France

I have a feeling that I'm about to give up on The Second Sleep. I normally love Robert Harris's writing (who else can make the election of a pope exciting?) but I'm 200 pages in and it still hasn't caught my interest. Anyone else read it and think it's worth keeping on with?

Fun is exactly the word to describe the Thursday Murder Club. Not deep or meaningful but thoroughly enjoyable. I do hope they don't turn it into a TV series, light hearted books seem to become leaden when translated to the screen.

I don't just start twitching if I don't have something to read at hand, I need to have a sufficiently large TBR pile just in case there's ever a shortage of books. Paper as well as on the ereader - the electricity might go off for several days and I wouldn't be able to charge the Kobo.

I suppose that means I took part too as i did exactly the same (thoroughly enjoyed it too).

Whaaaay! Price had dropped this morning, it's in my library!

Usually, but not always and they can take a bit of time to catch up. For instance Kindle had Ayesha at Last on special in December, the price dropped on Kobo yesterday! Kobo doesn't always list price matches in their special deals section so I put put anything I'm tracking in my wish list and monitor the price there.

Kindle UK has Where the Crawdads Sing for 99p today.

Of course, I'd always wanted a black cat too but we already had two and three seemed a bit of a crowd.

My daughter found him abandoned in the woods when he was about 7 weeks old. I thought we'd be able to find him a home as he's so beautiful and nicknamed him Kevin the Kitten, by the time we realised the French won't adopt black cats the name had stuck!

The Frey and McGray books look huge fun, added to my wish list. Sadly the first one is full price on Kobo even though they claim to match Kindle prices, I shall keep a beady watch.

I listened to her latest book about 10 days ago - an excellent listen, very well paced though to be honest the plot didn't hang together as well as her previous books. If you like Austrailian noir I'd recommend Chris Hammer, absolutely brilliant. Just finished his latest. Start with Scrublands, it's the beginning of a series.

If anyone has a Kobo there are two versions of Richard Osman's book listed - one under his full name at £9.99, the other one under Osman Osman for £3.80. Must be a mistake which they'll rectify soon.

