Re Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, I read it several months ago. It's definitely light entertainment, and not bad at that, but there's something more to this book. The characters are magical and powerful not despite - but because - they're old. Just the opposite of reality, where it's the young that are magical and powerful. I rather liked that. I haven't lost my taste for fairy tales.

The book was so successful that Osman wrote several sequels. I read two of them, but unlike the first of the series, the sequels were disappointing, because Osman was counting so heavily on the character-driven appeal of the first book, that he didn't even bother to put together a proper plot. I guess he thought he could pull off sequel after sequel so long as the characters kept exercising their charm. Didn't work for me, though. I do need a good plot.

I recommended The Scarlet Pimpernel in last month's forum. I am watching " Bookish" on PBS (a very good mystery series with Mark Haddis, whom I love), and much of the action takes place in a used bookshop. The proprietor gives a customer the "Sequel to Pimpernel", and that piqued my curiousity. I never knew that there are 14 Pimpernel books! I don't think I could do a reading challenge on them, but, wow!

Just started Holly Jackson's thriller Five Survive. Looks promising. She really knows how to convey tension between characters and atmosphere.

As usual, I took a peep at the end of the book and discovered one character who gets killed (no spoilers, don't worry). I like my first reading to be first and second reading simultaneously, so I can enjoy how the author structures the plot. Knowing the end doesn't spoil a book for me, even when the book is a thriller like Five Survive. It just makes it more fun. I know, I know. It's weird, but that's how I like it.

I’ve just finished ”What We Leave Behind” by Sue Halpern. Loved it! A great story, a very fast read & great discussion material for a book club discussion. An overarching theme is nature vs nurture. What makes this story so very interesting is the way she weaves seemingly disparate characters into each other’s lives. That connection doesn’t become clear until over half way through the book. Each of the characters have real life / relatable stories. I’m looking for the seven other books by this author listed inside the cover. This book is a new one published 2025.

ETA - I didn’t give it a star rating as we’re supposed to do here. Since I loved it & it was an easy read with some ’real’ life challenges I give it a 5.

@KW PNW - at long last, a kindred spirit :)

Some Strange Music Draws Me In, Griffin Hansbury, about a teenager just who she is. Interwoven are chapters of the same character, female to male trans about to turn 50 but still figuring things out. The book is well written, easy to enjoy, and perfect for bookclub discussion of both the writing and subject matter.

I read People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn. I have read at least 2 of her fiction books, The World To Come ( I really loved this one)and Eternal Life. I thought they were both so good, well written and well done but definitely not easy breezy. This lastest book is really a collection of very well thought out essays. I found her observations resonated . Her knowledge is on another level so I di find myself looking up things and definitely learned quite a bit. I recommend this, and while it would absolutely make for good discussion , I think it's also something to read at one's own pace and absorb. Still I gave it 4.5 stars.

I am now reading Theo of Golden. It's a great balance and I'm really enjoying it. Sweet but meaningful. I am at about the halfway mark.

Dara's from our town and was brilliant even then.

I haven’t fished Theo yet. It feels slow and as if there’s a loomimg theological point. I’ll try again

Our book club discussed Theo a few weeks ago. It was my turn to host and I did some research on the author and found a really good, long interview with him in the Columbus Inquirer (GA) from about ten years ago, and downloaded some of his music from itunes and also some Portugese fado so we could understand the book in the context of the author and his life experience. Very good discussion, most of us in the group are Christian and the theology took up most of our time.

We are doing Thirsday Murder Club next week, and as we all know its very light, so tomorrow we’re having a watch party to view the movie on Netflix. The discussion the following week will be mainly on the ways in which the book was adapted for film.

How often can you use the word "lugubrious"? I like it for Michael Dibden's Dead Lagoon. It's sold as a detective mystery. There is one, but this is equally a philosophical vehicle for some soul-searching, post-WWII angst among the citizens of Venice. Depressing.

5*

Not a book I would had chosen, but the librarian suggested it. She knows me better than I know myself.

Took me awhile to get into it, but worth the wait.

I finished The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and really enjoyed it. 4 star, but not for book group. Thanks to all who recommended it.

Next up, This Happened to Me by Kate Price. I suspect it will be a tough read...about how she overcame her traumatic childhood upbringing....yet another from a small Appalachian mill town. Something in the water maybe?

Poverty, isolation and lack of education?

Other People’s Houses / Clare Mackintosh 4.5 rating, The library tag lists this book as fiction but I’d call it murder mystery. It’s quite clever, has engaging primary characters and is a quickish read. There is a 3 book series with DC Ffion Morgan of Wales & this is the third book in the series. This was easily a stand alone story but now knowing there are two prior books, I’m looking for them too. There are 3 characters with enough life issues to have a good discussion about so I think this would work for book club.

