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What book(s) is everyone reading at the minute?

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  • 'It's not me its you' by Mhairi McFarlane - brilliant
  • Foster by Claire Keegan
  • Just read Anne Tyler's new book, A Thin Blue Thread. Fabulous as usual. Em was reading a Maggie O'Farrell book over Christmas and said she has been called the British Anne Tyler, so as soon as I put down the book after finishing I picked up a Maggie O'Farrell, thus comparing styles immediately. Well, I can see what they mean But it doesn't flow like Anne Tyler. She is ace.
  • I have just read Inferno from Dan Brown for the third time :D although I know his books inside out, I really do enjoy reading them from time to time… my next book will be Black Out from Marc Elsberg and I am really excited about it!
  • 'It's not me its you' by Mhairi McFarlane - brilliant
    I love Mhairi McFarlane and have read her first two novels. This book is on my shelf waiting to be read.

    Great Expectations was the last book I read. After reading a classic, I always like to read a contemporary book, so I'm currently reading Christmas at Carringtons, which I'm nearly finished.
  • Just read Anne Tyler's new book, A Thin Blue Thread. Fabulous as usual.
    Love Anne Tyler - must keep a look out for this one.
  • Claudia, it's actually called A Spool of Blue Thread... just checked!
  • I'm five stories into Stephen King's short story collection, Bazaar of Bad Dreams. I've never read SK before, but wanted to try after reading On Writing recently. In fact I've never read horror full stop, so the genre is pretty new to me! I'm getting on ok with it so far.
  • Moving by Jenny Eclair
    I recommend it
  • I've just read Instrumental by James Rhodes - autobiographical, and very moving. Not for the faint-hearted as very explicit about child abuse and self-harming. I was compelled to read his story after seeing the reaction of someone who had heard him speak at a literary festival and came out with tears in his eyes.

    Also read the new S.J. Watson, having enjoyed Before I Go To Sleep. This one is called Second Life - good, but perhaps too coincidental to be convincing.

    Now reading The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton - a thriller set in Alaska. A mother and her profoundly deaf daughter are searching for the father in the wilderness.
  • Now reading White Jazz by James Ellroy. Goo stuff so far.
  • Looking forward to the Anne Tyler. She's one of the few writers who makes me wonder how she does it.
  • Yes, Ana - it's effortless prose, and just every detail is so convincing.

    Reading Bill Bryson's 'The Road to Little Dribbling, more notes from a small island' now. Already had me in stitches. I gave it to my friend Liz but unfortunately there is a chapter about strokes...

    I think he is the one writer who is guaranteed to really have me doubled up.
  • Yes, our book group just did Walk in the Woods (? always forget titles). Razor wit and utterly scathing on criminally blithe environmental destruction.
  • I am about to start that one. Read first para when I unwrapped it and love it already, like I knew I would.
  • Ha! Just got to the bit where he mentions his daughters, to find that one of them lives in the same village as me. I had no idea.
  • Yes, our book group just did Walk in the Woods (? always forget titles). Razor wit and utterly scathing on criminally blithe environmental destruction.
    A walk in the woods in one of my favourite books. I'm looking forward to starting The road to little dribbling. I know I'll love it already Bill Bryson never lets me down.

    I'm reading Bits of me are falling apart, by William Leith. I'm really enjoying it so far, it is disarmingly honest, sad and very funny in pretty much equal measures.

    I just finished We are all completely beside ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler and The shock of the fall, by Nathan Filer - both of which were excellent.


    I'm a newbie here by the way. Any rules I need to be aware of? I'm fully expecting everyone to be lovely
    :)
  • =))

    Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you are going to be SO disappointed!

