The "I am currently reading" thread

[RichJay 10]

Dialogues of the Dead by Reginald Hill

[rainbow2411 11]

Bess of Hardwick, First Lady of Chatsworth by Mary S.Lowell, Bess led a full and interesting life, she really knew how to take care of business, started out with a started with a dowry of the equivalent of £2000 in today's money and died the second richest woman in England. The book gives a good insight into the politics of the Elizabethan era in particular how the Queen leeched of the people who served her, so no change here then.

[evildrneil 14]

AWESOME AWESOME books!! Read them all! All 3 are ACE.

 

Really? I thought they were pretty poor and over-rated. The first one was managable the second stretched credulity and writing style to breaking point and was so bad I couldn't face the third one!

 

Anyway as to what I'm reading - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which I'm finding both fascinating and well written.

[Plain Talker 11]

Bess of Hardwick, First Lady of Chatsworth by Mary S.Lowell, Bess led a full and interesting life, she really knew how to take care of business, started out with a started with a dowry of the equivalent of £2000 in today's money and died the second richest woman in England. The book gives a good insight into the politics of the Elizabethan era in particular how the Queen leeched of the people who served her, so no change here then.

 

Bess of Hardwick has a fascinating story, doesn't she, rainbow?

 

She was thrice widowed, and she and her third husband, George Talbot, were all-but bankrupted when he became the gaoler for Mary Queen of Scots, during her time in Sheffield.

 

(They had to fund MQoS's household bills. It wasn't simply 'keeping' MQoS, they were responsible for feeding and housing her considerable retinue of servants and Ladies in Waiting.)

 

To say that she came back from near financial ruin was no mean feat, at all.

 

I'm currently almost finished with reading part one of Antonia Fraser's biography of MQoS, which has been a really interesting book, and I'm looking forward to starting part two.

[Guest]

Darkness, Take My Hand - Dennis Lehane. Not the first one in the series, but the first one I've picked off the bookshelf, and the first Lehane I've read since Shutter Island.

 

It's living up to its title.

[GothicCharm 10]

Really? I thought they were pretty poor and over-rated. The first one was managable the second stretched credulity and writing style to breaking point and was so bad I couldn't face the third one!

 

Anyway as to what I'm reading - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which I'm finding both fascinating and well written.

 

maybe it depends on taste

 

anyway the third one ties everything up its basically all one story

[Chris_Sleeps 10]

Started:

 

The Condition of the Working Class in England - Engels

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

[rainbow2411 11]

Bess of Hardwick has a fascinating story, doesn't she, rainbow?

 

She was thrice widowed, and she and her third husband, George Talbot, were all-but bankrupted when he became the gaoler for Mary Queen of Scots, during her time in Sheffield.

I'm currently almost finished with reading part one of Antonia Fraser's biography of MQoS, which has been a really interesting book, and I'm looking forward to starting part two.

 

In the 70's I read Fraser's Cromwell and Charles 2nd and found them excellent, although I must admit to loving the Jean Plaidy novels I read them all from the Plantagents through to Victoria.

I have recently discovered C.J.Sansom series of novels about Matthew Shardlake a lawyer, these are set in the reign of Henry 8th. I have enjoyed reading them, I feel Sansom gives an excellent account of the effect the dissolution of the monasteries had on the poor of the country as well as the ruling classes.

It's a pity that people on the forum haven't set up a book exchange system, although I can't for the life of me think how this would work, but I would be happy to put mine into the pot.

The Bess of Hardwick was just a little hard going so tonight I am starting a easy read novel, James Patterson's Cross Fire

[Rich 12]

I'm currently reading the official guide to LA Noire, cos I'm stuck on the bit where you have to chase a baddie over the Rooftops, and if he escapes it's game over.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Rich

[taxman 12]

Just started The Snowman by Jo Nesbo.

 

I wasn't overly impressed by The Redbreast but I saw this on the book trolley at work and thought I'd chance it.

[Guest]

Darkness, Take My Hand - Dennis Lehane. Not the first one in the series, but the first one I've picked off the bookshelf, and the first Lehane I've read since Shutter Island.

 

It's living up to its title.

Finished this. It's rather good. Stretches credulity a little in places, even with disbelief firmly suspended, but it's certainly compelling and extremely well written. I've ordered the rest in the series.

 

I'm currently reading Talking about Detective Fiction by PD James.

[william8411 10]

I'm reading "Pride and Prejudice" (Jane Austen)