chesilbeach

Just seen the news that Iain Banks has died today. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22835047

I don't think it matters that you only read 30 or so pages at a time, but you say you read that "before having to stop" - why do you think you have to stop? Are your eyes tired, or you yourself are tired? Or is it because you feel that you can't take in any more of that story? Is it just this one book, or do you find the same with any book? Have you thought about trying something else, perhaps a biography or a non-fiction book to read alongside the fiction, so that after 30 pages of your fiction book, you could switch to something else? Don't worry, if you enjoy reading, it really doesn't matter how much you read!

I do skim read the end of a book sometimes - usually happens if I'm not enjoying a book group choice and I want to know what happens so that I can discuss it at our meeting.

That's great news, Devi! Let's hope it sticks around for you

Maybe if people wanted to, they could use the read-a-thon weekend to read that months reading circle book. As it's the first weekend in the month, it might work well, and people could both read and discuss the book at the same time? I think I might keep The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry to read during the next read-a-thon. Or, if some people do fancy reading the same book but not the reading circle choice, they could make suggestions of what books they have to read and see if anyone wanted to join them? That way, there's no pressure for those who want the freedom to read their own books, but for others who do want to read the same could have an informal agreement to pick a book between them.

I hope you like The Lollipop Shoes, Diane - I've got the next book Peaches for Monsieur le Curé on my TBR list, which I'm looking forward to. Thanks to the lovely Janet, a copy of Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper arrived in the post, and I've also downloaded Where Have All The Boys Gone? by Jenny Colgan as it was in the monthly bargain list of Kindle books for £2.99 or less.

It sounds like you've made the right decision, Michelle. Unless you're working in the industry as an editor or a journalist reviewing books, or perhaps studying literature, reading is meant to be a hobby and there's nothing worse than feeling pressurised to do something that you used to enjoy, forcing it to become a chore. You never know, in a year of so, you might miss it and want to go back to reviewing more, but it sounds like, for now, this is right for you. Happy reading!

Fantastic review, Kay, I agree with everything you've said. I read this a long time ago now (probably over 20 years), but I still remember it very well. I think I may re-read it at some point. I did spot a copy in a bookshop this week where they had all Orwell's books in the Fiction section!

A not too bad 6/10 for me this week - surprising considering I got all of the first four questions wrong - I thought I might be onto my first ever 0/10! http://blog.waterstones.com/2013/06/waterstones-week-in-books-quiz-7th-june-2013/

It is showing on one of the channels over here (Alibi which is a channel dedicated to crime). I'm not a huge fan of crime television, so I haven't actively been seeking it out yet, although I did catch about two minutes of one of the programmes the other day, and what I saw looked quite good. Having said that, I'd like to read the books first, as I don't want to spoil any of the stories before I start watching them, but everything is on endless repeat nowadays, so I'm sure I'll be able to catch them after I've read the books! Definitely! How could I not? They've been excellent, even though I'm not sure how he's going to continue after the end of book three, but I will be coming back to read more. I'll write a proper review this weekend, and don't want to put any spoilers, but you and I both know why I was crying, and I was just dumbstruck at that particular action by that character. Heartbreaking.

I finished the third Phryne Fisher book last night, and another cracker it was too, although perhaps a bit society-lite, so hoping when I get book four, there is a bit more of the social scene in it. Although I came out of Waterstone's empty handed yesterday, I did see a couple more of Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple books, so am going to do a bit of wishlist updating today, especially as I've just had a look on fantasticfiction.co.uk and realised that she has over 20 books in the series already! I love a good series.

Hi Verna! Welcome to BCF

I hope you enjoy the Phryne Fisher book, Sue. As the series goes on, there's a nice set of characters who crop up in each story, as well as the new characters for each of her various investigations. I like them a lot, and they do make good holiday type reads for me. I've only read on Alan Massie books, it was one of his Roman books - Augustus I think, but it was over 20 years ago now, and all I can remember is that I had to read it with the dictionary by my side to look up some of the words I didn't know! In my bookish activity today, I've finished The Third Day, The Frost by John Marsden (with a few tears escaping my eyes while I was sat in Starbucks at lunchtime reading it ) and I'm not halfway through the third Phryne Fisher book, Murder on the Ballarat Train. I did visit a Waterstone's too, but came out empty handed.

