blunder" as a mistake but "genius"? As in "What is his genius?" Would that be something like interests?

Annpan, re Jane Austen, I think there is nothing for it but to re-educate your daughter ;-( . . . for me most of the enjoyment (such as it is) of JA is the language.

I looked up the word genius and found several meanings other than the one we are familiar with. 'What is his genius?' could have meant 'what is his guiding spirit?' although it might help to know the context of the remark.

BTW everywhere (TV/papers etc) is going Jane Austen crazy at the moment with articles, documentaries, coins bank notes etc.

A special commemorative service is being held this afternoon (18th July) in Winchester Cathedral.

Royal Mint: Jane Austen

In "Sense and Sensibility" Marianne asks Sir John about Willoughby "What his pursuits, his talents, and genius?" I think she is referring to his intellectual level and interests.

I read a Guardian piece today about the juvenilia. I read some a while ago that was added to one of her books along with the Sanditon fragment.

> Has anyone ever updated the novels other than spin-offs?

Annpan, not that I know of. I foresee a time when the classics will have to be updated into modern language for people to be able to understand them. It has already been done with Chaucer, and in a hundred years or so it will be Shakespeare's turn.

The beauty of reading classic literature that has been translated from one language into another is that new translations can be made periodically, thus keeping it fresh and readable for each generation. I think the same thing could be done within a language.

I would like my daughter to read Austen but she found the language barrier too much. When I suggested mentally substituting "blunder " for "mistake" she riposted with a very modern alternative which I won't sully your eyes with!

She is a lost cause...

I would like to see up to date re-telling of other 19th Century novels as well. Vanity Fair would profit from omitting whole chapters IMHO without losing the core of the plot. All those "amusing" family histories could go for a start.

I would like to see the works of Shakespeare updated. I have always found most of it quite unreadable.

I have just started "Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong" by Nadeau and Barlow. I am liking it very much, so far. The authors are Canadian but have traveled widely and lived in France for some years. In this book, the contrast is made between North American and French points of view about all aspects of both cultures. Some interesting points have been made in terms of Old World vs. New World values and histories. It has been loaned to me by une francaise.

Mary, perhaps you could cope with Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare. I realise they are now over two hundred years old but at least they are quite 'readable', especially if you aren't bothered with the poetry of the original.

Vee, the "Lamb's" was required summer reading when I was in High School many decades ago. It did, indeed, help.

Jane Gardam's Faith Fox is the name of a baby who's mother dies while giving birth. Very little about the child but she is the glue that holds the story together. It is set between the leafy suburbs of outer London and the wild moors of Yorkshire where there is a host of typically dysfunctional English characters . . . friends of the dead woman, grandparents, an unworldly vicar, groups of hippies, nosey neighbours . . ..who all reach a Christmas Eve coming together and resolution.

Gardam understands what makes us , this side of the Pond, tick.

I looked on Amazon for Faith Fox, Vee, and it won't be released here until November. I also found that there is a third book to the FILTH books, which I didn't know, so thanks! I read FILTH and The Man in the Wooden Hat some time ago.

Presently, I am well along in The Dark Vineyard, second in the Bruno, Chief of Police, books. I'm glad I found this series. He is a delight.

Glad to hear that there is another Gardam coming out soon. I like her stuff... I've just finished up a quick read of #2 in Toni Morrison's trilogy (this one called Jazz). [The first book in the trilogy is Beloved... Final is Paradise.) Published in 1992, it's a fairly straightforward plot set in 1926 (around the U.S. Jazz Age/Harlem Renaissance), but it's written like jazz music so the narrative doesn't go from A-->B-->C etc. Keeps you on your toes, and must shamefully admit I got a bit lost in places (as it also plays with time). Not a book to pick up and put down, but once I had it sorted out in my head, it was a good read all the same. Now, reading a NF about the history of color (as in color such as you see in paint etc.) along with Minaret, a novel by Leila Aboulela, a Sudanese author (2005).

I finished the Bruno book and picked up The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova. I liked The Historian and am looking forward to this one, all 470 pages of it. It's too hot to do anything else besides read anyway.

Carolyn. liz/lemonhead re Faith Fox It came out in 1996 so I'm sure there must be an American edition out there somewhere. Hardback copies are available on Abe Books for $1.

