France

I agree, this was compulsive reading. It's one I would be happy to reread if it came up for a book group choice.

Knitting is also a terrific way to help with anxiety. It also help with blood pressure.

.I had a quick look at the link, it seems the books have been selected as much for how well they sold as any merit.

I adore Pride and Prejudice, both as a book on on audio, I love listening to books I've already read and enjoyed. I used to be a firm paper book lover and just used my Kobo for travelling and in the gaps at work (I'm a tour guide and for some reason it's not seen as slacking between shifts to be immersed in an electronic device, having a real book in your hands is!). However I upgraded to a larger screen Kobo and it's so much more enjoyable.

A lot shorter than The Three Musketeers! I agree, packed with swash and buckle, huge fun!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas though I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, I've always liked time travel stories even when i really don't understand the science involved. Likewise I know a lot of people didn't like Still Life by Sarah Winman finding it altogether too whimsical, but I loved it. It is very whimsical in places but those are counterbalanced by more serious parts and her writing is wonderful. Ulysses Temper, a young soldier, meets an elderly art historian in 1944 as the Allies are taking back Italy and they form an instant rapport. The story takes us to 50's London then back to Florence through to the 70's. It's about family, friendship, making a community and appreciating the beauty in life. A terrific read. The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams was readable, sickly sweet and utterly unmemorable. Two weeks later I don't even know what the characters were called. Odd Boy Out by Gyles Brandreth was a Kobo special and had terrific reviews, it's just like Brandreth himself, fun for a while then all gets a bit too much. Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo, no, this doesn't match up to Girl Woman Other but all the same this story of the septuagenarian Barry from Antigua who is finally deciding whether he is going to come out after 50 years of marriage and 2 daughters has got to be one of the best books I've read this year.

Wow! That is some week! How did the car come to crash into the house?

I'm reading Lost Dog by Kate Spicer for the book club and longing to get on to one of the new arrivals (I succumbed to temptation...), Mr Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo, The Murder of My Aunt - Richard Hall, Astonish Me - Maggie Shipstead, Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi, The City of Brass - SA Chakraborty

Me too!

I'm in two minds about Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. I read it at the request of a friend who wanted to know what I thought about it otherwise I'd never have gone near it, books about mental illness really are not my thing. It is fantastically well written and deserves all the praise that's been heaped on it but I couldn't warm to Martha the narrator at all, even though I could understand it was her problems that made her behave as she did she was still profoundly irritating. The real trouble is that the author obviously doesn't know what the matter with Martha was and as a result the ending felt like a huge cop out. I used to love Peter Lovesey's Diamond detective books, sadly the 20th Diamond and the Eye shows the series has run its course; Managed to finish it, but only just. Saving Time by Jody Taylor, the third in her Time Police series was a hoot, a real lift to the spirits.

I had much the same reaction to Virginia Woolf in Manhattan. I read it some time ago so can't remember the exact details but I know I was disappointed, the reviews had been uniformly glowing though the reality didn't match up.

Strange, I've just tried it and it works for me.

A French Bulldog is fine, my husband's great nephew is called Wilbur. (And his first cousin is called Wilfred, so my sister in laws grandsons are Wilb and Wilf.)

If you haven't found it yet, this is the link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=391zUFeVLqg

If you love dolls houses there's a new competition on English TV called The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge which is designing room sets for dolls houses! The first episode, which is up on YouTube, was for a Regency dining room. It's worth watching just to see the ham one of the contestants made! Sunday's episode will be creating an Art Nouveau bathroom.

The Tale of Two Bad Mice. I loved that one too.

Just finished Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, now relaxing with A necessary Evil by Abir Mukharjee.

Anything with ponies in it, Silver Snaffles by Primrose Cummings was a particular favourite, I kept my copy and all 3 daughters adored it too. I also repeatedly read A Tale of Two Horses by Tschieffley who rode the wole length of South America from south to north in 1925. He wrote one book for adults, this one told from the point of view of the two ponies he used was for children. My 33 year old read it recently and loved it.

Me too, which is why I'm not very good at writing reviews (either putting the words together or getting around to getting the words on paper). I'm happy to talk about book until the cows come home though.