No, it was only when I got home and read the full details on the back page I realised he was Finnish. I quite like reading the odd translated book though, so I'm looking forward to it. I've bought a couple more books today, one is a beautiful nature book called Sea and Shore Cornwall: Common and Curious Findings by Lisa Woollett, and the other is High Tide by Hugh Hastings.

Black coffee

Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman to star in BBC Two adaptation of bestselling novel The Thirteenth Tale

I hope you both had fun and interesting discussions at your book clubs last night. I've started The Third Day, The Frost by John Marsden, which is the third book in the Tomorrow series. I remember Kylie saying that this was originally planned as a trilogy, and she was interested to hear my thoughts on the conclusion, so I'm looking forward to finding out what happens!

Hello Joey! What sort of books do you like to read?

I read Penelope by M. C. Beaton this morning for a nice easy summers day book, and I had a browse round a bookshop and came out with The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna.

I've just finished Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood - the second in the Phryne Fisher series. I think I actually enjoyed this one more than the first!

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch Synopsis: (from amazon.co.uk) I was my dad's vinyl-wallah: I changed his records while he lounged around drinking tea, and that's how I know my Argo from my Tempo. And it's why, when Dr Walid called me to the morgue to listen to a corpse, I recognised the tune it was playing. Something violently supernatural had happened to the victim, strong enough to leave its imprint like a wax cylinder recording. Cyrus Wilkinson, part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, had apparently dropped dead of a heart attack just after finishing a gig in a Soho jazz club. He wasn't the first. No one was going to let me exhume corpses to see if they were playing my tune, so it was back to old-fashioned legwork, starting in Soho, the heart of the scene. I didn't trust the lovely Simone, Cyrus' ex-lover, professional jazz kitten and as inviting as a Rubens' portrait, but I needed her help: there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off that special gift that separates the great musician from someone who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they leave behind is sickness, failure and broken lives. And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant - my father - who managed to destroy his own career, twice. That's the thing about policing: most of the time you;re doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice. And maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge. Review: Jazz and fantasy set in London - what more could you want?! The second book in the PC Peter Grant series, this instalment picks up almost straight after the end of the first story. I like how Lesley is kept in the story whilst not being able to be a fully active part, and as a jazz fan myself, I was delighted that Peter's jazz musician father could be brought into the story, and the jazz circuit was so integral to the plot. The two crimes that Peter is investigating were very unusual and clever as in the first book, and the humour made sure that I could cope with the gruesomeness of some of the descriptions at times. Nice to see more of the history of magic being brought through too, and I can see the magical world is being gradually revealed with each book. I did struggle with some of the graphic descriptions, as I'm not a fan of violent or true crime novels at all, but I think the fact that it is still fantastical is keeping me going, along side the fact that it's very well written, with great characters and that all important sense of humour. Definitely carrying on with the series.

