smilingdiva
member
Reged: 02/01/2009
Posts: 1
Loc: England
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Having just read The Island by Victoria Hislop which I had been waiting to read for ages, I couldn’t recommend it enough.
It had me in tears throughout from its powerful descriptions to the background of the story. The way it is written is beautiful and within minutes I was engrossed within the story & the lives of those characters on the page.
Having been to Spinalonga myself it made the whole experience of this story all the more realistic as I could picture each scene that folded out on the page.
A truly magical read.
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Scarlets
member
Reged: 01/04/2007
Posts: 1889
Loc: Just across the pond
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If you enjoyed the Bone Garden, give Peter James a go. First books a few years ago are not so good. Then he changed completely.
His latest books are about a detective in Brighton.
First one was DEAD SIMPLE. My heart rate increased by so much just on the first few chapters. My sister could not read that part. She got her husband to read it and tell her what it was about.
He has written a few more since then and I have enjoyed all of them.
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kiwichris
member
Reged: 13/08/2008
Posts: 6
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A Handful of Earth, by Barney Bardsley
A year after the death of her husband from a lengthy and difficult illness, Barney Bardsley set out to take her scruffy allotment – and her life – in hand. This is the chronicle of a year of growing and healing – a journey touched by great sadness and loss, but also lifted up by honesty, generosity, humour and hope. Beautifully written, down to earth and yet reflective, this is a book that shines a light on life. Wonderful for those who have suffered loss, for gardeners, for mothers – and for those who love a book that gives more with each read.
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rainbow
member
Reged: 28/05/2008
Posts: 16
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Deaf Sentence, by David Lodge (2008, Harvill Secker, £16.19)
Set in Lodge's familiar world of academia, this novel portrays the stark reality of progressive deafness in minutely accurate detail.
Desmond Bates, a professor of linguistics, has taken early retirement because he can no longer hear well enough in an interactive teaching context.
With a mixture of pathos and humour, Lodge provides a perceptive account of Desmond's efforts to deal with the demands of an ageing father, weird student and his wife, Fred, against a backdrop of misunderstandings, silence and 'faux pas'.
If any of you are dealing with deafness, as I am, you will suffer and laugh in turn at Desmond's challenges. Lodge 'hits the spot' with this account.
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Ginnie
member
Reged: 24/06/2008
Posts: 1063
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Half of a Yellow Sun Chimanda Ngozi Adiche
This is one of the most thought provoking, moving books I have ever read.
The author has written, with great insight, about the war in Biafra, mainly through the eyes of one family and their immediate relationships with friends and servants.
It is a story of great love and loyalty for each other and for Biafra. There is betrayal at all levels but there is always hope.
Some of the scenes are unbelievably harrowing and shocking.
I learnt such a lot from this book.
The book within the book: 'The World Was Silent When We Died'.
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Angel99
member
Reged: 09/02/2009
Posts: 2
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Queen Victoria - A Personal History by Christopher Hibbert
What an eye-opener! I have always had a love of historical biographies and I thought this would be the perfect time to read this one on the eve of the release of the new film 'Young Victoria'.
For those people who find historical biographies long-winded, verbose and sometimes very hard work will notice Hibbert's refreshing way he presents the late Queen. Each part of her life is set out in different chapters yet the whole book is as one and reads like a hard-to-put-down novel. This allows it to be read with ease and if the reader forgets an historical fact then it is easy to refer back to. And, boy, are there a lot of facts in the life of this incredible woman?
Queen Victoria was an amazing woman who wasn't afraid to voice her opinions, even when sometimes she got it wrong. She had an isolated childhood but blossomed into a fiesty and passionate queen who was deeply in love with her husband Albert even when she had to live the last forty years of her life without him.
Great Britain ruled the waves in the 19th century and who better to sit upon the throne of this vast empire but a truly remarkable woman.
This is a glorious and fascinating book. You will not be disappointed. It brings to life the world of Victoria and you realise that despite the royal title she was still a woman and never always got it quite right but was stubborn enough to see everything through. A great lady!
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Ginnie
member
Reged: 24/06/2008
Posts: 1063
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The Accidental Time Traveller by Sharon Griffiths
A young reporter is sent to interview an elderly lady living in a house that was built 50 years previously. Rosie arrives at the door and then suddenly she is transported back to the 1950s, living in a house with no modern amenities in post-war austerity, and working in a chauvanistic, technology free, newspaper office.
What is happening? Is she part of a reality show? Why is she there? It all seems so real.
This is a well written book about life in the 1950s. The explanation is a surprise.
An enjoyable, easy to read book.