I just started book one of the Iron Creek Brides by Karla Gracey

I finished Theo of Golden and have to say it really was a beautiful book. He sure has a wonderful way with words. The story was quite well done and had me really invested.

I have to say I think the spiritual part was where there was a fine balance, and at a few points I felt that it tipped and felt like it was going to tip and lose it. This was more towards the end of the book. Still overall I would give it just shy of 5 stars so 4.5 or 4.75,

I would definitely recommend this, and I think that while it would be good for discussion, I prefer this one by myself.

While I wait for a few from the library, I'm going to read Home Again ( #4 in the sweet Heartwood Hotel series)

Finished This Happened to Me by Kate Price. Tough read but uplifting in that she and her sister survived their horrendous upbringing. She's turned the evil she's experienced into a force for good. Her story was also featured in the Boston Globe Magazine a few years back. If any of you read The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, she is one of the patients who are discussed in his book, and he dedicated the book to her. I'd give it 4 stars, but only for book group if they know ahead of time what they are getting into. Makes The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls seem pretty tame.

Next up, something lighter for sure: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson.

Although I rarely post here, I read this thread often. I find y'all's comments and recommendations interesting, and sometimes I even follow them. :^)

Anyhow, I just finished a book that really had an impact of me, "Beneath a Scarlet Sky"

by Mark Sullivan.

Copied from Goodreads:

Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.

It's quite long (a little over 500 pages) and I found it hard to put down. It's an amazing saga.

Rusty

I read that- Beneath A Scarlet Sky a few years ago and remember thinking that I'd never really read anything about the war from that perspective. I read it for book club and everyone was impressed ( hard not to be). Later on I read Eternal which was great, but pretty much focused on Rome.

A few months ago, I started reading The Thursday Murder Club. I'd had enough of it by about the halfway point and stopped. It had been a slog to get even that far. I don't know, it just didn't grab me.

I'd asked for the book but got the play of 84 Charring Cross. Still lovely. Is author Helene Hanff the mother of Jean Hanff Korolitz, The Plot and The Sequel? (Those featured one really *nasty* protagonist!)

Looking for more cheerful stores. DH is so good about collecting books for me from the library. Distraction is good.

@chisue-- I would say Theo of Golden is a sweet uplifting book.

Also, I've been reading a "chapter book " series, more for kids but it's just so delightful- The Heartwood Hotel by Kallie George.

A True Home ( #1 in the series)

The Greatest Gift ( #2) Link to the first book

I've now read three or four of them and I have been reading them in between heavier books. They'd be in the children's section. I have gotten them from the library on kindle version.

I'm also going to try to find that thread of Happy Reads and will post it.

Here is the link to the Happy Reads thread.

The search function worked- so here you go. <<<--- Click

Chisue, I enjoyed The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion. It's a charming story about a socially inept and kind of OCD guy who meets a girl who is very of-the-moment. There are two sequels too. Hope you are doing well.

faftris - I remember reading The Rosie Projrct a couple years ago. I think the main character, Don Tillman is neurodivergent - on the spectrum. There is a sequel to that book about Don and Rosie that’s equally charming & a nice read. It’s The Rosie Effect. Sony pictures has the film rights but no movie made yet.

ETA just looked up the 2nd sequel - The Rosie Result

Just finished The River is Waiting, by Wally Lamb.

It was a heartbreaker and at times difficult to read due to the subject.

It felt to me like he rushed the ending after the pattern of the rest of the book.

I would give it a 3.9 stars due to that.

@chisue Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler.

Unputdownable, humorous, poignant, uplifting. I read it twice, it was so good.

It's modeled on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Project.

It's short, so the book isn't heavy and can be comfortably read lying down. I so like reading in bed and some books are just too heavy for comfort. I once got so irritated I tore a book in two. There should be a law limiting book weight.

I like Wally Lamb, but the beginning of The River is Waiting did me in. I couldn't continue. I saw it on the library shelf last week, and thought about giving it another try, but no.

Thanks for the suggestions of some happier reads. I enjoyed The Rosie Project(s) and will look up the YA series, salon. I passed on the Lamb book -- grim premise? Read anyway? Vinegar Girl sounds promising.

I'm coping better with the addition of Lorazepam twice daily for anxiety. Still have the fentanyl skin patch that's renewed every third day, and hydromorphone 2MG (two every three hours). Half a zolpidem 0.5mg for sleep. Would you believe I had to go to the dentist Monday afternoon? False alarm; my ever-painful tongue thought there was a cavity. Bless 'em for seeing me and making it as easy as possible getting in and out. Friday is my next infusion. Then one more Friday before a week off infusions.

The River is Waiting was morbidly sad, though I did finish it. Persistence with some books sometimes feel like an act of self-flagellation. John Boyne is an author I've stopped reading. I don't mind heavy or difficult themes, but not when they overpower a book's literary merits.