Just started reading The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg.

I don't think I have noticed anyone here say they have read books by Anita Shreve, but I picked up a copy of her Light on Snow and found it a quick but quite subtle story told through the eyes of a twelve year old girl (or preteen as I suppose you would say in the US) living with her widowed father in New England. Note to self . . . I shall make a point of never visiting New Hampshire during a series of snow storms.

Vee, you mentioned people having good finds. Have any of you spotted a wonderful bargain?

I used to do a lot of charity shop browsing for unrecognised treasures but now people are too sharp and know the values too well!

My best finds were hats! I found a brand new mink beret for pennies and a designer straw for $A3 which normally was over $A300. It had been packed badly and was very creased but a steam iron and damp kitchen paper, as suggested online, soon fixed that!

I have bought some good bric-a-brac cheaply but no ka-ching items!

I've just finished Silvermeadow, the fifth in the Brock & Kolla series by Barry Maitland. I have read a couple of his books some years ago and did not remember how good they are. I'll endeavor to make up for lost time. Ann, you may know this Australian author.

Ann, the only 'bargains' I look out for are books or old prints. I'm not interested in clothes (even new) or bric-a-brac. Perhaps it is coming from a Post War rationed generation where nothing was wasted, clothes were patched/darned, even sweaters/ jerseys were unravelled for the wool. I remember my first school shoe-bag was made using the good bit of the leg of dad's old grey flannels (remember those?).

We do have a couple of charity shops in this small town, although others have closed from lack of customers. Most of the stuff is pretty moth-eaten. There will never be any Gucci or Prada items lurking on the racks.

I should add that my family were never 'poor' just that I had a very economical mother!

Vee.........Lol ! Yes, the New Englanders describe their weather as " 9 months of winter and 3 months of poor sledding " !

Although I live in New York state, we have had some serious snowfalls in the past .

Here's one from several years ago.....about 4 feet deep overnight !

yoyo, I suppose you are used to getting in 'supplies' and are ready for power outages. Here we only need about 2 ins of snow before everything closes down and we wring our hands in despair and cry "What happened to Global Warming?"

Well, I am a New Yorker (born and raised) but a New Englander for many years, only a few minutes from the New Hampshire border. I must rise to the defense of New England and its weather. To prove it, here's a photo of my backyard on a lovely spring day a couple of years ago. :)

Vee, we actually were poor!

Once my father was demobbed after the War, he took a low paying job and as mothers were expected to stay at home and raise children, all her hard won expertise as a shorthand typist and pianist was wasted.

I was used to second hand clothes and never lost my taste for good quality used ones even when I could afford to buy new cheap brands.

We have a good variety of charity shops and they even have designer brands at selected outlets where I have bought top quality (or good faked) handbags for gifts. An advantage of having some very wealthy people living here who are generous with discards! One new bag still had a $20 note in it for luck which I gave to the charity of course.

I prefer to use a shopping buggy with a zipped compartment at the back for safety.

Some women attempted to rob me on a bus in London so I don't carry a handbag now. They pushed me between them and cut into my bag but I thought something was off and moved away to go up to the top deck where one tried to follow but left when I held out the cut bag to show her!

That is horrible, Annpan. I’m so sorry that happened to you. It also happened to my dear elderly aunt in Brooklyn. Three people crowded her into a corner of the grocery store, supposedly asking her an innocent question. When she got to the checkout, she found her purse slit on the bottom and her wallet with her week’s cash and credit cards gone.

Ginny, I was lucky that I got away before my money was taken as I had just withdrawn a large amount to pay for a last minute tour booking! This made me more careful after that episode.

I listened to Shiloh by Shelby Foote. I liked him very much in his interviews on the Ken Burns' programme The Civil War, and this was an interesting format for a book. The events of the Battle of Shiloh were told one chapter at a time by different participants, of differing ranks and on both sides. Many of the well-known generals were talked about by the men, and their speeches reported.

I'm reading Scot in a Trap by Catriona McPherson. It is not what I expected, being ultra modern in manner, speech, and mores, but I will continue it.

Carolyn, I have never read any Barry Maitland book and not heard of him either although I looked him up and found he is highly regarded! Not a cosy writer though, I think?

A few posts above, I mentioned watching The Monuments Men, not a very good movie. I recommended a great book, Florentine Art Under Fire, written by a monuments man and art expert, Frederick Hartt, soon after the war. I read it about fifteen years ago. The post inspired me to re-read the book, which I'm doing now. Just as good as I remembered it.

I had bought a used copy for myself after I read the library copy back then. It was not expensive, maybe $20. Yesterday I looked online at bookfinder.com where I buy used books and was amazed that the movie seems to have had a bump-up effect on the price of the book. A hard cover with dust jacket is now worth between $80 and $150! So I'm feeling more benign towards that movie, :)

Just began reading The Last Mrs. Parrish ... a strange story to be sure !

Does anyone else keep a reading log ? I decided to start one this year and was shocked to find that so far I have read 12 novels !