Carolyn, I will be interested in your opinion of The Shadow Land, which I finished recently.

I am reading the latest Isabel Dalhousie novel, set in Edinburgh, with its usual protagonist, the philosopher. She now has two sons and is still sticking her nose into other peoples' business. I missed the last several of this series. Should I go back and read them? Is McCall Smith losing his touch with these? What do you think?

Finished The Sea House by Esther Freud. This novel is like a painting by the sea, there are so many descriptions of the waves, the sun glittering in the water, the salty wind, you're almost there, enjoying summer in the fictional seaside village of Steerborough.

There are 2 stories: a contemporary one about a young woman, an architecture student, who spends the summer in Steerborough to research the life of a German émigré architect who built his home in that village; an older story of a German émigré deaf painter who spends the summer of 1953 in Steerborough, and meets the architect and his wife. The painter has come to Steerborough to paint a house, but ends painting the whole village on a scroll of wall lining paper. Years later the architecture student sees the scroll at the village hall.

It is a slow novel, you are on page 73 and nothing has happened, and not much ever happens, at least in the contemporary story. If you who want action, this book will be boring. One has to be in a certaing frame of mind to enjoy it. Since what I mainly wanted was a gentle marine setting, it was like a vacation by the seashore.

The author is the daughter of Lucian Freud, the painter (the book is dedicated to him), and great-granddaughter of Sigmund. In the acknowledgements, she mentions her grandfather's--Ernst Freud--letters, an architect himself, and reviews of the novel say she used the letters as inspiration.

More interesting, she mentions a real painted scroll in the acknowledgements, though she doesn't elaborate. I so wish she had.

Doing a little bit of research, I found out that in real life Steerborough is Walberswick, a Suffolk seaside village. And thanks to the marvels of the Internet, I was able to see the actual setting of the novel, as lovely as the book describes it.

Woodnymph, I got bored with the Dalhousie book and dumped it. I mentioned it here a while back (June 28th). Too much rambling!

I've been MIA for a while but thought I'd stop by and say hi. So far this month, I've read Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner (for the second time, I missed some clues the first time around because I was so eager to finish the book I read it too quickly); Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley; a re-read of The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters, and a re-read of Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood.

in my TBR stash from the library I have The Chalk Artist by Allegra Goodman; Jane Austen at Home: a Biography, by Lucy Worsley; Closed Casket by Agatha Christie and Sophie Hannah; and A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber. Hopefully at least one will keep my attention enough to finish the whole thing.

I have just finished reading the fantasy novel Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb. In it she pulls together and concludes her Assassin series (which I loved) as well as her Liveship series (okay but less to my taste) and her dragon series (my least favorite, and I did not read them all). I thought it was quite impressively successful. She managed to pull many threads together and still deliver a satisfying ending.

This leaves only one questioning my mind. What is the author going to do with the rest of her life, now that she has concluded everything she has written? Let's hope she has some new inspiration.

reader, the Freud novel sounds most intriguing. Sometimes, I am not in the mood for fast action, but for a more contemplative read. I will make note of this one.

Woodnymph,

Remembering your comment above: "and the art interest is just my cup of tea, since I was a art history major", the Freud novel has a little bit of an art angle because of the painter character. Certainly not to the extent of Girl in Hyacinth Blue, but I liked some quotes that seemed quite true. If you read it, let me know what you think.

I'm reading Take Out by Margaret Maron. I read that she isn't going to write any more Deborah Knott books. This one is Sigrid Harrald from her first series featuring a NYPD detective who turns out to be Deborah's northern cousin and whose southern grandmother teaches her some femininity. I'm really sorry to lose Deborah because of the perfect Southern family portrayal in those books--cousins by the dozens, sweet tea, barbecues, other foods, speech patterns, and they like each other.

I finished No Man's Land by David Baldacci yesterday. Another good story! The main character, John Pulller, solves the disappearance of his mother 30 years ago, as well as solving an on-going case involving government contractors.

Donna

I am reading the second book in the John Grey series by L.C. Tyler.

Set in the time of Cromwell, unusually the hero is a Republican and the girl is the Royalist. It is generally the other way around in other novels written about this time with the hero a dashing Cavalier and the girl a demure Puritan.

Tyler loves these kinds of twists!

