Hobbies and Crafts

Seems a while since anyone posted on here. Perhaps now spring is here we are all finding other things to do. :-D

I've been reading The Tutor by Andrea Chapin, Genes Book of the Month. My review (rather a long one I'm afraid) is on that thread so I won't repeat it here.

At the moment reading the Genes book for tis month Nora Webster, quite good.

I decided I wanted something a bit lighter after some of my recent reading and grabbed a Mapp & Lucia book by E F Benson from the Quick Choice shelf at the library. I've never read any of these books before or seen the television programmes. I thought the volume was a bit thick and when I got home I found it was three books bound into one - Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp and Mapp and Lucia.

They are OK, quite funny in places but a bit wordy and very outdated. One would have been OK but by the time I got to the end of the third book I was bored with them.

Then I read The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington. This was much more to my taste. As you would expect from the ex-head of MI5, this is a spy story revolving around a cyber attack on a joint British American experimental programme. Who has infiltrated British Security? Are the Russians involved or not? How do the various sub plots connect together? etc. etc. Well written and quite fast moving. I enjoyed it.

Finished Anne's Song by Anne Nolan.

Now reading Margaret The Queen by Nigel Tranter.

Finished The King's Curse by P Gregory.

Very good read told through the voice of Margaret Pole
who was the oldest woman (67) Henry V111 sent to the
Tower and beheaded. The poor woman suffered a horrific
death as it took eleven hits with the axe before she died.
As a Plantaganent she was felt as a threat to Henry and
his heirs.

Now reading Anne's Song By Anne Nolan.

Yes I am watching it mau, good cast but not liking it very much.

Thanks Ann

Is anyone watching 'The Casual Vacancy' on tv? I have the book but couldn't get into the story and Rowling wasn't given very good book reviews either.

However I'm now watching the serial and finding it quite good, even though it's a bit naughty :-0...good cast.

Glad you enjoyed it Mau. :-)

Hello Bookworms and Kindle Readers <3

Finally finished A Single Breath (slow reader and putter downer lol ) and thought it was a thoroughly good story.

Have just ordered Gone Girl as family say the film is very good...so surely must be a good story also. :-)

Mau XX

Hi one and all ~~~~~~~ <3 <3

Emma I liked the sound of your book, taken alook and I have just downloaded it :-D

Dont know when i will read it, but its there and I am looking forward to reading it <3

Happy Reading Bookworms & kindle tarts <3 :-D

Just downloaded Margaret The Queen by Nigel Tranter
priced £2.99

Margaret was a beautiful Saxon Princess and sister of the true King of England
Edgar of the house of Atheling.

I rarely give up but if I do it is because life is too short to waste it on books I don't like. Although I am more likely to skim through them.

Ann, it goes against the grain with me not to finish a book. I don't know why. Perhaps it goes back to childhood when I devoured books because I didn't have much else to do at home but read.

I can only think of one book that I put aside after a few chapters and that was "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss. I got it out of the library after someone whose tastes are much like mine recommended it to me but I could not get on with it at all. I still think from time to time that I ought to have another go at it.

I almost feel guilty if I don't finish a book. Idiot aren't I? :-D

Vera 'damning with faint praise'. I don't think that sounds like one for me, given that yous eem to be able to persevere with books that I can barely cope with. :-D

I've been ploughing through "Music and Silence" by Rose Tremain and found it very hard going. The book is set mostly in Denmark in the 1600s where an English lutenist joins the orchestra at the court of King Christian IV. There are love stories, schemes and plots yet the narrative doesn't seem to go anywhere and the chapters dodge about over a 50 year time period and between Scandinavia, Ireland and England so I was forever having to remind myself that what I was reading about had happened before stuff I had already read. Does that make sense? Some characters were fictional, others had existed, but none of them seemed real to me and they all seemed to be touched by madness to a greater or lesser extent.

I feel almost guilty saying I did not like this book because I know the reviews of it have all been pretty good. Rose Tremain is a skilful writer who uses her words well but I don't think I am on her wavelength. (I have read 2 others of hers which were OK but I didn't really enjoy them much so I think I've given her a fair trial.)

I've only seen a couple of negative reviews about this book but one of them said exactly what I think "Skillful, elaborate and ultimately pointless".

Hi all
at the moment im reading

this wicked man -- regency novel

i cant seem to find any free good books that i like on amazon to download on to the kindle

my trouble is i can not read just any think it has to be just before the time of cars
or just after. i can not read any modem stuff

i do some times read ww1/2 but not that often

Still haven't looked on their bookshelf, so don't worry ;-)

They have homes of their own, but we STILL end up as their storage warehouse! :-D

Det, due to finger trouble I had the wrong name it is Sophia not Sophie.

I think we've got Sophie's Secret somewhere upstairs - it was one of the offsprings when they were children. If I'm mistaken, there was a book with a similar name.

Over Christmas, I've been reading "The Paranormal 13 (13 free books featuring witches, vampires, werewolves, mermaids, psychics, Loki, time travel and more!)"

Most were OK, some a bit naff, mainly intended for 'Young Adults'. Well, one can but dream :-D
Many of the stories continued in books you had to purchase, not that I'll bother.

Apart from the GR bookclub issued Etta, Otto, Russell and James - review to follow - I'm currently reading Ebola K: a Terrorism Thriller by Bobby Adair.

Written in 2014, it explores the idea that Al Queda or one of its off-shoots deliberately expose their Western terrorist volunteers to the airbourne strain in the guise of 'helping' victims in an islolated village on the Uganda/Kenya border.
Of course, the Americans are involved as the story-line starts from the view point of an American student volunteer who was teaching in a school. His family back in the States lose contact with him, hear rumours that Ebola has spread to the area and set the ball rolling.

Although I haven't finished, I doubt if there will be a 'happy ever after' ending especially as this is the first book in a series of 3.

Finished Sophia's secret and really loved the book. Was sorry to finish it really.

edited as it is Sophia not Sophie.