France

I read both, I like the feel of real books and think I concentrate on them better than an ebook but I love the convenience of an ebook.

Depends. I live in France so new paper books in English are very expensive and there isn't much choice in the libraries either so I stock up whenever I can at secondhand book sales, on my rare visits back to the UK or Kobo/Kindle deals. For instance I've bought five titles for my Kobo since Christmas as there have been a lot of good deals.

Your favourite book cover of 2024. I read a lot on my Kobo through necessity so don't get to see many covers in colour. This cover drew me in instantly when I was scouring Amazon for books to fill a gft certificate. Your favourite book shop/retailer of 2024. Has to be Rakutan for books for my Kobo though in real life Gagliani in Paris. Your audiobook recommendation of 2024. Still Life by Sarah Winman, wonderful story and beautifully read by the author (who is an actress) Your most read author of 2024. Mick Herron - all 8 of his Slough House series plus a couple of stand-alones. Your book that wasn't worth bothering with in 2024 (my 'Duffer of the Year'). One Day by Abigail Dean Your biggest literary let-down of 2024 (my 'Biggest Disappointment of the Year). The Mars House by Natasha Pulley - I was so looking forward to this and goodness it's dreadful Your discovery of the year (book, author, genre, publisher etc) Mick Herron Your children's book recommendation of 2024. My 2 year old grandson adores this. Your fiction book of the year 2024. Impossible to say! In no particular order some of the books I most enjyed were: Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros The Bookselller of Inverness - S J Maclean Tom Lake - Ann Patchett The Offing - Benjamin Myers

I'd love to have read Jane Austen for A level! We read no Victorian or modern novels at all, just 18th century authors because our English teacher said we'd never read them otherwise (with reason). Joseph Andrews by Fielding, I don't know anyone who likes that one, three Gothic novels, Vathek and I can't remember the other two, all pretty tedious, The Beggars Opera... Alexander Pope's poetry was good fun though.

Time to revive this! The Guardian published its list of books to look out for in 2025 and the standout for me was Onyx Dream by Rebecca Yarros, number 3 in the Fourth Wing series. Out in January! I'm also looking forward to new books by Anne Tyler and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The Offing by Benjamin Myers Tom Lake by Ann Patchett Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

I'm currently on 86, not counting all the audio books I listen to while cooking or doing knitting that involves looking at the stitches all the time.

I loathed Alice in Wonderland which I read when I was 8.

I went to Pompeii last moth so started reading Pompeii by Robert Harris. What a masterclass in making a fascinating background deadly dull Cardboard characters with each chapter headed by a little passage from a modern book on vulcanology outlining the development of the eruption, which even though the reader knows what happened took away the tension. That was followed by another book about Pompeii recommended by a friend, A Day of Fire, a series of interlinked short stories by six authors, which hit the mark as an immersion of how strange and then terrifying it was.

I use Thunderbird and have never had any problems before but yes, I tried C Cleaner browser and it worked perfectly. So thanks!

And three very different good ones. Killing Time by Jodie Taylor is the fifth in her Time Police series and just as good as the previous ones. Great fun and very funny. . All The Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker is unusual to say the least. It's about the enduring relationship between two children, both outcasts in their own ways, from 1970's small town America to nearly the present day. Patch (he has only one eye) saves a schoolmate from abduction by a serial killer and is abducted himself. After he is rescued he becomes obsessed with finding the other missing girls and maybe even saving one or two. The plot dives all over the place, it lags occasionally but the last 20% is genuinely unputdownable. The Offing by Benjamin Myers . Richard aged 16 leaves his Durham mining village just after the war to wander around for a few months, doing odd jobs to pay his way and sleeping in fields, comes across an elderly eccentric woman, totally unlike anyone he has ever met, and stays on to d this and that for her. I'd never come across Benjamin Myers before so this took me by surprise, his writing is exquisite, it's short, a very gentle book ( so not a huge amount happens) and completely mesmerising. Without doubt one of my books of the year .

