What are you currently reading, how do you feel about it, and what's next on the list? Part 2

Posy Simmons is so brilliant. I too have all her books, all of which are sheer genius, it's not only the illustrations but the stories/themes are bang on as well.

France are much, much more into graphic novels than we are here in Britain, and she even won an award from them at a French graphic novel festival a few years ago.

When I ordered my copy of Gemma Bovary from our local bookshop the bookseller and I spent a good 10 minutes looking through it and chuckling

I've just read 'Hunger and Thirst', the new novel by Claire Fuller. I love her writing and this one is was so enthralling I couldn't put it down. It's quite a unique blend of social realism, focusing on the life of a 16 year old girl who was living in 'care' during 1980s Britain, and a kind of literary Gothic horror. The characters are so well written and the plot so twisted and mesmerising I didn't want it to end. It's quite scary though and has put me off bungalows.

My next book will be 'High and Low', the new novel by Amanda Craig. This is apparently a 'state of the nation' type book, a genre which I tend to enjoy a lot.

'Transciption' by Ben Lerner. Top notch. Short but beautifully witten, exploring the nature of the relationship between parents and children, as well as how they are remembered and recorded. Do we ever really know them? Do they ever really know us? Do we want them to? Interesting technique of using the same sentences more than once but in relation to different events and characters. Made me think something had gone wrong the first time I noticed. Maybe a tiny bit po-faced, but existentialism is a serious business...

Next up some non-fiction - 'A Noble Madness', a history of collectors as cultural figures.

Currently reading the Mike Atwell detective series by Steve Higgs and Penelope Cress. Easy to read, entertaining and slightly comedic. I don’t usually read books in a series straight after one another, but these are fairly short, with an underlying storyline running through them, so just finished book three in the series.

Not sure what I’ll read next (after books 4-6). Something from my ‘library’ on kindle, probably downloaded after a recommendation on Bookbub, which could be anything from a psychological thriller to a cowboy romance (which I’ve only recently discovered is a genre).

Oh 100%, it’s made a big difference. It’s one of those neck ones

Would you recommend the reading light @tretaddict ? I’m 59 and need reading glasses.

I'm just finishing Opal, Patricia Wolf. Is the third of an Australian detective series. Think the first is called Outback.Bit formulaic, but perfect for a rainy bank holiday.

Coming to join in. I’ve been off books for a while and bought a few to get me back started. And a reading light! I am a speed reader so a book usually done in 1-2 days
currently on Redeeming 6 - Chloe Walsh. I got hooked by this series

No but I think I’d love it. My grandparents lived in France so I havd some exposure to the expat scene there. Will seek it out.

I’m currently ploughing through Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series - v quick reads though each book seems to get 100 pages longer, they are hit and miss, this one, the Sun Sister, is more absorbing than the last one - more interesting and realistic characters. She does a rollicking story each time and I like the way she contrasts past/ present with a different location around the world each time.

Trying to get started with On Chapel Sands, Laura Cumming’s memoir of her difficult relationship with her mother.

Me too! Grew up on the Grauniad Women’s Page and Posy! ( back when they straightforwardly supported women’s rights, sigh). I also have most of her work.
Have you read Gemma Bovary, her take on Emma Bovary? V funny.

Love Posy Simmonds. I bought all her old guardian comic books off ebay a few years ago with the Weber family that were published in the 80s and really remind me of my childhood.

I don’t know if graphic novels count but I just borrowed Posy Simmond’s “ Cassandra Darke “ from the library on a whim, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

To be fair to it @tobee , it wasn't awful. It was a good yarn, and it was clear that a fair amount of research had gone into it, but it wasn't what could be called literary. It reminded me of the Dennis Wheatley books I used to see my tiny, kindly, church-going mother read back when I was a kid. Out of curiosity, I read one of those a couple of years ago, and, just like this book, it was Hammer horror in written format.

Omg that sounds intriguing (not enough to read it obvs) but what a combination!

I looked at the Booker long list and have forgotten! 😬 What looked particularly “What the hell is this nonsense?” @IceIceBabyBump? 😊

I can now add that I DON'T recommend 'Netherwood' by Jake Arnott, unless you're a big fan of Hammer horror type movies and/or live in Hastings.

I can heartily recommend 'The Burial Tide' by Neil Sharpson. Also, 'The Cold House' by A G Slatter which is very short - only 160 pages - and so might be a good starting point. Good characters and smart dialogue.

I mean, obviously, with this sort of thing, you have to be willing - and able - to suspend your disbelief but I've always loved a fairy story (I mean the evil ones like The Red Shoes) so I see folk horror as an extension of those.

The News from Dublin by Colm Toibin. He really is the master of Show don’t Tell. Enjoyable if not memorable.

It's making me feel old and a bit sad@IceIceBabyBump, like literary fiction has moved on and left me without a backward glance, after I've been faithful to it for all these years, the heartless bastard. (But I feel like it will be back when sales of the emperor's new clothes decline...)

On the upside, literary folk horror, which I'm now exploring, seems to be quite a rich seam! Today, I've bought 'Starve Acre' by Andrew Michael Hurley, best known for 'The Loney', I think, and 'Netherwood' by Jake Arnott which is about a couple who move from London to a house in Hastings with links to Aleister Crowley. And they both (the books, not the couple in Hastings) have lovely covers which is always a bonus! I think the key thing is I want a story, not just nice writing, and these seem to provide that more than straight literary fiction at the moment.

I've been on a run of books I haven't enjoyed. My usual sort of book is what might be called literary fiction, but I think I just don't like the sort of thing that seems to be fashionable currently. So, I've taken a lateral step and read, 'The Burial Tide' by Neil Sharpson, a work of folk horror by an Irish author, and based on Irish folklore. It's a cracking read. Pacy, some great characters, touches of humour to relieve tension. The only thing I didn't like was the cover (all red and black and making it look more juvenile and gory than it actually was). Will look for more like that.

Also enjoying a book of essays by Anne Fadiman. The good thing about essays is that if a particular topic doesn't interest you, you can just move on, but she writes beautifully on a wide range of topics with grace and humour. I particularly enjoyed essays on Charles and Mary Lamb, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Norwegian Arctic Explorer Vilhjamur Stefansson. Will look for more by her too.

It's a long time since I read 100 Years of Solitude, @Eastie77Returns , but your review is making me consider revisiting it. I can't really remember specific details but I do remember loving it.

Another of my current novels is one that I have been meaning to get around to for decades - Moonfleet by J Meade Falkner - there is a sense of foreboding in this tale of smuggling along the Dorset coast.

A lighter tale of the same is The Distracted Preacher by Thomas Hardy, a long, short story. It was tough eking out a living in those days!