A thread for everyone to give their views on books which they are reading at the moment.

Just finished:



The story of Paul Revere and his importance to the Revolutionary movement in Massachusetts, there was a good bit more to Revere than simply the midnight ride. Also gives a good view of the build up of tension culminating in the events of April 19th, 1775., and a description of the fighting along the Concord - Boston Road.
A must read for anyone interested in this period of history.

A good follow up, though Osprey is now more expensive than textbooks.

A good thread but perhaps needs some  parameters - mark  you I doubt nordmann will confess to reading Boon and MIlls here but someone else might. History related  perhaps  - but defining that could be a problem;  good ol' bodice rippers are sort of historical - well hysterical, anyway.

I took Hilary Mantel with me on a sea voyage. However the voyage ended before Hilary did and I haven't had a chance to finally consummate the act, so I'll wait before I deliver a verdict. I'm tempted to admit that she's good in bed, but in fact she's equally as good on the poop deck, at least as long as the light holds out.

Reading "Showing the flag", a memoir by Capt. Augustus Agar, VC, RN. Mostly about his time in NZ when the NZ Division of the RN was being created in the early 1920s.

Priscilla wrote:

A good thread but perhaps needs some  parameters - mark  you I doubt nordmann will confess to reading Boon and MIlls here but someone else might. History related  perhaps  - but defining that could be a problem;  good ol' bodice rippers are sort of historical - well hysterical, anyway.

My thoughts were any type of book, Priscilla, with lockdowns increasing all book recommendations (or otherwie) will be valuable.
And, away from history, I do enjoy reading Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" novels.

Reading, or rather re-reading;



The transformation of the British Army from a small, regular, pre-war Imperial Police Force into a mass conscript army of citizen soldiers.

Review:
Browned Off and Bloody Minded

I am reading Zero: the biography of a dangerous idea, by Charles Seife and did wonder about starting a thread on it, but haven't. It is full of mathematical ideas, and apparently Zero was hated by the Greeks who didn't believe in infinity or the void, and stuck to Aristotle's ideas for a long time, though the Eastern religions were open to it. (Apparently zero is strongly linked to these concepts.) The Greeks and Romans also saw things in geometric terms rather than algebraic ones. I find it quite hard to understand being full of philosophy and difficult maths concepts. But it is written in a very readable style and I am enjoying it enough to read bits aloud to my husband who now also wants to read it.

I do feel I am missing out by never having read Jack Reacher novel.

Had a look at that book on Amazon, Caro. Handy with the "look inside" feature. It does look quite entertaining, the introduction with the story about the USS Yorktown's computer failure is a good start.

Amazon: Zero

Next time I'm in the library I'll have a look for it.

I usually have several books on the go. I am reading at the moment:

On Britain and Germany: (honestly!)  Tacitus, translated by H. Mattingly. It is an ancient Penguin book I bought several decades ago and never read. It is now full of dust mites which are making my eyes extremely itchy. Seems startlingly modern. I am actually enjoying it.

The Collected Poems: C. P. Cavafy Recollections of the poet's passionate younger days, but also brief and vivid recollections of historical moments. Painful to read, but beautiful stuff. My favourite is: "The god forsakes Antony".

Keeping Chickens: Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis. Don't think I'll bother. Chickens seem to be more trouble than they are worth. And too many foxes around here.

If you just want a few eggs for your oun / family use, avoid chickens. destructive little devils in a garden, scratch everything up. Keep a few Khaki Campbell ducks. They trample a little, but are far more plant friendly, far less disease prone, actually lay more eggs than laying breeds of hen, are weather proof, longer lived - and the clincher - THEY EAT SLUGS! We keep both, and for most purposes I prefer duck eggs, contrary to the "rural myth" they do not taste strong, but be careful when baking. They have a much higher yolk / white ratio than hen eggs. Ors are Muscovies and far less productive, but good entertainment.

We had hens when I was a child on a farm, and I hated them. In those days you shut up the "clucky" hens and if I saw one still sitting on the egg I was supposed to take them and put them in a specially make cage, but some of them were inclined to attack and I would shoo them off and then tell my grandmother there was a clucky hen but it ran off when I tried to pick it up. Then there was the annual performance of our whole family (me and my sister, my father, grandmother and great-uncle) cleaning the area and getting rid of red mites. Not to mention taking the household scraps out to them - quite a distance from the house as I remember. (Probably only a few metres.) It was amazing how much easier it was if my grandmother was holding one side of the bucket. 
But one of my children keeps chickens and they love them. They have only 5 of them, though. 

