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Have you read the book by RC Sher(r)if(f)? Just off to Amazon because I've forgotten the title. Something like Journey's End. Exactly like Journey's End. 2xR and 2xF.
'Walking Wounded' by Lee Rowan. I couldn't work out if she was English or American. It's set in England, but mentions mailmen. So I e-mailed her today. Just received her reply. She's American, but lives in Canada and reads a lot of English books. She gets English friends to vet her manuscripts. I wonder if she uses/keeps an English/American dictionary.
'The Amber Spyglass' by Philip Pullman. Finally onto the third book. Also reading, 'Writing a Novel and getting published' by Nigel Watts - it's quite interesting and helpful thus far.
"The closed book" by a Danish author (Jette A. Kaarsboel), about a family in the late 19th century. And "The writers guide to crafting stories for children" by Nancy Lamb. Very good!
Stephen Holbrook is a fine medium, Coops, or so everyone says and people are quick to criticise if you are not good.
reading the latest Lynda La Plante which is not as good as others, and littered with !!!! as well.
I read the Kite Runner last year and thought it was excellent.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is on my must read list :-) .
I've recently finished War Stories by Jeremy Bowen (the BBC's Middle East Editor) and I'm now reading Ghostwritten by David Mitchell.
So many books, so little time :-D .
Just read Clean Cut by Lynda La Plante and was very disappointed. The reviews on Amazon say the same thing, it is an anti illegal immigrant rave from beginning to end, predictable plot, loads of explaining and for me, very badly written. It is liberally sprinkled with !!! and bad writing. It was as if she really didn't want to write that one but needed to get it out of the way.
Having just read and enjoyed tremendously Legacy and Talisman, a two part saga, I was more than disappointed. The difference was amazing. Passion and vitality in one, going through the motions in the other.
Now reading To Kill A Mockingbird and appreciating the difference between real writing and throwaway writing. This book is pure class.
I'm reading Meat by Joseph d'Lacey. Pretty grim stuff - don't read it just before going to bed. If it's ever made into a film I don't think I'd be able to watch it!
Currently reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, which I never want to end, and i've just started Half of a yellow sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I've also been dipping in and out of ' My Mistress's sparrow is dead', a collection of love stories edited by Jeffrey Eugenides, which is excellent.
Just started Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, which has been on my bookcase for yonks, but I'd never got around to reading it. Considering it was first published in 1722, the writing is wonderfully readable. It's a bit archaic in places, but you can hear Moll speaking, which of course is the whole idea. I'm going to enjoy this one :)
I've just finished reading The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks. Although I enjoyed parts of it, overall I found it disappointing. Although I enjoy fantasy, part of the first book's charm was how real it felt. This book didn't feel as real somehow I'm not sure why. The ending feels unsatisfactory. I don't think I'll go out of my way to get the third in the series when it comes out.
Currently reading 'Dark Terrors' (The very best tales of modern masters of the macabre) and just bought 'Daemonic' by Stephen Laws and 'Chion' by by Darryl Sloan...both horrors which I will be delving in to this weekend at some point.
I love the guy. It's true what the blub says: I want to be Reacher. Every time I have a cup of good coffee I think 'bet Jack would approve of this' Sad or what?
character empathy, call it that instead. I love the way he rationalises everything, compartmentalises it, walks away without the girl at the end of every book, hitting the road, no ties, no roots, no nothing, just a roaming restless man. Lee Child has come up with an absolute winner.
I'm reading a book about Einstein at the moment. It's incredibly interesting, but in very small print and I have to reread every second paragraph to understand the theories...and even then I don't! I've always had a 'thing' about Einstein though. He was far more than just a theoretical physicist.
You have trouble reading Einstein Nena? Why? It's not rocket science.
Dorothy. Although JR lives in real time and must age, Child cleverly took him back to a previous life, The Enemy, thus enabling him to do this a few more times and keep the series going.
That is a good sign if you're reading to the early hours. :o) I'll have to read the blurb when I'm in town later. I've finished reading Zadies Smith's 'On Beauty' and found it quite heavy going, but really liked her descriptions of certain things. I think I would read another one of hers. I'm now reading something a bit lighter Katie Fforde's 'Flora's Lot'.
I didn't get on with the style of writing, which I found difficult to penetrate. It is on my long of unfinished books to return to at some point...just don't know when.
Emma, I recently gave up reading The Tenderness of Wolves because I found there were so many characters in it I was confused (quite easy to do in my case). One or two friends have read it and they too were disappointed but another one read it in almost one sitting, she loved it.
I think Child is quite a good writer, and Reacher is a pretty good character, but one thing that puts me off him is the fact that he's a real bum. I'm always concerned about his underwear... is it clean, when does he wash/change it, lol...
I've just finished Universal Aunts, the history of the company formed in 1921. (It's been sitting on a bookshelf for years, since it was bought as an ex library book somewhere in West Sussex, according to a stamp on one page!) It was written in the 1980s by the then MD.
