by Jane Austen. I just finished "Sense and Sensibility".

"Emma" is written in a much more lively style, and is very funny.

If any of you have seen the movie, "Clueless," it is based on the book "Emma."

I can't go to the library, because my state is still on shutdown. I have a couple of piles of books that I had purchased over the last year or so. (We try to support our local independent bookstore). One of those piles, which contain the Jane Austen books, is diminishing.

is now "open" 4 hours a day for curb service. You log in to their online site and select the books you want. After a day or so you get an email saying your books are ready and available for 10 days. During that period you drive to the library and park in designated spots, call and tell them you are there, and pop your trunk. After a short wait a librarian comes out, masked and gloved, with your books in a sealed bag, which is then placed in your trunk. This seems to be working well. Hopefully your library can soon do something similar.

It's a fantastic library. It sure would be nice to access the collection again!

Saw the movie but never read the book.
Friend had a copy and loaned it to me.
Early. Only on page 50.

Other: I found a book in my bookcase that had been there unread for years (“I’ll get to it after I read this other book...”).

Started reading. It was terrific and far, far, FAR from what I thought it would be:

“The Seawolf”, by Jack London.

Both. And yup, no wolves in that one.

"Real Murders" by Charlaine Harris - we watched a couple on the telly and I knew we had this on the shelves. It's not overly demanding.

Earlier in the week I finished "Death in a White Tie" by Ngaio Marsh - pretty good who dunnit, though I spotted the murderer quite early.

Then "Til Death" by Ed McBain - a slightly odd 87th precinct story, but McBain was pretty much incapable of writing a bad book, so I enjoyed it.

Next was "The Shroud Maker" - an instalment in my current favourite mystery series - by Kate Ellis.

Then, oh dear, "The Man in the Queue" by Josephine Tey who is wonderful - normally. But this was her first attempt at mystery writing, and it's really not very good.

Next up I might try a Jo Nesbo... or another Kate Ellis.

Nothing much happens here. Johnson is speaking tonight and will announce a relaxation of the lockdown, which my wife & I will ignore. I didn't survive a heart attack to be killed off by that little fat f*ck.

I was ill at the start of February - and would have put it down to Covid except it was far too early. But now this story puts an outbreak of the virus just 8 miles away from here in early January. So it seems possible that I'm already a survivor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52589449

Stay safe Hermetic & everyone.

Thanks for sharing it.

Relaxing has started here but it will be a while before I engage in it. I live in a low population area and we are still reporting 10 new cases every day. Not good enough odds for moi.

I started another Terry Prachett but haven't really got into it. About the First Rule book the last few chapters are a bit troubling. There's a long session of what can only be describes as a dominatrix and victim. Later there is a vivid attempted rape scene.

I am really enjoying listening to Barbara Kingsolver read her book, Unsheltered. She has such a way with words. The chapters alternate between people living in a house in post Civil War N.J. and a family living in the same house in current times. The modern family consists of an ailing cantankerous grandfather, his son, daughter-in-law, their 2 grown children Zeke and Tig and Zeke's baby boy. Zeke is a capitalist Wall Street investor. Tig is the opposite end of the spectrum. They argue constantly. This line from Tig (aka Antigone) made me laugh enough to write it down.
"You have to be a whore licking the balls of the Wall Street bull!" to her brother. -somewhere in chapter 12

Surely am looking forward to Kingsolver's book.

P.G. Wodehouse is also quite adept at phraseology. I, too, recently jotted down something clever he wrote only for the life of me I cannot remember what it was about or where I put it. Yep, oldtimers...

Celebrate your little victories.

He says, “That’s certainly another school of thought, although not a widely attended one.”

Such of lovely way of saying, “Wrong, dumbass!” I can’t wait to use it someday.

heard of this author but it's a pretty good story.

has written quite a few books. Lots of suspense, thrillers. Coincidentally enough, one of them is entitled Wolf. Funny because we were just talking about wolves, upthread.

Thanks for the thread, hermetic.

"Day of Confession" by Allan Folsom. The author of "The Day After Tomorrow" wrote this tale of Vatican intrigue, violence, and action. It was a good page-turner.

Just finished "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier. Fiction told in the first person by the model / maid of the real artist Johannes Vermeer. It was surprisingly good and different. She took the reader back to 1666 common life in Delft.

I read Girl With the Pearl some years ago and thought it was really good. I still remember certain things about it whenever I see the painting pop up somewhere online. I never realized it was also made into a movie; maybe not so great?

Glad you are finding some new things to read. Hope you and the fam are doing well.

I couldn't finish it first time round. Will try again

Welcome to DU! Looks like you are a book lover so you have found like minds here. If you start keeping a list of great-sounding books you see here, you may soon find you have one enormously long list. Goodness knows I sure do.