But I have just started A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute and know after just a few pages that I am going to love it - I really enjoy Shute's books but I think this one might be his best known and liked.

Temperance wrote:

I usually have several books on the go. I am reading at the moment:

On Britain and Germany: (honestly!)  Tacitus, translated by H. Mattingly. It is an ancient Penguin book I bought several decades ago and never read. It is now full of dust mites which are making my eyes extremely itchy. Seems startlingly modern. I am actually enjoying it.

I see Mattingly's book is available on Amazon, Temp. This is an older translation on Gutenberg, though I prefer books to reading onscreen:

Tacitus: Gordon 1910

Thanks, Trike! At least you don't have to worry about Tacitus triggering a dust mite allergy if you read him on a screen!

Green George wrote:

 ... avoid chickens, destructive little devils in a garden...

Caro wrote:

...and I hated them...

This seems to be the opinion of most people who have kept chickens. One woman I know, of the woke type who goes around "rescuing" people and feral creatures generally, took in several "rescue" hens. Her husband built the birds a lovely henhouse and erected a fox-proof enclosure for them. But the gallinaceous refugees proved to be a surly lot, all bedraggled, vicious and resentful, and, like delinquent kids, they refused to be "grateful". They caused no end of trouble, squawking non-stop, and pecking one another and any human who came near. In true "rescuer turned persecutor" fashion (see Karpman Drama Triangle), their saviour eventually had the whole lot of them put down. A bad business.

I don't think I could cope with such possible hen trauma, but a slug-eating duck or two sounds a good idea.

Green George wrote:

...but be careful when baking...

No worries there. I am careful to avoid any activity that could be called "baking".

But back to books.

I am ashamed to admit that my project of improving my grasp of current affairs by reading up about the problems of the Middle East, a venture begun in the New Year after binge-watching Homeland, has come to an ignominious halt. I spent about £40 on books (see below) in a rush of enthusiasm, and began them all. They are now on a shelf collecting the ubiquitous dust mites. Sigh. If we go back into lockdown here (unlikely, as Devon is right at the bottom of the Daily Mail You Are All Doomed table, despite the hordes of unmasked city tourists who descended on us during the summer), I suppose I shall have to make more of an effort. But I have no real appetite for this subject. Does anyone want any of these?

The Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East - James Fisk (beautifully written, but so depressing - why are humans so stupid? I got to Iraq and gave up).

Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine, 1917 - 2017 - Ian Black (superb research, but again so depressing - got to page 90).

Lords of the Desert: Britain's Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East - James Barr  ("special relationship"? - what a joke - got to page 60).

I don't like modern history - I wonder why? Odd how some periods and topics grab one, whereas others are just hard work.

Two on the go at the moment - A Nevil Shute - Ruined City (grabbed with 3 others on a "4 for £1" offer at the local hospice shop and re-reading the "Lost Booker" novel, J G Farrell's "Troubles". Wonder what his untimely death has deprived us of?

First visit to the Library in a while. It is operating restricted hours, everything has been shifted around and there were a few empty shelves. Did not find the book "Zero, the biography of a dangerous idea" and the only two Lee Child novels available, I had read. However, I did get these three;

Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick. Historically follows on from the Paul Revere book. I've read Philbrick's book about the Little Big Horn, so this one should be OK.

The Appeal by John Grisham. First time read for this one. Expect it to be the usual high standard Grisham legal thriller.

The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter, the official (authorised by the HG Wells estate) sequel to War of the Worlds. I had to take this when I saw it purely out of curiosity . Frankly I could do without sequels/ reinterpretations* of this story. Not overly hopeful of this book.

* The graphic novel, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: War of the Worlds however is a lot of fun. Who knew that Rupert Bear and Badger Bill were creations of Doctor Moreau.

Though I didn't read it recently a sequel which I did enjoy was Death Comes to Pemberley by P D James which is a murder mystery set a few years after the marriage of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy.

I'm reading The Fair Maid of Bohemia which is another murder mystery with a historic setting.  It's by a writer called Edward Marston set around an acting company who (if they were real and not fictional) would have been contemporaries of Shakespeare roughly.  I'm enjoying it so far and have a suspect in mind for the murderer (though I am sometimes wrong in working out "who done it").  Part of the plot involves the acting company being invited to Prague to give a performance of a play.  I didn't realise travelling players travelled overseas in those days.