Outbound Tain by Renée Winchester is a book I'd never have come across, let alone read, if it wasn't for a French member of one of my book groups. Well, thank you Danielle. I gather from her bio that Renée Winchester normally writes feel good-stories about little towns, in particular her home town of Bryson City in the Appalachians which has become a major tourist hub. For this book, as she says in the intro, she went back 50 years or so when parts of Bryson City were deperately poor and employment prospects for most people were limited to one clothing factory. If you were just poor you could rent a house off the factory, if you were really poor and couldn't even afford the rent you lived in a trailor park. Barbara's main ambition was to leave town but she became pregnant and how works her butt off trying to support her mother who has early dementia and her 17 year old daughter Carole Anne. Carole Anne wants to leave too but has already been classed as a "reject" by the teachers at school though she's really bright, there's no money for college and the underclass from Bryson City doesn't seem to manage away from the city, they always come back. The story is interesting, the charecters are not overdrawn, there is a feel-good ending but it's not sickly sweet and overall it's a very good picture of just how hard life was then. I enjoyed it though I don't think I'll be in a hurry to read another of her books. I ended up reading two fictionalised biographies at the same time, I started one, lost it, started another, found the first so kept one to read upstairs, the other downstairs. As you do. Course of Honour by Lindsay Davies is the story of Caenis, a freedwoman and secretary to Mark Antony's daughter and Vespasian, the minor aristocrat who rose to become Emperor. It's one of Davies' first books and is rather more serious in tone than the Falco stories she became so well known for, though she still writes with considerable lightness of touch. Though it is based on real events, Caenis was Vespasian's lover and much respected by his eldest son, because there aren't many details about her Lindsay Davies had a pretty free hand to weave her story. Who knows if it hadn't been ilegal for a senator to marry a freedwoman if Vespasian would have married her? If Caenis was as deliciously waspish as Davies makes her out to be? It was a thoroughly enjoyable book, as always Davies is brilliant in making you feel as if you're in Rome, tasting the food (some of it sounds horrible), warily making sure you don't annoy the Emperor (Nero for much of the story) and being immersed in a different time. The Magician by Colm Toibin, about Thomas Mann's life is an entirely differnt matter. Apparently Colm Toibin has been researching and writing this book for 15 years and it seems as if he was never quite sure whether he was writing a biography or a novel. The narrative seems to sink at times under the weight of everything Toibin knows as if he's not able to let his imagination have free rein, Mann's actions are descried, his emotions often aren't. The one element that is fictionalised is Mann's homoerotic feelings towards boys, and they become rather intrusive as his reaction to a tragedy is wirtten off in a few sentences whereas seeing a young man at the swimming pool merits a page or two. How strong his feelings about young men were is unknown, though Death in Venice would imply he took a keen interest in looking to say the very least. In fact he had a long lasting marriage and six children, Katia, his strong willed wife is one of the few charecters who really comes alive. There are parts of this book that are wonderful, and it definitely improves in the second half but compared to Brooklyn or The Blackwater Lighthouse this is a sad disappointment. I know an awful lot more about Thomas Mann now, was I made to care about him? The answer is no.

i have a first edition of The Silmarillion, bought on the day it came out. It's not worth anything because of the huge initial print run. It's in brilliant condition because (whisper) it's so boring I never got far into it.

I thoroughly enjoyed that one too. Funnily enough I don't like the St Mary's books much, they are just too ridiculous, but the Time Police ones are huge fun. Brilliant on audio too.

It's been just gorgeous, sunny and breezy. I was planning a long walk with the dogs, only Sybil (-the cat) decided to come too. Since she won't walk to heel or on a lead we weren't able to cross the road to get to where we usually go so walking was restricted to a cat-safe circuit in the vines near the house.

Definitely not chick lit! I read this many years ago so can't remember it well but do recall it's neither fluffy or feel good which are present in nearly all chick lit. It's middlebrow fiction imo and the sort of book that would have been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction if that had existed when it came out.

I've just bought The Magician by Colm Toibin (I looked up how to pronounce his name so won't embarrass myself now) to start after I've finished The Course of Honour by Lindsay Davies which is the story of the Emperor Vaspasian and his freedwoman lover.