What books are you reading and why?

Skallagrig that is my favourite book ever. Beautifully written but very harrowing.I
I also enjoyed the tv film.
Bernard Hill is the actor you are thinking of. It also had Ian Drury and Richard Briers and John MaCardle in the cast.

Yes indeed it is The Skallagrigg by William Norwood. It is excellent and I have read it twice over the years. They did try making it for t.v. once but it was not a patch on book. Had the giz a job guy in it from boys from the black stuff. Sorry name escapes me.

The Ladykiller by Martina Cole
My goodness what a good book. Read others of hers which I loved. This is an old one 1992 I believe. Mystery thriller, very graphic and awful but so good. Gets in the mind of the killer so skilfully

I finished “Pandora’s Jar” by Natalie Haynes, and enjoyed the different perspective on women in Greek mythology. She’s an entertaining writer.
I have also finished “Shuggie Bain”. I nearly gave up on it three chapters in, it was so bleak and depressing, but it sucks you in and you can’t leave it alone. At the end I felt scoured. It’s a dazzling piece of writing for a first novel, and deserves its Booker Prize.
Next book? “The Darkest Evening”; another of Anne Cleeves’ “Vera” novels.

Skallagrigg is your user name the title of a book ?

I usually love reading but during lockdown not so much. Wondered if it was because not reading for pleasure but because you need to fill some time. Read C.J. Sansome's Tombland just before lockdown. It got mixed reviews but I thought it was very good. At the moment I am reading a Stephen Booth in the Fry and Cooper series. Like these because they are set in the peak district and because I use to walk the area, I can relate to the places he writes about. Hoping it gets me back in to reading more again

Finished ‘The Skeleton Road’ yesterday, yes it got much better as I read more.

Just started ‘Troubled Blood’, after only a few pages think I am hooked.

Hide and Seek by M J Arlidge. One of my charity shop buys and I seem to have come in at book 6 of the Helen Grace stories. I’m enjoying it very much - it’s not taxing and it’s fast-moving, and I love a book with short chapters!

I’m supposed to be reading the first Seven Sisters book for my reading group. I can see others loved these books, as did the reading group members who suggested it, but I’ve had two attempts now to get into it and just find the whole set up of mysterious, pampered and glamorous adopted sisters with daft names preposterous. Which is saying something when I’m reading about a sadistic murderer in Holloway sewing up his victims’ orifices.....

I have just read The Girl behind the Gates by Brenda Davies. Based on a true story about a young woman admitted to a psychiatric hospital in 1939 as a 'moral defective'. Very interesting for me as I worked in such a hospital in the 60s. The author is a psychiatrist and its her first book.

I thought Skeleton Road was a good book Calendargirl better than some Val McDermid has written.

Marcia willet books easy to read and lighthearted.

Just finished ‘A Darker Domain’ by Val McDermid, and have read a little bit of ‘The Skeleton Road’ by her. Doesn’t look so good, but I find her books take a while to get into.

I see that ITV is going to have a Karen Pirie series coming out, we’ll see how they portray Val’s Cold Case Detective.

Started reading A Diary of Two Nobodies by Mary Killen and Giles Wood. They appear on Gogglebox. I’m about a third of the way through and really enjoying it. I did read it into the early hours of this morning and did have a couple of laugh out loud moments, as it’s quite amusing
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I keep downloading novels which are free on the Times website, which they tell me are bestsellers but too often are badly written yawnfests. Same for the free book every month on Amazon Prime. I need to stop being a cheapskate and pay for something that’s actually worth reading.

I'm two thirds of the way through Secrets of the lighthouse by Santa Montefiore, but also reading Captain Tom, my autobiography and Silent Nights - Christmas mysteries which are a collection of short stories from the British Library Crime Classics. I've got Barack Obama's A promised Land to read after these, along with the one by Michelle Obama - both were Christmas presents, so quite a few books to keep me occupied for these coming weeks.

I’ve decided to reread three of Sarah Morgan’s series; The Puffin Island trilogy, From Manhattan with Love series and Snow Crystal trilogy. Good story lines, plenty of romance and easy reading.
Many thanks to a poster on here I’m also rereading all my Gladys Mitchell murders, but they stop me from sleeping, so they’re good in the afternoon.

I had Hungry, Grace Dent’s autobiography, for Christmas. The brave and touching memoir of a young woman who strove to achieve her goals in life. Besides the support of her parents she had few advantages but her determination took her a long way from the North East.
I asked for A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson, a novel based on the lives of expats living and loving on Hydra in the early ‘60s. Descriptions of the island are stunning but ultimately the fates of many of the residents, and of their children, left me sad. Leonard Cohen comes out as one of the good guys, better guys I should say perhaps. There’s an extensive bibliography so plenty more to read.
I haven’t yet begun Barack Obama’s A Promised Land or Rupert Everett’s To the End of the World, Travels with Oscar Wilde.

I’ve just started The Moon Sister and still have The Sun Sister to go before the new one comes out. I love this series too.

Anything that is downloadable for free onto my Kindle, particularly romcom or comedy private investigator stories!

I really enjoyed the Seven Sisters books, so looking forward to the last one.

Another seven sisters fan here. The last in the series is due out this May.

Bakingmad0203

I love Lucinda Riley’s The Seven Sisters books. Each one ( there are 7 books altogether) is set in a different country ( some which I’ve visited) and well researched. Looking forward to reading about the last sister which is due out early next year.

Me too. Love it

Another one I was sure I must have read ages ago, was George Eliot’s Middlemarch, which was one of 12 on the syllabus for an OU course on the 19thC novel.

I absolutely loved that book and managed to do at least 2 assignments on it, plus one exam question. ?

No, I didn’t, Namsnanny - I’ll have to do a google!

Reaps

I'm reading And then there were none by Agatha Christie. I read a lot of detective novels and decided to revisit the classics such as Christie

Voted by Christie fans as her best book.

Witzend ...did you happen to see a tv program called the ations favourite 50 books?

Pride and prejudice was number one with David Copperfield coming around 2md or 3rd I think.
I havent read it...yet!