Many years ago I borrowed a book about crafts from the library.  It's so long ago I can't remember its title but I was surprised to note it was published by Mills & Boon which was a company I always associated with somewhat lightweight romance novels.

I am nearly finished A Town Like Alice, though still a bit worried that it's not going to have the happy ending that I want. 
And also wading my way through Zero, though I comprehend about 1 word in 10. If I thought it was complex before that was nothing compared to the later maths I am grappling with (well, skipping mostly is more accurate). We are now onto things like 'singularities' and 'set theory', 'irrationals' and 'infinite infinities'. 
This is one paragraph: "The real numbers are a bigger infinity than than the rational numbers. The term for this type of infinity is [something I can't reproduce but looks like a K and an N together and a one beside and below it - I think he gives it a name but I can't seem to find it now], the first uncountable infinity. Technically, the term for the infinity of the real line is C, or the continuum infinity. For years mathematicians struggled to determine where C was indeed K. In 1963 Paul Cohen proved that this puzzle...was neither provable nor disprovable, thanks to Godel's incompleteness theorem. Today most mathematicians accept the continuum hypothesis as true...In Cantor's mind there were an infinite number of infinities - the transfinite numbers - each nested in the other. K nought is smaller than K one, which is smaller than K two etc. At the top of the chain sits the ultimate infinity that engulfs all other infinities:God, the infinity that defies all comprehension. Unfortunately for Cantor not everyone had the same vision of God... Kronecker believed that God would never allow such ugliness as the irrationals, much less an ever-increasing set of Russian-doll infinities. The integers represented the purity of God, while the irrationals and other bizarre sets of numbers were abominations."

And that's just one of the more understandable passages! Cantor's theories won out in the end. But I've still got several chapters to go: the next one is called Absolute Zeros, then there is Zero Hour at Ground Zero, and finally Zero's Final Victory plus a long set of appendices. The last sentence of the actual book is, "The universe begins and ends with zero."

I read A Town Like Alice many years ago.  From what I remember I liked it.

Mathematics aren't my strong suit.  I had no idea the zero was so complicated.  My father taught maths and my brother earned his living as a computer programmer at one time so I must have missed the 'skilled in mathematics' gene.  Still, I take some small solace in the fact that even great minds sometimes had to grapple with matters - Pythagoras put forward a certain theorem about right-angled triangles but it was Euclid who proved it. Often I find I can absorb facts better if I understand them but with some matters pertaining to mathematics I accept that they work without fully (or even a little) understanding them.  The rules pertaining to, for example, the radius and circumference of a circle (and don't let's forget pye) can help me plan out a circle skirt but I don't know precisely why they work, I only know that they work.

Caro wrote:

I am nearly finished A Town Like Alice, though still a bit worried that it's not going to have the happy ending that I want. 

Caro, we discussed already this book overhere (in the fiction forum?) I remember ( I read the book and saw the film)

I saw first the film and read then the book. And as usual the book is better than the film. Especially as it is from my all time favourite Nevil Shute. My mother only to her fourteen to school, had nevertheless read all the "better" novels of the local library
and she recommended already Nevil Shute as the best writer to me (I then some 10 years old).

I don't want to spoil your happy end or not, but after reading the book you can perhaps watch the film.
https://archive.org/details/CidadeComoAlice

As an aside Caro, we saw the film with the family,  I think end the Fifties. As the  film is from 1956 I think that he was immediately released in Belgium too. As usual in the original language and with French and Dutch subtitles. Splendid film and welcomed by the family as excellent (my mother preferred the "British" films above the American ones).
But what i wanted to say about the film: Here it was released under the Dutch title: "ik ben geboren in Malakka" (I am born in Malacca), which is much more to the point, than the title of the film in English and of the book.
It was only later by reading comments about the book that I found it out about Alice.

I read also a book a bit in the same vein if I remember it well about female nurses captured by the Japanese during the fall of Singapore and held in a Japanese concentration camp...the title something like "women behind wires"?
Odd what one remembers after all those years of that book...
At the end the "periods" of the women in the camp shifted to the same time of the month...
The Japanese officers wanted to install a brothel and at the end the women came involved, but after some one or two"trials" the officers finished it, because they said from their own will that it didn't work...

Kind regards, Paul.

