Hobbies and Crafts

I am about half way through The Salt Path that AnnG recommended. Some lovely descriptions of nature but it’s quite an emotional read and at times I feel that I am struggling with them through both the physical pain and the emotions. At times it is hard reading for me as I have just lost my brother to a terminal illness and I know that in his last months he found solace in the natural world.

I am sometimes finding it a little bit repetitive but I am interested enough in the story to order the follow up book The Wild Silence as an ebook through the Libby app. Apparently there is a wait of about 6 weeks for it so it must be popular.

Just finished the Clockmakers daughter by Kate Morton I did enjoy it but found it a little confusing as it covered linking family stories in several different eras

I can’t remember whether I’ve ever read any Jojo Moyes but I do like horses (I learnt to ride in my late fifties). I’ll give it a go if I see it. I will look out for The Salt Path as it sounds a good read.

I’ve been reading my way through the library’s stock of police/detective type books using Libby. A while ago Detective recommended a series of books by Linda Costello. I’ve managed to read two of them, Sworn to Silence and Shamed, and really enjoyed them. They are about crimes in a small American town where the ‘English’ and the Amish exist side by side. The Chief of Police, Kate Burkholder, was brought up Amish but left the community. I found it very interesting learning more about Amish culture and beliefs.

Read that one quickly. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. True story couple made homeless, he is ill with a terminal illness. The choose to walk the South West Coastal path. Very well written and very emotive. I enjoyed it even though with so many memories at times it was hard going.

Just finished The Horse Dancer by Jo Jo Moyes. I really enjoyed it even though not being somebody mad on horses. I found it fascinating and I do always like her books.

I loved Wild Swans

Tawny, I bought Wild Swans off a second hand book stall years ago and still haven’t read it but OH did. He thought it was very good so I must get around to tackling it. Did you enjoy it?

Wild Swans by Jung Chang is my latest read. It is biographical/autobiographical as it starts with her grandmother’s life during the time of the foot binding and ends with her own life and her scholarship to Britain in the early 90s.

Just checked my list and so far this year I have read 41 books, quite a mixture of authors, Just finished Nora Roberts one The MacGregors, Daniel and Ian. Quite light reading but all I seem to want to read at the moment. Now reading one by Judy Finnigan Eloise picked up on the free book stall we had until the end of September. Again fairly light but set in Cornwall which I like.

I’ve been reading all the time but nothing very special. However I thought I’d add something to the thread as I would hate to see it fade away.

I’ve mostly been reading detective type novels. I’ve read one or two Michael Jecks medieval mysteries, a couple of Ann Cleeve’s Shetland books and a couple of her earlier ones about a birdwatching detective, one or two David Baldacci books, and two Peter Robinson books featuring DCI Banks.

I never did replace my broken kindle and I am not confident about spending time in the library so I am using the Libby app which has been a boon. I can’t get everything I want as not all the library books have been digitised yet but the app has certainly helped me through lockdown.

Just fisishes The House Share by Kate Helm (who also writes as Kate Harrison.

I found it hard to put down, creepy and gripping.

Immi thinks she has found the perfect new home in The Dye Factory with Camille Ashleigh, Dex, Bernice, Lucas, Veronica and Zoum but when sharing a house with 7 murder suspects you can' lock the danger out

Just finished At the edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier. It took me a while to get into it because it was so descriptive that it read like a text book. But once I did get into it I really enjoyed it. The book cover doesn't really describe the part of it that I enjoyed and found the most interesting. While the apple orchards methods and family trials were very readable, for me it was the other story about William Lobb (he was a plant collector in 19th century) and the story worked around him and the giant Sequoias of California. Having seen a few of them it was easy to picture.

I’ve just finished reading The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel. It’s the third book in the Wolf Hall trilogy and takes Thomas Cromwell’’s story up to his death. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I did find it harder going than the earlier two. It also took me a while to get into her style. She mostly just calls Cromwell “He” and sometimes I had to stop and think: is she referring to Cromwell or the person she’d just mentioned e.g. she would write something like “Gregory said he saw Call-Me. He thought....”. Who is He? Gregory? Call-Me? No, she means Cromwell. Having said that, once my brain tuned in it was fine and I loved the book. I think I will have to re-read the whole trilogy at some time.