Here's my review of the first book in the series: Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates by Kerry Greenwood (also published under the names Cocaine Blues and Death by Misadventure) Synopsis: (from amazon.co.uk) Bored socialite Phryne Fisher leaves the tedium of the London season for adventure in Australia! Tea-dances in West End hotels, weekends in the country with guns and dogs... Phryne Fisher - she of the grey-green eyes and diamante garters - is rapidly tiring of the boredom of chit-chatting with retired colonels and foxtrotting with weak-chinned wonders. Instead, Phryne decides it might be amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective - on the other side of the world! As soon as she books into the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, drug smuggling rings and corrupt cops... not to mention erotic encounters with beautiful Russian ballet star Sasha de Lisse; England's green and pleasant land just can't compete with these new, exotic pleasures! Review: I've often said I'm not a fan of the crime genre, but when I find quirky detectives like Miss Phryne Fisher, in period settings like 1920s Melbourne, and an intriguing plot, I'm hooked! I loved the setting - I'm a fan of everything Australian, and would love to go back and visit again, so to travel to that country along with Phryne was a delight. The descriptions of the fashion, food and drink, the commentary on the society, and the elements of social history are all seamlessly wrapped up in the decadent world that Phryne inhabits. She's clearly intelligent, but with a wilful streak that sees her follow her own path and find her own amusement to avoid the boredom of wealth with no purpose in life, she takes to investigations like a duck to water. Fantastic page-turning story, I absolutely loved it! I already have the next two downloaded from when they were on offer a few weeks back, and I can see myself reading the whole series eventually, and it looks like it's already up to book 19, so that should keep me going for a while.

Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates by Kerry Greenwood Synopsis: (from amazon.co.uk) Bored socialite Phryne Fisher leaves the tedium of the London season for adventure in Australia! Tea-dances in West End hotels, weekends in the country with guns and dogs... Phryne Fisher - she of the grey-green eyes and diamante garters - is rapidly tiring of the boredom of chit-chatting with retired colonels and foxtrotting with weak-chinned wonders. Instead, Phryne decides it might be amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective - on the other side of the world! As soon as she books into the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, drug smuggling rings and corrupt cops... not to mention erotic encounters with beautiful Russian ballet star Sasha de Lisse; England's green and pleasant land just can't compete with these new, exotic pleasures! Review: I've often said I'm not a fan of the crime genre, but when I find quirky detectives like Miss Phryne Fisher, in period settings like 1920s Melbourne, and an intriguing plot, I'm hooked! I loved the setting - I'm a fan of everything Australian, and would love to go back and visit again, so to travel to that country along with Phryne was a delight. The descriptions of the fashion, food and drink, the commentary on the society, and the elements of social history are all seamlessly wrapped up in the decadent world that Phryne inhabits. She's clearly intelligent, but with a wilful streak that sees her follow her own path and find her own amusement to avoid the boredom of wealth with no purpose in life, she takes to investigations like a duck to water. Fantastic page-turning story, I absolutely loved it! I already have the next two downloaded from when they were on offer a few weeks back, and I can see myself reading the whole series eventually, and it looks like it's already up to book 19, so that should keep me going for a while.

Skios by Michael Frayn Synopsis: (from amazon.co.uk) On the sunlit Greek island of Skios, the Fred Toppler Foundation's annual lecture is to be given by Dr Norman Wilfred, the world-famous authority on the scientific organisation of science. He turns out to be surprisingly young and charming -- not at all the intimidating figure they had been expecting. The Foundation's guests are soon eating out of his hand. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the attractive and efficient organiser. Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki's old school-friend Georgie waits for the notorious chancer she has rashly agreed to go on holiday with, and who has only too characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped in the villa with her, by an unfortunate chain of misadventure, is a balding old gent called Dr Norman Wilfred, who has lost his whereabouts, his luggage, his temper and increasingly all normal sense of reality -- everything he possesses apart from the flyblown text of a well-travelled lecture on the scientific organisation of science... Review: If this book was a play, it would be one of those very British farces that used to be the backbone of touring summer productions about 30 years ago (perhaps it still is? I don't get out to the theatre much nowadays), but just brought into the modern age. It wasn't bad, but it also didn't seem anything particularly special to me, and I wonder why it was long listed for the Man Booker? It did seem a bit slight and shallow for that usually very earnest of book prizes. I thought it was mildly amusing, and I did want to find out how it would end, but I wouldn't say it was particularly memorable, and based on this alone, it wouldn't encourage me to read more by this author. I have read another of his books previously which did make me want to read more, so I think I'll be browsing the rest of his work to see what to try next.

Thanks, Janet - sorry for the delay, but I read this on my phone initially, and promptly forgot to respond when I got back to my computer!