Hobbies and Crafts

Welcome EvieB :-)

Hi All

I've been a member of GR for many years but haven't yet used the boards. I'm an avid reader so this really thread really appealed. I'm always on the lookout for recommendations. Currently I'm reading 'The American Girl' by Rachel English. It's about tracing your roots but in this case a woman who was adopted at birth trying to find her birth mother. An enjoyable read, mostly based in Ireland so ticking two boxes for me already - family history and location.

Still reading! Like Vera, its something I do all the time.

My Ipad has recently updated itself with an Ap called Libby. As long as you have a library card, you can link to your county library and borrow ebooks from them.
That was the original intention for (re)registering with the library, but is was too much of a faff to convert the ebooks to a kindle format.

I've already read one Jack Reacher and a book based on Criminal Intent TV series. May be the book came first?

On the kindle I'm currently reading A Dangerous Road: A Smokey Dalton Novel
by Kris Nelscott. It was free at the time.

Smokey Dalton is an African-American private detective working in 1968 Memphis, Tennessee. The story is linked in with Black Rights & the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Smokey's parents were killed by a lynch mob when he was young. He is hired, rather unexpectedly, by a wealthy young white Chicago-raised woman to find out why her deceased mother has left him $10,000.

He uncovers some unpalatable truths about her parents & the background to his own parents demise. Along the way he falls in love with her, and tries to protect a neglected 10 year old black boy who can identify MLK's assassin.

Not sure how it will end, but its unlikely to be an altogether happy one!

It’s a while since anything was added to this thread. Has everyone given up reading or are you all like me? I am reading all the time but haven’t read anything that it seems worth writing about. I’ve worked my way through a few medieval and Tudor mysteries and a couple of modern crime novels.

The book I have just finished is That Girl From Nowhere by Dorothy Koomson. I wasn’t keen on the writing style and I think the story was a little bit odd, but I found I did want to finish the book. I don’t want to give the plot away - this is the blurb on the book cover.

Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies. Now an adult, Clem moves to Brighton, where she was born, and meets someone who knows all about the butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents. As the shocking secrets about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, Clem has to decide if the cost of having contact with her first family is a price too high to pay....

Happy reading everyone :-D

Hope you enjoy it more than I seemed to have done then if you find it Tess.

Thanks Ann, the reason I was asking is that I have (very) recently found that a second cousin, once removed, lived and worked in Chile for many years.
This set the wheels of memory spinning. I thought that I might have read a book by a Chilean author. Digging deeper, I wondered if that auther was Isabel Allende. I checked her on the internet and saw that she wrote "House of Spirits" and the name rang a bell. However the description didn't.

Might check in at the library when I go on Saturday to see if I can get House of Spirits or any other book by her.

Tess I have only read one of Isobel allende's books and from my listings that was House of spirits back in 2001. My only remarks were hard to read, set in S America. So can't really help you there.

Just finished "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory (reconnended on this thread some time ago).

have read other books by philippa gregory and always enjoyed them.

I knew very little about Mary (Boleyn) before I read this book, except that she was the sister of Ann Boleyn and had been mistress to Henry the eighth before Ann.

Was surprised by a lot that I learnt, found it interesting,learning about mary and "her take" on her sister Ann.

Well worth reading.
Off to the library again on Saturday with a list of recommended books from here.

Have also had Isobel Allende (of Chile) recommended by someone else. has anyone else read anything by her? If so, what did you think?

Can't remember which author/book I was looking for on my last visit to the library, but ended up with "The Magdalena Curse" by F.G. Cottam instead.
Had never heard of this book, or indeed the author, but as it was a light book, so easy to carry/hold, I went for it.

The actuall weight was the only light thing about it! A horror story that I found rather scary. Not my usual read at all. According to The Times it is "Atreasure trove of dark dreams and sinister sorcery" The bulrb on the back starts "It only takes a couple of visits to convince Dr Elizabeth Bancroft that Adam hunter is not just having bad dreams. He is a child possessed"
I had to keep on to the end, jsut to find out what happened. So if you like scary books, this is for you.


