Ginny, I am reading the same book! I think I was first on the library’s list.

I finished The Devil's Bargain by Stella Rimington. It is what I hope will be a new series by her. I loved all the older ones featuring MI5 operatives. Ms. Rimington was at one time head of MI5, so she knew of what she wrote. The main character in this new one is an American woman working at the Embassy in London post KGB days but dealing with Russian spies.

The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg .

I could not finish Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. His characters soon became less interesting and more annoying.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY USA TODAY • Elizabeth Berg has written a lush historical novel based on the sensuous Parisian life of the nineteenth-century writer George Sand—which is perfect for readers of Nancy Horan and Elizabeth Gilbert.

At the beginning of this powerful novel, we meet Aurore Dupin as she is leaving her estranged husband, a loveless marriage, and her family’s estate in the French countryside to start a new life in Paris. There, she gives herself a new name—George Sand—and pursues her dream of becoming a writer, embracing an unconventional and even scandalous lifestyle.

I'm reading Josephine Tey's A Shilling for Candles and just picked up a real book at the library, What Happened to Nina by Dervla McTiernan. It wasn't available on line yet, and I couldn't wait.

I finished Death of a Master Chef by Jean-Luc Bannalec last night, the latest in his mysteries set in Brittany. I enjoyed it very much. You don't have to have read the previous books but it does add to the experience.

I also reserved Long Island by Colm Toibin, a sequel to his book, Brooklyn which I thought was brilliant--tho not the movie, third-rate. It just came out so I'm on the library's long waiting list. I prefer hard-copy books.

I just saw on NPR’s website that Hulu has a Shardlake series coming out, based on CJ Sansom’s books.

We watched the Shardlake series (four episodes to cover the first book) and it was OK. There was some pretty obvious CGI, the actor playing Matthew didn't fit my idea at all, and a lot of it was visually very dark. I'd say worth a look, but don't worry if you can't access it.

I'm deeply enough into What Happened to Nina to find out that my first thoughts about it are quite wrong. Good book, set in Vermont.

Just finished The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger. Good book, beautifully written, but uncomfortably violent for my taste. I gave up on Krueger's popular Cork O'Connor series because of the violence, but until now, I have found his standalone books to be really, really good. I'm sorry to say this one felt like it could have been a Cork O'Connor book if the sheriff had been named Cork instead of Brody.

I have just finished Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa. i saw it at Barnes & Noble last week and picked it up for evening reading during a family get-together last weekend but didn’t really get around to it until I got home. I liked it, but didn’t love it; I may reread it at some time to see if it clicks better for me. That has happened before so it may happen again with this one.

I'm reading Fateful Words, one of Paige Shelton's Scottish Bookstore series. I do love Edinburgh and Scotland.

Carolyn, do the Scottish Bookstore series books need to be read in order?

Kathy, I agree that The River We Remember felt like a Cork O'Connor book, just set in the 50s. I was a bit disappointed.

Do you ever find yourself reading a book and thinking when a dozen or so pages into it "This seems familiar"? This happened to me when I picked up a very tatty copy of P D James' Innocent Blood. A teenage girl, on reaching her 18th birthday and knowing herself to be adopted collects her 'real' birth certificate and starts to hunt for her birth mother. Although the story held my attention I found the characters quite nasty. The girl might have been very clever and on her way to Cambridge after winning a scholarship, but I doubt that many people that young could quote long screeds of restoration poetry or have such well-formed political views. The father was a pompous ass of a TV 'talks' presenter and the mother put upon by everyone.

Interesting details of the more seedy areas of London . . . written about before redevelopment or gentrification.

Have been reading with some mixed feelings John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick. I've always felt his books hark back to the hippy late 60's days. It seems if I ever visit New England again not only must I beware of the weather but be on the lookout for evil females. After reading this I felt a good cleansing shower was in order!

Another read is Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance a new copy from Amazon that was cheaper than the cost of postage! I think the descriptions of rural Kentucky and the way of life are a mile away from our polite, nicely brought-up Carolyn.