I didn't realise you could work Latin poetry out mathematically, Caro.  I remember there being certain patterns for the writing of sonnets.  I seem to remember that Adelard of Bath had something with introducing the zero to Britain.

Caro, I might look in the library to see if I can find The Luminaries.  I baled on the TV show after one episode because it was so disjointed.  Eleanor Catton the author adapted it too.  I might try the book to see if it makes more sense.

The book is not easy either, LIR, but it does it all the other way round. It starts with 12 men sitting round trying to fathom what happened to Emery Staines, and goes from there. The twelve men represent the zodiac forms , but neither I or my husband even tried to work those out. We both loved the book and I think I would have enjoyed the movie if it had stuck to that format, rather than beginning in Dunedin and showing you how the characters knew each other.

Library books are subject to quarantine as well. The books I returned last week had to go into a section of shelving marked with the day of return and sit there for three days. Only then were they to be put back on the lending shelves.

The latest ones are a couple of police thrillers, one by Alex Gray and one by James Patterson, and this;



How Dinosaurs have been regarded and portrayed over the last couple of centuries.
from the book:
"As it happened, dinosaurs were discovered in approximately the same historical era when belief in dragons, demons and angels began to fade. Inevitably, dinosaurs stepped into the vacancy they had left, acquiring the symbolism from all three predecessors"

This is a somewhat of  coincidence as I relatively recently have started re-reading the first parts of Anne McCaffrey's series of Pern. 
Fantasy - not SciFi.

Having just finished The Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster (one of my favourite author), a ficitonal diary taking us most of the way through the 20th century and focussing a lot on the wars (but not the Vietnam War which was the main one in my lifetime here in NZ and I was quite amazed when I learnt later that Britain had not been involved at all), I have gone from the sublime to (I presume) the ridiculous. My son gave me a second-hand copy of The Boleyn Inheritance and since I had quite enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl's romance, I thought I'd give it a try. Not enjoying it much yet, but am only a few pages in. 
I was interested and not a little amused when I looked up the wikipedia entry for TOBG to see in the first paragraph the following: Much of the history is highly distorted in her account


This one I gather is about Anne of Cleves, though so far we have had short chapters seen from the viewpoint of Anne, her sister and a Boleyn girl. 

Nielsen wrote:

This is a somewhat of  coincidence as I relatively recently have started re-reading the first parts of Anne McCaffrey's series of Pern. 
Fantasy - not SciFi.

Is the Pern series worth a read, Nielsen?  I'm not usually a fantasy enthusiast but I read George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (well the books that have been published so far - the series is unfinished as yet) after having my interest piqued by the TV show Game of Thrones.  I liked the first three books of the saga and thought bits of the last two (as yet written) books were good; they were a bit of a mixed bag.  My understanding is that the dragons are good dragons in the Pern books.

I've finished the murder mystery I was reading before (I was partly right about who the baddy was).  I've started another murder mystery but haven't read far enough to discuss it.  I've also re-started (via Librivox) The Letters of Abelard and Heloise after a long period.  I think the last time I looked at them was pre-Covid.

LiR,

In my opinion - this time not so humble - I think the Pern series are well worth a read, if you're not really into fantasy my suggestion is that you begin with 'Dragonflight' - yes dragons really are the goodie-goodies of Pern
I've read quite a few of of McCaffrey's books, and generally find them interesting and well thought out.

Another trip to the Library has produced;

Two John Grisham books, The Summons, never read, and A Time to Kill, never read seen the film.

And this, bet Temp has read this about a dozen times:

I haven't read it even once, Trike, but I have just had a "look inside" it on Amazon. It is really interesting and I am tempted to order it. Peter Cresswell has done some research on the invention of Jesus, too - another subject that fascinates me. The author's a Cambridge man, so presumably not out to make a quick buck by being controversial for controversy's sake. I have been warned recently to stop reading - as it makes me "disturbed and unhappy"!!!!! Better stick to Netflix (not).

Temperance wrote:

I haven't read it even once, Trike, but I have just had a "look inside" it on Amazon. It is really interesting and I am tempted to order it.

No Temp, that's what libraries are for.

Temperance wrote:

I haven't read it even once, Trike, but I have just had a "look inside" it on Amazon. It is really interesting and I am tempted to order it. Peter Cresswell has done some research on the invention of Jesus, too - another subject that fascinates me. The author's a Cambridge man, so presumably not out to make a quick buck by being controversial for controversy's sake. I have been warned recently to stop reading - as it makes me "disturbed and unhappy"!!!!! Better stick to Netflix (not).