There's not a lot of information on the company's website (www.universalaunts.co.uk), but there are some great archive photos, most of which are in the book. One of their most important activities - in the past, at any rate - was escorting children travelling between home (in the UK or abroad) and boarding schools.
The descriptions of the "upper crust" ladies who have always formed the backbone of the company are priceless! I assume the announcement that WW2 started in 1938 is a printing mistake - the author would certainly know better!!
I'm currently reading Karin Slaughter's latest book 'Fractured' - crime set in Georgia USA
unfortunately my pile of books to be read is enormous and keeps on growing - I'm trying to limit myself to my favourite authors - but I do have a tendency to go into a bookshop for one book and come out with 4 instead.
Books waiting to be read include: Ian McEwan's Atonement, Lee Child's Persuader [have read the rest], Gregory Maguire's Son of a Witch, and Craig Russell's The Carnival Master...I'm nothing if not eclectic =D
Currently...
Two Cures for Love by Wendy Cope,
Collected Poems by A E Houseman,
Shawnie by Ed Trewavas,
The Secret Life of Poems by Tom Paulin,
how to live a low-carbon life by Chris Goodall,
The Atlas of Endangered Species by Richard Mackay,
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell,
The Poetry Writers' Yearbook )from the library) Ed Gordon Kerr,
Let's Recycle Grandad chosen by Roger Stevens,
WOW 366 speedy stories in just 366 words collected by Scholastic.
I got One Shot through one of these book clubs that send you books each month whether you want them or not - and I've been hooked ever since - have read all but one of his books and it is in my pile of books waiting to be read.
I actually stopped that book club because I thought it would help me keep up with my reading...wrong!
I'd never read any of his till I took my son to London for an audition, and they were giving away free copies of one of his books if you bought an Evening Standard - and since I wanted something to read on the long train journey home, both together were a bargain for 50p! And then of course, hooked, I have had to slowly read the rest, and buy them this time, but they seem to turn up second hand quite a bit.
Comments
reading the latest Lynda La Plante which is not as good as others, and littered with !!!! as well.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is on my must read list :-) .
I've recently finished War Stories by Jeremy Bowen (the BBC's Middle East Editor) and I'm now reading Ghostwritten by David Mitchell.
So many books, so little time :-D .
Having just read and enjoyed tremendously Legacy and Talisman, a two part saga, I was more than disappointed. The difference was amazing. Passion and vitality in one, going through the motions in the other.
Now reading To Kill A Mockingbird and appreciating the difference between real writing and throwaway writing. This book is pure class.
And "Random Acts of Heroic Love" Danny Scheinemann (at last, as have just complegted Patrick Gales Notes from an Exhibition - EXCELLENT !)
I wouldn't recommend this as it can get confusing trying to keep track!
Dorothy. Although JR lives in real time and must age, Child cleverly took him back to a previous life, The Enemy, thus enabling him to do this a few more times and keep the series going.
I didn't get on with the style of writing, which I found difficult to penetrate. It is on my long of unfinished books to return to at some point...just don't know when.
There's not a lot of information on the company's website (www.universalaunts.co.uk), but there are some great archive photos, most of which are in the book. One of their most important activities - in the past, at any rate - was escorting children travelling between home (in the UK or abroad) and boarding schools.
The descriptions of the "upper crust" ladies who have always formed the backbone of the company are priceless! I assume the announcement that WW2 started in 1938 is a printing mistake - the author would certainly know better!!
It would make a great film or TV series.
unfortunately my pile of books to be read is enormous and keeps on growing - I'm trying to limit myself to my favourite authors - but I do have a tendency to go into a bookshop for one book and come out with 4 instead.
Books waiting to be read include: Ian McEwan's Atonement, Lee Child's Persuader [have read the rest], Gregory Maguire's Son of a Witch, and Craig Russell's The Carnival Master...I'm nothing if not eclectic =D
Two Cures for Love by Wendy Cope,
Collected Poems by A E Houseman,
Shawnie by Ed Trewavas,
The Secret Life of Poems by Tom Paulin,
how to live a low-carbon life by Chris Goodall,
The Atlas of Endangered Species by Richard Mackay,
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell,
The Poetry Writers' Yearbook )from the library) Ed Gordon Kerr,
Let's Recycle Grandad chosen by Roger Stevens,
WOW 366 speedy stories in just 366 words collected by Scholastic.
just finished Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child.
I got One Shot through one of these book clubs that send you books each month whether you want them or not - and I've been hooked ever since - have read all but one of his books and it is in my pile of books waiting to be read.
I actually stopped that book club because I thought it would help me keep up with my reading...wrong!
To Kill a Mockingbird is my favourite book D, read it when I was 13 and loved it ever since -my son is called Jem because of it...