Just wondering ... what is everyone reading now?

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Have you ever read "Bob, Son of Battle"? It's sort of a good book, but the most fun in it is the accents they use throughout the book.

You can definitely tell the two different accents used by the main persons.
 
In a hurry at the library yesterday. Picked up "Princess Elizabeth's Spy" by Susan Macneal. Life is too short to read this novel.

It's supposed to be a thriller set during the second world war. Written by an american (no slur intended). By page 24 I had picked up on four historically incorrect references - simple ones too, that any reasonably intelligent reader would pick up on. It's always a mistake to bring real people into fiction unless you are very good and very careful. She has an openly gay character that even the Prime Minister (yes, Winston Churchill figures on the character list!) knows about - doesn't she know that male homosexuality was a crime subject to imprisonment in Britain in the 1940s? A Spitfire fighter pilot is shot down over Berlin - it was a damn'd good Spit if it could get that far on a tank of fuel! Her heroine goes to live at Windsor Castle as mathematics teacher to Princess Elizabeth (the one who is Queen now) as part of her spying activities. Lord give me strength!!!!

Turgid writing, far-fetched story line and badly written.
 
rodentraiser said:
You would have enjoyed watching Back in Time for Dinner. It was a UK TV show that took a family and had them replicate what people were eating from the 50s to 2000. Every day was a year, so every ten days was a decade. The living room, the dining room, and especially the kitchen was changed over to reflect the decade.

I was flabbergasted to see how little people in the UK had to eat during the 50s, since rationing was still on then. I remember the mother looking at a piece of meat that I think I could have eaten in one meal and she remarked that it was all the meat she had to feed the 5 of them for a week.

That makes me very grateful for what we have today.
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Rationing in Britain finished in 1954 with the end of meat rationing. I can remember sweets coming off the ration in 1953. Oddly, bread was never rationed during the war despite much of the wheat for bread coming from Canada, but it was rationed from 1946, when bad weather destroyed the British wheat crop, until 1948.

In actual fact rationing improved the health of British people; infant mortality declined and life expectancy rose (apart from deaths caused by hostilities, of course). This was because rationing ensured that everyone had access to a varied diet with enough vitamins. If you were a fairly competent housewife you could make a little go a long way and people employed in certain types of job and with certain illnesses were allowed some extras. My mother said they never went hungry at home but then, her mother was a farmer's daughter and a very good manager. There was a lot of help in newspapers, magazines, on the radio and through organisations like the Women's Institute. All sorts of people got involved with advice and recipes to make rations go further. I still use my Grandmother's recipe for "Woolton Pie", a sort of vegetable shepherd's pie, named after the Minister of Food but created at the Savoy Hotel in London by its then Maitre Chef de Cuisine and very good it is too.

There was some cheating, of course, including the black market, but in the main people stuck to it and there were some very ingenious ways of dealing with what was available. People were also encouraged to grow their own fruit and veg if they had a garden and local parks were dug over for allotments for growing food.
 
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Mad Cook said:
In a hurry at the library yesterday. Picked up "Princess Elizabeth's Spy" by Susan Macneal. Life is too short to read this novel.

It's supposed to be a thriller set during the second world war. Written by an american (no slur intended). By page 24 I had picked up on four historically incorrect references - simple ones too, that any reasonably intelligent reader would pick up on. It's always a mistake to bring real people into fiction unless you are very good and very careful. She has an openly gay character that even the Prime Minister (yes, Winston Churchill figures on the character list!) knows about - doesn't she know that male homosexuality was a crime subject to imprisonment in Britain in the 1940s? A Spitfire fighter pilot is shot down over Berlin - it was a damn'd good Spit if it could get that far on a tank of fuel! Her heroine goes to live at Windsor Castle as mathematics teacher to Princess Elizabeth (the one who is Queen now) as part of her spying activities. Lord give me strength!!!!

Turgid writing, far-fetched story line and badly written.
Click to expand...

Bad research. During our BiCentenial John Jakes (author) wrote a series of books and throughout the seven books which covered our history up to the present date, he had fictional characters interspersed with history. He also had the real people of our history in it. Such as George Washington, Paul Revere, etc. in situations that we as Americans knew to be true and how they affected our history. Excellent research. He had done his research completely. He also had a Bibliography at the back of the each book.

When you are writing fiction and put real people into the plot, you had better have all your facts straight. Because you can bet someone will call you out on them. :angel:
 
I recently finished Dean Koontz Velocity. It was really good. Mysterious, a little creepy and intriguing. Now I'm reading Strangeville by Kenneth Tingle. Also kinda creepy but also funny. I was laughing out loud reading the first chapter which doesn't normally happen to me reading a book. Can't wait to see how the story plays out!
 
Just finished In a Dark, Dark Wood. Quick read, very predictable. Will probably make a fun movie, but it was straight out of the Gillian Flynn playbook.
 
I started "Two for the Dough" by Janet Evanovich on my kindle, then today we started "Of Mice and Men" by Steinbeck in English class, AND I also have a paperback version of "Dorothy Must Die" by Danielle Paige that I started. It's unusual for me to have 3 books going at the same time but they are all good books so I'm sure I'll be fine reading them at different times.
 
