Hayley

It’s such a good series - I’m genuinely sad that I’ve read them all and there won’t be more 🥲 When I’ve finished my current book, I’m thinking of either going for The Way of All Flesh or Bone China by Laura Purcell (which I’m pretty sure is set half in the Victorian era) but I haven’t decided yet 😄

Fallible Justice by Laura Laakso is temporarily free as an ebook (to celebrate the launch of her latest book). Definitely worthwhile for fans of crime and fantasy combined 😄: http://geni.us/falliblejustice

Welcome to the forum Oliwia . I think it is clearly morally wrong to post an AI generated review of a book you haven’t actually read - it’s dishonest and misleading. It suggests it was more important to this person to churn out any piece of writing than it was to share her actual feelings about the book with other people. AI doesn’t have feelings, so it will just have copied from other reviews. As for why publishers still send her things: I suppose she does deserve a second chance. People will probably be quite suspicious of her content being AI created now, which would make it more difficult to get away with!

Wow, what a beautiful instrument! I love curly maple topped guitars too. I hope its maker is safe and will be able to rebuild their home soon. It is absolutely tragic, the impact the weather is having there right now. Florida’s weather today also looked terrifying. You’re quite safe where you are though, aren’t you?

Oh I’d have liked to see that one too! And George Eliot’s (I wonder when the pen idea started!?). I didn’t know there were catacombs there! I decided to go for some historical fiction for my next book, way back to 1348 with Company of Liars by Karen Maitland. I’ve owned this book for years. I saw it in a charity shop for £1 pre-covid and wanted to give it a try - but I couldn’t bring myself to read about a plague during a pandemic 😅. I’ve only read the first few pages but it’s definitely intriguing so far. I think it’s loosely based on/ inspired by The Canterbury Tales.

I would really love to see the dog jumpers if you have a picture of that 😄 (it also sounds like it would be really quite difficult to do!?)

First book of the challenge completed for me: A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor. The characters travel back in time to such experiences as a London Frost Fair and Pompeii as the volcano is erupting! It’s been ages since I read the previous book, but this one tied up a lot of what seemed like loose ends from the previous one. For those who’ve read the first four at least:

I’d really like to go at some point. Was there a particular grave you wanted to visit? Update on this: I decided to start A Trail Through Time last night (since, after all, I’ll probably enjoy Doing Time better when I know more about the Time Police). I’d read well over half by the time I went to bed and finished it as soon as I was done with work today. As you can probably guess, I really enjoyed it!

Thank you ☺️

Definitely! I might actually keep reading the St Mary’s series too. I’m only on book 4 though 😄

Wow, I think that one is my favourite so far too! (Although I do love purple!)

Ooooh, really!? That’s an exciting prospect (and thank you!) 😄 If anybody has any other excellent tips for me, by the way, they’re much appreciated! I have three older sisters with four children between them, so I’m quite used to babies, but there’s so much more to think about when it’s your own!

We all the Frey and McGray books are brilliant anyway 😄. I’ve added The Highgate Cemetery Murder though, it sounds really good! I bet the Highgate Cemetery tour was interesting!

The Victorian crime books would definitely still count though! (And what are they? I might need to add them to my list 😄). I’m considering going for Doing Time by Jodi Taylor!

Thank you both! 😄

This year has been the first that I didn’t start a book blog in January and, honestly, I missed it! I’ve been tempted to start a couple of times and held back, not exactly sure how I wanted to do it if I started. But now I have my idea. This will mainly be a book log, but it will be a relaxed one. Partly because I’m expecting to be pretty busy in the coming months. You may have seen me semi-complain about how busy work has been elsewhere on the forum, and that’s partly because I’m in the early stages of (hopefully) setting up my own business, rather than working entirely as a freelancer. I also wrote a small book chapter (as you’ll see in the writing thread) AND… the biggest news: I’m pregnant. I’ve been waiting until after my first scan to tell people, but everything went perfectly and I feel like it’s safe to say it out loud now! So bookish and life updates to come! 😄

I know you didn’t mean it in a rushing way @lunababymoonchild, don’t worry . I think, with the initial positive reaction and no objections so far, we should push ahead with history! As always, interpretations of the theme are welcome. You can read fiction, non-fiction, poetry, it just needs to relate to the current theme . This might become a little bit like Victober for me because I have a lot of nineteenth-century books 😅 but I’ll look through what I have and see if anything else fits in too!

I’m also definitely up for history! (Sorry for being a bit late on this too, I have some news to post later which will help to explain!) In the meantime, shall we go ahead with history?

Honestly, that would put me off. I even tried searching the press that printed it and they really only have an online presence on Facebook. Other than that, the only information you can get is that they’re based in New Delhi. Only a handful of people have reviewed the copy (none in the UK) and the one person who actually left a comment said the quality was ‘fine’. I think I might have solved the mystery of the double-length penguin edition though. It looks like it contains both the original Italian on one side and the modern translation on the other!

I don’t have either of those editions but usually, deluxe editions have special features inside, like illustrations, notes or essays on the text. I’m guessing that’s the longer one? Penguin are always good though 😄

I finished it last night and really enjoyed it! The second book has gone straight on my wish list 😄

They’re pretty @Madeleine! The top one’s colours remind me of the seaside and the bottom of sunsets 😄

I feel like it counts. It’s not a mystery in genre but it does feature something/someone who is a mystery (without giving anything of the plot away…) Ive just started The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter by Rob Duncan. It features someone working as a private detective, who’s been given a case to find a missing person - but with a steampunk twist 😄.

Would any of you be interested in taking part in some poetry research from Sheffield Hallam University? They're looking into the kinds of emotions and images that are stimulated by poems. I've invited them to provide some more details for us in this thread, so feel free to ask any questions if you think you might like to be part of it!

Welcome to the forum, Layla! Just a few more posts and you’ll be able to access our ‘Writer’s Corner’. It’s been sadly quiet recently, it would be great to have some fun discussions about writing over there again! 😄 What kind of books do you like? And you you have a preferred genre when you write?