I've just finished "Quiet Until the Thaw" by Alexandra Fuller. This is fiction based upon lives of two very different Lakota Native Americans. It's a well-written portrait of life on Indian reservations, beginning in the 1940's and coming up to the present day. There is a lot of historical detail in this novel but it is told in a uniquely lyrical manner. For anyone with an interest in the history of Native American culture.

About the meaning of the word genius in Jane Austen: In David Shapard's annotation of Sense and Sensibility, he defines it as "natural abilities" or "quality of mind".

Rosefolly, that is an interesting definition. Is that an edition with many notes by him?

Does he give notes to "Emma" as well? Mrs. Elton refers to her "resources" which I take to mean hobbies or interests.

It is very helpful to have notes with some early classics as the meaning of words has changed a lot over the years. Then there are objects and manners no longer in use etc.

I lived with grandparents who referred to things going back to the late 1800s which has helped me. Things seemed slower to change then.

I am currently reading the final Amelia Peabody book (The Painted Queen) which was just released a couple of days ago. It is co-authored by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess. I am not very far into it yet, but can already tell that there is a co-author. I am going to try to finish it as I have enjoyed the whole series but the other "voice" is a bit of a distraction.

I'm a little over 100 pages into The Shadow Land, and it is dragging. I don't remember so much detail in The Historian, but it's been awhile.

rouan, I wondered about Joan Hess finishing the Amelia book. I only read a couple of her Maggoty books years ago and didn't like them.

I'm just finishing Stolen Beauty by Laurie Lico Albanese, it's the book that the Helen Mirren movie, Woman In Gold was based on, and concerns the Gustav Klimt painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer that was stolen by the Nazis and later reclaimed by her niece. The story is fascinating, and the writing is excellent. I knew very little about Klimt before this. I'm delighted so many of his paintings are a mouse-click away.

Lemonhead, how did you like Alas, Babylon? I read it eons ago in my teens (1970s), and only recall a few things about it, yet I do remember really liking it.

A Humble Companion by Laurie Graham follows her usual course of writing about some period in history and adding a character of her own invention to the events.

In this case the Humble Companion is a girl recommended to visit Sophy, one of the younger daughters of King George III. Thirteen of his fifteen children lived. Most of the sons were rather wild and made the King furious . . . and may have exacerbated his 'madness' while the daughters were kept in almost nun-like seclusion, few suitors were considered worthy of them and their lives consisted of taking the waters, doing needlework and playing cards with their Mother. Some married German princelings the rest gently mouldered away.

A slow story to begin with but gradually the life of 'Nellie' the HC and her interaction with the Royalties becomes quite believable and entertaining.

BTW I feel that Geo III has always had a bad press in the US, but over here he was well-loved by his people and had something of the 'Common Touch'; probably the most loved of the Hanoverian kings.

I'm about one-third of the way through Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. (I've vowed to read some classics.) Never read GE before; the book is pretty good, actually, after I overcame the intense desire to slap Gwendolyn up the side of the head.

ci_lantro I have always meant to read Eliot's Middlemarch said to be one of the best novels ever written . . . but I find the thought of even starting it rather daunting!

Have you watched the BBC adaptation of Daniel Deronda? It was made in about 2002 and as always is very well done.

Daniel Deronda

No, I haven't seen the film version of Daniel Deronda. Thank you for the link. I'll not try to watch it until after I've finished the book.

I know what you mean, Vee. DD has been laying around here for years. Finally decided to tackle it (800 or so pages) just so I don't have to look at it anymore. Have seen Middlemarch on those best novels ever written lists. Will see how much I like Eliot before I even think about committing to it. So far, I'm liking DD okay. Just when it starts to bog down a bit, she introduces a new character/ new wrinkle and things get interesting again. The book is quite dense/ layered and apparently she did a lot of research while writing it. I can't even imagine the amount of intense effort it required to write.

Trust me, Middlemarch bogs down, also. I made a list of the 40 books that Susan Hill lists as her favorites at the back of Howard's End Is on the Landing and downloaded all that were free. MM was one of those. I did enjoy . . .on the Landing.

I sat up late last night finishing the Kostova book. It got really good after awhile.

