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Post by suze on Aug 15, 2010 5:54:54 GMT
I've read a fair bit of easy stuff over the hols, not really worth comment, but I have really enjoyed
Rain before it falls by Jonathan Coe.
Coe's a writer my brother introduced me to, famous for his funny, satirical work, What a carve up.
Rain before it falls is very differnt, very interesting. An intimate narrative about three generations of a dysfunctional family, told mainly as though transcribed from tape-recordings of one woman talking to another.
He has great control over his form and it works really well as a different way to tell a variety of related family stories.
Interestingly, I didn't know when I bought it, but it turns out that the central narrator is a middle-class lesbian, so I was keen to find fault with his "voice" but I reckon he did a good job with that side of the story too.
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Post by suze on Aug 17, 2010 7:00:22 GMT
I started reading and Irvine Welsh thing, something like The Bedroom Secrets of Master Chefs, but compared to the lucid prose of Coe and Mantel he seems quite unreadable, perhaps he should stick to dialect, as he did in Trainspotting!
need to decide whether to cart a book about with me or have one on the go here and one at the shed, but with my memory these days that's probably not a good idea ..
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Post by Pauline on Aug 17, 2010 16:14:21 GMT
Well Sue, if I know you, I think you will end up having a few books at the shed. ............. Not sure what book to start at the mo. As there are quite a few to go at here, that shouldn't be a problem. ........... I'll just add that son-&-heir is reading a book that you gave him Sue. Colour Purple by Alice Walker.
In fact he has read quite a few of the books you gave us Sue. Thanks again.
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Post by anne on Aug 18, 2010 21:13:35 GMT
Color Purple is very good, I'm glad I read it even though it made me feel very sad sometimes.
I feel the need for a good detective novel. Have resorted to picking up my copy Dreamscapes and Nightmares by Stephen King - I enjoy his stories.
Also been browsing through one of my poetry books - Rattlebag, ed by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney. I'm surprised every time I open it, one of my top ten books I think ..
Then I picked up one of K's history books, on the writing of the Domesday book which was quite interesting for the first two pages.
Dipped into The History of the Countryside by Oliver Rackham ...
But I do need a good novel to get my teeth into.
Edit to check titles
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Post by Pauline on Aug 19, 2010 11:28:10 GMT
Well Anne now I know that book 'Purple' is a good read, I may try it next. I think Craig has finished it. ............ To be honest, I have started reading 'The Psychology of Dieting. Tomorrow I'll be Slim' by Sara Gilbert.
It was one of Sue's books too. A very interesting read. I haven't read much yet, but it all makes sense. To be honest, I found a couple of pairs of my trousers a little tight & wondered if I have put some weight on. I think I have really. But I won't be on a diet as such. I can recommend the book anyway.
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Post by suze on Aug 19, 2010 11:37:41 GMT
The Color Purple is a book I know well .. taught it a few times
it's very good, apart from the bit where she gets on a bit of a history lesson about Africa, which I thought was a bit heavy-handed and didactic, but that's me!
she did somthing very important in using a black-American voice with all its dialect and grammar as the central character's voice .. something not often (if ever) done before, and now quite routine ins certain books ...
I also think that psychology of slimming book is good ...
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Post by anne on Aug 23, 2010 15:44:28 GMT
Just off to the library again. I couldn't sleep last night so ploughed through most of a Ruth Rendell, usually very good, can't even remember it's name now because it disappointed me. I usually love her psychological novels, and they are very much bound up with the London landscape, especially the part of London where I used to live .. the surroundings mirroring peoples' lives so perfectly. Well this one didn't. However I do recommend The Bridesmaid if anyone wants a good RR psychological novel.
So I sat down this afternoon with one of my Alice Munro short story collections (short story is an inverted exagerration, they are usually around 70 pages long). Too sad for my mood today.
I have a history of Bristol around the time of Abolition, 1805 but that's been snaffled by my husband.
Incidentally - I set off on foot for my local library in Cadbury Heath on Saturday and arrived in a daydream outside Tesco's in Longwell Green! Talk about going daft! It was too late to go onto the library by then. Better go now before it shuts at 7.00pm ;D
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Post by anne on Sept 14, 2010 18:50:17 GMT
Was at the Organic Food Festival in Bristol over the weekend, and apart from posh peanut butter and breakfast cereal I found a good second hand books stall outside the gates, got
A large volume of the George Orwell collected novels - so we can throw out the small print Penguin we have. I treat his novels almost like history books - Coming Up for Air has wonderful descriptions of the hop pickers in Kent, Keep the Aspidestra Flying is amusing - obviously Nineteen Eighty Four isn't actually historical, but I'm fond of it.
