Two books I have recently really enjoyed

Have mentioned on this topic before several good reads I've enjoyed in the past but two or three I read again over the recent holidays and I'm happy to recommend a couple of them to all on here. 'The Belle Fields' and its sequel 'Ashes of Roses' by Lora Adams were two I've re-read and enjoyed them again just as much as the first time - couldn't put them down! If you try them expect plenty of twists and turns, happy and not so happy goings on and very descriptive narrative of times not so long ago! Be ready for the unexpected end to Belle Fields but everything comes right thankfully in the sequel! Anyone who tries 'em hope you enjoy!

Just read the enemy series by Charlie Higson. Charlie Higson's The Enemy is the first in a jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens. But you can enjoy it too in your spare time.
bit.ly/2T6sx7h

Elly Griffiths for me too!
Her latest which is not I believe in Ruth Galloway series doesn't appeal though!

KittyL, I loved the Georgette Heyer books, read them all in my teens, they were recommended by Jessie Wilson, my English teacher.
I`ve recently read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, a very moving book, can`t remember the author, sorry. And have just finished The Teacher, by Katerina Diamond, very good story, but also very gruesome in parts.

I love Joanna Trollope and in her later books, she writes about older characters. Love her attention to domestic detail and her very realistic characters.

The Dry by Jane Harper is brilliant.

The Secret Between Us by Thrifty Umigar
The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah

"Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng, this book is set in Shaker Heights an affluent suburb of Cleveland, Ohio back in the 1990s. The Richardsons are a wealthy middle class family living the American dream. Into their world comes Mia and her teenage daughter who rent a house owned by the family and for a while Mia becomes housekeeper in the Richardson household, whilst her daughter Pearl involves herself in friendships and relationships with the sons and daughters of the family who are of a similar age. Mia is an artist who with her daughter has lived a peripatetic existence and gradually as the narrative progresses the reason for this unfolds. At the heart of the story is an adoption of a Chinese baby by a white family which not only puts Mia on a collision course with her employer, Mrs Richardson, but divides the wider community. Very good I believe there is talk of a film in the pipeline.

In complete contrast, I've also recently read "Sarum" by Edward Rutherford which has been lying on my shelf for a couple of years, mainly because it's such a tome at roughly 1,300 pages. As with many of his books the author takes a couple of families and traces the progression of their descendants down the centuries from Neolithic times right through to the late 20th century. Introducing some more families at pivotal points in history, such as the settled Roman presence, The Anglo Saxon influx and the Norman Invasion, lingering for a 100 pages or so in certain eras to illustrate how history unfurled to affect not only that area of England but the winder country as a whole. The reader sees a reversal of fortunes as some of the characters fall down the social scale. Inevitably given it's proximity to Sarum (Salisbury) Stonehenge features in one of the chapters. he wrote it back in 1985, so not quite up to date insomuch as their wasn't a whiff of Novichock in the whole 7,000 years covered in the story!

I've just rediscovered Angela Thirkell. Her books written in the 30s and 40s are so funny. Nippy but nice and an insight into a social world gone by.

I recently discovered the author Jan Karon. She has written a series of books set in a small fictional American town called Mitford. They are gentle, but thought provoking stories. If you enjoy the Miss Read books, I think you will like these. I got the first 4 in a charity shop, but have ordered 4 more on line.

I have just received my copy of "Bad Nana". A delightful book for children. Beautifully written and laugh out loud. Every child needs a bad nana.

Really enjoyed 're reading Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Pierce & also. The Light Between the Oceans ML Stedmen. Both for my book club. We are now reading any Mills & Boon.as none of us had read them...what a lot of twaddle! But very funny

Auntieflo - enjoyed The Little Coffee Shop some years ago and am now reading Return to the Little Coffee Shop, on Twimbly Island at present!

I love My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante its the first one of her 4 neapolitan novels. Will keep you going all summer.

Thank you eGJ will have to be on Kindle as I have to have a bigger font when I read in bed!

blossom14 When you have read that one there are two more to come in the series; enjoy them...…………..I have re-read them a few times and got the CD version of the first two from The Book People for a ridiculously small amount of £6.99 only 60p more than the paperback of the first one! Beautifully read and it has enhanced my enjoyment!

I am not sure whether these two books came from recommendations on Gransnset. The first is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ; took me ages to read but was completely gripping. Second The Greyhound by Steffan Piper - this one I could not put down.
Currently reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet which I found free on Amazon Kindle. This is the first time I have read this author and I am enjoying it much more than I expected.

Florabunda60 I'm hoping the kindle price for Last Letter Home will drop when the paperback comes out. I like Rachel Hore but not enough to pay £8.99 for the kindle. I tend to read at least 2 sometimes 3 books a week so at that price it gets expensive.

I have recently discovered Sarah Addison Allen. Garden Spells is on Amazon for 99p kindle so it is a cheap way to try her out. I have also read The Girl Who Chased The Moon and I am presently reading Lost Lake. Nice easy reads about life and love and heartbreak with a little bit of magic thrown in.

I know I am enjoying an author when I put the book/kindle down for a pause to savour the writing and story so far. If I can't stop reading something it is usually because I just want to get it finished not necessarily because it is any good!

Gossipy books, where the author observes people's thoughts and lives. I have read all of Anita Brookners books; slightly bleak but real. I liked Iris Murdoch too.

I've just finished two Anne Tyler books that a GN lady recommended. I'd bought them second hand but went off reading for quite a while. I enjoyed them. Cannons recommend a similar author please. Not on kindle unless free. I much prefer a real book!

Has anyone else read-One Thousand White Women-? By Jim Fergus it is fiction, but the original event - the offer from a Cheyenne chief to the US government in 1854 of the exchange of 1000 white women as brides for his people- was not taken up. This novel describes the event as though it did take place! An absorbing read of what might have taken place.

Apologies, that should have been about her house in Mexico

I have just finished and enjoyed, two books by Deborah Rodriguez,
The little coffee shop of Kabul
Return to the little coffee shop of Kabul

Has anyone read the ones about her beauty shop, or about her house in Brazil?

See You In September by Charity Norman unputdownable. highly recommended.
Also a silly novel Why Mummy Drinks - reminded me of my daughters stories of life with her two boys. Laughed out loud at times. some bits quite silly though.