On a lighter note. was also looking for a specific book by Cecelia Ahern, an author familiar to me. it had been recommended on here, (or perhaps I should say they). Anyway, wasn't on the library shelves, but many other books by her were. I choose one of the slimmer books (easier to hold). "A Place Called Here" didn't realise till I got it home, that I had read it before. Nonthe less I read it again, and am pleased that I did. This time I found it far more serious and somber than before. Not really sure why. Couldn't remember all parts of the story, so it was still a voyage of discovery. I enjoyed it this time too. Just in a different way. Not as lighthearted as I remembered it being. Made me think a bit more this time. For anyone else wondering if they have read it "Here" is where a lot of "lots and missing" things go, including socks and people.

Thanks Mersey, I see it is £3.99 (I think) onAmazon for kindle but I may be like you and buy the book.

Yes Ann it's the new one ....I bought it in Asdà the other day...

Love Lucinda Riley not read this one, is it a new one? I am sure somebody did tell me there was a new one.

Anyway it sound intriguing so I will look out for it. And I often read actual books as well as the kindle, I do find with the kindle that it is difficult to back track to check something, much easier with a proper book. :-)

Hi there you lovely lot :-D :-D <3

Just catching up with the thread and the books being talked about.

I have not read the Handsmaid Tale but have watched the series....I have to say
although I was gripped and rather intrigued as to where the story was going . It
is not a book I would read. It has a very dark, and sinister feel to it,so much evil in it. Some of the
characters were so evil especially the Colnol and the story that surrounds him
and the new life he thrives for from others.....


I have started reading The Love Letter by Lucinda Riley..

After having read part of the authors notes about the writing of the book and it being to some extent a period piece. She writes if it were set into todays world the plotline would be totally implausible due to the advent of technology, especially in the terms of high tech gadget that can now be used especially in security...so it got me to thinking I would buy the actual book not on kindle and follow the story...I have to say there is nothing nicer than feeling an actual book in your hand......

1995, London.
When Sir James Harrison, one the greatest actors of his generation, passes away at the age of ninety-five he leaves behind not just a heartbroken family but also a secret so shocking, so devastating that it could rock the English establishment to its core . . .
Joanna Haslam is an ambitious young journalist, assigned to cover the legendary actor’s funeral. The great and the good of the celebrity world are there. But Joanna stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter James Harrison has left behind, the contents of which others have been desperate to conceal for over seventy years. As she peels back the veil of lies that has shrouded the secret, she realizes that there are other forces attempting to prevent her from discovering the truth. And they’ll stop at nothing to reach the letter before she does.


Happy Reading !! :-D <3 <3

While at the library I also looked for bboks by Jodi Taylor, and found instead _
"The Accident" by C.L. Taylor

A suspense, (and tense) mystry novel, set in the present day.


Sue Jackson has the perfest family but when her teenage daughter, Charlotte, deliberately steps in front ofa bus and ends or in a coma she has to face a very dark reality.

Retracing her daughter's steps she finds a horrifying entry in Charlotte's diary and is forced to delve into her daughter's private world.
In her hust to discover the truth, Sue begins to mistrust everyone close to her (and her daughter0 and is compelled to delve into the murky depths of her own past

Not quite my usual type of reading matter, but glad I read it.

Not good for radio, but would be edge of the seat drama, great as a film made for telly.

I think that I may have read "Handmaiden's Tale" when my son was A-Level age (he is now 44) and "doing it" at college. Will have to read it again if I can get it from the library.

have now got a few more books/authors to add to my (ever growing) list.

last time I went I was looking for a book by someone with the surname Ley (or Leys). Instead I found - "The Colour of milk" by Nell Leyshon.


As I was reading it I thought "this would make an excellent radio play" and later noticed that it had already been "heard on BBC Radio 4"

Has anyone else heard or read it?