Temp, I liked your expression  (or is it your usual own style?):
"The author's a Cambridge man, so presumably not out to make a quick buck by being controversial for controversy's sake."

Temp, here in Belgium too, more isolation again...
If I am not working, or on one of the history fora, especially this one, I am looking on the hard disk of my cable TV connetcion, as for instance to a lot of blood dripping "detectives" as 
on BBC entertainment:
Silent Witness
The Midsomer Murders
The Coroner (less blood dripping)

On ARTE (French/German channel)
The Sandham murders (French dubbed, but available with French subtitles)

On RTBF (French language Belgian TV)
Grantchester (French dubbed, but available with French subtitles)
And a French series: "Meurtres à Colmar" (also with French subtitles)
The advantage of looking on the hard disc: one can pass the "advertisements" with a speed of 64 times...

And somewhere my evergreen on a French language channel with subtitles: Death in paradise. And now I see for the first time in my life that it is Franco-British (or is it the other way around)...who said that the Entent Cordiale is dead?...or has it only to do with money?...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_Paradise_(TV_series)

And Temp I get relaxed from all that stuff...not so much about the blood dripping, but in fact about the plot...from far a bit the Agatha Christie way?...sorry , Temp but all that makes me relaxed and happy...

Yours...

Temperance wrote:

I haven't read it even once, Trike, but I have just had a "look inside" it on Amazon. It is really interesting and I am tempted to order it. Peter Cresswell has done some research on the invention of Jesus, too - another subject that fascinates me.  

Actually quite interesting.

Basic theory is that Yeshua was a member of a dynasty who claimed Davidic descent, were religiously strict Jews and politically anti-Roman, and this family was involved in disturbances against Rome and its Sadducean collaborators  throughout the first century of the common era, including the stillborn revolt of Yeshua himself and the mass revolt of 66 AD, up to the execution of Yeshua's grand nephews, Zoker and James, in the time of Trajan.

Trike, I read also a novel about that time in ancient Rome, in fact a trylogy:

about Cicero

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero

the trilogy about Cicero (each book I read with some time interval)
https://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Trilogy-Robert-Harris-Collection/dp/9123481587
Compelling literature (at least for me) and as I read in the past that much about Cicero, quite based in the real history.

And I wasn't aware that all these books, from which, as I see it now, I have read more, are from this "colourful" author:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Harris_(novelist)
I read also from him: "Conclave", but for some reasons I didn't know that "Fatherland" (that I never read) was also from him.

And what a life...friend of Blair, among other events...

Kind regards, Paul.

It's odd, isn't it, that now people from all over the world can basically watch the same things on television or Netflix. We are old-fashioned (or just old) in our viewing habits, sticking to television and just recording things so we can skip the ads. But what I meant to say was we watch much the same things as Paul, the lighter murder mysteries, though he doesn't mention things like Vera, Shetland and Endeavour. 

Re books: I am making my way very slowly though The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. A very respected novel, set in the Belgian Congo with a Baptist family from America going over on missionary work. Seen mostly through the eyes of the daughters of the God-fearing and evangelical preacher, who is set on the path of converting the native population and teaching the girls the "right" path. I gather it is not a happy story, so I am diverting myself with Icons of Britain, short snippets from various British people on things like trees, post boxes, animals, the weather etc. Edited by Bill Bryson.

I've read a few of Brysons' books Caro, and really enjoyed them.

Returned the latest three books to the library but didn't take out any new ones.

Got this from Amazon a few weeks ago and have just started reading it:

I usually watch The Guns of Navarone at some point over Christmas & New Year.

Got this Osprey book about the campaign on which the story is based;

Quite recently, within the last couple of weeks, the Koh-i-Noor diamond came up on a quiz show.

Reminded me to dig this one out, and start reading it again:

Just finished "The Shepherd's Crown", the last of Pratchett's "Discworld" books. I've been putting it off since publication, but finally had it given to me for Christmas. Still not 100% sure of my views on the book. I don't think it was exactly finished, but taken as is, still worth a read.

Not read that one either GG. Last Discworld novel I read was "Steam", and that story seemed a bit rushed. Didn't like it near as much as the earlier stuff.


"The Massacre of Mankind". Probably read WOTW about 50 times and never tired of it. TMOM once was sufficient.

