Hayley

I decided to go for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which I am enjoying, but it's so densely packed with all the details of the case (and history of the detective) that it feels like it's taking a while to get through it!

I really like The Thursday Murder Club for the same reason - I loved the cast of characters . It's a shame about the odd stripe on the kindle, but perhaps if it's not really noticeable it won't affect your reading? I hope you can still enjoy it!

Me too! I think it made a big difference for me (and maybe it's the same for you!) that I already loved reading fiction before we started reading classics in class. Something I find all the time now, when I'm tutoring, is that students who read for fun pick up new texts much more easily (which completely makes sense, because they see familiar patterns in things). But also, all art forms are subjective - it makes sense that even if we happened to get books that we liked, another avid reader would have hated the same selection. I loved 1984 😅 but I agree on Frankenstein. I love that too and I don't think I'd have enjoyed Pride and Prejudice as much at the time. Funnily enough, Jane Eyre is on one of the GCSE lists right now, and I noticed a teacher discussion about not using it because it doesn't appeal to the boys. So there is some consideration of how boys might react to certain texts differently.

Finished Company of Liars and really enjoyed it (somehow wasn’t expecting it to be quite as dark as it is, despite the plague theme!). I did have slightly mixed feelings about the ending but I can see why those decisions were made. Now I’m a bit stuck for what’s next! I was thinking of going for The Way of All Flesh, but then I remembered that I have The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which I’m looking forward to!

Oh no - is he meant to be unlikeable? 😅 No, they don’t sound particularly appealing to me either. Apart from reading Arthur Conan Doyle or Wilkie Collins - I love both of them anyway 😄

They look like good reviews to me 😄. I’ve never read anything by Colleen Hoover but I’ve heard that some people don’t like the way she deals with darker subjects in her books, like abuse. Maybe thrillers are actually the way to go to really get your reading motivation back - The House Across the Lake sounds good!

That’s strange! I’m glad it’s working now. My next suggestion was going to be to clear cache on your current browser, which could still be worth a try if you prefer Thunderbird

Everything seems to be working normally for me. Which browser are you using? If you switch browser, do you still have the same problem?

Thank you 😄

That sounds interesting! I like weird history 😄

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! 😄