Hobbies and Crafts

I am reading John Grisham's latest bool, Sycamore Row and he is back on form with this, after a few rather disappointing ones. Once more it is set in Mississippi where small town lawyer, Jake Brigance, four years ago, defended successfully a black man accused of murdering two white Klan men who raped and killed his child.

He has now been landed with a great case and the small town is bombarded with greedy lawyers who want a piece of the action. A wealthy man who had terminal cancer has hanged himself from a tree and leaves his millions to his humble black housekeeper leaving out his own two children ..who are pretty horrible anyway! . He has never met him but he stipulates he only wants Jake to take on the case

It is really good! :-D <3

Started Jack Duckworth Autobiography :-D

Emma :-)

Finished The Savage Years at last...no more Paul O'Grady
for me for quite a while.

Can't make up my mind what to read next.

Emma :-)

I am reading another book by Laurie Graham, with the lovely title 'Dog Days Glenn Miller Nights'. The central character is a feisty old lady called Birdie living in a council estate. She seems to have had quite a torrid past anf helps out her neighbours who are not as active as she is, has a dodgy ex husband who keeps leaving dogs with her 'for a while' and a faithful follower called Wilf. I am really enjoying her and her dry sense of humour.

ps....Vera, to answer your question...your reviews are certainly not too long, I enjoy reading them even if I never get round to reading the books!

Happy reading BooknKindle Worms

<3

Just finished Take a Look at me now by Miranda Dickenson. Will be reviewed for Greaders but recommended as a curl up in the warm and dream of warmer climes book. I enjoyed it very much. :-)

Just finished two books:

"The Unicorn Crisis" by Jon Rosenberg is a fantasy set in the Midlands in modern times. The hero David Ash is a fairly normal sort of man except that he is a Summoner and able to conjure up beings from other worlds, or maybe from imagination. He is Custodian for East Midlands, trying to keep the boundaries of our world safe from other beings and his problems start when a Unicorn appears. There's a bit of violence in the book and it is not an airy-fairy world. Things are quite nasty at times and some of the characters come from Shakespeare and are not what we expect. Oberon is power hungry, Titania is sluttish using her sex to get her own way, Puck is a nasty piece of work and the Unicorns are bad, not a force for good. I thought it was well-written, though the proof reading could have been better.

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid. This is a thought provoking book. I finished it last night and am still trying to work out exactly what the book was saying. It's written in the first person and in the form of a conversation which the reader only hears from one side. The narrator talks to an American in a café in Lahore, spends the evening with him eating and drinking and then walks him back to his hotel. While this is going on he tells his story which takes place in the years immediately before and after the destruction of the twin towers in New York on 9/11. You see how his attitude to America changes over time. Interwoven in his tale is a slightly strange love story. The end, at the gates of the American's hotel, is ambiguous and you are left not knowing how it finished. I could see three possible ways at least that it could have gone. Very well written, easy to read but a bit unsettling. I enjoyed it.

Vera

EDIT: Would you please tell me if I write too much folks. I know I can ramble on a bit and I don't want to bore you all rigid



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*hangs head in shame......sorry folks, I lied about the cross dressing...that was another book by same author :-D <3

I like the sound of BC's book At Sea so I'm going to download it. The kindle version is only 56p at the moment.

I love some of the books you read BC :-D ;-)

Emma, I think Hayley has read that book about Paul O'Grady and I dont think she was very impressed.

I am reading a book by Laurie Graham called At Sea and am really enjoying it, lovely subtle humour. It is centred on an egocentric, fuddy duddy called Bernard who gives high falutin lectures on cruise ships. He is very much up his own wotsit and is followed on each (free) cruise by his long suffering wife Lady Enid.

I have just reached the part where Bernard is about to get his comeuppance and Enid spreads her wings.. Oh yes and I think some cross dressing comes into it....
:-D :-D

Anyone read The Savage Years by Paul O'Grady.

Is it me but I have a feeling I've read the start of the book
from his other biographies, just wondered if anyone else
thought the same.

Emma :-)

Well done Mersey, I am just about to start Take a look at me now. Looking forward to it. I find doing my reviews as I go along helps, rather than a mad dash at the end when I have probably forgotten what I have read. :-D

Hello one and all :-) <3

I have just finished Take a Look at Me Now-Miranda Dickinson

I will just say I absolutely loved this book, not usually my thing but so enjoyed it.....I don't want to say too much as I am doing a review of this book on Ann's Greaders..... :-) :-)

If you looking in Ann my reviews are all done now im getting so good...no reminders LOL <3

I have just finished The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillip.

She writes beautifully and develops her characters so well.
The story moves from 1618 to the present day in Venice. Claire in the present day is writing her dissertation on the Spanish Conspiracy in Venice. Allessandra Rossetti wrote a letter to the Venetian Council in 1618 warning of a Spanish plot to overthrow Venice. Nothing is known of how she learnt of it and what happened to her, Claire goes to Venice to find out.

I really enjoyed this one which I read in paperback so don't know if it is available on Kindle.

Have just read "Women of the Cousins War". I thought it was by Philippa Gregory but in fact she only wrote the first section on Jacquetta, mother of Elizabeth Woodville. The next section was by David Baldwin and was about Elizabeth Woodville. I didn't feel I learnt anything new here and after a while his style irritated me a bit. The third section was by Michael Jones and was about Margaret Beaufort.

I did feel I learnt something new with this one. I knew she married at 12 and had son Henry at 13 but hadn't realised that this was effectively rape. Apparently the convention was that, even where a couple married young, the marriage wasn't consummated until the girl was at least 14. Margaret appears to have been both emotionally and physically damaged by the consummation and later childbirth. I found this the most interesting of the three essays.

I've also just read "Experiments in Love" by Hilary Mantel. As I only knew her from "Wolf Hall" and Bring Up the Bodies" I thought I'd try one of her earlier novels. It's the story of the school and university days of three girls, told in hindsight by one of them Carmel. It's well written, as you would expect from Hilary Mantel, but I didn't care much about any of the characters or what happened to them. It's supposed to take place in the 1960s I think, but it felt more dated. Some of the language didn't ring true to me.

Hello Book Worms :-)

Im reading The Herbalist by Niamh Boyce....

To be honest im struggling I have got to chatper 6 and it is a very confusing book, the characters go to and fro in each chapter :-S Im going to try bare with it but I may have to admit defeat :-S

:-D :-D :-D :-D @ Glasgow lass

I chuckled at AnninGlos buying books that she already had as it reminded me of something.....
My daughter had a list of books that she wanted to read.
One title had been on the list for ages, but our local library didn't have it
Whilst doing a weekly online check, a copy suddenly appeared in the online catalogue.

She quickly reserved this only copy, and picked it up that evening.
It took a day to register...... she had read it before?

Then she remembered... when she was unable to get it from the library, she bought it, read it and donated it to .... the library ( she used to work there)

She had paid a small reservation fee for the SAME book that SHE had donated! :-D :-D :-D

Finished The Wise Woman by P Gregory not
one of her best in my opinion. :-(

Now reading The Savage Years by Paul O'Grady

Emma :-)

Mine's the basic version 6 inch version - you have to reveal the keyboard on the screen.

If you want to read in bed, say when you are away from home, then the version with a light incorporated might be better. I've bought a clip on light-on-a-stalk for when he wants to sleep and I want to read.

Kindles have to be charged via a USB port, but a charge would normally last at least a week. You can buy other lead thingys to recharge via an electricity power socket