I had only heard of Vance as DH's cousin, on a recent visit, mentioned that he lived on her block (Alexandria VA).

I know they say that comparisons are odious and over here we do have plenty of folk who think the world owes them a living, or who mistreat their kids, regularly change 'partners' or are just plain 'work-shy', but these relations of Vance's could take the gold medal for this way of life. His grandmother's language would make a parrot blush and her useful arsenal of loaded weapons would scare off even the most determined English Social Worker.

The last third of the book drags as he has now got himself via the Marines into College and is getting rather boring about how well he is doing . . . and I know that from his poor upbringing he is 'getting on' but he doesn't need to overplay it.

Thanks, Vee. Loved your phrase 'language that would make a parrot blush'. You confirmed my decision not to read Hillbilly Elegy, despite the rave reviews.

Kentucky Appalachia is sort of its own little world, or has been, anyway, since it was very isolated because of difficulty in building good roads in the mountains. Vee, I don't know if you are familiar with the singer Loretta Lynn who grew up in the KY mountains as a coal miner's daughter and whose life and career are interesting.

I have not read Hillbilly Elegy and don't intend to. It didn't get good reviews locally.

Kathy, the Bookstore books are better read in order, but the one I just read was not--I couldn't get what I needed as an e-book.

I'm still trying to care about George Sand in the historical fiction The Dream Lover.

I recently read Alex Cross Must Die by James Patterson and Dead Mountain by Preston & Child. They were both okay.

I just read Ruth Rendell's A New Lease of Death, also published as Sins of the Fathers. I don't read many of hers as they tend to have very seamy topics, incest etc. I went to make notes and found I had already read it in 2007. Whoops, that's the first time I've read a book with no recollection of ever reading it before.

The book was pretty good tho it had little of her usual protagonist, Inspector Wexford. But the plot was about a couple who opposed their son's marriage as the girl's father was hanged for murdering an old lady for her money. That's revealed immediately so no spoiler. The book seems to accept this as a perfectly legitimate view which I thought was awful. There was a lot of class bias too, the curse of Britain. Here comes a spoiler so stop reading if you want to read this book. The solution is that the murderer was not the girl's real father so the marriage could go ahead. This doesn't change the underlying false assumption that someone is to be judged by their 'tainted blood'.

Gave up on The Dream Lover and am now reading My Grandmother Said To Say She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman. I like the basic story line and the delightful characters but I do not like the fantasy world he creates for the child. The reader is supposed to learn all the names of the parts of that world and their attributes. In my opinion it ruins the story.

Ginny re class bias/'the curse of Britain' I was just pondering that very point in connection with the Hillbilly book by Vance. Several times he brings up the subject of the people from his town being looked down on because, among other things, they were poor. He goes on to say that once some of these families found better employment (although many preferred to do no/little work) and therefore got better wages they became members of the 'middle class'. Would it be correct to say that in the USA one moves up or down the Social Ladder depending on the amount one earns?

Wrong or right this idea does not necessarily apply over here. The term 'middle class' has now largely been replaced by 'middle England' a term invented by politicians and used alongside 'hard working'. Although we would like to pretend we are all equal there are still bastions of the older generation who believe 'knowing your place' and the education you received is more important than how much money you earn. So someone from Vance's background would never be able to fit in comfortably even if their neighbours witnessed them fighting and cussing in their porticoed mansion and hurling the Wedgwood at each other's heads, rather than on the front porch of their former cabin.

Just wondering out loud!

Vee, I think you are correct. Class in the US is very much affected by money in the sense that people can more up or down much more easily. There's very little, Well, who were your great-grandparents? Few know or care. Some do but they are the exceptions. Earlier or later, we all came from someplace else.

I don't mean that money is the sole deciding factor. There are certainly others. Most of us can think of rich people with no class or those with little money with lots of class. It's just that in the US it is so much easier to move up or down and acquire or lose class distinctions like correct English, nice manners, a low voice etc.