It is set in (just) pre-Victorian times. And is all told in one voice that of Mary, a young girl from a poor farm who is sent by her father to care for the vicar's invalid wife, nearby.
To quote mary " ....in this year of 1831 i am reached the age of 15, i am not very tall and my hair is the colour of milk. my name is mary and i have learnt to spell it m.a.r.y. i want to tell you what it is that has happened but i must be ware not to rush at it like the heifers at the gate..." And so Mary's tale begins. She tells of her life on the farm, and then the different life working for the vicar and his wife.
A short book, way more interesting than I have made it sound. I felt so much involved with mary and her story.

Would love to hear the radio play and highly recommend the book. (Especially to anyone who had Ag. Labs or women in domestic service in their tree).

I had wondered about reading The Handmaiden’s Tale. I haven’t seen the TV series but I got put off a bit by some of the write-ups about it and thought it’s not for me. Now I have read Det’s review I might have a go at the book.

When I was in a folk museum recently I picked up a paperback for 50p from a bookstall they had. It was by Reginald Hill, the author of the Dalziel and Pascoe and the Joe Sixsmith books. It turned out to be half a dozen short stories and I really enjoyed them as they were a little bit different, although all with a crime and detection theme. One of them was a completely different take on one of Hill’s own books which worked best if you already knew the story.

I have also just read Close Call by Stella Rimington. This is one of her Liz Carlyle series and is involved with the international arms trade and preventing weapons getting to the wrong people. I like her books as I find them mostly believable. If you don’t know Stella Rimington, she worked her way through the secret service to eventually become Director General of MI5, so she does know what she is talking about, and is very good on how the different agencies work and interact.

she has not watched the TV series, her Dad said it was '18' and theya re parents who abide by the warnings.

It’s a good choice for that. Let’s hope she & her tutor aren’t influenced by the TV series.
Margaret Atwood’s preface & interviews are quite revealing. If I recall correctly, it was written/published in 1984.

The Handmaidens tale is on my Granddaughters reading list for A level English Literature.

The Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

I’d bought the download as I wondered what everyone was talking about. We haven’t watched either the previous nor current TV series.
A recent TV guide synopsis said something about Offred being shipped off to a Colony. That didn’t happen in the book.
Any intercourse describe in the book was consensual in so far as it was Offred’s duty to be a ‘vessel’ hoping to procreate a child for the Commander & his wife. There was no passion involved.

A series of environmental disasters had reduced the fertility rate. The feminist movement were protesting about female sexualisation. Various religious groups jumped on the bandwagon, fought a war with those of opposing views & implemented laws to ‘protect’ the females. They weren’t allowed to work, to read or to write & were heavily protected. All money they owned was transferred to their spouse or male guardian. Think strict Islamic purdah.

Young women or women of fertile age who had previously had a child, were given to the leaders wives as ‘handmaiden’ in the tradition of Abraham, his wife Rachel & her servant Leah.

If a child wasn’t sired by a ‘Commander’, the wife would quietly suggest to her handmaiden that she slept with a trusted male servant.

The book ends with Offred being spirited away into an underground railway, hopefully to freedom. There’s an epilogue set a number of years later at an academic conference. Interestingly none of the speakers have a Caucasian name. This probably relates back to the fall in birth rate effecting mainly the ‘white’ populated western countries.

I was a little hesitant starting the book, thinking it would be heavy going. It certainly not that.

....

On a (slightly) lighter note, Close to Home by Cara Hunter.

The last confirmed sighting of 8 year old Daisy was when she left school. Her parents don’t realise she’s missing until their BBQ family friendly party ends late at night.

The story, told through the eyes of the investigating police, casts suspicion first on one nuclear family member then another. Throw in a connection to the remnants of a local pedophile ring, and you’ve too many suspects to shake a stick at!
All have reasons to have been suspected of doing harm to Daisy.

Everyone has been damaged by a disjunctional family dynamics. The mother, if anything, is a narcissist.

There’s a fantastic ending - no one saw that coming!