Have you seen All Is True with Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen?
I’m not familiar with that film but I’ll watch for it.
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Back to the books now.
I’m a big fan of mysteries/thrillers/psychological thrillers. Currently reading Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell.
My first recommendation for anyone that asks (and likes my kind of books) is Unmissing by Minka Kent. I love that book.
Over the summer I read The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. I never read a mystery/thriller/psychological thriller quite like this one.
IMO I would skip the sequel The Kind Worth Saving. But the first is a definite read.
The Lives We Bury by Allen Eskens was a good murder mystery you might like.
I’ll check those both out, thanks!
I would second that recommendation.
Currently reading The Wrong Family by Tarryn Fisher. A homeless women moves into the home of a family without them knowing. I’m still waiting for the plot to twist, but I like the premise.
Oooo, that sounds interesting! Adding it to my list too.
I have been recommending Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. I tend to avoid books “picked” by celebrities, but I liked this one. I listened to it this summer.
Currently listening to the CJ Box series that inspired the TV show Big Sky. The first book is Back of Beyond. The second book is the story and characters that the TV show starts with.
Just finished “White Pill” by Michael Malice about the Soviet Union, how it came to be, how Soviet life was, and how it ended. Interesting read. Tons of notations for citation purposes but it reads more like a novel so it was easier reading than the stuff I usually pick up.
I’m a non-fiction reader though read fiction/occasional historical mystery to cleanse my brain from footnotes..
Am reading A.N. Wilson’s The Victorians, lining up his After the Victorians. Began w/ his Victoria: A Life.
He’s revisionist and makes the claim, based on genetic inconsistencies, that Victoria wasn’t the Duke of Kent’s child but his wife Victoire/Sir John Conroy’s issue. Queen V. was the first hemophiliac carrier in the royal family and not a carrier of porphyria; the disease that George III and several of his sons suffered from. To me, a jaw dropper!!
Wilson isn’t a fan of Churchill, Americans and is an unapologetic appeaser.(Calls WWII an unnecessary war). Anyway, surprising enough to keep the reader awake. When he’s not airing his biases, a strong historical narrative..
Wilson is such a great writer. My favorite from him is Dante in Love (c2011).
Literary criticism, cultural analysis, historical investigation, and personal biography all rolled into one.
Why is it that we so closely associate the name Beatrice as the great love of Dante’s life, yet so few can name his wife and the mother of his three children?
It’s been rumored for…ever, I guess. I’ve seen evidence for and against. But no doubt that Conroy had outsized control over V and her mum. 
Sounds like a great series to start the New Year!
In an inactive moment-few sales this MLK long weekend and all FB over till tonight-researched Victoria’s supposed illegitimacy. Surprisingly there is a wiki page that mentions Wilson’s claims:
I was aghast when read Wilson claims because, over the years, I’ve devoured at least half-dozen biographies of Queen Vic, starting w/ Lytton Strachey; Longford, Hibbert, Worsley(several), Packard(about her daughters);Van der Kiste(daughters-in-law),plus the letters( 2 volumes) between the Queen and her oldest daughter in Prussia. Never read the illegitimacy claims. Am I reading the wrong stuff? Is salaciousness the only way to sell non-fiction? .
**@papy-**do you know what titles you read that mentioned Conway as the Queen’s possible father? Would like to read them!!..Later, as a child, Victoria walked in on them, her relationship w/ her mother affected for years. Letters surrounding this occurrence, Wilson also quotes. .
Although I read several Queen V biographies in my 20s, in the most recent decade I watched both The Young Victoria Google Search movie with Emily Blunt and the Victoria series Google Search with Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald!).
From those, I did specific online research into John Conroy and his relationship to her and her mother, and The Kensington System (which has been lately reexamined in the context of current social movements).
So most of my sources have been “recent” (2010s+) articles posted online (sticking to reputable sources–no scandalous headlines).
But my original rabbithole started earlier in my life, into medical issues of the British Royals (for family reasons). I found one theory suggesting that the royal hemophiliac gene could have been introduced to the Hanovers by Victoria being the product of an affair by her mother (and not her mother’s own line since her older children by her first husband did not carry it). Conroy was one suggested possibility at that time, but there wasn’t nearly the investigative research on him or that theory available then as there is now.
Victoria not being her father’s biological child would explain why other Hanoverian lines did not include hemophilia (but did carry other issues).
So for me, John Conroy/Victoria paternity research was originally a distraction, but later an interesting side quest. 
I’m currently reading two different books and both are related to travel.
The first is A Walk Through Wales by Anthony Bailey. The author spent a few weeks walking rural areas and small towns in Wales and gives the reader a very descriptive account of his journey. He describes the scenery, people, towns, and the history. I’m learning much about Wales and the Welsh people even though the place names have prolific amount of the letters f, l, w, and y in them. Mastery of the Welsh language is not necessary to enjoy the book.
The other book is On the Hippie Trail: From Istanbul to Kathmandu by Rick Steves. He describes the journey that he and a friend made in 1978 where Steves was only 23 years old. They traveled by bus through remote areas of Asia, stayed in many no-star hotels and gained a treasure trove memories. The journey was in great contrast to his travels in Europe. Steves wrote the journal in 1978 but packed it away. Years later he unpacked it, did some minor editing, and published it as a book.
I’ve found both books to be enjoyable, relaxing and entertaining reading.
Frickin’ 
this guy, big fan for 20+ years, was on his Great Britain/Ireland call Wednesday night. Someone asked about overrated attractions, and he mentioned many, but went off about the bloomin’ Blarney Stone! What locals do to it at night v what tourists do to it in the day 
Love that guy.
When I was planning my first trip to Europe over 25 years ago, I was told to read Rick Steves’ books. It is still the best advice and it now includes his web site, Facebook page and TV show on PBS. The information is regularly updated so you get the latest.
I’ve got three books going( Pile a stack of 6 or 7 titles next to my side of the bed and whichever comes up is the nightly winner. Since am an insomniac, read till I go to sleep).
Reading Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley(not as spritely as I thought it would be. The narrative before Jane and family move to Bath-sags). Also, Worsley’s If Walls Could Talk(enjoyed the series on PBS)and Jane Austen’s England, A Travel Guide by Karin Quint(planning a trip to England/Scotland in Sept).
Have about 9 other titles folks gave me for x-mas(what else do you give a bookseller?). Have to read at least a chapter or two in case the givers closely question me. If can spew out a fact or two(nobody who knows me well gives me fiction), they’re satisfied.
I have done Scotland/England four times (and just England once). Love it, my favorite always! 
Like I imagine is the case with most booksellers, my reading list can be quite varied; as I go through books (usually ones from cleanouts), I’ll often run across something that looks interesting. Many times, a few chapters in, I decide that it’s not, and move on.
But right now, I’m reading Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams. It’s a look at many (maybe all?) of the elements, with stories behind their discovery and uses, both current and historical. It sounds odd, but is very well written and quite fascinating, and full of odd things like the fact that the Spanish discovered gold deposits in Mexico, but disregarded some of them because they were so heavily contaminated with Platinum, which was considered a waste metal.
Highly recommended to anyone with a science/history interest looking for something that doesn’t require already knowing most of it (although a science major, I studied very little of the history of most of it).