What other author are you reading at the moment?

[Julie2owlsdene]

The novel you've just finished reading does sound good, Aurelien, especially being set around Corfe. My Island of Fog arrived today, so that will be my next read.

[RDMorrell]

Most recently for me, it's been The Elusive Grasshopper and The Neglected Mountain by Malcolm Saville, the latest two Lone Pine books to be published by Girls Gone By. They are doing an absolutely fantastic job with this series, and I must say that the more I read of the Lone Pine adventures, the better I like them!

[Shanku]

I am reading Angels & Demons once again before watching the movie. Otherwise, most recently, I have been reading Matthew Rielly and Clive Cussler. I am big into adventure/thriller fiction.

I have just returned from a short trip to India and have bought an armload of Blytons. My bedside table is groaning under the weight. BTW thankfully the bowdlerization fever is yet to hit India so I am grabbing everything I can lay my hands on.

[auscatherine]

Well done, Shanku! I did this last time I visited my family home too.

I have just finished my second Kate Atkinson book One Good Turn (a 'jolly murder mystery') and really enjoyed it. She does great characters and descriptions. You almost forget about the crime element reading her books.

[Yak]

I've just started rereading M M Kaye's The Far Pavilions.

[Julie2owlsdene]

I've just started to read, Coot Club by Arthur Ransome. It was recommended when we were holidaying in the Norfolk Broads and one of the men from the Broadland Authority, who I was chatting to recommended it. So I thought I'd give it a read. Good so far.

[221b]

Revelation (Shardlake novels) by CJ Sansom

[dadamson]

Hiya!!!! I am reading Elinor M Brent-Dyer. She wrote a huge series of 62 books about the Chalet School. I started them about a month ago and I am on number 11. They are great!!! It all starts when a lady in her 20s, called Madge, takes her little sister of 12, Joey, (they have no other family except a brother called Dick who is going to India for something to do with the war) and a French nanny type person, called Mademoiselle Lepattre and another English friend of 14, called Grizel, and go to the Austrian Mountains called the Tyrol. They Start a school, it has day girls and boarders. There aren't many pupils to begin with, but after 5 years they have over 100!!! After 2 years, Madge marries a doctor, and they go to live higher up in the mountains, while mademoiselle lepattre becomes head misstress of the school, although Madge still has a lot to do with the school. Through the five years that I have read about, they have a lot of trying pupils and they have a princess for a pupil one year!! Obviously at seperate times, Grizel and Joey both become headgirls. I hope I have inspired you to read them, although, sadly, as they are quite old books, some are no longer in print. Hope you'v'e enjoyed reading my verdict!!! Luv ya!!!

[sixret]

I just finished reading The Oxford Tragedy by J.C Masterman(detective story)

I am in the middle of reading The Judas Window by Carter Dickson aka John Dickson Carr.

Plan to read The First Cut is the Deepest by Martin Edwards

All the three books are detective stories.I collect detective fictions from the golden age era(1920s-1950s).But most of my books are just reading copy.

Five Find-Outers books by Enid Blyon are to be blamed regarding my passion for detective stories.

[Dick Kirrin]

Right now, I'm reading "The Falls" by Ian Rankin, quite a contrast to the works of EB, or maybe not?
After all, the mysteries are more "grown-up", and there are things like violence and even murder around, but the cases affect the officers personally, as they do in EB's books with the children. OK, there is some difference between John Rebus and Julian or Dick, but Shihoban Clarke and Georgina Kirrin are somehow similar in some respects.