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom - I lent this to my daughter about five years ago and *ordered* her to read it. It was enjoyed, but lost .. glad to have another copy.
Coastliners by Joanne Harris (who wrote Chocolat) - it's about a young woman returning to the small French island where she was born and what happens. The feuds; the eroding shoreline; old family tragedy.
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Post by Mark on Sept 23, 2010 0:10:30 GMT
Elizabeth Gaskell gets my vote, 'Wives and Daughters' surprised me, I hadn't expected it to be so sparkling and fresh and relevant after 140 years. The blurb describes it as 'the most underrated novel in English', and that may be so. The Penguin Classics cover also says it is 'a work of rare charm, combining pathos with wit, intelligence, and a perceptiveness about people and their relationships equalled only by Jane Austen and George Elliot'. I wouldn't argue with any of that.
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Post by suze on Sept 23, 2010 1:59:03 GMT
I nearly bought this for my iphone after you mentioned it at the weekend, but then thought maybe it's already on my shelf, so I need to check!
Am quite interested to try reading a book on the phone, though!
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Post by Mark on Sept 23, 2010 22:48:57 GMT
Try it, I reckon the iphone will be brighter and lighter than a book, and it should be easy enough to read on that screen. Old books can be a bit of a health hazard, there is a second hand bookstore near Coventry university that has survived for years just selling curled up and musty old tat. But all books go a bit funny after a while. Plus your fancy doings will be saving trees.
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Post by Mark on Sept 23, 2010 23:15:05 GMT
As for checking your shelves, good point, my copy had sat there unread since I bought it 21 years ago. In fact in that time I think Gaskell has been 'discovered', so maybe Wives and Daughters is not now underrated.
Finding something decent to read in French is more of a challenge, almost Hobson's choice in most shops. But no doubt it's an easy job to find plenty on the internet.
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jan
Junior Member
Posts: 82
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Post by jan on Sept 24, 2010 7:17:32 GMT
My daughter in law to be..(some day..) has an honours degree in French, and she only buys french books, novels etc to read.
When went on holiday with her, we had to watch french films as well.... and not the sort my husband was expecting!!
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janeb
New Member
Posts: 25
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Post by janeb on Sept 24, 2010 8:05:32 GMT
Thanks to the generous natures of my kids and parents I've just ordered a Kindle for my birthday. I'm not altogether convinced about e-readers but, as WV pointed out to me, being able to take LOTS of books away on holiday rather than running out half way through and having to rely on what others have left behind has to be a good thing. As well as fewer trees of course, and fewer books in the already overcrowded bookshelves. (Sorry for the bad sentence structure, Suze!) So, I'm busy downloading stuff ready for its arrival and hoping that the 2-3 week estimated delivery time is accurate. Anyone had any experience of one, yet?
As for real books,
bath book - Accidental MP - Martin Bell or Wainwright's Coast to Coast book or In Search of Swallows and Amazons (I insisted that we have a bookcase in the bathroom where I tend to keep books that are lovely to read in the bath - so lots of Lakes or sea based books, Martin Bell just snuck in there uninvited!) bedroom book - The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver spare bedroom, middle of the night wandering, book - Five Go to Kirrin Island, Again ~(hehe) spare, spare bedroom - anything in reach from the bookcase behind my head, generally something spiritual / philosophical as that's where they tend to be sitting room book - work based stuff + ukulele tutor campervan book - Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 2 (fantastic dipping book, 2000 pages long and perfect for when you don't know what you'll want to read when away. Bought for £2 from a second hand book stall in the centre of Exeter when it was pouring with rain)
on the waiting to read pile in each of the above places? too many!
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Post by suze on Sept 24, 2010 9:33:49 GMT
I love the idea of diff books in diff locations
I am reading Adrian Mole the Cappucino years, but it's mildy entertaining elements are rather undermined by her tendency to REPEAT the same joke a few times, which is extrmely yawn-some .. does she think her elderly readers might have missed the joke the first time, or taht we'll have forgotten?
could be both
I will try downloading a book, and it will be gaskell if i dont already have it
let us know what you make of the kindle, jane
xx
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