Madeleine

I think Storm of Swords is the best book of the series, I couldn't put it down. I found Clash of Kings and Feast for Crows hard ro get into at first, but fine once they got going. Hope you enjoy them.

Enjoying it so far, easy to read.

One of my favourite books in the Poldark series - enjoy!

Touch me in the Morning - Diana Ross

The Sound of silence - Simon and Garfunkel

Golden Years - David Bowie

Holding back the Years - Simply Red

Bring on the Night - The Police

I remember the songs being pretty tedious. I do remember it was slow at the start, I don't think Frodo realises how serious his Quest is, and I wonder if Gandalf didn't want to alarm him too much - hobbits of course are lazy and like their home comforts, so Gandalf probably didn't want Frodo to back out if he knew what was ahead of him. I agree the Black Riders are very menacing, they scared me in the film, especially that early scene when the hobbits are hiding under a fallen tree, and one comes over and is sniffing for them! Even the horses are threatening.

A Cotswold Christmas Mystery by Rebecca Tope - I haven't read a book in this long-running series for a while, and things have moved on quite a bit for house-sitter Thea, who is now married to Drew Slocombe, a local undertaker who she presumably met through her 2nd job (her first is house-sitting) as an unofficial detective! No house-sitting in this book, instead Thea, Drew and his 2 children from his first marriage (he's a widower) are getting ready for Christmas and awaiting the arrival of Thea's daughter from her first marriage. Trouble breaks out when a local woman, who is a friend of Thea's, goes missing, and when the body of the local landlord, on whose land the woman and her family were tenants, is found dead in very suspicious circumstances, things don't look too good for Thea's friend. So Thea and her stepdaughter, 10 year old Stephanie, decide to try to find out what is going on. Not surprisingly this ruffles a few feathers, not least from the dead man's wife and her daughters from her first marriage. It's an easy enough read, but I didn't find the way it was told primarily through the eyes of a child very convincing, this child was more like 10 years old going on about 50! Other things didn't make sense either, mainly that surely if the dead man had been electrocuted, wouldn't there have been marks on his body? So a comfort read for Christmas, but nothing particularly special. 6/10 The Dead of winter by Nicola Upson - this is the 9th book in the Josephine Tey detective series, I've read the first one but not the others, however this works perfectly well as a stand alone novel. it's set at Christmas 1938, war clouds are already looming but it's business as usual for Hilaria St Aubyn, the chatelaine of St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, who organises a charity Christmas house party to raise money for child refugees from mainland Europe. One of the invitees is none other than Marlene Dietrich, and others include Josephine Tey and her partner Marta, and her friend, Det inspector Archie Penrose. One murder occurs before the guests have even arrived, we know who the culprit is, but another brutal murder takes place on Christmas Day, and the horror struck guests and villagers, cut off by a blizzard, have to somehow keep safe whilst Penrose carries out what investigations he can. This was a short, enjoyable read, well-written with believable characters, although the denoument felt a little rushed. 7.5/10

Sorry Raven, I'm not taking part in this group read, though I will follow the posts and might make an occasional comment. Enjoy!

I think Dark Matter is slightly better, as there is more of a sense of isolation as the story goes on. Can't say any more of course without spoilers, but it does get seriously creepy!

I think I read that it was originally intended to be one book, but the publisher made him split it into smaller parts! The editions I've got actually show each book as being in 2 parts, so it's actually a six parter, rather than a trilogy.

Yes I agree, sounds like you might need to train yourself to read for longer periods, but as the others have said don't rush it, maybe set a short period of time to read, and then perhaps, as Anna says, try to build up to longer periods? Best thing is not to force yourself if you don't feel like reading, don't put too much pressure on yourself, as it is something you will hopefully enjoy. Good luck!

They're both gorgeous. Dash also looks like she's made out of velvet!

I don't mind the dated thing too much, it's inevitable given that some of them were written 70 or 80 years ago. Most of the others I've read have been enjoyable.

No you should be able to get it from a bookshop, or online.

My dad used to leave his jeans on the bed, and our beagle would go and shove her nose in the pockets, pull out banknotes and chew them up! She also loved to chew up glasses (the ones you wear, not drink out of), so don't leave anything lying around, hairbrushes, pens, the list is endless! Dash is gorgeous too!

Had another DNF, so have now started A Cotswold Christmas Mystery - the title says it all really, by Rebecca Tope, cosy crime in a Cotswold village.

Murder after Christmas by Rupert Latimer - this is the British Library Crime Classics offer for Christmas 2021, but sadly I gave up on it just over halfway through, yes another DNF. I did try, especially as the author died tragically young, but found it pretty much unreadable. I did hope that perhaps once Great Uncle Willie got murdered it would pick up, but sadly the police were just as annoying and two dimensional as the old man's family and their friends and relatives who all showed up over Christmas. Normally the Christmas books are enjoyable, if inevitably somewhat dated, but this was terrible. Sorry! 2/10

I think it's probably more superstition than actual magic in Hardy's books, as they looked to nature a lot more, and didn't understand, or have an explanation for, a lot of things we have today, such as weather phenomena etc.

Happy New year everyone!

Yes she looks like she's made of velvet doesn't she!

She is gorgeous, and already getting comfy! We had a beagle when I was a child and there aren't many places you can keep them out of! Have fun with her, she's adorable.

Dreaming of Christmas by T A Williams - Journalist Zoe Lumsley is devastated when her live in boyfriend, Grant, announces just before Christmas that he's been seeing another woman, and is moving out - that day. Fast forward one year later and Zoe is invited to a Christmas reunion of her university housemates, at an exclusive hotel in Austria, which is owned by one of those housemates, a computer nerd (her term for him) called Billy, who has made a fortune in tech and who is paying for their stay over Christmas. Zoe accepts the invitation with misgivings, as one of those housemates is Grant - they met at uni and were a couple until he dumped her. And at first it seems her worries have good reason, as Grant seems to be trying to worm his way back into her affection during their holiday. But there are other people around, and some of the other friends have issues of their own, and all of them seem to come to Zoe at some point, for her advice. But what should she do about her own dilemma? This was a nice read, with lovely snowy scenery, a lively black labrador and several romantic entanglements, but no surprises and I guessed how it was going to turn out. A nice gentle read for Christmas. 7/10