~Andrea~

I finished King Solomon's Carpet at last. Not sure why it took me so long to read, probably because I haven't been very disciplined about going to bed on time lately and I do most of my reading in bed. from Amazon: Jarvis Stringer lives in a crumbling schoolhouse overlooking a tube line, compiling his obsessive, secret history of London's Underground. His presence and his strange house draw a band of misfits into his orbit: young Alice, who has run away from her husband and baby; Tom, the busker who rescues her; truant Jasper who gets his kicks on the tube; and mysterious Axel, whose dark secret later casts a shadow over all of their lives. Dispossessed and outcast, those who come to inhabit Jarvis's schoolhouse are gradually brought closer together in violent and unforeseen ways by London's forbidding and dangerous Undergound . . My thoughts: This was an enjoyable read, a dark and thoughtful character based story. The pace was steady rather than fast but the characters engaging. In some ways I found it a somewhat disjointed read, not in a bad way, but there are quite a lot of characters and the links between them are fairly loose, so the story is a bit of a patchwork of different lives running alongside each other. But the things that happen in those lives were sometimes shocking and I was always interested in what was happening to these people. It was very well written, almost literary for a crime novel or psychological thriller. I also enjoyed the little asides about the history of the Underground which added to the atmosphere of the book and helped to paint the scene. Next: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Oh so sad RIP

I loved Tess too Janet. I would NOT recommend The Mill on the Floss. To anyone. Ever.

Almost. The wine and cheese went great together, the wine and sweets not so much.

I think anything would be an improvement on my last audio book - The Trial by Kafka! That was HARD going!

Thank you. I will give that a go

A glass of wine some cheese, and a bag of sweets

Did you listen to an audio version of The Mangle Street Murders Kay? If so who read it?

Do you have to boil them whole?

Thanks. I have actually become quite hooked since getting stuck in again so I'm looking forward to completing this one. Thanks

Finished The Golden Fool last night. Another great Farseer read. As ever I want to pick up the next one straight away, but I won't. I have two unfinished books to crack on with, so I'll get cracking with King Solomon's carpet next I think.

It's only 74p on Kobo so I might give it a go too!

So glad you enjoyed Animal Farm. It's not a particularly cheery book but you're right - it does pack a punch!

The Ice Twins sounds great! Might have to check that one out. And congratulations on the nominations! How brilliant! Ditto.

The city2surf thing sounds really good. It's great to have something to focus on and aim for I think. And good luck with raising lots of dosh!

Do it Alexi! It's great

You've got some great books there. I loved Gone Girl and Jane Eyre is great too. Happy reading!

Interesting review. I know what you mean about the lack of character development. It really is just a collection of short stories, and more about the ideas than the characters or even plot (if I remember correctly). I found it a strange quirky little read.

To Kill a Mockingbird is such a great book. So glad you read and enjoyed it

I too stopped rating books a few years ago and it's very liberating. And often I don't even write a review Have a great reading year Anna. There's lots of books on your TBR that I don't know, but one I do is The Martian- Andy Weir. I listened to it last year and really enjoyed it. I think quite a few people here have read and liked it too.

Brilliant review of Les Mis. I agree it's a fantastic book but I did have to skim read some of it - the battle of waterloo certainly. But other than its occasional slowness its such a treat! Glad you enjoyed it. Interesting about the Robin Hobb books. I guess they are her early work. I think I will give them a miss. I hope you enjoy the Farseer trilogy. I loved it

That was actually intended for Nollaig - sorry could have made that clearer

I'm going to throw a spanner in and disagree slightly here. I really enjoyed The Liveship Traders trilogy and I would go with that next (or at least try it). The Tawny Man trilogy contains spoilers for The Liveship books so while you don't need to read Liveship to enjoy Tawny Man, Tawny Man might spoil the Liveship trilogy should you ever want to read it. I don't think the spoilers (so far - I'm only on the second Tawny Man book) are devastating and you might get away with reading Tawny Man and then leaving a big gap before Liveship, but personally I hate spoilers and could never take a risk like that myself EDIT: having got further in book 2 of Tawny I have to say - it contains big spoilers for the Liveship books

It's also a very short quick read. You could do it in a day.

Oh I love Animal Farm. One of the first books that made me realize books could be truly awesome! I hope you like it.