The Bookworm's Thread 2016

missbiggles1

mumps wrote: »

This week I have read

Blood Works by Michael Connelly which I really enjoyed. It is about an ex FBI agent who has had a heart transplant and is asked to find the person who killed his donor.

The Last Juror by John Grisham. I find I love or hate his books, nothing in between and I loved this one. I have mentioned before that I have a terrible memory for names and in this book Grisham describes the town where it's set. I thought that sounds just like the description in A Time to Kill, as if all southern towns in the USA have exactly the same layout. Then a lawyer is mentioned and I think he sounds like the one in A Time to Kill. Penny drops, yes it is set in the same town and some of the same characters appear. I wish I could remember names.

The Survivors by Terry Nation, as mentioned by MissBiggles1. I really enjoyed it but was puzzled by the ending, I don't know if I missed the end of the TV series but it seems unlikely as I have also watched the DVDs. I just don't remember it ending like it does in the book. Don't know if I have just forgotten but seems strange as alot of the book is so true to the tv series and I remembered it all well. I might have to dig out the DVDs and have a look.

Gallows View by Peter Robinson which is an Inspector Banks novel, the first in the series. I wasn't particularly keen, he seems quite a shallow sort of character, no substance. It was OK and I finished it which says something but not a favourite.

I am now reading A Necessary End, another Inspector Banks one. I thought I would give him another go to see if he improved but he still seems really two dimensional to me. It might just be that I never worked with a DI like him. DI Rebus, by Ian Rankin, reminds me of several detectives I've known and even though some of what he gets away with seems far fetched he seems quite believable. I've read a couple of Inspector Morse books and again I have known one or two detectives like him but DI Banks, no I don't know him at all.

One thing I have noticed is detectives all seem to drink malt whisky, well the American ones sometimes drink bourbon. They all seem music lovers, some of them classical but lots of them seem to listen to jazz. I wonder what that is all about? I did know one detective who loved classical music and his nickname was Morse. They all seem to have woman trouble, again DI Banks is a little different as he is happily married but I'm not sure about that psychologist, it wouldn't surprise me if that got a bit out of hand at some stage.

Not sure what I am going to read next but I have got a Frederick Forsyth book on my kindle. I think it was a freebie. I've never read one of his before so I might give that a go.

Sorry, I didn't realise that was such an epic till after I posted it.

Nothing like. The series goes on (and on) with a variety of changes of characters whereas the book has a more neater ending, with just a possibility of a follow up if he'd wanted to.

In the last week I've read "Want to Play" for the bookgroup, which was a great success and "The Virgin's Lover" not so much - not my favourite Philippa Gregory but not bad. I'm also in the middle of a bit of a Peter Robinson blitz being about to finish "Past Reason Hated". (He certainly isn't happily married in the later books and I think the series does improve.)

After somebody mentioned it on here, I went to buy Val McDermid's "Northanger Abbey" for the Kindle but didn't get round to it - I was so pleased about that when I found the paperback in a pile of unread (and untidied:o) books. I think that will be my next read and then on to a reread of "Mansfield Park" for the bookgroup, a book I love but some people are struggling with it - I can see sparks ahead with that one!

missbiggles1

Callie22 wrote: »

I've only seen the 2008 TV series (I think that they also made a series in the late 70s) but I remember that it was almost nothing like the book. It starts similarly and keeps the storyline of the main female character looking for her son, but most of the other characters in the TV series aren't in the book, or if they are they are quite different. The BBC also cancelled it after the second series so it never really 'finished' - I think the series ended with one of the characters sneaking onto a plane that was heading to a secret island base, which doesn't happen in the book and is nothing like the ending of the novel. It wasn't a bad series but I much preferred the novel.

I thought that the remake of Survivors was awful - nothing like the original and nothing like the book. Why they bothered to give it the same title I never knew - presumably so that fans of the earler series might watch it, I suppose.

We watched the first three episodes and gave up in disgust.:(

missbiggles1

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

Just finished Broken Dolls by James Carol.
I did it enjoy but kept getting a weird sense of Dejà Vu. It was only published in 2014 so I know I haven't read it before.
My memory is not that bad. :cool: Maybe I've read something very similar in the past :think:
I have got the next one to read so I'll see if that reminds me of something else.

mumps - if you have read Grisham's A Time to Kill there is a follow up book - Sycamore Row.

I haven't read it (so probably shouldn't comment) but the blurb makes it sound like a cross between Silence of the Lambs and one of the books featuring Alex Cross (Kiss the Girls?) - do you think one of those may be it?

mumps

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Nothing like. The series goes on (and on) with a variety of changes of characters whereas the book has a more neater ending, with just a possibility of a follow up if he'd wanted to.

