Listening to the Spare right now.
My most recent favourite crime/mystery/thrillers are (USA) One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner, (UK) The IT Girl by Ruth Ware, (Ireland) The Last to Disappear by Jo Spain and (AU) Daughters of Eve by Nina D. Campbell, also The Bay and Shiver by Allie Reynolds (I'm probably biased with the Oz girls though!).
For a great feel good read I loved Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Anything by Heather Webber (e.g. Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe, South of the Buttonwood Tree, etc) fall into the same category of easy to read feel good fiction, one of my favourite American authors, lovely heartwarming stories.
That has divided the book group I'm in, real shouting matches (I haven't read it and keep my head down, just go there for the red wine and nibbles, LOL!), and on an online book group (UK) they have forbidden anyone mentioning it because of its divisive nature!
I don't like biographies as a rule (except for Agatha Christie's autobiography - that was a cracking good read!) and as I'm not too keen on the "ginger&whinger" I will be giving them the privacy they so desire and not be reading it! 😉
I’ll let ya know what I think. Some books I prefer actually reading vs Audible but Harry reads this one himself so I’ll listen for the accent 😉. Do you think it’s so divisive where you are because you’re part of the Commonwealth? How does Australia feel about the situation? I’m American so…
Enjoy the snacks at group 😃
Could be still being part of the Commonwealth, personally have no issues with the monarchy, have no idea how the majority of Australians feel, although to me, he seems to be a bit of a FIG JAM (f*** I'm good, just ask me). "Virtue signalling twat", members of my family have called him (that's the sanitized version, lol!). There has always been a question mark over his parentage so he may not even be a "spare", who knows.
The girls at my bookclub (all 45+ in age), fall into two camps with the majority not on his side (the royalists who are still mourning the Queen), and the others (a tad left of centre politically perhaps, but loved Diana/hate Camilla)!
I picked up a new one by Nicholas Sparks the other day...wanted something light, romantic to get lost in. It ended up being a rerelease of an old one I had read a long time ago. Good thing I didn't remember how it ended. LOL It was called A Bend in the Road. 🌻
(The other book I was reading was The Book of Ho'oponopono: The Hawaiian Practice of Forgiveness and Healing... I was doing an course to become a certified practitioner. It was a good read as well. ❤️)
Hey Jo - THANKS for the list!!!
I haven’t belonged to a “Whine and Book” club for a long time - but it was always great fun and laughter. jb OOPS was not finished ! Need another cup of coffee!
Hey Jo - THANKS for the list!!!
I haven’t belonged to a “Whine and Book” club for a long time - but it was always great fun and laughter.
we would use a dish towel (kinda like the Terrible Towel the Steelers wave) to allow someone to speak as everyone wanted to contribute at the same time. You had to have possession of the towel in order to voice an opinion…lol..you know what they (whoever they are) say ”in wine there is truth” and most find that it must spill forth! 😜. jb
That's so annoying when authors re-release their old books under a new name, don't know how many times I've doubled up, either that or an English author will release a new book with different titles for their UK, USA and AU/NZ markets, like we all speaka da English, why does the title have to change, very strange!
I like the sound of that Hawaiian book, how do you pronounce that again?! LOL!
Aloha koʻu hoaloha!
Yes the bookclub is a lot of fun, we don't always all read the same book, but there have been some heated discussions by a couple of members who seem to take it as a personal insult if the book they loved isn't admired by the rest of the group ("Where the Crawdads Sing" anyone, like WTF was that? - most of us - except those two - hated it!), so we just ply them with more wine and it's all friends again, LOL! I'm definitely going to suggest the dish towel thing though (or tea towel as we call them here!)
My picks to read are usually on the humorous side, I remember my first one "No, I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub" by Virginia Ironside was met with a lot of laughter and hilarity - I knew I'd found my tribe.
I'm a library rat and will read every book by an author I discover and like. Currently, I'm reading all of Fannie Flagg's books - I had read Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe years ago - but I like Elizabeth Strout, Truman Capote and Sophie Kinsella when I'm feeling light and just want to laugh. Stephen King's latest book, Fairy Tale, is great. I got lost in it and was sad when it ended.
I love everyone's book club stories! I'm averse to joining one because I've never wanted to feel the pressure of reading a book in a certain timeline. My books are always overdue and then I pay the fine and throw in more money because I don't want our libraries to close due to low funding.
I tend to do the same thing eefyjig. LOL Margaret Atwood comes to mind... totally absorbed her books.
Soooo here in the States I have no idea the significance of being thought of as a “fig jam” but it doesn’t sound good lol.
I fell asleep listening to the Spare last night. No idea the last thing I heard. Just woke up to Prince Harry’s voice again ha.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-history-of-rock-music-in-500-songs/id1437402802
My husband is listening to this podcast every night before bed. I'm usually reading while he's listening. I have to say, more than once, I've put my book down and listened along. If you love rock, Andrew Hickey's unusual yet compelling voice draws you in. He chooses one song within the past seventy years or so (yeah, we're that old) and then goes in all kinds of directions relating to that one song.
This one 😃
The Nightingale: A Novel https://a.co/d/7HI5px7
The content is not light. I ugly cried- which imo means it was good.
I fell into the author trap several years ago reading Jill Conner Brown Series starting with Sweet Potato Queens-Book of Love
Funny stuff. jb
Love Fannie Flagg! Welcome to the World, Baby Girl is a favourite and A Redbird Christmas will forever be on my Christmas book shelf (yes, I'm a Christmas book tragic, might be the snow/winter thing perhaps and even though I have experienced a couple of white Christmases while in the Northern Hemisphere, I will always be dreaming of one down here!).
Fairy Tale is the first Stephen King book I have read for years and totally agree with you (and at least this one didn't scare the bejesus outta me).
Now JB, my "to be read" stack is like Mount Everest, can you please stop adding to it! 😅
I haven't read The Nightingale but have read Firefly Lane and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, she definitely does tug at the heartstrings.
There are only a couple of books I have really ugly cried at: Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes and one from years ago, may not still be in print, but it was called To Be Sung Underwater by Tom Mc Neal, was an absolute mess after that one (and still think about it with sadness years later). Have never done a re-read of either of these but they will always stay with me.
