What are you reading now 2

Glad to hear so many of us have read Any Human Heart,
and it makes me wonder why Wialliam Boyd who has written so many first class novels has not been awarded the Man Booker prize.
I started with his books with Brazzeville Beach about research into the behaviour of apes and even then, decades ago, he wote that the apes themselves were aggressive and what a shock it was to the research community. Now it is universally accepted.
Research has come a long way since then but it remained typical for William Boyd to write really well and interestingly on so many subjects

I'm reading Wm Boyd's A Good Man in Africa. I've lived in the part of the world he writes about and although this novel is set in earlier times, I'm smiling wryly at the things he writes about.

I dont think I've read any his books before so that's another author for me to follow.

I have only read two other of his books, apart from Any Human Heart - Restless and Ordinary Thunderstorms. Both were outstanding. I don't know why I haven't simply worked my way through his entire back catalogue. I would start now, but for the 40+ unread books on my Kindle and a shelf or two of print books languishing upstairs.

Read quite a few of his. The only one I didn't really like was that fairly recent one about a photographer. Maybe I just didn't get it!

I'm reading The Minuatrist, set in late 17th century Amsterdam, it's very good, I gather it's been filmed for television and will be on next month so I'm glad to read the book before I see the drama.

I have just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
It is quite unlike any other book I have ever read and had me gripped from the beginning.It is a mystery revolving around two sets of identical twins of different generations and their relationship with each other.

I am reading Bill Bryson’s “The Road to Little Dribbling” which I picked up for 50p on our library’s second hand shelf. What a hilarious, informative, fascinating look at our country. Can’t put it down!

Thanks for the tip, Terribull, I'll look out for that on TV!

Have just finished Trespass by Rose Tremain, and really enjoyed it.This is the first book by Tremain that I have actually liked!
It’s set in France (the Cervanne) and so well written and poignant that I could hardly put it down, and finished it in two days.

Loved the Miniaturist and Trespass. Can't wait to see the TV version.

Am now on the 7th and last of the Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer. Highly recommended. Each one ends on a cliff-hanger and you want to start the next one straight away. Best read in order: the first one is 'Only Time Will Tell' and the last is 'This was a Man'. Each one took a few days to a week to read as they are so compelling.

Have just read Past Imperfect by Julian Fellows, and really enjoyed it. It's a comedy of manners, often very funny and also very acidic at times.
There is a wonderful cast of characters, and the story goes back and forth between the 1968 and early 2000s in the world of .debs and high society.There are also depths in it to do with ageing, loss, and the contrasts between expectations and actual outcomes. I hope it's made into a TV drama or a film eventually.

Presently reading The Lonely Leader about Montgomery covering his early life and loads of interesting writing of his time in the desert and particularly Normandy. It's fascinating when you just scrape under the surface just how lonely a life he led, with all the jealousies from his peers when he found the way to finish the War. Great contributions from his son - sadly he lost his wife just after he was born. Would recommend this interesting (but not too 'heavy') book to anyone.
Anyone who likes romantic fiction set early in the early 1900's two good reads I've enjoyed are The Belle Fields and its sequel Ashes of Roses by Lora Adams. Very pacey books - descriptive of the times, sad, funny and was glad when the sequel finally appeared to answer most of the questions left over from the first book which had a real unexpected twist at the end. Thank goodness it all worked out in the end!
Anyone trying any of these hope you enjoy as much as I did - good reading.

I'm reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It's a novel about slavery in the US and is horrifying. I'm normally fairly robust about such scenarios but this seeped into my sleep and gave me a very disturbed night.

Daytime reading only for me, if I'm to finish it. It's an easy read, though.

I enjoyed "The Minauturist" am now looking forward to seeing the dramatisation, very well written, although quite a dark story I thought. Jessie Burton's "The Muse" was also very good, completely different but well worth a read.
I picked up "Magpie Murders" by Anthony Horowitz in Waitrose today, I haven't read any of his books, although I've watched Foyle's War. I was drawn to the cover being red it looks suitably Chrismassy and the title has a ring of Agatha Christie about it.

I`ve just finished the book of the month, At First Light, it was an excellent read. Have just started A Christmas Candle, by Katie Flynn. It starts in 1939, nice read so far.

Just finished "Magpie Murders" by Anthony Horowitz I loved it. It's a book within a book the two stories are interwoven. In the first one we are briefly introduced to the editor of a publishing house who has received an unfinished manuscript from their best selling author. "Magpie Murders" is the latest in a series of books that feature a Poirotesque, German private investigator who goes by the name of Atticus Pund, in the draft he has been asked by one of the characters in the unpublished book to investigate a murder in a Somerset village. It's the mid 1950s and Anthony Horowitz has created an Agatha Christie pastiche. However the story doesn't conclude because the end has gone missing and therefore the reader doesn't find out "who done it". This is where the two books are linked and the second part, set in recent times, picks up the search for the missing pages of the narrative and again, as in the previous story, there is a murder here too.

My son's girlfriend has passed me "Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine" so I'll start that next.

I`ve just finished, and enjoyed, Need You Dead, another Roy Grace story from Peter James. I`m now reading The Windfell Family Secrets, by Diane Allen, set in 1862, OK so far.

I've just finished The Eddie Stobart story, by Hunter Davies. I loved it, and thought it was well written, even though there were quite a lot of facts and figures, but lots of family history as well. I watched the TV series on Eddie Stobart, and got hooked.

I’ve just started reading ‘Balancing Acts’ by Nicholas Haytner about his tenure at the National Theatre. But I have a feeling it might be usurped by another Bill Bryson!

I have just started "Complete Prose" by Woody Allen. Someone I used to work with loved Woody Allen, and was always doing impressions of him, so when by chance I saw his book in a charity shop for a few pounds, I decided to buy it. Was it the right choice?' I say yes, but my asthma doesn't agree, as I sit laughing and then wheezing as I read..

I have just discovered Robert Harris. I have read Imperium which is part of the Cicero trilogy, Conclave which is a thriller about dirty dealings after the death of a pope, and Ghost which is clearly about Blair in retirement, not as good as the other two for me but still a good read. I am also reading Listening to Ayahuasca, new hope for depression, addiction, PTSD, and anxiety by Rachel Harris PHD and finding it fascinating.

I also enjoyed reading the Cicero trilogy - love other books set in ancient Rome, especially those by Lindsay Davis. However, as this thread is about what I'm reading now: I've just finished Out of Bounds one of Val McDermid's Karen Petrie crime series. I prefer these to her 'psychological' novels. I think I am going to download the next in the series later today.

I'm reading Vanessa LaFaye's At First Light. In short bursts, which is how I've read all stories for the last few years. It's an ME thing—short periods of concentration. I'm enjoying it and finding it scary. Scary not in a ghostly or horror sort of way, just scary because I can't take the suspense of any good story without breaks. Slows down one's reading big time and I was never a fast reader. I blame ME for that too.

At the same time—well, consecutively— I'm also reading Katie Hopkins' Rude. It is really good. Often hilarious. At the moment I'm taking a break from her chapter on her epilepsy. Oh boy! What a woman! You don't have to like her, you don't even have to not hate her (where hate means thoroughly disapprove of) to appreciate the book. I recommend it. There's stuff in it that Minibaggs could use as advice. Truly.

My sister has just got me onto the Ellie Griffiths novels featuring Ruth Galloway an archeologist. Really enjoying them, a gentle read. (If you can call a murder story gentle).