Read Scotland 2014 discussion

Just so I can keep track of what I have read and when.

Book 1 complete - Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin finished 13/1/14

Linda wrote: "Just so I can keep track of what I have read and when.

Book 1 complete - Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin finished 13/1/14"

Did you like it, Linda? It's very popular on the blogs.

I did enjoy it but I felt it was not quite as good as some of the earlier Rebus books, it did keep you guessing to the end though, which is a sign of a well written book.

I finished Tony Black's Truth Lies Bleeding. It kept me hooked till the end and some of the characterisation was excellent. It is very dark and has its share of twists but I won't be rushing to read the next book in the series just yet.

I have just put away - Defending Joe by Paul Lee. I say put away because it was so bad I couldn't actually read it all so I won't be counting towards my total but put it down to a bad experience.

Late last night I finished Whose Turn For The Stairs by Robert Douglas and it was like saying goodbye to some old friends. It was a great book full of well written and true to life characters. The whole story is about the families who live at 18 Dalbeattie Street Maryhill in Glasgow and is set in 1950. It made me laugh, it made me shed the odd tear and it made me happy. It brought back many memories of relatives that the characters reminded me of as well as the many stories my granny used to tell me. If you like this genre of book, you could do much worse than give this one a try.

Linda wrote: "Late last night I finished Whose Turn For The Stairs by Robert Douglas and it was like saying goodbye to some old friends. It was a great book full of well written and true to life characters. Th..."

Sounds right up my alley, Linda! Thanks!

Another book read - something very different this time. The Tailor of Inverness is about a Polish man who settled in Inverness where he ran a successful business and brought up his family. The book is written by his son about his father. I enjoyed it and I certainly learned from it but it was hard going at times trying to keep all the Polish relatives straight in my head! Worth a try if you like biographies or true life tales of WW2.

I have also made myself a pinterest board of some of the books I have bought that will fit this challenge. Hopefully this will make finding my next book a bit easier in the future. If you fancy a keek, it's here - http://www.pinterest.com/lruk/scottis...

Linda wrote: "Another book read - something very different this time. The Tailor of Inverness is about a Polish man who settled in Inverness where he ran a successful business and brought up his family. The bo..."

Thanks Linda, some good books there!

I have just begun, 'Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men: Searching through Scotland for a Border Collie'
by Donald McCaig, and I am loving it. What a wonderful writer he is. You read the first sentence or two or page or two, and realize that you wouldn't care what he was writing about, you would probably want to read it. I love writers like this.

Finished 'A Risk Worth Taking' by Robin Pilcher last night. I like all his books, but this one a little less than others. A bit cruder, and adultery thrown in which didn't quite fit with what you really thought the characters, as you had grown to know them, would do. But I stayed up quite late to finish, so he is very readable like his mother.

Books 5 & 6 complete, almost half way and reading a more diverse range of books from my 'to be read' pile which is great.

Book 5 was Pilgrim Souls by Gordon Ferris, book 3 in the Douglas Brodie series. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of these books and eagerly await number 4 later this year. This book sees Brodie once again helping the good guys, leading to him behaving in a way that the good guys don't always behave and finishing with an almost satisfactory conclusion. This is set in the aftermath of WW2 and takes place in Glasgow and Germany and examines how some of the nazis that escaped retribution after the war did so. I enjoy reading about how Glasgow was then and the way that the real and imagined are blended together in these stories makes for excellent reading.

Book 6 was more true than fiction. It was 'Where there is evil' by Sandra Brown and begins with the disappearance in 1957 of 12 yr old Moira Anderson from Coatbridge. It then moves onto Sandra's early childhood and how and when it overlaps with that of Moira, the sister of her friend. This book leads on through Sandra's adult life and her campaign to prove that her father, Alexander Gartshore, was responsible for the death of Moira. It was just last month that the Scottish Crown Prosecution Service stated that, had he still been alive, they would have charged Alexander Gartshore with the disappearance and subsequent murder of Moira all those years ago.

Linda wrote: "Books 5 & 6 complete, almost half way and reading a more diverse range of books from my 'to be read' pile which is great.

Book 5 was Pilgrim Souls by Gordon Ferris, book 3 in the Douglas Brodie se..."
Linda, I love true crime! I'm checking this one out!

Having spent all day yesterday in bed ill, I managed to read book 7 - Spit against the Wind by Anna Smith, a new author for me. My review can be found here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Linda wrote: "Having spent all day yesterday in bed ill, I managed to read book 7 - Spit against the Wind by Anna Smith, a new author for me. My review can be found here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Hope your feeling better today, Linda! The book does good!

Book 8 done and dusted. I read The Dead Won't Sleep by Anna Smith but I was very disappointed in this compared to the previous book of hers that I had read. My review is here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Book 9 complete. Another Anna Smith book called The Homecoming, which was the best of the 3 books I have read by this author. My full review is here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Time now for something a bit grittier for me, and perhaps unrelated to Scotland, just for a wee while.

Book 10 - London's Calling by Sara Sheridan

This is the 2nd book in the series about Mirabelle Bevan and her assistant Vesta who run a debt collecting agency in Brighton set in the early 1950's. One of Vesta's friends approaches them asking for help then is found dead in police custody. Mirabelle and Vesta then investigate matters. A great, easy reading book with a super storyline. I really enjoyed this one.

Book 11 - Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon

This was suggested to me by a friend and although I enjoyed it on the whole, there were a few parts of the book, mainly those involving sex and violence, that I felt jarred with the rest of the story. This is the first in a series of books with the same central characters so I may read another some day, but not before I get my to be read list down a little.

Linda wrote: "Book 11 - Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon

This was suggested to me by a friend and although I enjoyed it on the whole, there were a few parts of the book, mainly those involving sex and violence, t..."

I tried to read her Outlander' series, Linda but the sex was over the top and and didn't fit at all. Great story until that came into and I didn't finish the book. Too bad. Would have loved it otherwise.

Book 12 - Blood City by Douglas Skelton
I read this after a positive review from another group member (sorry I can't remember who) and I enjoyed it, mainly because I grew up in the east end of Glasgow round about the time the book was set and I recognised the streets and areas that the book was set in. My full review is here - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Book 13 and not even half way through the year! I may just aim for a double.

Anyway book 13 was The Death of Bees, a very oddly readable yet ultimately disturbing book about family life for a very dysfunctional family starting off with two sisters aged 12 and 15 burying their dead parents in the garden. My full review is here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Congratulations Linda! I thought that book sounded interesting too. Odd, quirky, I like that.