France

Oh terrific!

I couldn't agree with you more! I learnt so much and it's so enticingly written - my one frustration was that I had it on my Kobo (an impulse buy because it was 99p and looked "quite interesting" which shows why buying ebooks on a whim can be a good thing) and I had to keep on stopping to look up the pictures she was writing about on my phone. I'm definitely going too buy a proper copy to savour.

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley. Oh what a dire, dragging disappointment this was! I loved Natasha Pulley's first books where she delves into a slightly whimsical alternative world; her last one which was based on Russian nuclear experimentation in the 60's less so but it was still enjoyably off beat in places and the characterisation was great. The Mars House is set in the future with a Chinese colony on Mars and Earth gradually being destroyed by climate change and a war between America and Russia. January, a ballet dancer, leaves behind flooded London to go to Mars as a refugee where as an immigrant he does the menial jobs that the native inhabitants of Mars don't do. The earth immigrants have grown up in a far more powerful gravity than the Martians so are much stronger - dangerously so and can inadvertantly cause serious injury. The only only way Earth refugees can become actual citizens is by having a highly dangerous procedure to make then less muscular so so less lethal which can cripple them and certainly shortens their lives. Citizens are gender neutral while "Earthstrongers" have gender specific pronouns. There is a movement among Martians to force all Earthstrongers to have the procedure whether they want it or not... Goodness it all got tedious. She says in her acknowledgements that her London publisher refused to take the book and I'm not surprised. What does surprise me is that she found another one to take it.

I'm currently reading The Cautious Traveler's Guide to the Wastelands which is fantasy/alternative history and most definitely weird and quite mysterious too so I think it counts! I like the look of The Retreat and I also have Stuart Turton so I think that's me sorted!

Oh dear! I've got this and am planning to start it fairly soon.

One of my favourite books of last year. I recommended it to my book group and one member said she thought it was bland! Not sure she'd read the same book as the rest of us!

A mayor in Normandy has issued a decree that there is to be no more rain. He's also ordered all the local priests to intercede with God and send prayers upwards.

One of my favourite books of last year!

I was really looking forward to reading The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison as I loved the Goblin Emperor but I found this a real slog. It's winfic (which I didn't realise when I bought it ) - fanfic with wings and a pastiche in a fantasy London of Sherlock Holmes too. Sadly, unless you're ready to read anything Sherlock related I'd give this one a miss. Another book I was looking forward to was The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl Her writing about food is wonderful and a yes, you can practically taste the dishes in his novel about a repressed girl finding her true self in 1980's Paris, but otherwise the storyline is so sickly sweet that I was practically suffering from sugar overload by the end. I enjoyed The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden a lot though it was a bit slow to get going. I've read an awful lot of WWI stories and it was really good to come across one that was decidedly different and yet moving at the same time. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley has been on my radar since it appeared on a Books to look forward to in 2024 list and I was given it as a birthday present. In just a slightly distant future a time machine can pull people who would have died anyway out of history into the present day and there is an experiment going to, see how 5 very disparate characters from different eras can adapt to modern life. Each one has a mentor, called a bridge, and the story is focused on an arctic explorer from Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition and his unnamed female bridge. it's great fun, well written and you nreally can't see where it's going. Recommended. The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths , like all the Rutth Galloway books, well written, well plotted, thoroughly enjoyable.

I agree with you on all points!

Wind in the Willows was read to me though I read Black Beauty when I was five (my mother left off reading it to me to answer the telephone and I got so impatient that I picked it up and realised I could read it myself and finished it on my own). I was home schooled, was on my own in the middle of the country and basically barely ever saw children of my own age so reading and going for long walks with the dog were my two chief occupations - passions I still have today.

I was read the Wind in the Willows when I was about six and I can remember the feeling of being utterly transported by the magic and fantasy of the story. I was already a reader but it was mostly animal stories like Black Beauty and a series about Bob the sheepdog, the Wind in the Willows gave me a taste for the magical and different which I've never lost.

