Hayley

Congratulations on passing your exams and your project approval! I hope you get time for some nice relaxing reading now

I'm reading the Dresden Files books too (I've read the first six so far) and always enjoy them. Have you read any of Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant novels? They've got that urban fantasy and crime mix too and they're brilliant.

I'm glad it was useful Ooooh there are sequels!? If it's good enough for you to have replayed it multiple times, I'll trust that it's going to stay good!

I haven't played much of anything recently but I did start Secret Files: Tunguska (on Nintendo switch) and the little I've played seems really promising! Also, in case anyone is interested, Sims 4 is free on Origin this week

You would send the piece of writing to me, I'd post each entry for everyone to see (so nobody else knows who wrote each one) and then members can vote for their favourite! I'll include detailed instructions in the announcement though

I agree with this completely I've only read The Hobbit, out of the books you listed, but I love that! We do have a Writer's Corner here but you need to have posted ten times before you can use it. You're more than half way there already though! (There may also be a writing competition coming soon...)

Yay, at last! Glad you enjoyed it . Oryx and Crake is on my 'to-read' list so I'll be particularly interested to see what you think of that one.

Hi, welcome to the forum! I wish I could read in multiple languages. One of my favourite authors is Spanish (Carlos Ruiz Zafón) and I'd love to be able to read his short stories that haven't been translated!

It is good! Definitely not a light read but, honestly, it is brilliantly written. I think you would really like it, the letters and diaries are used very well. They give you little snippets of scenes in other places and other times, but they're always cleverly worked into the main story too. @willoyd, The Essex Serpent has definitely moved up my TBR too! I realised I haven't done an update for my new books. I got two books for my birthday, Folk by Zoe Gilbert and The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. I was also given some money for my birthday, so when I went into Waterstones and spotted a single signed copy of Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield, I had to get that! I don't know as much about The Silence of the Girls (I think I'll like it though because I always really liked mythology), but the other two books I've wanted since they came out. They also all have really beautiful covers, which I thought I'd share: It makes me happy just looking at them

Wow, 16!? I'm intrigued about this series now, I know you're waiting to review them but, have you enjoyed the first two overall?

There isn't a writing competition running at the moment but I do think it's about time we had another, so keep an eye on the competitions section! Full details of how to enter will be included in the competition announcement The winner of the May supporter giveaway will be announced at the end of the month, but that is only available to patreon supporters. For all other members I can only say there is a surprise coming very soon...

Hi @yellowducky! We do have a gaming thread, it's here Edit: @yellowducky, I've merged your thread with the existing gaming thread.

Cassandra Darke sounds like a great concept! I also agree with Brian, that is a great (and intriguing) cover. Glad you loved Pride and Prejudice so much too. I read it years ago and I know I liked it but I really cant remember much about it! I think it needs a re-read

Adding a late one in for the missing I: Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

I read the first couple of lines of that and thought 'ooh this sounds good' and then 'oh, maybe not so good...' It's a shame the writing was so flawed because the basis of the story sounds so promising! Hopefully the writing improves for the next two.

Glad to see you've enjoyed your last few books! Fingers crossed you get some 4/5's or 5/5's soon too though

Melmoth by Sarah Perry 5/5 - I loved it You know sometimes you get to the end of a book and just spend a few minutes sitting in stunned silence? This is one of those books. Most of the reviews I've seen of this book talk about the wonderfully gothic atmosphere and certainly has enough of that to give you goosebumps. There were two other things that I think stood out more than the atmosphere though, as great as that is. Firstly, the narrative voice is very clever. The book is partly made up of letters and diary entries but the main part of the story is first person with the occasional direct address to the reader, something which you would think breaks your immersion in the story, but it actually involves you more because this book is all about the idea of watching. That brings me to the second brilliant thing, which is the actual theme of the story. There are lots of intriguing mysteries and relationships but, ultimately, this is a book about the importance of what we witness and what we fail to witness. It's very much an emotional journey, one that takes you through different time periods (this is mainly the purpose of the diaries), forces you to see uncomfortable truths and leaves you shocked. As disturbing as some parts are, it's also a really beautiful book which, I think, perfectly displays a message that's as important to our own time as it is to the historical scenarios in the story. I didn't know what I wanted to read after Melmoth but in the end I went for a very different, more lighthearted, option with Jasper Fforde's Something Rotten. I've loved everything I've read by Fforde so far and I don't think this one will be an exception

'The Minotaur had been causing trouble far in excess of his literary importance.' Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

(I just realised I typed a reply in this thread and never pressed 'submit' ) I finished Melmoth (it was brilliant!) which makes a total of 150 pages for me for the read-a-thon. I didn't end up using Monday to read because I couldn't decide on a book. I think Melmoth gave me a book hangover @karen.d your poor mum! At least she's got you to help her out though and 170 pages was still more than me!

Oh yeah, I did see that list at the beginning of the year but I'd forgotten Pure was on there! You do have a few books that I've also loved on the list, so I think that's a good sign. I really want to read The Essex Serpent now too because Melmoth was amazing. I will post a review of it soon.

I didn't know Pure was one of your 6 star reads, I have it on my shelf (thanks to @vodkafan!) and now I'm looking forward to it even more! Now We Shall Be Entirely Free sounds great too, I'll be adding that to my to-read list. At the Edge of the Orchard sounds like a really interesting concept, it's a shame about the last third of the book.

Hi, welcome to the forum! That's an interesting choice of genre. I don't really know a lot about it, but I'm not sure it was particularly popular in Britain. I think Joanna Walsh should fit the criteria though?

I agree, all very good books @handshedown although there is a part of Tess I always hate. I won't bother to include spoiler quotes because I think all of us who've read it will know the part I mean!

Glad everyone's enjoying their books! I do think the read-a-thon's a great way to get yourself back in the mood to read. I read 40 pages of Melmoth last night (I had to make myself stop at midnight so I didn't just want to sleep through today!) and I'm looking forward to reading more later. I might extend mine until Monday, since it's bank holiday weekend here in the UK and I missed out on Friday!

Hi, welcome to the forum! What sort of books do you like to read?