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peb

You may already know this but whilst the Chalet School isn't available on kindle as GGBP hold the rights  check out Bettany Press; you will find Jean of Storms and School by the River.  Possibly worth a months unlimited - they also have a fill in (India) and some non fiction.

Also, I don't do EJO but the society is starting to release some on kindle.  I am very fond of Girls of the Hamlet Club but find she gets snobbish after that.

EB does  come up occasionally on offer - Im going to be brave and try some FF that were cheap

peb

Ps, sadly CS doesn't fetch what it once did. Tales of folk hoping to retire on the proceeds still abound

Alchemilla

I used to like reading Jilly Cooper but times have changed and some of her characters just scream paedophile! now.

astrocytic_kitten

There's a lot of overlap between your list and mine, though I suspect you're probably more high brow

Eva Ibbotson was a lot of other people's childhood favourite but only recently discovered by me. Great comfort reading. I'm sure I read somewhere that she wanted to write books that would be read by intelligent people while sick in bed. I've been meaning to do a E Nesbit re-read lately too.

Have you tried the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch? I wasn’t sure after the first book but it’s one of my favourites now. Though it does get recommended for fans of TP a lot and its not all that similar to my mind. 

Other long series I've enjoyed reading my way through from the library are Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St Marys (they do get samey / predictable but they're so much fun I don't really mind), Kerry Greenwood's Phyrne Fisher books (ditto on long series having some clangers), Jane Casey's Mauve Kerrigan books, Jane Thynne, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Caro Ramsay. I love Lucy Dillon and Jenny Colgan but don't think they'll be your cup of tea at all.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan space opera series has been recommended to me dozens of times by people with very similar taste to me but I've never got round to reading it 

I also love Jo Walton, and was surprised to fall in love with The Thursday Murder Club (totally worth the hype imo, it’s cosy and clever and also very kind).

EssexHebridean

My favourite authors are a bit of an odd mix to many perhaps. Diana Gabaldon (now known to the masses thanks to Outlander" having been taken to the small screen), Jane Green, Mark Billingham. Also like Lee Child and Martina Cole  when I'm in the right mood. From childhood favourites that still occasionally get re-read are Alice in wonderland/TTLG (My current car is called Alice!), Peter Pan, and Noel Streatfield's White Boots - would be Ballet Shoes too but I've never found a paperback copy in a charity shop sadly. Also a one-off completely left-field offering (and definitely NOT from childhood!) would be Richard Cox's "Sam 7" - grisly and terrifying in equal measure but such a good read! (Having read it from the Library years and years ago it was subsequently withdrawn - probably for fairly good reason - and proved impossible get get hold of for a long while. when - probably about 10 years back now - I spotted a copy in a charity shop for 40p I practically hit the ceiling with delight!) 

RosaBernicia

I adore Rivers of London.  Favourite recent find is Naomi Novik, especially A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.  Sort of the anti Harry Potter

Alchemilla

Lovely literary lot over here. X

redofromstart

MIA as work was busy and I spent last weekend in the garden mostly as the weather was reasonable.  Not today though, cold and windy.

Thanks for all the book suggestions, I will have a look.

redofromstart

Last weekend the weather was ok, and I spent a day clearing the weeds off the veg plot, trimming back the climbing roses and turning over the first third so the frost helps it to break down.  Sounds like a light bit of work when you put it like that.  The rose cuttings and weeds filled two green waste bins, despite many squashing downs. The third I turned over is maybe ten foot by eight foot of heavy soil.  Some years it is too wet to turn but I timed it right for once. I also trimmed the old hellebore leaves which meant I can see all the lovely things growing in the woodland bed from the house windows.

i plan to dig a trench, line with waste paper and fill with peelings etc for use later in spring for the runner beans.  I also have some salad potatoes chitting in egg boxes.  If we move this year we need to sell a lifestyle so I want the veg plot green and productive without spending lots. That said I note that Marshall's have free P&P on compost today, and Sutton's have free P&P on seeds etc.    I wanted to do more today, having done my tedious cleaning stuff yesterday but it was wet and windy.

instead I cleaned out the fridge and a store cupboard.  we need to use what we have already paid for (like filling the green waste bins every fortnight) not buy new, and bin tired stuff.  This meant fridge bottom salad, and flattened chicken to dip into hummus for lunch, and leek/carrot/chicken soup.  Potatoes cubed, par-boiled and frozen, and the softer peppers from the 30p bag of 8 got chopped and frozen.  

We are trying to do time/calorie restricted eating which makes cooking more interesting for once.  I quite like challenge of big taste, low calories and we have added some tasty new things to the schedule as a result.

We did go to ikea for planned purchases, but frittered on some 50p vases which will look nice on my study window ledge and will come in handy when we want to dress the house to sell.

i also read the meters, with photos which resulted in a new bill and third increase to the DD. I prefer that to getting into debt later though.  I will do new readings and photos end of March so we can prove that we reduced useage through March and Feb rather than paying pro rata at the much higher rates on an estimated bill. Again using what I have already paid for with the wood burner and logs. I also found some kindling in the garden that wants drying out, but it can go in the green house till spring which will save buying a new bag.

redofromstart

peb said:

You may already know this but whilst the Chalet School isn't available on kindle as GGBP hold the rights  check out Bettany Press; you will find Jean of Storms and School by the River.  Possibly worth a months unlimited - they also have a fill in (India) and some non fiction.

Also, I don't do EJO but the society is starting to release some on kindle.  I am very fond of Girls of the Hamlet Club but find she gets snobbish after that.

EB does  come up occasionally on offer - Im going to be brave and try some FF that were cheap

@peb thank you.  Many years back I was in the chalet school society till they all had a grand falling out and it was all 'hand bags at dawn' and I didn't bother with the splinter groups.  Never read much EJO but my Grandma was a fan.  Which one was based around Cleeve Abbey? She lived near it so it was a nice shared thing to talk about.

i didn't really buy books as an investment luckily, just picked up readable copies and the odd bargain that might have paid off it wasn't for the moth grubs that ate them.  I have a few bits of Louis Wain and Randolph Caldecott for similar reasons.  If only I could bring myself to murder a book and have the prints framed.