What are you reading now 2

Working my way through the latest from Ken Follet. Column of Fire takes the trilogy which started with Pillars of the Earth to 1558. Another huge read and l’m not sure I’all get through it before I need to take it back to the library. This one wanders far from Kingsbridge, but the ebbs and floes of events in Europe keeps one page turning and reading late in the night! Will need to buy it for my kindle

Enjoying The Bone Field.

Thanks Bbevan.

I`ve read and enjoyed 2 of Bill Bryson`s books, would like to read more.

I've been reading Bill Bryson's Neither Here nor There about his travels in Europe in the early 90s.
It was reprinted recently.
I enjoy his books, have read a few, by no means all.
Also re-reading Guys and Dolls, On Broadway, short stories by Damon Runyon - one of my favourite books.

I Am Missing was really very good. I`ve just started to read The Bone Field, by Simon Kernick, it promises to be good.

Ooh lovely. Thanks everyone. I've got a few of your previous recommendations stored up in my kindle to look forward to. Currently I'm reading 'Glenn Miller Nights' by the prolific Laurie Graham who I first heard on on this thread. I've now read almost all of hers. What a diverse writer! Loved the 'Duchess of Nowhere'!

I've just finished Instructions For A Heatwave, by Maggie O'Farrell, another book set in 1976. She is such a good author I'm reading her new one now, This Must Be The Place.

Absolutely love Margaret Forster. Try ' Have the Men Had Enough' next Eliothan Or ' Shadow Baby' love them all, they are my default books ?

"Is there anything you want?" Margaret Forster. I haven't read any of her books before and am quite enjoying this one.

BBbevan I really enjoyed Cat's Eye - hope you do too.

I really liked I Am Missing callgirl I read it a few weeks ago

I`m reading I Am Missing, by Tim Weaver. A man completely loses his memory, and hires a privae investigator to find out who he is. Then things sart to get dangerous.........

I am just going to start Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

I've been in a non fiction frame of mind lately, and without intending to my reads have been linked. I started with That Woman: The Life of Wallace Simpson by Anne Sebba which revealed a woman who was certainly not straight forward, she was ambitious, and who I found rather unpleasant. Good read though.
Went on to The Riviera Set by Mary Lovell about the pleasure seekers and pleasure leaders of the riviera from Edwardian times to the fifties. The Windsors feature in that too, and I didn't like them any better.
Then I read a novel that had been recommended to me - Any Human Heart by William Boyd which I think was fantastic and I've been recommending that all over the place. The Windsors appear in that too, still awful, but this is about the life of fictional Logan Mountstuart, a writer. Great stuff. The BBC dramatised it.
Now I'm reading Wait for Me by Deborah Devonshire - her autobiography. It's like reading about people from another planet, but hugely funny. The eccentric English upper classes are observed mostly with affection. She includes the sadnessess of her life and in her sisters' lives movingly and without self pity. She doesn't wallow, and Nancy Mitford was not the only sister who could write. Some of the later people from the Riviera Set - like the Aga Khan - are cropping up now in this book.
Thank you for all the recommendations. I like lots of these authors and I feel myself going into fiction mode again.

Gillyknits...was going to recommend exactly the same book...Pillars of Fire by Ken Follett. About halfway through and I must say it is "unputdownable"" as was his previous Pillars of the Earth. Highly recommended for anyone wanting an historical theme.

The Golden House by Salmond Rushdie.

Just started it will get back when I’ve finished it. So far so good.

Eagerly awaiting Phillip Pullman's new book. The Dark Materials trilogy made me think again about organised religion/afterlife/atheism.
I think I'm a believer in Dust!

I just wanted to recommend The One, by John Marrs. I can hardly bear to put it down! The premise is that a DNA test has been devised to let people find their one true soul mate. Then the book follows five people who’ve just been “matched”. After the first scene-setting few chapters I was hooked!

My last read was Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, mentioned earlier, about racism in the USA and one particular case where a black nurse is accused of harming the baby son of a white racist. That was very good too.

I was disappointed with the ending of The Trouble With Sheep and Goats! A bit of an anticlimax.

I'm now about to read Good Cop Bad War by Neil Woods for my book group. I believe it's not a great book but the issues it throws up around illegal drugs are interesting.

I'm also reading The North Water by Ian McGuire. It's a mystery set onboard a 19thC whaling ship. It's a bit sweary but a gripping read.

I've just finished The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan, well worth reading. Will shortly start on Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir. I recently read Katherine of Aragon and it was superb. If you like Tudor History you will love this series.

Just started the latest Ken Follett book Columns of Fire.
that I got for my birthday. It’s a big book like the others in the series,but if it’s as good, then I’ll be delighted!
Pillars of the Earth is my favourite book of all time.

Oh, I wondered why I could no longer find this thread! It's been asleep.

I'm currently reading The Trouble With Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon. It's nothing like I imagined, being set in the hot summer of 76 with flashbacks to the 60's. It's intriguing!

Before that I read The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. It's a history of the world from the POV of the Middle East, specificially Persia. The first half was excellent, with some fascinating facts, such as that Atilla the Hun wore a coat made of field mice skins. The second half was a bit of a polemic, although it did give me a better understanding of politics in the ME.

Terribull, I ordered some books from Amazon the other day, The Dry is one of them.
I`ve just finished Takedown, by Stephen Leather, it`s a bit bloody and violent, neither of which bothers me, but I didn`t enjoy it as much as I could have, because I just couldn`t find a liking for any of the characters.
I`m now reading At Long Last Love, by Molly Adams, set during WW2, but am only a few pages in, so too early for an opinion.

Where have all the readers gone?

I've just finished "The Birdcage Walk" by Helen Dunmore which I loved, I can't believe I hadn't read any of her books before, this one was excellent, and now I've discovered sadly she died in the summer this year. I've also recently read "The Dry" which I quite enjoyed but thought it was somewhat over hyped, although could see it would be quite filmic, particuarly in a slow unfolding series form like the first "Broadchurch", but if you've read the book you know what's coming. Today I bought Ali Smith's "Autumn" which has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and has received very good reviews although it looks quite a short read.

Just read 3 good books on the trot, "The Hare with Amber Eyes" a well reviewed book from a couple of years ago. "Then She was Gone" by Lisa Jewell who always produces consistently good reads, this latest one is a slight departure for her, insomuch as it's a foray into crime. The best of the three "Hearts and Minds" by Amanda Craig, passed to me by a friend and definitely one of my favourite reads this year. Published about 7 years ago, set in London it tells the tale of several professionals such as a human rights lawyer, an idealistic South African teacher working at a failing school, an unhappy American girl employed by a political publication. Their lives juxtapose with a couple of the other main characters living on the margins. A trafficked Ukranian teenager sold into the sex trade and a Zimbabwean asylum seeker. There are several diferent threads that cantilever together around a disappearance and murder at the heart of the story.

Had a get together with friends this afternoon and have also been lent Ann Patchett's "Commonwealth" highly recommended, may read that next or another I bought yesterday "Hag Seed" by one of my favourite writers Margaret Atwood. Spoilt for choice! I just love a good book