Just finished Hidden Depths by Ann’s Clerves. A ‘Vera’ book. The first I have read of hers and I enjoyed it, well written and kept me guessing.

I like the sound of those books Ann so The Crossing Places and The Stone Circle are now on my To Be Read list.

I still haven’t replaced my kindle and with libraries closed I’m reliant on the Libby app for my books but I’m managing to get enough books that I like to keep me going.

I’ve recently read The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves, which is one of her “Vera” books. I’ve read a couple of her books about the detective Vera Stanhope and they are OK but I much prefer her Shetland series of books.

I also read End In Tears by Ruth Rendell. This is one of her Inspector Wexford books and as well written as all her books. I don’t want to give the story away but Wexford has a bit of a moral dilemma in his family which sort of overlaps with the murder he is investigating.

Next came Moscow Sleepers by Stella Rimington. This is one of her books featuring agent Liz Carlyle of MI5 and is a story of espionage and counter intelligence. Even though the story is obviously exaggerated to make an interesting and exciting book, a lot of it seems quite realistic. As a former Director General of MI5 Stella Rimington does know her subject. It is a stand alone book but does bring in events and characters from earlier books she has written.

I’ve reserved The Mirror and the Light, which is the third book in the Wolf Hall trilogy so I’m looking forward to reading that soon.

I have just finished a book by an author I have not read before
Elly Griffiths The Stone Circle.It is a real page turner, I did note after reading it that it continued after her book calle Crossing places which I had not read but it stood alone no problem.

DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters telling him to 'go to the stone circle and rescue the innocent who is buried there'. He is shaken, not only because children are very much on his mind, with Michelle's baby due to be born, but because although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of The Crossing Places, and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they?

Meanwhile Ruth is working on a dig in the Saltmarsh - another henge, known by the archaeologists as the stone circle - trying not to think about the baby. Then bones are found on the site, and identified as those of Margaret Lacey, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared thirty years ago.

As the Margaret Lacey case progresses, more and more aspects of it begin to hark back to that first case of The Crossing Places, and to Scarlett Henderson, the girl Nelson couldn't save. The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.

Was Missing Sister a GReaders book Ann?

If so I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for reminding me about the author. Dinah Jefferies, Lesley. I had forgotton all about her will have to refresh my memory banks in time for the reopening of the local libraries.


By the way, i recently recorded an old t.v.series of DCI Banks and watched "Wednesdays Child" at the weekend. It bears no resemblence to the book, except that
1) it is set in Yorkshire
2) the policeman in charge is DCI Banks.
3) the abductors posed as Social workers
4) the names of the abductors.

The t.v. story was far less scary or menacing. A more up-to-date story. The book has hints of The Moors Murders.

I seem to remember reading that Lesley I like Dinah Jefferies.

I've just finished reading The Missing Sister by Dinah Jeffries. Very good.
:-)

Vera - have read some Alison Weir books and enjoyed them. Can't remember the titles, but may still have one or two on my book shelves.

Meanwhile I have started reading books from the stacks waiting to be read.

Managed two so far.

Miss Purdy's Class by Annie Murray.
Set in Birmingham around 1936, it is a story of poverty.
Mentions all sorts of things that actually happened - including the execution of "Nurse" Wadding---- at Winson Green Prison.

An interesting and informative read but very sad - how things have changed. I am familiar with many of the places in the book so of particular interest to me.

Second book is very different.

Wednesday's Child by Peter Robinson ( one of the Inspector Banks Series)

A scary story about the abduction of a seven year old girl from her home.
Printed in the mid-1990's and set possibly a little before then, it was creepy, worrying and upsetting. Not sure if I would have wanted to see it as a i.v film before going to bed. Was useful to (try) to remember that this was fiction. Upsetting to remember that children are abducted.
A little strange that a "modern" crime novel has no mention of mobile phones. DNA and computers both play a (small) part.

Have just started -
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It won The Booker Prize.

Likely to take a couple of weeks 9or so) for me to finish)


Have put first two books in my Charity Shop box - Will see how many I can add before Charity shops open again.