    Seriously, welcome. There is a 'Welcome writers' category if you would like to do us a bit of an intro.
  • I'll pop over and do it now. Thanks for the quick response. Only a lovely person would have replied so fast.
  • You have so much to learn! :)

  • Hi Pheonixwhy.
  • Major Craddock Investigates
    (four Victorian chillers)
    Paul Finch.
  • Cross and Burn by Val McDermid and a book on Blogging.
  • I'm currently reading, and enjoying, Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz. Captures Ian Fleming's style well, but seems a bit more accessible- unless that's just me. I always found Fleming's style a bit of a drag when I was younger.
  • I am reading " A Spool of Blue Thread" by Anne Tyler. This is the first Tyler novel I have read and I am quite enjoying it. I've been told and have heard that is not as good as some of her other books but with nothing to compare it too I don't know any different. Will aim to read some more of her books, if I can find room for them on the "too read" shelf that is.
  • I'm reading The Secret Keeper by Kate Norton and A Feast for Crows by George R.R.Martin which I've been reading for ages.
    I'm trying to read less books at once this year as it takes me too long to finish them. I have 3 or more on the go and it doesn't work anymore.
  • voyager by Diana gabaldon
  • Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller
  • Journeys 2015
    An Anthology of International Haibun.

    Such a wonderful and inspirational read.
  • Raven Heart by David Gemmell

    &

    Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

  • A God in Ruins
  • The Paying Guests

    Sarah Waters
  • I have that in my pile, sm. May be my next.
  • Reading "The Drowning Girl" by Margaret Leroy. It's rather dismal.

    Baggy's book arrived this afternoon - on a Sunday! - and I might read that before finishing the novel.
  • Reading "The Drowning Girl" by Margaret Leroy. It's rather dismal.
    If you want to cut it short, hold her head under.

  • Reading "The Drowning Girl" by Margaret Leroy. It's rather dismal.
    If you want to cut it short, hold her head under.

    :)) :)) :))
  • Just started a debut crime novel by an Irish writer called Jo Spain. I had never heard of her but spotted on Facebook that she was doing a reading in our local library (across the road from my house) on Saturday last, so I thought I'd pop over. I had to get the book based on her reading, her description of the research she'd done and because she seemed really nice!

    marion
  • I really enjoyed that book, SM.

    Bill Bryson The Road to Little Dribbling.
  • Hi, I'm new here and joining this thread a little late! I've enjoyed all of your comments about what you've been reading, so here are mine. I recently finished How To Be Both by Ali Smith. The concept was interesting but I found it hard to get into. I've just started A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale, and I dip into parallel text Short Stories in Italian edited by Nick Roberts.
  • Welcome, Kimmy,
    Why not start a new thread introducing yourself so that everyone can say hello!

    Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty.


    Do we have a 'Reviews' thread for the books we have read?
  • You are just about to open one, TN
  • I didn't have time today - and now I am on my phone so can't...

    But I will tomorrow.
  • Hi Tiny Nell,
    Thanks for the suggestion, I'll do that.
  • Just read 'The Goldfinch' by Donna Tartt took me a while to get into it and I was strangely disappointed after the reviews. Now I'm onto Peaches for Monsieur Cure by Joanne Harris which is an easier read. I tend to have a non-fiction on the go at the same time and this one is The Witches (history of Salem) by Stacy Schiff, just started it but it has the feel of fiction, scary when you know it's true.
    I'm forcing myself to read 'widely' so have all sorts on my kindle. Some good some not, but one man's crap is another's gold so who am I to judge :P
  • Hello R-L!
  • I am currently reading the third cormoran strike series book, and loving it as much as the last two! Well in fact I like it more than the second one – in my opinion the first and third ones are the best.
  • edited February 2016
    Still plugging away at Stephen King's Bazaar of Bad Dreams, some of the stories are quite mental... but next on my hit list is the new Yann Martel novel The High Mountains of Portugal. I love how deliciously quirky his work is!
  • Ooooh I would be interested to know how the new Mantel is. I loved life of Pi but I was not so impressed with Beatrice and Virgil, actually that's inaccurate- it was very good and told in a unique way but something about it really got me down (to be fair I was in hospital at the time so that may have been a factor)

    I've just finished Matt Haig's Humans and really enjoyed it. Last night I started the very different A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing and I'm not sure about it yet.
  • LOVED Matt Haig's Humans!

    Just finished BB's Road to Little Dribbling. Not as good as Note From a Small Island. Bit of a damp squid overall but still enjoyable and affectionate as usual, with really fascinating bits of history and his views on the madness of British politics.
  • Nearly finished Joanna Campbell's short story collection When Planets Slip Their Tracks. Really unusual beautifully written stories. Well worth a read
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