The Souschef and I are now into the 6th book of The Clifton Chronicles Binge Read | Jeffrey Archer's The Clifton Chronicles Series of Novels
each of them are cliff hangers and the 7th book will be on the market in November. It's been really fun reading all of them together although he reads much faster than I do, and he has to let me catch up so we can talk about it. It's kinda like our own private book club.
Jeffery Archer is a genius at weaving a compelling story, and we both highly recommend this series.
 
Picked up a quick-and-dirty beach read at the library. "Life's a Beach" was quick, and not really dirty. Unless you count the sand. ;) A sweet little nothing story, which works just fine for me during baseball season. This time of year I can barely keep up with my magazines - one monthly, and one bi-monthly.

Summary and reviews from "Goodreads" - because there is no book site called "OKreads". :mrgreen: Life's a Beach
 
Currently reading 'breaking the Jewish code' forget the authors name.
Basically it addresses how the most persecuted nation does so well in all aspects of life. Just bought 'the missing link' by Kevin Lings a South African economist and fund manager at STANLIB an investment company I use to invest clients money.
I haven't read a story book in ages.
 
I just finished the Dorothy Must Die trilogy. Interesting take on the OZ stories. There are 2 volumes of short stories that I have to go with the trilogy but needed a break from OZ. I read a cozy mystery by Leighann Dobbs titled "Paws and Effect" set in Mystic Notch NH. It's book 5 in a series that involves ghosts, magic, books and cats. Really fun stories.
 
RPCookin said:
Working my way through the Joanna Brady series by J.A.Jance. Just started reading "Skeleton Canyon" (#5 in the series).
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I really enjoy J.A. Jance RP. All her series are good. My only problem is trying to remember which ones I've already read since she's written so many. :)

I'm glad this thread resurfaced. I've been reading my usual cheap supermarket novels but thought of it as I read the latest grocery store find.

It was "Palace of Treason" by Jason Matthews.

Good read if you like spy thrillers. What made me think of this thread is that at the end of each chapter he includes a semi - recipe of a food mentioned in that chapter. No Tsp's of or cook this way or that involved. Just a list of ingredients and general description of preparation.
Some made me want to experiment with some of them. :yum:

I've also been living in the past with a few old books I've kept around as the wanna read someday.

One that has gotten read was "Men and Volts at War" by John Anderson Miller.
Copyright 1947 General Electric Company.
One I'm sure my father got as an employee and I don't know if he ever read it or not.
It was rather interesting with many interesting pictures. It told in a company biased way how involved the civilian workforce was in the war effort, Some of the things they developed and to what extent they were involved in technological advancements of the times.

Keep reading folks. :clap:
It's much better then the boob tube :flowers:
And fiction is fiction no matter what the source. ;)
 
I'm currently working my way through urban fantasy and urban romantic fantasy. That damned Nalini Singh ruined me with her Psy-changling series and now I read even the racy parts. :)

I'll recommend some urban fantasy if anybody asks. In essence it is fantasy based in the present era on Earth and the cities and countries that exist in the modern world, and they have cellphones, Internet, etc. ... and one or more supernatural species/races which the humans may or may not be aware of.

I've kept a list of all the books I've read since about 1990 including author, title, how much I liked it, and date completed. I keep it on one of my websites and can access it at the library if I can't remember whether I've read a book. That's 1,600 books in 26 years = 61-62 per year. I'm currently knocking down 2-3 per week. No way to remember that many novels.

I have a wish list at the end for ideas on which to read next. Also joined GoodReads.com.

Early 2013 I switched to ebooks and since then I never looked back, almost 100% ebooks. Most public (and many private) libraries are hooked up with Overdrive Media Console which you can put on your phone, tablet or computer (best on a tablet) and get a Kindle app because Kindle is the best format.

It simply amazes me that I can be reading at night in bed, finish a novel, get on Overdrive and search my libraries until I find a book I want to read (often the next in the series), download it and start reading it -- all in less than 10 minutes! Note that Amazon acts as the delivery agent. You need an Amazon account which costs nothing and no fee is charged for the delivery service. (Must be hooked up with Overdrive.)

I have about 8-9 library cards in 3 states, so I have a huge selection of ebooks. I often reserve the same book at 2-3 libraries and take the first one I get, cancel the rest.

Lots of people say they don't like ebooks and usually they are the ones who haven't tried reading an ebook. 'Nuff said. :)
 
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Gourmet Greg said:
I'll recommend some urban fantasy if anybody asks. In essence it is fantasy based in the present era on Earth and the cities and countries that exist in the modern world, and they have cellphones, Internet, etc. ... and one or more supernatural species/races which the humans may or may not be aware of.
Click to expand...

I'm still interested in Urban Fantasy...

I am currently reading The Obesity Code, by Dr. Jason Fung and I, Zombie, by Hugh Howie.

I highly recommend Dr. Fung's books and Videos on You Tube to anyone on the High Fat/Low Carb Diet.
 
It's been awhile...just life in general, but I finished a really good culinary novel. The title, "Margherita's Notebook" by Elisabatta Flumeri, set in the hills and village of Tuscany, lots of recipes at the end, eccentric characters, romance and humor. I really enjoyed it.
 
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