I suspect Carolyn has read at least twice that number ! :0)

Yoyo, I've only read 60, but then I don't do much else. After all, what is retirement and advancing age for? Right now, though, between rains, I am chopping grass out of the perennial bed. I don't get along very fast at that, and ever since I saw Beatrix Potter's flower beds at Hillside Farm last fall, my little effort is double discouraging.

Ann, the Maitland book was not a cosy but it wasn't too tense, either.

Last night I finished Scot in a Trap which not only didn't have a beginning, it didn't have an ending either. It's enough to make one rethink Catriona McPherson. I've now begun Riviera Gold, the next in line in the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King.

Carolyn......"only 60 " ! You are the reading champion of 2024 for sure !!

It's what I do!

I too keep a reading log. I've read 8 novels so far this year. My "For Later" shelf on my library's website currently has 215 titles awaiting my attention. Obviously, I spend too much time reading ABOUT books instead of reading them. It's a curse.

I've just reserved a new release : The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza. It has good reviews and appears to be a book I'll enjoy.

I'm reading another in the Andrea Penrose 19th century England series called Murder at Queen's Landing. The protagonists are getting serious about each other as well as solving murders.

Holly by Stephen King

Oh Donna - I'm interested in Holly, so I'll be eager to hear your opinion.

After watching the TV series of Death in Provence I requested any book by M.L. Longworth featuring the characters. I have only been able to borrow Murder on the Ile Sordou and have just started it.

A lot of background of all the story characters so far up to Chapter Six also descriptions of the clothes and food but no murder yet!

I am gradually reading my diary for 1999 to check on a purchase I made around that time. I was such a different person then! Married, working and living in a flat in a country town in the UK.

I cooked then, quite interesting food apparently. It was more rewarding when there were two.

It is almost like reading a biography of another woman!

I’ve read several books but since I don’t have my reading log handy will only mention the latest ones. All, except the NF were rereads. Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree, as well as Legends and Lattes (Travis Baldree again) were the latest. I also indulged in an audiobook of The Shuddering City by Sharon Shinn. The narrator wasn’t bad, although she didn’t pronounce the name of a sectioon of the city the way I would so it threw me off every time she said it. The name is Quatrefoil. I would prounounce it as quat-re-foil, she said cat-re-foil.

The nonfiction book I read is The Alchemy of Herbs by Rosalee de la Foret.

Last night I finished reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I began the book with mixed feelings. Knowing it was largely a story about a summer repertory theater group, I didn't expect to like it much. That's because I often find novels and films about theater and actors to have an air of unwarranted self-importance. (How's that for a reader bias?) On the other hand, knowing the setting was mostly in and around Traverse City, Michigan piqued my interest. (I have visited friends there and have tasted those marvelous fresh cherries.) My conclusion? It was a pretty darned good book. I'd recommend it.

Strangely, I kept being surprised by the main character, Lara, because I felt like she was Ann Patchett's alter ego and her actions and attitudes did not always fit my image of the author. (Listen to me - as if I actually know the author - ha!) The book is written in the first person, which I think partially led to my feeling that she represented Ann. Also, I am aware from an interview I listened to that Ann Patchett regularly spends time in Traverse City, so that might also have led me to feel that way.

I just realized that I forgot to share my opinion of The Good Sister by Sally Hepburn, the book I was reading at the beginning of this April discussion. (God forbid that you miss out on one of my opinions.) Here it is: I really liked this book. It's about a pair of fraternal twins who experienced emotional abuse from their single mother during childhood and who have stuck together in a close and mutually dependent relationship into adulthood. The book was odd and at times a bit hard to believe, but it kept me interested and I really loved two of the characters.

Kathy, please keep your opinions coming, they are always worth reading!

I have just finished The Gardener by Salley Vickers. It's about a woman/artist who buys an old house with her rather sophisticated sister, deep in the Shropshire countryside (think the Welsh borders) and how she settles in with the villagers . . . it only took her a few chapters not 40+ years! Lots of 'nature' references and the planting of a magnificent veggie and flower garden and finding her 'true' self.

I now have a date with Mr Darcy; although I feel I might get on better with Mr Bingley. He seems a nice 'open' chap with no time for brooding.

Kathy, maybe I’m just not in the mood for Stephen King, but I am having trouble staying interested in Holly.

Donna

Well I'm interested to know THAT about it for sure, Donna. No problem. It's only one of the 215 on my TBR list. I can work around it.

Good thinking, Kathy. I'm reading Ngaio Marsh's first Roderick Allyn mystery, A Man Lay Dead, published in 1934, before even I was born.

I'll be interested in hearing what you think about A Man Lay Dead, Carolyn. I just finished a lot of her books, including that one. Hope you'll post your thoughts.

I just read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for my book club. First meeting I've been able to attend this year. Didn't love the book. I'm not a fan of historical fiction as it's misleading in so many ways. But I know I'm in the minority with that opinion.