Print/Kindle 1. Begin Again - Ursula Orange **** 2. A Single Thread - Tracy Chevalier ****1/2 3. The Left Handed Booksellers - Garth Nix**** 4. The Sixteen Trees of the Somme - Lars Mitterling ***** 5. All The Ever Afters - Danielle Teller DNF 6 The Last Painting of Sara de Voss -Dominic Smith **** 7. The Burning Jane Casey **** 8. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout ****1/2 9. Snow Song - Sally Gardner ***1/2 10. Trust -Chris Hammer ****1/2 11. On Chapel Sands - Laura Cummings ****1/2 12. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman ***** 13. The Second Sleep - Robert Harris 14. Closed for Winter - Jorn Lier Horst *** 15. Eve in Hollywood - Amor Towles ***** 16; Olive Again - Elizabeth Strout ***** 17. A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik****1/2 18. Ayesha Again - Uzma Jaluddin ****1/2 19. The Unfinished Clue - Georgette Heyer ***1/2 20. Tales from the Folly - Ben Aaronovitch **** 21. The Mystery of Henri Pick ** 22. The Religious Body - Catherine Aird *** 23. A Madness of Sunshone - Nalini Singh **1/2 24.Ink & Sigil - Kevin Hearne **** 25. The Strings of Murder - Oscar de Muriel **** 26. The Queen of Bloody Everything - Joanna Nadin ****1/2 27. The Grove of the Caesars - Lindsay Davis ****1/2 28. I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell ***** 29. Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith ***** 30. Three Women and a Boat - Anna Youngsen ***1/2 31. Pulpit Rock - Kate Rhodes **** 32. After the Fire - Jo Spain **** 33. Writers and Lovers - Lily King ****1/2 34. The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes ****1/2 35. Normal People - Sally Rooney ****1/2 36. The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective - Susanna Stapelton **** 37. The Lost Future of Pepperharrow - Natasha Pulley ***** 38. MI5 and Me - Charlotte Bingham ****1/2 39. The Most Fun We Ever Had - Claire Lombardo ***1/2 40. The Penguin Lessons - Tom Mitchell ****1/2 41. Fanny Burney: Her Life - Kate Chisholm **** 42. Spies and Stars - Charlotte Bingham *** 43. The Tropic of Serpents - Marie Brennan **** 44. Abide With Me - Elizabeth Strout ***** 45. The Whole Truth - Cara Hunter **** 46. Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley ****1/2 47 The Fire Court - Andrew Taylor **** 48. Euphoria - Lily King **** 49. A Country Road, A Tree - Jo Baker ****1/2 50. The Darkest Evening - Ann Cleeves ****1/2 51. She Lies in Wait - Gytha Lodge ** 52. The Killing Season - Mson Cross**** 53. The Midnight Queen - Sylvia Hunter ****1/2 54. The Fifth Season - N K Jemisin ***** 55. Close to Home - Cara Hunter ***** 56. Dog days - Ericka Waller ** 57. Bordeaux, Private Eye - Rorie Smith *** 58. The Miseducation of Evie Epworth ****1/2 59. The Great Alone - Kirsten Hannah *** (just) 60. The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley +++++ 61. The Summer Book - Tove Jansson not sure. 62. The Water Clock - Jim Kelly ++++1/2 63. Wild Strawberries - Angela Thirkell ++ Behind Closed Doors - B A Paris - abandoned 64. Confusion - Elizabeth Jane Howard ++++ 65. Casting Off - Elizabeth Jane Howard ++++ - both r/r for book club 66. The Widows of Malabar Hill - Sujata Massey ++++1/2 67. Beach Read - Emelie Henry ++ 68. V2 - Robert Harris ++++1/2 69. Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane ++++ 70. The Perfect Lie - Jo Spain +++++ 71. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N K Jemisin ++++1/2 72. The Bedlam Stacks - Natasha Pulley +++++ 73. Big Summer - Jennifer Weiner ++ 74. A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson +++++ 75. Lady of Devices - Shelly Adina +++1/2 76. Lady of Magic - Sylvia Hunter ++++ 77. One More Croissant for the Road - Felicity Cloake +++ 78. The Night Raven - Sarah Painter +++ 79. The Dictionary of Lost Word - Pip Williams ++++ 80. Mother May I? - Joshilyn Jackson +++++for first 5/6, ++ for last 1/6 81. The Reckoning - Jane casey ++++1/2 82. The Samaritan - Mason Cross ++++1/2 83. Missing Pieces - Tim Weaver ++ 84. Writing Jane Austen - Elizabeth Aston +++ 85. 1971, Never A Dull Moment - David Hepworth ++++1/2 86. Kindred - Octavia E Butler 87. The Third Girl - Jane Casey ++++ 88. Ghosting - Jennie Erdal ++++1/2 89 The Stranger You Know - Jane Casey ++++ 90. The Kill - Jane Casey ++++ 91. Manhattan Beach - Jennifer Egan +++1/2 92. The Art of Dying - Ambrose Parry +++1/2 94. Small Spaces - Katherine Arden ++++ 95. Anything is Possible - Elizabeth Strout +++++ 96. The Firebird - Susanna Kearsley +++1/2 97. No Way Out - Cara Hunteer ++++ 98. The Last Thing He Told Me - Laura Dave ++++1/2 99. Anxious People - Frederick Backman ++++1/2 100. Early Morning Riser - Katherine Heiny ++++ 101. The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym- Paula Byrne ++++1/2 102. Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo ++++1/2 103. Getting Rid of Bradley - Jennifer Crusie ++++ 104. Sorcery and Cecilia - Patricia Wrede & Caroline Steventon ++++1/2 105. A Master of Djinn - P Djeli Clark ++++ 106. Love After Love - Ingrid Persaud +++++ 107. Darkness Fall - Robert Bryndza ++++1/2 108. Devil's Table - Kate Rhodes ++++1/2 109. Property - Valerie Martin 110. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers +++1/2 111. The Girl in the Ice - Robert Bryndza +++ Audio books The Rules of Magic - Alice Hoffman **** The Survivors - Jane Harper ****1/2 The Accusers - Lindsay Davies **** The Postscript Murders - Elly Griffiths retruned See Delphi And Die - Lindsay Davies **** A Room with a View - E M Forster (read by Emilia Fox) La Belle Sauvage _ Phillip Pullman***** Deep Secret - Diana Wynne Jones ***** The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue - V Swarb - returned due to infuriating historical inacuracies which really started to grate. Brazil - Michael Palin ****1/2 The Night Circus - Erin Morganstern ***** Birds, Beasts and Relatives - Gerald Durrell **** The Huntress - Kate Quinn ***** narrator, ** story Miss benson's Beetle - Rachel Joyce ++++ Erebus - Michael Palin The Seventh Sinner - Elizabeth Peters ++++ Unholy Harmonies - Elizabeth Aston ++++ The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim +++++ Cranford - Mrs Gaskell +++++ Die for Love - Elizabeth Peters ++++ Children of Chance - Elizabeth Aston ++++ The World, The Flesh and the Bishop - Elizabeth Aston ++++ Volcanic Airs - " " Unaccustomed Spirits " " Elizabeth and her German Garden - Elizabeth Von Armim +++++ Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith +++++ Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman ++++1/2 The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman +++++ The Telephone Box on the Edge of the World ++++ Miss Mapp -E H Benson ++++1/2 Poseidon's Gold - Lindsay Davis ++++ 1/2 Her Husband's Secret - Liane Moriaty

