Sharpe's Siege by Bernard Cornwell - I love the descriptions of battles that go on for pages, but the description of the siege goes on for chapters! Sweet William is back and an American privateer makes an appearance as it's 1814 and the War of 1812 is still going on. It saddens me that there are only 3 more Sharpe's books waiting on my shelf, and then what I expect to be a long wait for Sharpe's Command.

Hello, Mary!  I'm still reading the same stuff I was when I last posted in the October thread.  Reading Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom and listening to The Homestead.  I really only read when I go to bed in the evening, and for the past couple of weeks I've been super tired and can only mange 10 pages or so before my eyes start closing.  LOL!  I need to get to bed earlier so I can read longer!

I am starting Murder at the Elms by Alyssa Maxwell. Love this Gilded Age series set in Newport.

Mary - I just started reading the Sharpe series this year.  Only read Sharpe's Tiger but I defintely loved it and want to continue the series.

Mary - I just noticed the title for this thread is November 2020 reads.  LOL!  You might want to change that.  

My report for the day is that I am enjoying Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom, but The Homestead (which I am listening to) is kind of a slog.  It's one of those books where most of it is internal dialogue from the two main characters.  There's not a lot of action.  I am not a fan of these types of books.  They may be considered "good" literature by some, but I just don't enjoy getting inside people's heads that much or that deeply.  Especially when that's mostly what it is. LOL!  I'm about a third of the way through it.  The book takes place in the 1950s in Alaska, and the premise is interesting in that it's about a couple who meet, marry within a short time and move to a plot of undeveloped land and start a homestead.  They start out living in an old bus and at the point in the book where I am now, they are beginning to build a cabin.  I think the whole thing would be fascinating, but again, it's mostly just about what goes on in the heads of these two people - the man being deeply flawed from his war experience and the woman being quite young and unexperience in the world and possibly a little naive.  The narrator is one of those who reads things fairly "flatly," so that doesn't help.  I will persist for awhile.  I am stubborn enough that I rarely bail on a book.  

Has anyone else watched the limited series "All The Light We Cannot See" on Netflix?  I read that book when it first came out years ago, and like probably everyone else, really liked it.  DH and I started watching the series last night.  We got through the first 2 (of 4) episodes.  It's pretty good.  Of course, like with any film adaptation, it's not nearly as in-depth or good as the book, but I think they've done a fairly good job.  

Hi Shelley:  Your post prompted me to look at my C.J. Samson books.  Found I hadn't read Heartstone so I started it today.  Thanks for the reminder!  And, as usual the author delivered an exciting book.  How Shardlake could deal with so many problems is amazing.  All in all this is a fine read.  Hope you are enjoying your read, too.

Well, R E K, I finished Dark Fire on Monday.  I enjoyed it.  I liked it better than the first Shardlake book, and although I'm not a big mystery fan, if I'm going to read any, they will be Samson's.  I think I have the 3rd book of the series on my shelf, and perhaps I will get to it one day. I'm almost done listening to The Homestead, which I still find a bit dull, but I've only got an hour left.  

I started reading Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser the other night.  I think it's going to be a bit of a fluff read, but that's okay.  Hopefully that means I'll get through it fast. I still have a few books to read to finish this year's challenge, and time is running out! 

Hello!  Well, I finished listening to The Homestead by Melinda Moustakis.  Not for me.  There were several things I didn't like about this book.  I didn't find either of the main characters particularly likeable.  They both seemed somewhat simple and flat, which may have partially been due to the narrator, who, in my opinion, read in a very flat manner.  There were some scenes in the book that could've been exciting, but were not because they were read in the same dull tone that she read all the other scenes in.  Obviously this was probably by design.  The scenes weren't really written with much detail or excitement.  The writing style was mostly a stream of consciousness from the minds of both of the main characters, which is not a style I enjoy, and it alternated between long, rambling run on sentences and short, choppy sentence fragments.  I'm not saying this was a badly-written book.  I am sure there are some who would find it fascinating and beautiful, especially those who like character-driven novels.  I felt for me, the premise held a lot of potential (a young couple who met within days of meeting for reasons of their own and then trying to homestead and file a claim for some land in Alaska just as it was being admitting as a state of the union), and I would've liked more detail and action about what that was like rather than the inner struggles of the characters.  Anyway, moving on . . . I think I will start listening to The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis next. 

I started The Black Moon by Winston Graham, the fifth book in his Poldark series.  I started this series ages ago, and never continued with it.  

Carolyn - Do you like the book series?  I loved the TV series!  I have the first Poldark novel on my bookshelf, but I've yet to read it.  I can't decide if I'm a little worried I won't like it as well in written form (which would be out of the norm, but once in awhile TV/movie adaptions are better than the books) or if I'm kind of excited as when I read it, I will be able to "picture" all the characters.  LOL! 

Shelley - I do like the series.  The show was somewhat faithful to the books.  However, I remember the show ending abruptly, and recenetly read an article that says there is so much more in the books that the show never got around to.  

Hello!  I finished Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser last evening.  Eh.  Not the most exciting book, but it was interesting to learn the imagined story of Mozart's sister, who apparently nearly rivaled her brother in talent but could do nothing with it due to her being a woman.  Sad business. I think I will start reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and start listening to The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis. 

Carolyn - I really enjoyed the "Poldark" series and was sad when they ended it.  I wish they would start again!