I finished The Last Mrs. Parrish and I cannot say I would recommend it . I am by no stretch of the definition a "prude" but there were just too many offensive scenes in the story that involved debasing women. The overall story arc was engaging and fairly predictable but I became uncomfortable when the husband became a full-on sociopath.

I have read some of the Ngaio Marsh books and possess Spinsters in Jeopardy as I like reading the description of the train journey as a reminder of my travels in France. Good story too!

Annpan, Have you ever been to New Zealand? I know Australia is not exactly around the corner but it is a lot closer than the US or Europe. Reading Ngaio Marsh--and watching Brokenwood Mysteries--made me curious about New Zealand.

Ginny, no, I am in Western Australia which is a long way from NZ. From Perth, where I live, to Christchurch is 3138 miles!

I haven't been out of the State for years and rarely went to the Eastern States either, other than for business reasons.

I preferred to go to Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong and Europe for holidays.

What wonderful travel destinations, Annpan! So glad you got there. My foreign travel has been all to Europe tho I think my passport will have to stay in the drawer now. I do take a 3000 mile journey a couple of times a year to family in California. That’s far enough.

Several years ago my daughter and I had a three-week trip to both islands of New Zealand. It was a fabulous trip. I learned that I love pavlova.

Carolyn, Was there one memory orone special experience you would share?

Wow all this distant travel! I go weak at the knees if I leave our small town and have only been about 20-30 miles to the nearest city to visit the hospital there since before the pandemic. DH's idea of a holiday is to carry on much as before but just to do less . . . My passport ran out in the 1980's and the last time I went on a 'plane I think there was an open cockpit and we had to wear leather flying helmets.

I am glad I did travel when I had the chance. I can't do much these days because of health problems.

My biggest problem in those days was grubby clothes. You either lost relaxation or sightseeing time washing them or carried soiled items around, preferably in a separate bag.

I had a friend who thought the solution to that problem was to bring all her old underwear on her trip and throw it away after wearing it.

It's not the worst idea she's ever had, but I would say it has to be in the " Top Ten" !

Annpan and yoyo, some years ago US cousins took a hike over a couple of weeks walking from North to South Wales via Offa's Dyke path calling in on us for a few days at the end of the trek. They both carried enormously heavy rucksacks, muddy boots hanging from the straps and full of dirty laundry. I, of course offered to put the stuff in the washing machine, but "No we couldn't put you to so much trouble." So I suggested in that case they should put it into the machine themselves. But again "No" they insisted on taking everything back to the US unwashed and probably, by the time they left, very smelly.

I love to travel! Hope to be able to later this year after we recover from moving for the first time in 32 years, 😁 Hubby wants to go to Australia, but that’s probably a few years away.

Still working on Holly. It’s due in a couple of days, so I hope I can finish it.

Donna

Vee, some other people don't want to go far. I met a couple in a Welsh seaside town who go there every year for a holiday they are comfortable with. They were a bit defensive telling me so I imagine they get some disapproval!

One of my sisters always took Wimbledon fortnight off from work and happily stayed at home with my mother, watching the tennis matches on TV while tucking into strawberries and cream.

Whatever floats your boat! However sailing is not one of my desires. I have had rough trips when relocating around countries in the 1960s and would not go on a pleasure cruise even though several friends do nothing else now they have retired. Apart from flying, I like solid ground under my feet.

Ann, strawberries and cream sounds good!

Yoyo, I've read that throw-away hint before, and I always wonder where they get all that old worn-out underwear.

Ginny, one special part of the NZ trip was the time we had in Paihia in the Bay of Islands. It was very pretty, and our hotel room ran from back to front of the building so we had an ocean view right from a small front balcony. There were major sand dunes, and part of the beach was a listed highway for driving. The bus driver took us about 50 miles down it driving 65 mph. It was great fun, sort of like being a teenager again. Really, everything was interesting--Maori stuff, different trees and vegetation, thermal pools, beautiful flowers, glaciers, lakes, movie settings, and sheep. Lots of sheep.

My mother-in-law, a woman I dearly loved, told me that underwear tip but...not my style. I bring enough for the trip. It takes very little space. I do wash blouses in the sink with Woolite when traveling. Used to come in convenient, single-use packets but they don't make them anymore. Used the last one at my son's last Christmas.

Carolyn, Your trip sounds amazing. I can't imagine doing 65 on sand, wow. And New Zealand sounds so beautiful! Another world. So glad you got to go.

Kathy, I’m nearly done with Holly. I think I’ll have to skim through the last 150 pages, since it’s getting more gory.

I’ll try not to give any spoilers. We know early on who the bad guys are. At first he hints at what they are doing, and as the book progresses he fills in more details. Holly is hired at the beginning of the story to find a missing young woman, and as her investigation progresses she suspects that other missing people are connected.

As I said before, early on I had trouble staying interested, and now that I’m near the end I will have to skip the gory parts. There is a long preview of his next book, but I probably won’t read it.

Donna

Donna - I appreciate you reporting back in with those details. I believe I can remove Holly from my TBR list without regret.