Not currently reading but bought just yesterday The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer edited by FN Robinson for 20c at a second-hand shop. My son (a reader) was with me and looked inside it and said, "But it's not in English! At least some of it is in English but most of it not." So we explained that it was medieval English. I very much doubt I will read it either, but it came up in one of my U3A courses, and I was bit sorry that I couldn't remember much at all of The Canterbury Tales. 

Today on the radio they were talking about Prisoners Correspondence Network where prisoners write to people on the outside and vice versa. It reminded me of The Invisible Crying Tree on the same subject where a man is writing to a murderer. It was one of my favourite books and I am sorry to see it is not in the Dunedin library catalogue. I wonder if it still in the Balclutha system - I would have liked to buy it if they disposed of it. I will phone them on Monday. I said to my husband "I might like top do that." And he said, "I was afraid of that. You have enough to do." But I don't really.

I remember we all bought the Coghill version - a rendering into modern English - to read alongside the original. Bearing in mind we were teenage boys in an all-male boarding school you'll not be surprised to hear the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale received plenty of attention.

The latest purchases from Amazon.

A new Osprey book "British Battleships 1890-1905" and

"The author deserves applause for bluntly expressing the truths about our recent military failures that too many of those involved find it convenient to obscure" Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Triceratops wrote:

"The author deserves applause for bluntly expressing the truths about our recent military failures that too many of those involved find it convenient to obscure" Max Hastings, Sunday Times

I think it is about this book you have mentioned, Trike.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592318.2013.802604?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=fswi20

As I read this text, one has to wait for your comments after reading the book...

One thing that I remember from my inner circle, who served during years end the Sixties on a NAVO base in Germany near the DDR with American soldiers...
They were over equipped and with all kind of facilities and costed the American taxpayer perhaps four times more than those of the other countries, but they were strict to the point. Don't try to deny orders, nearly as strict of those Germans from "the time". Only that the average American soldier was not a highlight in "intellectual" interest...

It can be that it has nothing to do with the line of thought of the book, but the British soldiers were perhaps under equipped and not feeling that confortable and that supported by their hiearchy? I heard from a former British soldier...

The same I heard recently from a Belgian soldier who was on duty with the Americans in Afghanistan (about the Belgians then)

As I read the comments, perhaps my suppositions have nothing to do with what the author wants to prove in his book. But feeling comfortable and supported by their hiearchy for the average soldier has perhaps also something to do with the execution of the strategy of that hiearchy? Or is it only the "strategy" that counts when there are failures?

Kind regards, Paul.

Green George wrote:

I remember we all bought the Coghill version - a rendering into modern English - to read alongside the original. Bearing in mind we were teenage boys in an all-male boarding school you'll not be surprised to hear the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale received plenty of attention.

Quote :

That happened at my convent school too, Gilgamesh. Though I think someone in the class borrowed it from the library.  Edit: I don't know why the part of this comment where I'm NOT quoting Gilgamesh looks like it is part of the quote.

With the easing of lockdown I went to the local public library for the first time in what seemed like ages.  At the moment I'm reading a historical thriller - one of Lindsay Davis's books set in ancient Rome. It's called The Grove of the Caesars.  It's not about her character Falco per se but the heroine is Flavia Albia, Falco's adopted daughter. I'm not that deep into the novel but I'm liking it so far.

Thanks for your endorsement of Davis's 'Flavia Albia' books. I re-read the whole Falco series over the last two years (I'd first read them when they came out in paperback) and was thinking I might start on the Albia books (which I've never read and would have to buy having no English language library here). However just at the moment I'm re-working my way through Steven Saylor's 'Roma sub Rosa' series (I've just finished 'Murder on the Appian Way' and am about to start 'Rubicon'). These are similar to the Falco books in that the principal protagonist, Gordianus the Finder, is a "crime detective" in ancient Rome, although the books are perhaps a bit more political, being set in the decades between the end of the Roman republic and the rise of the Caesars, and so set against the machinations of Sulla, Cicero, Crassus, Catalinus, Clodius, Pompey Magnus, Julius Caesar etc. (who all appear as major characters). I'm thoroughly enjoying them, as I did when I first read them years ago.

I'll have to look out for the Steven Saylor books, MM. I hadn't heard of them before.

Got this a couple of Christmases ago, finally got round to reading, and , I have to admit got completely hooked on the story. So much so, that I'm now onto Book 3:



and watching the series: