Hobbies and Crafts

Good morning Ladies

Well we had some lovely wet weather this weekend, what a good time to find out the pipe into the water butt is clogged. Oh went out to see how much we had collected and found it nearly empty, so clever clogs here muttered that the pipe could be clogged as there was a lot of mud etc in the soak away. Should have kept quiet. There we were with rain coats on clearing it out in the light rain shower, while the two little cats looked at their stupid humans through the window.

Well it was a good job done in the end, just a silly time to do it.

Good lot of ideas for books and looked some up, will see how much is in my amazon kindle kitty.

Eventful morning so far, John said cat is meowing out side needs letting in. So as i was doing breakfast he went to the door, our little Midnight came flying in and dashed upstairs. All of a sudden thundered down again and was having a good old grizzle and running around. So i went out to see what he was up to. A mouse was having a good go at escaping his paws and trying to find somewhere to hide. Midnight saw me and grabbed the mouse and ran to the bathroom. I opened the front door and he ran out with the mouse.

Thats the second time John has let the cat in with an unwanted toy in his mouth. The first time it was a pigeon and i found feathers all in the hall and midnight gutting it behind the sofa. I have told him, if the cat rushes in with something follow him.

The joys of a young cat in the family, he is only four, our old cat Shadow was 19 and 6 months when we lost him and a real little character. We miss him a lot.

We have had these 2 for 2 years now and they are quite a handful a little black one who is now 4 and tabby with white paws we call Sox who is about 7. They short of go together but also have a love hate relationship going.

More to follow.

Lol Vera that is a long abbreviation.

I do know I have read fantasy in the past and enjoyed them I can’t really remember any of the titles except the Harry Potter series. I vaguely remember reading one that was about swans but it was years ago and that is all Ibremember about it.

I am a bit short on time but will try to quickly do an abbreviated version of the post I lost yesterday which is still floating round the ether somewhere.

Thanks for mentioning the Fantastic Fiction site, Tabitha. I’ve had a quick look and it’s certainly interesting. I might register but would have to limit my visits to the site as I spend too much time on the computer now. As to Libby, I think it will only download to whatever piece of equipment you have put the app on. In my case the app is on my iPad so that’s where the downloaded books go. It’s all free but you have to register with a library card.

I’m not really into sagas. I do love Peter James’ Roy Grace books but I have never seen any of the TV programmes. I also like Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks books.

If you like fantasy, Tabitha, have you read any of the Chronicles of St Mary’s books by Jodi Taylor? They are about a group of time travelling historians and were recommended to me by DeTECtive who used to be a member. We had very similar tastes and she introduced me to several new authors. With the St Mary’s books, they are stand alone stories but the same characters appear in several of the books and there are references to earlier adventures so I think they are best read in order if possible.

Another fantasy book which would definitely not to be to everyone’s taste but I really enjoyed is The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Have a look at my post of 11 Feb 2023 where I’ve put a synopsis of the book. It’s only a page or so back as the board has hardly moved over the last 2 or 3 years.

Then, of course, there is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and my very favourite fantasy Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings…………..I’d better stop or I’ll rabbit on forever and time is galloping on.

Keep posting Tabitha and anyone else looking in. It’s good to see this thread coming back to life a bit.

I am seething. I just spent ages doing a long post and just before I could press submit it just disappeared. Tbh I am too hot and tired to do it all again now. It's my own fault. I didn't stick to my own rule of doing anything more than a few lines in Word and then doing a c&p. If I had I would have had it saved and could have submitted it again. I've got a couple of busy days ahead but I'll try and get it typed up again over the next day or two.

I did many years ago read The Outlander series but haven’t read some of the later ones. I believe my daughter has and if I dig around a bit on my kindle they are probably lurking there somewhere.

It is so sad and frustrating when pastimes, such as walking, become out of reach through health problems.

Hi Ladies

Gosh plenty to think about. I will have a look on my favorite website and see what it says about some of them.

I tried a book in the Strike series and couldn't get in to it, but i love the TV series. Its funny but i love her Harry Potter books, very easy reading.

You may like to sign up for Fantastic Fiction, its free and it has the majority of authors on it and you can keep track of all their books. You can also set up your own wish list. i love it and it tells you how much they are on kindle. It also shows the new books on the market. I am sure you will be hooked.

i must try your Libby one, does it send to kindle as well.?

Its like the Grace books by Peter James I love the TV show but cannot read the books. They are down here filming again for the new series. My husband and I love to check out the locations while watching.

I love sagas too, which is why i like BTB books so much.

