Hayley

I am finally at the end of a weekend that has been packed with work, so I'm about to put my pyjamas on and make a hot chocolate .

This is on my wish list, so I'm glad you still think it's worth reading! The goblin market does sound particularly intriguing. Have I already mentioned The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern to you? Because if I haven't (and if you haven't read it yet) I think you'd love it! It's so magical and has absolutely brilliant characters.

Where the nooks are around the base you could have a little button to press and each one would still play the audiobook of a short Christmas story 😄. I finally got around to putting up Christmas decorations today (though none as cool as the idea above). I’ve been ridiculously busy for the last few weeks and now I think I’m getting a cold, but at least I got to feel festive today! On a related note, I have discovered that I hate doing self-assessment tax returns 🥲.

I decided to do a just-for-fun reread of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for my next challenge read. It’s on the GCSE syllabus, so I use it when I’m tutoring, but I had a student who was really genuinely interested in it and it made me realise that it’s been years since I read it just to enjoy the story. And I really did enjoy it! I’ve also started the In A Glass Darkly collection of short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu.

Hi Ran, welcome to the forum! I love Dickens and Tolkien too, but haven’t read very much horror. What games do you play?

Update: I've managed 6... I realised who the 'I love lady C' man in the doorway was!

Yes! I’ve managed 5 and I’m already stuck!

I know there are some John le Carré fans on here; have you seen this? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/10/john-le-carres-son-to-write-new-george-smiley-novel CAN it be as good?

That’s great news! By next week, you’ll have it all sorted. I hope you’ve got lots of relaxation plans for the days ahead now.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I’ll ask about taking it out during our next update

I finished The Shadow in the North (it was so sad!!) and started The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas. I stayed up way past my bedtime finishing it last night! It’s not a light read (some incredibly horrible things happen to the women in the story) but it’s a very good book.

It is a shame. I don’t have Facebook, but I use Twitter sometimes. I try to avoid all of the drama but it’s hard not to come away feeling annoyed. People seem determined to misunderstand each other. Also increasingly finding that really disturbing images and videos pop up in my ‘recommended’ feed 😕

Ah, that’s a shame. It must have been good though, despite the mistake, if you want to keep going with the author .

Maybe they’ll have an amazing January sale 🤞. Although I remember noticing last year that they didn’t have anywhere near the kinds of reductions they had in the past!

That sounds so lovely. I did wonder whether some of the books were lights! I would like a miniature version for my house

Hmm, I think the only part of the note that could be read as indicating the presence of more notes is this: But it would be dependent on how you read ‘this note’ (the emphasis on this would change the meaning)… there’s no reason the character would read it that way though. Maybe something was changed in the editing process that killed (no pun intended) a subtle hint? This could be possible if there’s some sort of twist later. Something the narrator knows that hasn’t been revealed to the reader yet. Madeleine would have a better idea of that than me though, I haven’t read any of this series!

Mine too and I love Wilkie Collins but not that much!

(The app, not our actual shelves. Don't worry, I haven't gone completely mad ) A little while ago we added the 'bookshelves' feature to the forum. It looks pretty and it had some use, but I don't think many people are really using them. Invision (the company who makes the forum software) have just announced that they are going to stop supporting apps like the bookcase. We will still be able to keep it, but I'd have to go through the actual developer rather than Invision as a company. So I think this is the time to decide... do we want to keep the bookshelves feature? Or is it an unnecessary part of the forum?

Welcome to the forum Jonesy! This is an intriguing mystery. Could you tell us what the first paragraph of the note does say?

It was The Moonstone! But it’s a special limited run so it’s £250 🥲 https://www.foliosociety.com/the-moonstone-limited-edition.html?utm_campaign=november-monthly-newsletter-all-customers&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=78278473&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9oYMVtaVQAbvR5tKEop3ezbkojPDHbx8AxYjKMt73YvJPTO4s47tFERL9xyBUjkojfil7PP63w6YsKh5Y9u9m9ywzQYIRigou64GJB2IhxT9CSOio&utm_content=moonstone-pod&utm_source=hs_email

It’s one of my favourite books, I hope you like it! 😄

I just looked this up and it sounds good! It has hardly any reviews, weirdly.

Things like this are always going to be scary but it will be over before you know it and you’ll feel well again, not having to deal with the pain and discomfort you’ve had to put up with. You’ll have lots of good wishes pouring in from everyone here. We’ll be looking forward to having you back and feeling good again!

I haven’t actually read any of the authors you mentioned, but I think I have an idea of what you mean. Maybe Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series? It’s set in the real world but follows a police officer who finds out there’s a secret branch for dealing with supernatural things. They fight evil forces while making sure that most people don’t know what’s really happening. Definitely suspenseful at times! One of my favourite books set in the real world but with a bit of magic is Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, which imagines there’s a whole other, more magical, London beneath the city. If you don’t mind it being historical, Oscar de Muriel’s Frey & McGray series is excellent. Quite a few members here love it. It’s set mainly in Victorian Scotland and it’s not always clear whether the cases are truly magical or not… but it’s very tense and gripping, especially in the later books

I love my tsundoku 😄 It’s nice to see so much nice and fun stuff on here. I currently have the worst cold. Luckily I’ve finished work early (not intentionally, it just worked out that way!), so I’m looking forward to curling up with my book now. I thought you’d all appreciate this too though. St Pancras station has a book tree this Christmas. Apparently there are little reading nooks underneath it, which you can sit in and it plays a Christmas story to you 😄