Read the Room

[Bat Macdui]

I’ve got Orbital with me to read next.

This is excellent and a bit weird (not quite a novel, but I am not sure what it is if isn't a novel). But very rewarding and sort of oddly soothing.

I discounted The Wren, The Wren based on reviews here. I am also not a fan of trauma writing.

[rosy]

I enjoyed Orbital. No real plot, more a musing on the human condition but as Bats says, oddly soothing.

A few weeks ago I bought Information Received - the first in the Bobby Owen series by E R Punshon (I am a sucker for Golden Age detective fiction) as it was only 99p on Kindle. Now up to book 5. Fun puzzles but I've usually clocked the murderer half-way through.

Reading books in French and calling it homework is not going so well. Two Agatha Christies in translation, and the 2023 Prix Goncourt winner Veiller sur elle (which was wonderful. Who knew there was so much to learn about Italian sculpture & history?).

[Lily]

Yes, I saw your comments on Goodreads! I didn’t even get to the animal cruelty.

I'm glad it stopped you. I'm not a fan of trigger warnings generally but I really really wish there'd been one on there. I had to tell my therapist about it and then I felt bad for putting it in her head.

French Agatha Christie sounds fascinating!

[ParisGal]

Let me know if you want any recs/advice rosy (I won't be able to comment on anything very recent though).

Also have you seen the "Petits Meutres d'Agatha Christie" series? I don't know enough about her novels to recognise the lesser known plots, but they're reimagined in 60s Paris

[Duophonic]

Ben Aaronovitch - False Value. I've been making my way through all of these

[Pawpads]

I've been saving the first two so that I can read them in a binge when the third came out.
I've just started Iron Flame.

If you liked The Hunger Games, I imagine you'll enjoy the Fourth Wing series.

I've just finished Iron Flame and am having a brief pause whilst I decide how I want to buy Onyx Storm - I got the first two from the library but they haven't got Onyx Storm in yet (gits!). I will want to buy and re-read before the fourth one comes out and I like to have them all in the same format.

Plus I've lost the last 10 days or so to reading the first two, so I really need to get other things done!

Yes, I think I'm going to have to buy it on Kindle because I hate reading hardbacks.

[rosy]

Let me know if you want any recs/advice rosy (I won't be able to comment on anything very recent though).

Also have you seen the "Petits Meutres d'Agatha Christie" series? I don't know enough about her novels to recognise the lesser known plots, but they're reimagined in 60s Paris

Ooh, the internet says thats on Amazon Prime so I'll give that a go, thanks.

[sally maclennane]

I finished Politics on the Edge last night, I really liked it. I've also been reading So Thrilled for you, by Holly Bourne. It is good but some parts of it are a bit dark, one of the characters is experiencing PND and the descriptions are quite graphic. I've skimmed a few paragraphs at times

[Lily]

I've just started The Peep Show by Kate Summerscale, about 10 Rillington Place and the Christie murders. I really enjoy how Summerscale writes.

[Kenickie]

I've just started the new Jackson Brodie. I'm really enjoying it but I do feel like him and Strike and blurring together a bit, and I feel like I read something else about art theft recently.

[Bat Macdui]

Oh, I had forgotten there was a new Jackson Brodie. Thanks, Ken. I'll get it on order from the library.

I have interrupted my Mary Wesleys for Evie Wyld's The Echoes, which was good, but I felt somehow a bit lacking. Which feels an unfair criticism, because it was a good read and beautifully written, and very perceptive, just I kind of feel it promised more from the start than the ending really delivered. And also, it could be me, because I am a bit tired of people's childhood trauma. I think I need a phase of reading historical novels again.

I also gave up on Dispersals as the author was well up herself. :))

[Lily]

They knew what trauma was in the old days!

[Hazey_Jane]

Is “blind date” with a book a thing in the Uk? Where books are wrapped with a precis on the front and it’s a surprise when you open it?

Most of them in the bookshop on the way home from work are fantasy genre but I thought this sounded intriguing

[Hazey_Jane]

It contained Held by Anne Michaels

[Pippedydeadeye]

I think that’s a nice idea but also a right old faff for the person doing it.

[Starry]

I have a reading list goal for the year. I went to see an Irish comedian recently and his whole show is built around book recommendation, which is funnier than it sounds. He put the list on his website, so I’m picking through that - first up is Bill Bryson, The Body.

[sally maclennane]

I finished So Thrilled for you last night, it was a good premise but I found the PND and infertility storylines a bit overdone. I guess it's because I've never experienced either and I can see that some people would find them very relatable. Or triggering.

[Lily]

It contained Held by Anne Michaels

I misread this as Heidi!

I like the idea; if someone thinks it's a faff they wouldn't bother doing it, but some would enjoy it. I would make a complete pigs ear of it though.

[Bat Macdui]

I am far too surprise-averse to choose a mystery book. I like to make an informed decision. :))

[Lily]

Yes I wouldn't do it either. I get panicked if I can't choose a book, hence I used to take a second bag of books on holiday with me rather than just pick one up from a pile others had left.