Hobbies and Crafts

RUNNING WITH CROWS: The Life and Death of a Black and Tan (copied from Amazon Kindle)

It is 1921. In Ireland a war of bloody reprisals wages between republican volunteers and Royal Irish Constabulary. The RIC, their ranks augmented by Great War veterans - dubbed the Black & Tans - face daily ambushes and sieges. Outrages are perpetrated by both sides in this struggle for an independent Ireland. Meanwhile, in Dublin's Mountjoy Gaol, Constable William Mitchell awaits execution for the murder, in the sleepy Wicklow town of Dunlavin, of respected magistrate Mr Robert Dixon.

Who was Mitchell and did he in fact kill the magistrate? What political machinations make Mitchell's execution a foregone conclusion? Who is the sinister character whose life runs in parallel to Mitchell's and whose path briefly crosses his - with fatal consequences?

DJ Kelly's latest research-based novel reflects the true, yet hitherto untold, story of the only member of the British crown forces to be executed for murder during the Irish War of Independence.
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(D J Kelly is) An avid researcher, she writes works of biographical fiction and also a series of little popular local histories.

It could be a good read for those interested in Irish History
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Ann - my copy of Warpaint also arrived yesterday. Since I'm currently reading Citadel, it might have to wait until I've read something other than a WW2 based book, just to have a break from the era.

Aah but what is it about and is it good Dermot?

'Running With Crows' by D J Kelly (Published 2013).

I felt obliged to do so because the Author is my cousin!

I have read Warpaint Ann, a while back hope you enjoy as much as I did :-D :-D

I have received Warpaint, the Genes book club book this morning. It is not terribly thick so should be a fairly quick read and it does look promising. :-)

I have at last worked my way through "Engleby" by Sebastian Faulkes. Reviews of the book have been mixed. All I can say is that I found it very difficult to really get to grips with it. In fact I read half, then read a Terry Pratchett book for a bit of light relief and then went back and read the second half of Engleby.

The book starts when Mike Engleby, a clever boy from a working class background, is a second year student at Cambridge. You then go back to learn about his early life at home and school and start to realise he is a somewhat flawed character. At uni. he becomes obsessed with a fellow student, Jennifer, and when she disappears the book turns in to a sort of murder mystery. Is she dead? Did Engleby kill her?

The whole book is narrated in the first person by Engleby, who is a very unpleasant character. There's nothing likeable about him at all.

There is a sort of flatness about the writing which only peps up in the last part of the book. I don't want to give away the story in case any of you readers want to give it a go but there is a slight twist in the last couple of pages and you are left wondering how much of the previous 340 pages is true and how much is a product of Engleby's very odd mind.

I'm glad I've read it but it's not a book I will keep and re-read. Not an enjoyable book at all.

Its such a lovely book Ann I really enjoyed it :-)

I am reading The Midnight Rose at the moment and enjoying it. :-D

Special ~~~~s to Vera & Det :-) :-) <3

Hopefully Phyll will be joining us soon, she is now a member of the Kindle Tart Group and is learning how to use her new Kindle Fire.......Hope she enjoys hers as much as I do mine ~~~Phyll <3

I have read a couple of books suggested to me lately

Armour et Vengeance - J Fred Beckman £1.86 Kindle

A French woman, Nicole, vows revenge against the Nazis during WW 2. She joins the French Resistance fighters and takes part in attacks on German trains and installations. She falls in love with an American agent, Falcon, who was parachuted into France to work with the French Resistance in preparation for D Day.
Two German soldiers surrender to them during an attack on a German installation. The fighters hold them as prisoners of war and plan to turn them over to the Americans who have landed on the Normandy coast. But the D Day invasion stalls for many days. The Resistance group is fearful that their prisoners would escape and sent the Naziz to shoot them. They decides to execute the prisoners. Nicole tries to save the "good" German who is an anti-Nazi.
Nicole is forced to defend herself from a former schoolmate who has been recruited into the Milice, the French copy of the German Gestapo.
She presses Falcon for romantic attention, but he tells her, even though he doesn't have a girl friend, he must avoid any connection that would take away from his mission. Nicole realizes that he must be lying...

Tilly Against All Odds - Romanie Brooke 96p

Tilly Ashton, fresh from the country, thought life was going her way when she found employment as a house-maid in one of London's fashionable town houses. She was even more convinced when she met the local police Constable, Thomas Deering.

Falling in love with each other they made plans to marry. Then, her life took a drastic turn when the son of the house raped her, leaving her with a child and nowhere to turn. In despair she left the house, and Thomas.

While Tilly struggled to make a new life for herself, Thomas vowed he
would not rest until he’d found her and extracted an explanation as
to her sudden abandonment of him and their future together.

Sounds my sort of book Det. I prefer thriller/mystery/fantasy to romance. I'll look out for that one

As you may recall, I favour murder/mysteries over Romance.

Soft Target by Conrad Jones is one of the last reads.
After a series of horrific terrorists’ bombings against civilians (the Soft Targets) in the US, the bulk of the book is set in the UK when the hunt for the Islamic terrorist cell and its leader moves to these shores.

One reason I enjoyed the book was because it is aimed at the British Market, with British anti terrorist squad characters, not gung-ho American ones. Indeed, there are a number of inclusions of factual acts by the US forces which go someway to explain why some young Muslims feel the need to extract revenge.

The book also draws in references to previous terrorist outrages in the UK – the attack on Glasgow Airport, failed London car bombings, the stop and detention of the occupants of a car on one of the UK motorways all of which occurred at about the same time. It also goes some way to explain why we are no longer allowed to take liquids through airport security!

The last chapter seems to draw the story to a relatively satisfactory conclusion….until you read the Epilogue.

Ooh do like her books.

Of course I will :-D

Remind me Mers and I will have a look :-D

Ive downloaded it Emms thanks sweetcheeks :-D :-D <3

Thought you and Ann and maybe a few others would like to know Lucinda Riley has a new book coming out in July called The Italian Girl....... cant wait!!

<3

What you think of it Mers <3

Hi Karen as always you are welcome here and there is also AnninGlos thread the Greaders some of us partake in and enjoy.....Take a look it might just interest you... :-)

I wasnt sure on Longbourn but I really did enjoy it....highly recommended !!

Keep looking in and we will always have something new to talk about and also a few smiles along the way....... :-D :-D

Emms the Mrs Simpson books sounds fabulous just going to take a look .... <3

Special waves to all bookworms and Kindle Tarts ;-) <3 :-D

Finished Kick Her Again: She's Irish....

Started That Woman.....insight to Wallis Simpson's life.

Emma :-)

First of all, thank you Mersey for your nice welcome, and apologies that I haven't responded until now - I don't look in that often and am therefore just catching up with this thread now.

In answer to your question, I am both a book and kindle fan (very new to Kindle after stubbornly refusing it in favour of the beloved book, and pleasantly surprised to find there are free books from the A___ site, many of which I have downloaded).

I am now busy looking through this whole thread for all the recommendations and reviews that you lovely people have posted, in order that I can fill up my Kindle (sounds like a song!) in preparation for my next sojourn to the desert.

By the way, I have recently finished Longbourn and thoroughly enjoyed this Downton Abbey meets Upstairs Downstairs novel - a lovely story despite me being totally prejudiced towards anything whatsoever to do with P&P and the like :-)

K x

Snap Ann. I'm getting Warpaint too. And I have a few books lined up waiting to be read. Just started on Engleby by Sebastian Faulks