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Book Corner.

Hi, Saskia. Yes, I've read all those Delderfield sagas twice except for the Swann trilogy which I've only read once. I'm now on the final few pages of Sorrell and Son and have thoroughly enjoyed its portraits of 1920s people and their times.
I ordered the Swann books on my Kindle the other day so I might start them while I'm in France over the Christmas period. And another author I got hooked on is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I started reading his Sherlock Holmes stories out of curiosity and got thoroughly hooked. I read them all and then moved onto his other works. Doyle was a born storyteller and I read his Lost World and the other Professor Challenger books. Then I got into his stories about Brigadier Gerard, an officer in Napoleon's army. I ordered The complete Arthur Conan Doyle works on Kindle and dip into them regularly. Funnily enough my wife, who I had thought wouldn't have been much interested in Sherlock Holmes, started reading them and went straight through the entire Baker Street adventures. We then got hooked on watching the TV series with Jeremy Brett's excellent portrayal of Holmes. My goodness, where does the time go?
 
I used to enjoy the Jeremy Brett - Edward Hardwicke - David Burke Sherlock Holmes series. But Basil Rathbone is my favorite Sherlock Holmes. I've read the complete Conan Doyle series.

I may try more Delderfield over Christmas. I've been trying to get back into Madeleine L'Engle but for some reason I just can't do it at the moment. Can't really settle to anything I'd thought I'd enjoy.

I need something to challenge me but also to be restful, and I'm not ready to re-read one of my favorite Christmastime books, Rosamunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice, or Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising. Maybe I will look for an e-copy of The Nine Tailors.
 
I just downloaded the e-book of Jill Mansell's You and Me Always. I'm looking forward to trying it when I finish Madeleine Brent's Stranger At Wildings.

I'm suddenly getting a lot of e-mails that e-books I've requested are now available to check out, so now my Christmas reading list consists of You and Me Always, The Nine Tailors, Warwick Deeping's The Man on the White Horse, Enid Blyton's The Boy With the Loaves and Fishes, and Dorothy Lyons' Dark Sunshine, which I haven't read in maybe 30 years. It's where I discovered Robert Browning's "Cavalier Tunes." Which led to me discovering Robert Herrick, and Lovelace and Suckling and Herbert and Marvell and ...

Books are like paths.
 
SlimLizzy said:
this is on my to read list
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If you enjoy it, try "A brief history of everyone who ever lived" by Adam Rutherford which deals with the same subject but from a scientist's viewpoint (don't be put off by this, it's very readable). I'm currently reading "Milkman", which won this year's Booker Prize and which is, in my opinion, a pile of pretentious, faux literary doggy-do
.
 
Reading The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley. Cant concentrate on it though, had it on the go since Christmas Day and only a quarter of the way through. Doesnt help its hardback and a big book
 
wolfie11969 said:
Reading The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley. Cant concentrate on it though, had it on the go since Christmas Day and only a quarter of the way through. Doesnt help its hardback and a big book
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Have loved all the seven sisters books. Sorry you are finding it tough going.
 
SlimLizzy said:
Have loved all the seven sisters books. Sorry you are finding it tough going.
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I have loved all the others, but I have the attention span of a gnat. This book probably is really easy going but because of my attention span I'm finding it hard to keep reading
 
I tried Josephine Tey's first mystery but I couldn't even understand the first sentence. Insider's language and I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Now I'm half-heartedly working on her second, it's not exactly a page-turner, but we'll see ...
I'm also trying for the second time to read The Five Red Herrings. It's about the only Lord Peter Wimsey novel I haven't been able to get into right away.
 
I’m whizzing through the Alex Cross series i only have 2 more to read
 
Last night I started Joanna Trollope's version of Sense and Sensibility. I watched Giles Coren's I Hate Jane Austen (I don't) and they talked about her book.

It reminds me a little of the scenes at Norland Park in the Thursday Next books.
 
Reading The Women in his Life by Barbara Taylor Bradford. My daughter reckons I'm starting to show my age with my recent book choices. No I buy a book in the charity shop, read it and then pass it on. I read most things.

Just a question - my daughter is raising funds for a charity and has been given some books. One of them is the complete works of Jane Austen. Anyone have any thoughts on her as an author and whether it would be worth me buying it off her? Thankyou
 
I like Jane Austen but I can't honestly recommend buying her complete works all in one go, unless you can get them at a really, really good price!

The more things I read and hear about her (online, books, movies, etc.), I realize I probably don't "get" her (her humor, social observations) because I'm a 20th-21st-century American who didn't major in 19th-century lit at college. But for just the quality of her writing and the stories, I do appreciate her. She has taught me more about the history of her times than any history course I took at school or in college, because she has made me interested enough to do nonfiction reading on some of the things she refers to.

So, if you can get a really good deal, and have shelf space, you could buy the whole set, or try one at a time if possible. I started with Pride & Prejudice after seeing the Laurence Olivier-Greer Garson movie.
 
ETA: As it's for a charity, I take back my emphasis on the really, really good price.

I did go on after P&P to read her other novels, all except Northanger Abbey which I decided to save for later, and Sanditon.
 

If you like romance and a sarcastic view of Regency society then enjoy.

I liked Mansfield park as it’s the most interesting to me but I rarely read fiction.
 
I don’t get much time these days to read anything substantive. I subscribe to 3 print and two e-science fiction magazines, which give me great pleasure. They say the Golden Age of Science Fiction is 11, and that’s about right for me! Hooked ever since.
Also in the fall was reading a couple if books about dementia care, which have been invaluable for getting into my mom’s mind as it drifts off. Sadly, I can’t remember the names of the two best ones.
She (Mom) has a book in her current pile which she read some of to me today. Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain. That is one I definitely want to read!
I loved all the Mary Poppins books as a child, loved the Julie Andrews movie, and with some trepidation watched the new version. It may be even better! The writers chose from others of the books, and I was tickled pink that I caught every reference, literary and musical. Now I have to go back and find those!!
Somebody mentioned Rosamund Pilcher. Is UK village life really that golden??
 
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