In the last week I've read "Want to Play" for the bookgroup, which was a great success and "The Virgin's Lover" not so much - not my favourite Philippa Gregory but not bad. I'm also in the middle of a bit of a Peter Robinson blitz being about to finish "Past Reason Hated". (He certainly isn't happily married in the later books and I think the series does improve.)

After somebody mentioned it on here, I went to buy Val McDermid's "Northanger Abbey" for the Kindle but didn't get round to it - I was so pleased about that when I found the paperback in a pile of unread (and untidied:o) books. I think that will be my next read and then on to a reread of "Mansfield Park" for the bookgroup, a book I love but some people are struggling with it - I can see sparks ahead with that one!

The original Survivors was much better, I don't really know why they remake things when the original is so good. I was doing a course at night school when the original was running so missed part of every episode so was so pleased when it was run again.

[Deleted User]

Sorry I haven't posted for a while but I've just caught up on what I've been missing. So many titles mentioned that I have never come across before, I love this thread:j.

Real life has got well and truly in the way this past couple of weeks and there's not much sign of an improvement anytime soon:(. I've just not been able to settle to reading, I keep having to read the same bits over and over again:o

The last book I borrowed from the mobile library was The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude. They were promoting it as Book of The Month so I thought it worth a go. It's a much-demanded reprint of a 1935 book but I've yet to get far enough into it to know whether it's my 'thing' or not. I recently re-read a Ngaio Marsh (a great favourite in my younger years) and found it so dated:o. Obviously it is dated, being written decades ago;), but the writing style had lost it's appeal. I suspect this John Bude book may be the same.

mumps

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Sorry I haven't posted for a while but I've just caught up on what I've been missing. So many titles mentioned that I have never come across before, I love this thread:j.

Real life has got well and truly in the way this past couple of weeks and there's not much sign of an improvement anytime soon:(. I've just not been able to settle to reading, I keep having to read the same bits over and over again:o

The last book I borrowed from the mobile library was The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude. They were promoting it as Book of The Month so I thought it worth a go. It's a much-demanded reprint of a 1935 book but I've yet to get far enough into it to know whether it's my 'thing' or not. I recently re-read a Ngaio Marsh (a great favourite in my younger years) and found it so dated:o. Obviously it is dated, being written decades ago;), but the writing style had lost it's appeal. I suspect this John Bude book may be the same.

It's funny how some books stand the test of time and others don't. I think I am going to give up on Inspector Banks, I think he's a bit of a drip. I am halfway through the book but I don't particularly care who did it. I have a few things on my kindle so might have a look at one of those instead.

Upsidedown_Bear

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I haven't read it (so probably shouldn't comment) but the blurb makes it sound like a cross between Silence of the Lambs and one of the books featuring Alex Cross (Kiss the Girls?) - do you think one of those may be it?

Could be - I have read both books

I'm reading the sequel now - so far it doesn't remind me of any other book.

VfM4meplse

mumps wrote: »

I think I am going to give up on Inspector Banks, I think he's a bit of a drip. I am halfway through the book but I don't particularly care who did it.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

:T Brilliant, a "whodunnit" with an unexpected twist.

missbiggles1

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Sorry I haven't posted for a while but I've just caught up on what I've been missing. So many titles mentioned that I have never come across before, I love this thread:j.

Real life has got well and truly in the way this past couple of weeks and there's not much sign of an improvement anytime soon:(. I've just not been able to settle to reading, I keep having to read the same bits over and over again:o

The last book I borrowed from the mobile library was The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude. They were promoting it as Book of The Month so I thought it worth a go. It's a much-demanded reprint of a 1935 book but I've yet to get far enough into it to know whether it's my 'thing' or not. I recently re-read a Ngaio Marsh (a great favourite in my younger years) and found it so dated:o. Obviously it is dated, being written decades ago;), but the writing style had lost it's appeal. I suspect this John Bude book may be the same.

I think that's the great thing about Dorothy L Sayers - of all the "Golden Age" detective novelists, hers don't date because they're so well written and so intelligent. As a major female character, Harriet Vane, for example, is years ahead of her time in her outlook, actions and relationships. In addition, there's so much depth to her characters, even if that doesn't always come across in TV dramatisations of the books.

teddysmum

I'm working my way(nearly finished) through a list of books recommended by The Mail, in one of it's December weekend supplements.


I'm just starting Peter James' The House on Cold Hill, which looks promising and may go on to some of his others, as he seems to be a popular author.


Ones which stick out from the list are Dinah Jeffries' The Tea Planter's , which looked insipid from the cover, but was excellent, which I followed with her The Separation, which I didn't enjoy as much.


The other was Peter Swanson's The Kind Worth Killing, which has lots of twists.


I'm not sure about Robert Galbraith's career of Evil, as I found the end a little weak. (This does need to be read in chronological order, as third in her (ie JK Rowling's) Cormoran Strike series).