Diana Gabaldon has the Outlander collection with Jaime and Claire. Where she goes through the Stone circle in Scotland and ends up in Scotland at the time of Culloden, and has a whole new life there. They are massive books and seem to come out every 4 or 5 years. Its also a tv series but on MGM it seems.

Thank you for your kind words about my joints, sad to say i think its with me for life now. I have Polymyalgia (well that's what the Dr thinks) it was a lot worse, he has me on steroids which stop a lot of the pain. I cant walk very far, just short distances. I use to walk a lot, it takes all the fun out of visiting places. Even a shopping trip can be a bit of an ordeal, my poor husband has to keep stopping when i do.

Hope you have a good week, no appointments this week, so we can get on with a few things.

<3 <3 <3 <3

Tabitha I read the Elizabeth Elgin books many years ago and really loved them
I do like sagas and have just read a couple from dilly Court's Rockwood Chronicles. (Fortune's daughter and Winter Wedding) Not very heavy reads but entertaining. I have also read other books by her.

Tabitha, as Ann said, the watched thread facility doesn't seem to operate any more.

I hope your joint pain has eased now. Thank you for your nice long post. There's lots there for us to think about.

I don't want to spend a lot on books, even on the kindle, unless I am sure I am going to read them more than once so I've checked out the authors you mention on my Libby app to see if I can borrow them as library books downloaded to my iPad. I'm getting quite cross because they have quite a few as audio books which I know suits a lot of people but I like the printed word..

Libby does have the first in the Nic Costa series by David Hewson, A Season for the Dead. When I have got through a few of the other books in my queue I'll order that.

I enjoy a bit of fantasy and some "odd" books so I'm happy to give the Myrtlewood series a go. The library app has them all but only on audio....grrr. I'll check out if Amazon have any going cheap for the kindle and if not I'll grit my teeth and get the first in the series as an audio book and see how I get on with it.

I have read all four of the Thursday Murder Club books. I think there's another one coming out in September. I enjoy them. They are light reading and totally unbelievable but great fun.

All I could find for Rosemary Shrager was an actual cookery book but I haven't checked out Amazon and Kindle yet.

I have now finished Fiona Valpy's The Storyteller of Casablanca. I quite enjoyed it but again I thought the wartime sections were more interesting than the modern ones. There was a bit of a twist at the end of the modern story that I hadn't seen coming though I had thought there was something odd about it. I'm not likely to read more of hers as the two I have read have been so similar with a story from the past and a story from the present with a slight link between them and the main characters from each of the stories meeting at the end of the book. A bit formulaic for me.

I'm nearing the end of The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling).. It's no 7 in the Cormoran Strike series of book. Each of the books seems to be longer than the one before and the plots get more and more complex. This book is nearly 1200 pages and is so heavy that my somewhat weak wrists really ache after holding it to read. The plot of this one revolves around a strange religious cult. If you don't know the books and want to try them I would take them in order. They can be read as stand alone books but then you don't know the back stories of the various characters. There has been a television series made of some of the books so you may already know of them.

I am also reading The Spy and The Traitor by Ben Macintyre. This is a true story and is well written and gripping. The blurb says it's "the greatest espionage story of the Cold War". It's about Oleg Gordievsky who was in the KGB but spied for Britain. It's fascinating to learn how organisations like the KGB, MI6 and the secret services of other countries worked. I'm not a quarter of the way through yet but am totally hooked.

Hello there

Regarding Barbra Taylor Bradford, i know what you mean. I reread the Emma Harte books and loved them again. I then looked at the Cavendon Hall set of four and they were excellent, so much so my husband had to drag me off to bed several nights and take my kindle away.

I wasn't sure about Myrtlewood, not to everyones taste, but a nice distraction.

May I suggest Elizabeth Elgin. The five book collection of the Suttons of Yorkshire.
I'll Bring you Buttercups, Daisychain Summer, Where Bluebells Chime, Windflower Wedding and the Linden walk. Lovely books you can lose yourself in, i was so involved in the family it made me cry at times. Also All the Sweet Promises also by Elizabeth Elgin but a wartime story.

I started reading at a very early age, being an only child with a vivid imagination. So i have a large library of books in my attic. Gradually trying to get rid of them. its so much easier on a kindle.

Have a lovely weekend.



<3 <3

thank you Tabitha, and I don't thin the watched threads works any more.

Goodness there was a lot to read in your post and I will make a note of the authors that looked interesting to me. I don't think the Myrtlewood ones appeal at the moment (sounds a bit enid Blyton and the magical faraway tree!, nothing wrong with that but just not my scene at the moment. the ones set in Taly I will make a not of as they sound more my thing. I did used to read and like Barbara Taylor Bradford but nor read any of hers for ages.