Closed Casket by Agatha Christie and Sophie Hannah went back to the library unfinished. I could NOT get into it. I didn't like any of the characters not even Poirot himself. The story did not catch my attention so back it went. Back to the drawing board, or in this case, try another book from my library stash.

I finished Beach Town by Mary Kay Andrews last night. I enjoyed it very much! It's about making a movie in a tiny Gulf Coast Florida town and all the havoc and drama the Hollywood people bring to town.

Donna

I finally finished reading The Turner House by Angela Flournoy. I felt like it was taking me forever to get through it, though it's not terribly long. When I would glance at the book where it laid in my house or car, I never felt the urge to get back to reading it. It was more a feeling of "I need to finish that book so I can get on to one I like better."

Not much of a recommendation, I know. Yet I want to say it wasn't a bad book, just not compelling reading for me. I was determined to finish it because it is my community's One Read and I always enjoy the discussions and presentations that are part of this annual program. I almost always end up liking the book better after I hear the reasons other readers have found to like the book.

By the way, the book is about the 13 adult siblings of an African American family who are faced with the problem that their elderly and ailing mother owes much more in mortgage payments on their family home than the house is now worth due to the economic decline of the East Detroit neighborhood where it is located. That's just the setting and situation though. There is much about the lives and relationships of various family members.

Carolyn, glad to hear you liked the Kostova book. It took awhile to get into it. I also think her first, "The Historian" was far better.

I agree about The Historian, Mary.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I'm reading the new Dorothea Benton Frank book, Same Beach Next Year, that I got to give to my daughter for one of her birthday gifts in September. It's another one just like the other ones, but I like the Low Country setting and the smart mouth characters. They are yet another type of "eating peanuts and can't stop" books for me.

LOL, Vee. Howard's End laid around this house for years. I finally read it last winter, I think. I had kept it around on the strength of EM Forster's A Passage to India that I had read quite some time ago and liked quite a lot. (Liked HE also.)

I'm not familiar with Susan Hill; I'll have to investigate what she has written.

ci, it was Carolyn who recommended Howard's End is on the Landing although I too enjoyed it. Susan Hill has written umpteen books, probably the best known is The Woman in Black and she has another coming out this Autumn.

Susan Hill

Oh, so she did. I'm sorry Carolyn. I got confused. Again.

I just read a few blurbs on The Woman in Black. Not into fantasy, ghosts, horror, etc. Too scary, esp. since I read mostly at night before going to sleep. Just not my genre. Although I think I might like HEOTL. (I have a lot of books that I already own--on the landing, so to speak. Books that I've picked up at yard sales, the kind that I know I oughtta' read.)

I am a fan of Susan Hill's intelligent mysteries. There was a series about a family (Serailleur?) that I really enjoyed. I have been waiting for more of that series to appear. Vee and Carolyn, is the new Susan Hill mystery part of that series? And what is the title?

Mary, the new Susan Hill (Sept 2017) is Jacob's Room is Full of Books which, I understand, is a collection of notes, jottings etc about the books SH has read/is reading.

I haven't read one of her Simon Serrailler books for quite a while and got rather lost in the 'reading order' but as you say they are intelligent and well-written . . . though rather dark.

ci, the landing is one of the few areas of our house in which there are NO books! I own far too many and have started to 'prune' the paperbacks by lending them to friends with the proviso that I don't want them returned . . .

ci, my daughter and I saw The Woman in Black on stage in London, and at one point a small screech escaped daughter as she grabbed my arm--and she was a fully grown adult. I'm not much on scary stuff and much of Susan Hill is dark and/or supernatural, but I really like the Simon books and hope Ms. Hill continues the series.

She also wrote Mrs. DeWinter, a sequel to Rebecca, and did a bang-up job. Ms. No Name is such as aggravating in it as she was in the original.

Carolyn, I had to smile reading about your daughter's reaction.

I took a friend to see a play once. She had never been to a live show and let out a loud scream when the villain who was after a blind woman opened a refrigerator door, illuminating the dark set and giving him sufficient light to track her. It added to the tense atmosphere in the theatre...

I remember that movie, Ann. That was a tense scene. And now I can't remember the name of it. Shall I call you at three this morning when it comes to me?

Was the film Wait Until Dark?

Carolyn, as your 3am is probably at a good time during the day for me, ring by all means!

Yes, Kathy. That's it!