A quick catch up (yet again). The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefeteri. I'll have to put my cards on the table here and say that in general I really don't like books which aim to wring your emotions, especially when you can see it coming before you even start the first page, so I wouldn't have read a novel about refugees if it hadn't been a book club choice. The subject was very moving but the way in which it was written got between me and what was happening to the characters, especially the occasional way in which the last word in a chapter would be the heading for the next. It was a literary trick that added absolutely nothing to the story. So did it make me newly aware of the plight of refugees - to a limited extent, I was already pretty aware. Did I enjoy it? No. Would I recommend it? Probably not. French Exit by Patrick Dewitt was another book club choice and another I didn't particularly enjoy though it was an interesting read. Frances a widow who has run through her money and her "toddler brained" son Malcolm (he's childish rather than impaired) decamp to Paris so she can spend everything she has left. Patrick Dewitt is an excellent writer and the novel is described as blackly funny, I didn't find anything funny about it but it's certainly black in places, the problem is that I found Frances and Malcolm so unappealing that I couldn't raise any interest in them. Not a waste of time though. Day One by Abigail Dean started very well indeed with a school shooting and a witness who may or may not have been telling the truth. Then it went downhill, fast. The plot is driven by conspiracy theorists who claim among other things that it never happened that one if the victims never existed etc etc and you have to be a really good writer t make endless conspiracy theories interesting after the first one or two. Abigail Dean isn't. I won't bother with any more of her books.

I can't seem t edit my posts. When I click on the three little dots nothing happens. Also if I receive a notification and click on the link nothing happens there either. Is anyone else having problems or could it be because I've got a new laptop (though it seems to work on all other sites).

Jane Casey's Maud Kerrigan series is excellent

Mmm, I've got this one sitting in the bookcase and have never felt a great urge to pick it up.

I've just finished listening to The Good and the History by Jodi Taylor (such fun) - does that count?

I'm saving that for when I go to Naples in two weeks.

Many congratulations - on all your creations! You get a lot of reading done during feeds, it doesn't take long to master holding a book in one hand and the baby in the other!

I like that.

Glad you liked it Luna! It was one of my stars of last year.

This was one of the first audio books I listened to and I loved it. Different and a fresh approach.

It's ages since I did any sort of reviewing of what I've read so here's a quick round up of a few: The Wishing Game - Meg Shaffer Lucy, aged 26, and a kindergarten teacher is desperate to adopt a 7 year old orphaned boy but doesn't meet the financial requirements. Then she hears of a competition run by the reclusive author of a series that lighted up a grim childhood where the prize is to get what you wished for and she is one of 4 selected to compete. This took me by surprise, I thought it might be standard YA fare but it's whimsical, dark in places and utterly charming. The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands - Sarah Books A closed train runs a regular service through Siberia to Moscow, blinds drawn so no one can look out and be affected by what lies outside in the magical and very strange wastelands. On board is a motley group of passengers, not all of them who they say they are. And things start of happen. I bought this because of the title and I had a gift token to use, I did enjoy it but not as much as I hoped, the setting is great, the characterisation a little static, but still a good read. Venetian Legacy - Philip Gwynne Jones This series of mysteries featuring Nathan Sutherland, an honorary consul, in Venice is not top notch thriller writing but that doesn't matter, the plotting is good enough, and the setting and sense of place in Venice is absolutely sublime. The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton A mysterious fog has killed off nearly everyone on the planet except those on a small island where scientists have discovered a way to keep the fog at bay. The three scientists rule a small, highly structured society, then one of them is murdered, the systems start to break down and the fog begins to move in. There's a race against time to find the culprit and fix the problem before the fog takes everyone. All Stuarts Turton's books are different, this one was a bit of a slow starter but really got going as the clues to what was gong on began to drop. I loved it. Clara Reads Proust - Stephane Cartier I couldn't resist the title of this book about a hairdresser who picks up a copy of Proust that has been left behind by a client and begins to read it. It's a very French book, a lot of them are short and whimsical but have serious messages as well - this one is how good literature can enrich your life (particularly Proust!). I can't say that it's prompted to go back and try to read Proust again but I did enjoy it. Walking the Night - Kate Ellis I read this, obviously to the end as I gave it three stars and can remember practically nothing about it at all. Enough said, I think. Bonjour Sophie - Elizabeth Buchan A "wonderful coming of age" story according to the reviews. No it wasn't. It's dire. Preposterous and dull.

Navy blue eyes are such a cliche too! Just like violet eyes which often pop up in romantic fiction. And I've never seen anyone with eyes of either colour unless they're wearing coloured contacts.

I'm particularly fond of the luggage. I've always found Terry Pratchett a bit uneven, I started with The Colour of Magic when it came out and have read most of his books, some of them are very, very good indeed (like these two, the ones with the witches, the one with the vampires), others like Going Postal I thought dragged on a bit.

This is our new friend Ragnar (Rags to his friends) whom we adopted a couple of months ago. Strangely enough it turns out he's the 5 X great-grandson of our Jez whom we adopted in 2001! We needn't have worried about how Dino, our senior Spotty would react, there was an instant Bromance and they adore each other, Your Ball, No, it's My Ball is the very best game!