Forgot to tick the watched threads box - senior moment !

Seem to be getting a lot more these days, i blame the weather. :-D <3

Good Morning Ladies

I am still here, just got a bit distracted by joint pain.

Back to the important matter in hand. I must admit i have not read that particular author and not sure its my sort of book. I do like things other than crime fiction, but recently there have been so many good crime novels around. I do like family books as well and love Barbara Taylor Bradford and Diana Gabaldon.

I love the David Hewson Nic Costa collection, if you like detective novels and Italy they are the ones for you. Well written and very descriptive and keeps you entertained, very hard to put down. You almost feel you are in Italy. I have only read the first 7 books at present. The 7th one Dante's Numbers takes him to San Francisco and it includes references to Hitchcock's Vertigo. I would highly recommend it, and you don't really need to read the others first. But i think its better to read them in order and get a full picture of Nic.

I decided to read one of his other books to see if they are all good. It's called
When the German Come. A brief synopsis::- 1940: The people of Dover, England, wait for the Nazi invasion. But what if Hitler’s agents are already among them? ‘

Canadian journalist Jessica Marshall is reporting from Dover, a town on the brink of a German attack. But her stories never make it into print . . .

Meanwhile, Louis Renard, an intelligent, damaged man and onetime Scotland Yard detective, is recuperating from wounds received at Dunkirk and is working in Dover’s barely functioning police station.

When a dancer is found murdered in a secret underground bunker, Renard refuses to turn a blind eye, and Marshall smells a scoop. As the mystery deepens, Renard begins to dig deeper into the murdered woman’s background, while Marshall is lured further into a dangerous scheme, just as the threat from the looming invasion gets closer . . .

When the Germans Come is a gripping thriller and an examination of the state of wartime England, when Hitler’s forces gathered across the Channel and threatened the country’s very existence.

At the moment i am finding it a little hard going, but i will stick with it.

I have not long finished a series of books that are so out of my comfort zone, but i saw recommended , so thought i would give them a try as i wanted a change.

They are the Myrtlewood Mystery by Iris Beaglehole. So weird but i found them very enjoyable, something you can read without having to think about if you know what i mean.
WARNING: This book contains a somewhat ditzy main character (there are reasons revealed later in the series) and her rather stroppy teen daughter who has been having a hard time. If these things are triggering for you, please put the book down and step away. The author does not wish to inflict any stress or irritation upon you. You will also find magic based on genuine witchcraft and mythology in this series as well as a lot of UK spelling and diverse characters. If these are not your cup of tea then don't worry, there are plenty of other books that will suit you out there in the world

This book is for you if you love:

mysteries set in small magical villages - witches, fae, shifters mythologically inspired stories -

the idea of a self-cleaning house which also renovates and sometimes does the grocery shopping

genuine magic woven into the story - whimsical world-building paranormal women’s fiction - a midlife main character - queer-friendly stories -
a big dose of humour!

Welcome to Myrtlewood, a quirky town, steeped in magic, tea, and mystery…
Life’s a struggle for Rosemary Thorn and her teen daughter, Athena. But their regular troubles are turned upside down after Granny Thorn’s mysterious death.

Despite her cousin's sinister manoeuvrings, Rosemary returns to Myrtlewood and the sprawling, dilapidated Thorn Manor. But there's more to the old house than meets the eye, as Rosemary and Athena soon find out — in a whirlwind of magic, adventure, mystical creatures, and endless cups of tea.

Life in Myrtlewood would be bliss if Rosemary could only clear her name in a certain murder investigation, solve the mystery and stay out of mortal peril '' for at least a little while!

A small town with endless secrets, strange activities, and a house with a mind of its own..

There are 9 books in this series, and to be very truthful once i started reading them i couldn't stop, one morning when i woke early and couldn't get back to sleep, i actually read a whole one. My husband thinks i am a very strange person.

I have also just finished reading Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder club, the first 3 books in the set & absolutely loved them, cant wait for the film to air in August/September.

Also the Rev Richard Coles Cannon Clement Mysteries - i have read the first 2 and loved them. Again a different kind of crime story, Murder Before Evensong & A Death in the Parish.

And lastly for now Rosemary Shrager - The Last Supper and The Proof in the Pudding. A different kind of murder mystery but one i couldn't put down.

I will look in later with some more of the books i have read. Now you can see why i have nearly filled up my kindle library.

Take care and enjoy your reading.

The two I read by Valpy were the sky beneath us and The Cypress Maize. I enjoyed both but I think they are lighter reading than I am used to. Holiday reading maybe and both were written in the same format Vera.. I would read more of hers though.

