I finished "Daughter" by Jane Shemilt this morning. I enjoyed it a lot and wasn't expecting the ending at all. I'm hoping for a film adaption though a google search came back with nothing as of yet.

I started "The First Phone Call From Heaven" by Mitch Albom this afternoon.

I'd like to read "Love Letters To The Dead" by Ava Dellaira next. I'd need to buy it first though.

Ann Cleeves - A lesson in dying

I'm about to start Elly Griffiths - The Crossing Places, I've seen some other people have read this lately and said it was good so giving it a try.

I have just discovered Kimberly Chambers, excellent another Martina Cole.

Finished Graham Masterton's White Bones. Very impressive - strong characters, well paced police procedural. My only gripe is that GM could have toned down the horrific descriptions of the ritual killing. He is a much respected author in that genre, but think a more subtle approach is needed for detective stories. As well as grisly murders we have explosions, shady business deals and political intrigue as you would expect from a novel based deep in the Rep of Ireland.

I was one of them, hope you enjoy it (I'll feel bad if you don't! )

Wish You Well - David Baldacci
Heartwarming family story set in the set in Virginia in the thirties. Despite the cosy read, there are a couple of shocks along the way, and many well written characters.

Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle which is set in an alternative history where the Allies lost WWII and where the USA was divided up between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany with an autonomous neutral zone in between the two occupied parts of the USA. It's a most promising start to the book so far.

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The Rise Of The Super Furry Animals • Ric Rawlins

I Am The Secret Footballer - Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game by ???

I'm still waiting to pick up the third book in the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden from my library - excellent series. So in the meantime I'm re-reading The Persian Boy by Mary Renault.

Kimberley Chambers is good, like back when Martina Cole was good


Kathryn Croft - The Stranger Within

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming

Recommended by a fellow DSer

One Shot - Lee Child. Book 9 in series.
Another good one from LC Very exciting and it had me reading it until the early hours until
the finish. Cover had Tom Cruise on the front, which def didn't put me off, as I haven't seen the film.

The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffths - third in the series about the forensic archaelogist Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson

I've started a new audiobook, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, narrated by David Horovitch.

I've been looking forward to this for a while and am enjoying the excellent narration. It's set in Post Roman Britain where small communities struggle to survive everyday life, whilst living alongside ogres and demons. It's difficult to tell how real these creatures are at this stage. There seems to be a collective loss of memory of recent events and the living arrangements don't seem quite right. Against this backdrop an elderly couple set out to find a barely remembered son.

Potentially my favourite book of the year.

I enjoyed it. I have added the rest to my list for future reading

Now about to start Blue Labryinth by Preston and Child.

Been browsing charity shops today, where I get a lot of my books.

And picked up 'Fluke' by James Herbert.

It was the first of his books I read all through, I started 'The Rats' which dad left lying around, but that was taken off me when I asked what gonorrhoea was. I was only 9 or 10 at the time and this was the late seventies.

I was a massive bookworm then, and a sort of compensation (and to dodge awkward questions, about the above mentioned word), mum said she would get me another book by JH.

She came home with Fluke, the first 'adult' book I read, I loved it and was lost to my family during the time I devoured it.

That copy (well read, and well dog eared) was lost long ago.

Seeing a newer imprint on the shelf I had to have it. The OH was like 'what do you want a book about a dog for, you're a cat person' Try to explain but she's not getting it.

Come home make cup of tea, and settle into my book. Loving it as much as the first time, after an hour the OH is getting bored and I get verbals about putting 'my stupid dog book down'

Tomorrow she is out all day, so I can settle back in with a long, long session.

Maybe it was because it was the first, but for me Fluke was his best book, I did eventually read The Rats and the sequels among other books of his. Domain comes a close second.

Mind you, the film version is a pile of dog poo.

For anyone interested in history - I bought a book called The Tudor Age, by Jasper Ridley.

It deals with life in the that time period - chapters include the King's highway (road travel), the houses, costumes and fashion, furniture and food, scholars and doctors, sports and pastimes.

Bear baiting was a popular sport (Elizabeth I enjoyed watching it). Apparently bears roamed wild in England in those days. A bear was tied to a post by a chain and a pack of dogs set loose - the bear had to fight them off.

Sometimes they used a pony - a monkey was tied to the pony's back (why?) and they set the dogs on it's legs

Bear baiting was finally banned, but not until 1835

I'm now on a chapter Beggars and Vagabonds. It was a criminal offence to refuse to work and go round begging. Vagabonds were not just poor people, but often ex-soldiers, ex-sailors and university drop outs. Every Parish was made to provide a house and the 'aged and impotent poor' were made to live there. They were given food and shelter, and work to do (unpaid). If they refused, they were treated as vagabonds. Centuries later these houses became known as work houses.

It's a very interesting book. I must admit I skipped most of the chapter on 'heretics and traitors' as it became rather graphic

I am now reading 'From the Cradle' by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards

Enjoying it so far

A Year In The Life Of Phil Taylor

I just finished Still Alice by Lisa Genova. I would highly recommend this - it is the kind of book that stays with you after you have finished. I will have to check out the film version now

Isabelle Gray - Good girls don't die

Chapter and Verse - New Order, Joy Division and Me ~ Bernard Sumner

This is better than Hooky's book.