Hobbies and Crafts

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.

Just finished reading Longbourn by Jo Baker. It's set around the events of Pride and Prejudice but concerns the lives of those belowstairs. I found it very entertaining as well a giving new insights into P and P.

~~~~s to Ann, I think it was me that was a bit slow at the time of reading :-0 :-D <3

~~~~~s to all readers :-D :-D <3

~~~~~ Mersey. I wouldn't say it was slow, more that she puts a lot of the historical detail in that takes time to digest. Or..... maybe it is my age and I like slow :-D :-D I am actually glad I am reading this one in paperback form as I think I might get a bit confused if it was on kindle as I do like to re-read the historical references. :-)

~~~~s Hi Ann, I have read that one.....very enjoyable but for me abit slow :-S mind you dont think I was in the right frame of mind when I read it LOL.......

This is what I am starting to read and talked about Emma

The Headmasters Wife - Thomas Christopher Greene

Review
A truly remarkable novel, I read the second half of The Headmaster's Wife with my mouth open, my jaw having dropped at the end of the first half. Thomas Christopher Greene knows how to hook a reader and land him --Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of EMPIRE FALLS An accomplished and artful storyteller, Greene has surprises in store as he unspools a plot that becomes as poignant as it is unpredictable --Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED I devoured this book. Both psychologically complex and wickedly fast paced --Julianna Baggott, bestselling author of PURE
Product Description

Arthur Winthrop is a middle-aged headmaster at an elite prep school in Vermont. When he is arrested for an act that is incredibly out of character, the strait-laced, married headmaster confesses to a much more serious crime.

Arthur reveals that he has had a passionate affair with a scholarship student called Betsy Pappas. But Betsy is a fickle and precocious teenager. When she switches her attentions to a classmate, Arthur's passion for Betsy turns, by degrees, into something far darker. Now Arthur must tell the truth about what happened to Betsy. But can Arthur's version of events be trusted - or is the reality much more complex and unnerving?

The Headmaster's Wife is a dark, sinuous and compelling novel about marriage and obsessive love.

I am really enjoying Sophia's Secrets, besides being a book told on two levels, an author who when she starts to write and chooses one of her Scottish ancestors as her heroine finds she is writing without thinking because she is being led by characters from the past. Set on the East Coast of Scotland it also covers a lot of Scottish history concerning the Jacobites and the Union (or not) with England.

It is well written and enjoyable and covers a part of history I was not too sure about. So educational too. I am about halfway through it.

~~~~~s to Emma, im just going to take a look and I may follow suit and download too :-D <3

Just purchased Anne's Song by Anne Nolan £2.62
for my kindle.

Have finished the King's Sister by A OBrian.

Elizabeth of Lancaster...1363-1426

At the age of seventeen she was married to an 8year old but, that marriage
was annulled six years later when she was seduced and fell pregnant by
John Holland of Exeter whose half brother was RichardII.
John was executed in 1400 for conspiring during the Epiphany Rising.
That same year she married Sir John Cornwall.

A good read and if you are into history a must for you.
The highs and lows of this woman's life is worth your time :-)

I have just started Sophia's Secret by Susanna Kearsley. (I loved the Rose garden and Season of storms by her) This one looks as though it will be a good read. Set in Scotland with plenty of links to the past and flash backs.

Hi to all our lovely readers <3 <3

I have read The Winter Guest - Pam Jenoff kindle £2.39

I really enjoyed it as I have all her others...well worth a read

Love will tear them apart…

Helena and Ruth Nowak are like chalk and cheese: one staunchly outspoken and independent, the other gentle and caring. Caught up in the struggle of Nazi occupied Poland, the sisters have bound together and created an enviable bond that can’t be broken. Or so they thought…

When Helena discovers a Jewish Allied paratrooper, wounded but alive, she risks the safety of herself and her family to hide him. As her feelings for the solider grow deeper, she finds her loyalties torn.

Outraged at this impulsive choice that endangers them all, mild-mannered Ruth finds herself becoming increasingly jealous of Helena.

As tensions are sparked, a singular act of betrayal unleashes a chain of events that will endanger them all and reverberate for decades to come.

From hardship and heartbreak, this gut-wrenching tale puts to the test the ties of sisterhood in the shadow of WW2.

I have just read Love and Loss by Alexandra Sage, the sequel to Love and Lemoncello. A good book for curling up with in the warm, not very heavy, a romance with the background of Sorrento.

Just downloaded The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory
onto my kindle priced £4.74.

I've finished The Book of Gold Leaves at last. It took me a while to get through it and I've put my review on the Genes thread.