It seems to me that Ann Patchett has got better and better ever since she first pulished Bel Canto and Tom Lake has to be up there in contention for my best read this year. I was initially put off reading it because it was described as a "pandemic novel" and I'm already sooo bored of reading about social distancing, lockdowns and wearing masks but this book isn't one of those. The pandemic is the cause of Lara's three very different daughters gathering on the family cherry farm for the summer to isolate and help their parents bring the harvest in and Lara is profoundly happy to have them around her. While they are working she tells them about when she was an actor and the history of her long ago affair with a now famous film star - some of it, there are things even her daughters cannot know. It's beautifully written with quiet unshowy prose that leads you from one sentence to the next, the settings both in the cherry orchard and while Lara was acting are completely immersive and characterisation is superb. The plot does assume a certain familiarity with Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, I'm not sure that it matters if you've never heard of it (like me) but it's easyn enough to look it up on line.

As I'm useless at working out how to do spoilers I sent you a message!

Kate Atkinson has a new Jackson Brodie, Death at the Sign of the Rook, coming out in August.

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka is the start of a new fantasy series set in a London where the use of magic is a preserve of several vastly rich families who as practitioners control it's use and supply. Stephen Oakwood is an orphan, or is probably one, his mother walked out, his father disappeared, but he does have some magical skill. Then a couple of scions of one of the wealthiest families turn up, claiming he is a cousin, and hoping to use him in an increasingly heated inheritance battle. It's fast moving, refreshingly different from much of fantasy since it doesn't take itself seriously at all and Stephen as a character develops and grows. Not high literature but hugely enjoyable, I zipped through it and am greatly looking forward to the next book. The Golden Gate by Amy Chua The cover is beautiful, the writing is tedious and bangs far too many drums. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld I like Curtis Sittenfeld's writing most of the time and I'd heard many good things about this romantic comedy between two unlikely figures, a writer on a show clearly based on Saturday Night Live and a glamerous super famous rock star. The first part is great, Sally the writer is sympathetic, smart and her insecurities are believable and the background of the show is fabulous. Noah the rock star is a little one dimensional but hey ho, it's Sally's story. The second part is good too, but it starts getting samey and drawn out and I went from loving every page to rather hoping I was near the end.

What a terrific review! Autumn Rounds is now on my wish list.

Oh so did I.

You're supposed to dislike Ove at the beginning and then what makes him so apparently grumpy starts becoming more obvious. I can't remember anything about him being more callous and indifferent to cats and dogs than other human beings. I really warmed to him by the end.

I listened to the first of these on Audible, The Cove I think, and to be honest wasn't impressed. It seemed both long-winded and Mills and Boonish

I find that most of the books I really enjoy are Marmite books, some people loathe them, others adore them. I can see why you might have found it boring, the pace wasn't fast at the beginning but the sly humour made up for it imo. Good things reading tastes are so different - it means lots of variety!

Funny how you can change your mind - I tried Slow Horses by Mick Herron a couple of years ago and it just didn't appeal. Then after having read his latest book after fervent recommendations I gave Slow Horses another go and really enjoyed it. For those who haven't seen the tv series (and I haven't) it's about a group of apparently washed up spies who for policy reasons haven't been sacked and have been exiled to a building called Slough House to do boring stuff in the hope they'll be driven to resign. It's twisty, clever, has unexpected but satisfying plot twists and doesn't take itself too seriously. I'm certainly going to read more in the series. It's been 10 years since Shades of Grey by Jasper fforde came out. It was startlingly inventive even for fforde, about an England where ever since Something Happened people have only been able to see one colour and your status in society is governed by which colour you can see and how much of it. The Greys, who have no colour vision, are the labourers and have very few rights. It was very witty, very funny and full of wonderfully daft ideas such as the rule that once something was declared apocryphal you literally could not see it, so the Apocryphal Man was able to walk around with impunity with no clothes on, stealing food off plates in the communal dining hall. A sequel was promised and Red Side Story finally arrived this year. It's worth the wait. Shades of Grey had a serious undercurrent, Red Side Story is a lot darker but it's still witty, funny and a crashing good read. I'm really sorry to have finished it.

Most French libraries have a small selection of English books in paper (most of it donated) but digital books are in French mostly and my French isn't up to reading a book.

Do you mean actually analysing note by note or books which describe the effect of music? I don't play any instruments but the novel which got me making a huge listen-to list is Trio by Sue Gee. It's a terrific book too.

delicately through a straw