I really enjoyed the first two (both reading and listening to them) but have got stuck on this one. I think it's partially because it's so long, too long, I think she's being rather self indulgent, and also because I know what happened to Cromwell and don't really want to have to live through it by reading it.

Hi Meg and Madeleine, I'm Viccie on BGO (can't remember why I've got two different names!)

I do look at Amazon reviews - I check the 1 star reviews first, no matter how any 5 stars there are. If they're full of 'damaged copy' or something fautous or unhelpful like 'worst book I ever read/boring etc' without saying why I ignore them. i do pay attention to the 'badly written/huge plot holes/goes to pieces near the end/ needs cutting by a third.' Then I look at the 3 star reviews as they're generally the most balanced since they won't be written by the wuthor's friends or those who have a bone to pick.

in no particular order: Kate Atkinson Anne Tyler Georgette Heyer Jasper fforde E H Benson Sharon Bolton Anne Bishop Jane Austen Jennifer Crusie Colm Toibin

I gave up on this book; I overlooked the often poor writing, the stereotyped charecters, incongrous modern attitudes and a rape scene that read if it came out of a 70's men's magazine and I tried really hard not to be a historical pedant. So I made myself ignore a gently bought up girl going around with no shoes and slopping around with her father's men but when it got to the hut in the woods that had a little library of books (OK only 3, but 3 more than the average aristocratic household would have had) I had to say 'Enough!' I love historical novels and there are many, many better ones out there.

I found this book so disturbing that I couldn't read another Margret Atwood for about eight years, it reminded me too much of things from my own childhood. I'm interested to read thaat it's semi auto-biographical and on reflection it doesn't surprise me.

I couldn't agree with you more, my daughters who also loved these books in the beginning have also given up on them. Others I've got very bored of are; Patricia Cornwall - I got really fed up of reading about autopsies Katie fforde - her first books were brilliant and then they got very samey with a tendancy to have heroines who were pathetic and let people walk over them. Fiona Walker - forgot to use the editing pen so her books got longer and longer. The Agatha Raisin series Minette Walters - don't know why, her books are birilliant but I have no desire to read them any longer.

I dislike this book intensely, the first and least important is that Jane Green doesn't write very well, the second is that as the mother of three daughters I find the message - that if you're overweight you won't get anywhere even if you're better than the blonde who has the desk next door to you or get the boy of your dreams, any boy in fact, and that being thin equals success and happiness - absolutely repellant. Let's not go into the fantasy that you can stuff your face with bacon butties then magically lose - what was it seven stone - in practically no time at all without loose skin hanging down to your knees etc etc.

Yup, I've read Clarissa - I agree it isn't a fast read, neither was Pamela, also by Richardson which is about a serving maid's determined resistance to her employer's attempts to seduce her. It was written as an encouragement to sevants to keep chaste which must mean that it was quite common for maids to be literate as Pamela isn't short, about 1000 pags as far as I can remember.

I used to adore Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series but never really got along with her other books. I read Twilight and wasn't impressed, neither were my daughters who usually lap things like that up. Not sure why but I don't think any of us were impressed by the charecterisation. A vampi-ish book I'd really reccomend is Sunshine by Robin McKinley, I think it's her first adult novel and I hope she writes lots more. It can be a bit wordy in places but is very well written so well worth the longer passages.

I never doubted the historical accuracy of the book, don't know why as I usually note everything that doesn't feel right. True, Darwin is portrayed in a very unflattering light but I accepted that as being Harry Thompson's opinion. Yes, I agree that the pace slows right down once the voyage of the Beagle is finished and I wonder if Harry Thompson didn't set out origninally to write a biography of Robert Ftzroy and was persuaded to turn it into a novel. It is slow in places and I got a bit fed up of some of the religeous discussions but it's still a fantastic book and one I remember very clearly even though I read it two years ago. I reccomend it highly too.

Thanks for that review Sue, I've been wondering about The Alchemist's Secret, will definitely get it now. I couldn't get on with Labyrinth either, it was so badly written that I got completely bogged down. And written by a woman who judges book prizes too.