After Ann mentioned Fiona Valpy on another thread I downloaded a couple of her books to my kindle, The Beekeeper's Promise and The Storyteller of Casablanca. I've finished The Beekeeper's Promise and am in two minds about it.

Initially I found it a little bit boring but it got better as it went along and I enjoyed it in the end but there were things I found a bit irritating. There are two stories taking place, one during WW2 and the other in 2017 and there are alternating chapters for each period. Some of the chapters were only a couple of pages so at times the book seemed quite disjointed. My other problem was that I enjoyed the WW2 bits and found the characters pretty believable but I didn't feel the same about the 2017 story. There is, of course, a link between the 2 stories though it did seem a bit contrived. So, I quite enjoyed it once but wouldn't bother to read it again.

I have just started to read The Storyteller of Casablanca and was surprised to find it's written in exactly the same format. This time it's half in WW2 and half in 2010. I won't pre-judge it as I've only just started it so I'll let you know what I think of it when I finish it.

You might remember mentioning Tim Weaver to me, Ann. He sounds much more my type of author so I checked on my Libby app to see what was available digitally from the library. They have a lot of his books in audio versions but only 2 as the printed word. They have 3 digital copies of each of the books. I put a hold on the book I thought I would read first and found I was number 15 in the queue! He is obviously a popular author. I reckon to get a copy to read in about 10 weeks.

Hi Tabitha, welcome. As Vera says hardly anyone posts on here, my last post was April Inthink although I do check in in case anyone posts. It is good to know what authors people enjoy. StrangelyI have not read many A Christie but zi do like the ones that are on TV or films.

Authors I like at the moment (well some of them) are Lee Child’s., James Patterson, Tim Weaver, Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, but I will read most things except science fiction. There are other authors I like that are not detective or thriller writers but I have not found any new ones by them for a while and it is only in the past four years that I have turned to these authors.

Please keep looking in and responding on this thread it is good to see it is still alive.

Vera that is 5 posts this year so far Inthink, pretty good going :-D

Hi Tabitha
Welcome back to Genes. I'm afraid you are not going to get much joy from this thread as it has pretty much died a death. No-one looks at it much these days. At one point it came down to AnninGlos and me doing most of the posting and as we both post almost daily on another thread we can recommend books to each other on there. The trouble is some people just lose interest, some are no longer members and others have sadly died. There aren't many new people coming on to Genes these days so threads like this just wither away.

Like you I'm a bookworm and I know Ann reads a lot as well. I too like detective stories though I'm not a huge fan of Agatha Christie. I still like a printed book but I also have a kindle which I tend to use in bed at night. I don't always sleep well so do a lot of my reading in the middle of the night and I can lay down with the kindle. I also have the Libby app on my iPad and that enables me to download library books on my iPad on the same terms as going to the physical library. I've found it a boon, particularly during the Covid lockdowns

Anyway please stay with us and either post on here and I will check the thread more regularly or start a new thread. I've got a busy weekend but I'll try and come back soon and post something about the book I've just finished.

Hi just come back to Genes now I'm retired and have more opportunity.
I often look around the posts and am a huge bookworm.

I use to have a large library of paperbacks and couldn't pass a book shop without getting a new book. Now i have a kindle - takes up a lot less room, i still have a large amount of books waiting to read.

I probably have weird taste in books mainly fiction, i love detective .stories. My mum started me on Agatha Christie when i was around 7 and i collected and read every single book she wrote & still have them in the attic. I even got a few of the ones only published in the USA.

I have a load of authors i keep track of and try and read when i can.

Please keep up the posts i find them interesting. :-) <3

Hi wndy,

I am as guilty as everyone else for not checking this thread. But great to see you posted on here in January. Yes we shared a lot of books, mainly from the shelf in the apartment where I found books from authors I had not read before. Many of whom I have gone on reading to this day. Yes I like Lisa Jewell and have read a few of hers. I still read a lot, even more since Tony died, books are my companion. As it is the same for you I am sure.
I am fine thanks and trust you are ok and still enjoying the sun on your lovely patio.

Hi AnninGlos I haven't read this board for years and I don't know what prompted me today. Seeing your name and the reviews of the books you have read reminded me of all the books we have shared between us. It was you who first introduced me to a Kindle, which now I wouldn't want to be without.

I have read a lot of books by Lisa Jewell, they are easy reads to pick up at any time. I nearly always read in bed at night and nod off while reading but I can always follow the story where I left off with out having to back track

I hope all is well with you xxx

I wonder if anyone reads this board any more?