[auscatherine]

I am reading a fantastic Australian young adult novel called Jetty Rats by Phillip Gwynne. Surprisingly, it contains quite a few references to the Famous Five and Secret Seven. I am only halfway through it and the Jetty Rats are about to embark on their big adventure to save the town's estuary. The five protagonists are called Hunter (aka Warrior), Jasmine and Storm (a pair of hippy twins also known as 'the photocopies'), the Skullster (real name Malcolm) and Miracle (his real name because he was a miracle baby). It also contains a really interesting cast of adults as well including Zappo the cross dressing fisherman and Warwick the 'bearded boffin' paleoicthyologist. I would highly recommend it to anyone but beware the Aussie slang flies pretty thick and fast in it. Was quite a nostalgia trip for me to hear one of the older characters referring to someone's backside as his Khyber (rhyming slang and short for Khyber Pass) which was something my dad used to say.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've recently finished four books, the first being Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. Jennifer writes of her time working as a midwife in the East End of London in the 1950s - a time of hardship for many people but also of strong family/community ties. Some of the tales related by Jennifer are incredible, with the story of one woman's twenty-fifth pregnancy - resulting in a premature birth - being among the most memorable and inspiring. Over the course of the book the reader is introduced to some colourful characters and I also found the appendix on Cockney dialect fascinating. On reaching the last page, I felt as if I'd shared in a slice of British life that is now history. Shadows of the Workhouse by the same author is on my "to read" list.

The next book was Muhammad for Beginners by Ziauddin Sardar and Zafar Abbas Malik, looking at the history of Islam. As it's a heavily illustrated volume I expected the information within it to be sketchy but I was pleasantly surprised by how much the authors had managed to pack in and was hooked from beginning to end, especially by the section on literacy and learning. The Qur'anic emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge was a driving force in the early days of Islam and, from the eighth century onwards, Muslims dedicated themselves to translating texts from various civilisations - including Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, India, China and Persia - into Arabic, and debating the ideas they contained. In the late ninth century there were apparently more than a hundred bookshops in the Waddah suburb of Baghdad alone, with large bookshops and libraries attracting scholars from considerable distances and acting as informal clubs for academic discussions among writers and thinkers. I learnt that the oldest university, al-Azhar in Cairo, was established in 970, and that students studied religious sciences, logic, metaphysics, philosophy, mathematics, physics, astronomy, rhetoric and tool-making. I finished this book having learnt a lot, and with the desire to delve into some topics yet deeper.

Richmal Crompton's William at War was the third book. Although I'd read a number of "Just William" stories, I hadn't come across any set in wartime so all these stories were new to me. They were a joy to read and I found myself rooting for the rascally William in all his escapades. 'William and the Tea-Cake' was my favourite - beautifully set up, with marvellous characters and an extremely satisfying ending.

The last book I read was Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I was attracted to it by the creepy-looking cover (drawn by Dave McKean) and by the fact that I know it has recently been made into a film (though I haven't seen it). The style of writing was polished and the story was disturbingly surreal but unfortunately it lacked originality, the plot was slight and the final few chapters were hurried so that, when I came to the end, I felt, "Hmmm - was that it?!" It was one of those books where a lonely, half-neglected child explores a sinister old house and uncovers...well, I won't say any more, but to anyone familiar with the typical ingredients of fairytales and thrillers there are no real surprises. Still, I enjoyed the other three books very much and three out of four ain't bad!

What are other forumites reading at the moment?

Anita

[Fiona1986]

At the moment I am reading Killing Time, the sixth I think in the East End Murders series by Point Crime while at work, and at home A Girl for all Seasons by Camilla Morton.

[Kate Mary]

Just finished "Sunlight on the lawn" by Beverley Nichols, a lovely, gentle, witty book, and have just started "Jane Austen: the world of her novels" by Deidre Le Faye. I'm also reading and have almost finished "Christmas at Thrush Green" by 'Miss Read', written by her former editor, it is entertaining but not a patch on Miss Read's early novels.

Kate.

[Ming]

My cousin-in-law forced me to buy a P. G. Wodehouse novel last September, I didn't bother reading it until very recently, but how mistaken I was! The Luck of The Bodkins is one hell of a funny story, with interesting twists and turns and complex relation triangles, and even blackmailing!

I also read some of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl but found it rather heavy going and extremely slow, and tossed it aside (not literally!) halfway through.

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom is one of the most touching stories I have ever read. It tells of Morrie Schwartz being a "bridge between life and death, and a teacher to the very end" during his last days after contracting the incurable Lou Gehrig's disease. One book I managed to convince my brother to read! (He hardly ever reads anything)

Up next is probably The Scarlet Letter or Les Miserables, but after exams!