Madeleine

I enjoyed Thin Air, I've never been able to look at a rucksack without thinking about that one since I read it! Very creepy and atmospheric as you say. Have you read Dark Matter? That's even better.

I'm putting aside the Barbara Erskine for a while, to be honest it's dragging a bit and the "heroine" is getting on my nerves! Starting Christmas reads now, "A Noel Killing" by M L Longworth, cosy crime set in lovely Aix-en-Provence.

Boys of Summer - Don Henley

The Cook of the Halcyon - Andrea Camilleri this is the penultimate book in the long running series about Inspector Montalbano, set in Sicily. As usual a series of relatively minor crimes which seem to be unconnected, and the suicide of a boatyard worker, all reveal a bigger picture, when Montalbano finds himself investigating the brief appearance of a beautiful sailing ship, The Halcyon, which docks briefly, takes on a large amount of suppliers, and then sails off again, with no passengers, except occasionally a couple of beautiful young women..... Salvo's curiosity gets the better of him and soon he finds himself on the edge of something much bigger than he realised, plus it seems that his days may be numbered in the police force. this looks like it could be his last stand, as he puts himself in real danger to solve the mystery of the Halcyon. This was another entertaining read, although it does meander at first once the plot gets going it tightens it's grip, and in amongst the humour (there are some very funny scenes which I can't mention as it'd be a huge spoiler) there is real tension too. 8/10

I preferred Bone China to Shape of Darkness, now the ending of that one really is a mess.

wow, congratulations!

Trouble is, they always seem to show Nightmare.... quite late at night, which is annoying, as I forget to record it.

The house down the road has a whole display on top of the covered porch, went up last week. I guess more will start creeping in soon. I plan to put my own tree up this weekend.

The Nightmare before Christmas -perfect antidote to all the schmaltz!

Yes it's like being surrounded by friends. Not sure how many I have, Library Thing says 2,065 but I haven't entered all my books, however some that are on LT have gone to a charity shop, but 2,000 is probably about right!

I think it's always been the case, that males don't read as much as females. And one friend (bless!) who loves nothing more than films, claims he would never read fiction because 'it's all made up'. Like films, aren't, of course? - not much you can say to that is there!

I remember thinking it was a bit sluggish at the start. I guess Frodo was very young and was a naive young hobbit back then, hence his not realising the urgency of his task. He does of course, grow throughout the books. the Black Riders scared me silly in the film, especially that first one who sniffs them as they're hiding in those tree roots! And yes the scene at the Ferry was scary too.

It's a while since I've read them, but would be happy to see what everyone says and hopefully join in!

Which I think is the point that Pullman was trying to make (referring to Raven's spoiler).

I've read interviews with Pullman where' he's said he's actually attacking the hypocrisy of some people who use religious ideology to commit crimes (if you read a bit further than the first book you would come to this), rather than religion itself. I did enjoy the first 2 books but found them very derivative - after all raising an army of the dead had been done years ago in Lord of the Rings. And when I first read Northern Lights (it's original title) i thought that the experiments on the children were more reminiscent of experiments carried out by the Nazis. These books are certainly divisive!