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Natsuki
member
Reged: 14/05/2008
Posts: 10
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The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux
This book tells the tales of 3 sets of Americans visiting India. The individual stories of the wealthy retired couple, the jaded middle aged lawyer and the young female traveller are all very different. What links them however is that each of them stay at some point in the Elephanta Suite in a plush Mumbai hotel. They all come to India to discover and understand this enchanting country, but in the end they leave having discovered more about themselves. Could this be the magic of the Elephanta Suite? An enjoyable read.
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Barney
member
Reged: 01/04/2008
Posts: 2478
Loc: UK
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God's Own Country by Ross Raisin
Sam Marsdyke is the narrator and main character of this book set in and around the Yorkshire moors. Sam has been pushed to the edge of society and banned from school following an alleged rape. He loses himself on the family farm carefully watched by his taciturn father and anxious mother. The story shows the difficulties faced by farmers and their way of life while highlighting the effect an influx of townspeople has on that traditional way of life. When a new family, with a teenage daughter, from the town move close to the family farm Sam is instructed to keep away. Sam and the daughter form an unlikely friendship. The cause and effect of these changes are seen through the narrator's eyes and the whole story coloured by the fluctuating state of Sam's mind. A fascinating read.
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rainbow
member
Reged: 28/05/2008
Posts: 16
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The Girl on the landing, by Paul Torday (Weidenfield & Nicolson, £12.99)
We think we know the person we have married, but do we?
After a visit to Ireland, Michael's changed behaviour arouses a mixture of responses in his wife, Elizabeth. Suddenly, life with Michael is more fun and passion abounds. Elizabeth finds herself giddily in love with him after all these years.
But a rather sinister set of events threatens their new found joy.
Who is Lamia? What is Michael's medical history? Why does he take the tablets Elizabeth discovered?
Guaranteed to keep you guessing late at night!
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beau
member
Reged: 25/03/2009
Posts: 98
Loc: Planet Beau
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THE ALMOST MOON - ALICE SEBOLD
This book relates the relationship between a mother and daughter and an act of brutality which, although not pre-meditated, is ultimately borne from their long burdened history. It deals with the difficult subject of mental health and how it impacts on those in proximity and, as the story unfolds over a twenty-four hours’ period, the reader too will be drawn into the dual world of light and dark. This book is both shocking and moving and will challenge any preconceptions the reader may have had. Sebold has given the reader the evidence of the case - now what’s the verdict?
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I am not an old hippie.... I am a hip oldie
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Natsuki
member
Reged: 14/05/2008
Posts: 10
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On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
Not many authors could take such a simple idea, and spin it into such a beautifully written and enchanting story. The book begins by introducing a young couple on the first night of their honeymoon, in a hotel on Chesil beach at the beginning of the 60s. The focus moves between the couple on that night, as they come to term with what marriage actually means, and their lives leading up to this point. It's an intriguing tale, which leads the reader to think about attitudes to sex at that time, before the wave of sexual freedom which came later that decade.
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rainbow
member
Reged: 28/05/2008
Posts: 16
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Young Hearts Crying, by Richard Yates (Methuen, £7.99)
By the author of Revolutionary Road which was recently released as a film starring Kate Winslet, this novel transports the reader back in time to the early 1950's.
What happens to the great 'American Dream' within the context of marriage and suburbia? How do aspiring poets and painters survive amidst the pressures and frustrations of having to earn a living? What do their wives do in the meantime?
Yates allows us to enter the dream with Michael and Lucy Davenport, but will it live up to their youthful expectations?
A bitter sweet novel laced with large shots of sour in the whisky.
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Natsuki
member
Reged: 14/05/2008
Posts: 10
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The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff
In the 19th century, Ann Eliza Young scandalously leaves the Mormon faith, and her plural marriage to the then Prophet, Brigham Young. She travels America, drawing large crowds to hear her tale, crusading to put an end to polygamous marriage. Fast forward to the present day, and despite the Mormons relinquishing this practice, a breakaway sect continues to believe in 'celestial marriage'. We follow the story of Jordan, a son of a polygamous union, as he fights to discover whether his mother really did kill his father. Was it her, or was it, as he suspects, one of her 'sister wives'?
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cromarty
member
Reged: 09/04/2009
Posts: 1
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The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.
This is a beautifully written and unhysterical book about the appalling true-life murder of a child in the 1860s which is said to have inspired novels by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. With many modern day echos, the suspicions of Mr Whicher, the detective called in to investigate the murder, lead to such shocking conclusions that the Victorian public cannot accept them. In time the murderer confesses, and, fascinatingly, the book then follows their subsequent life right up into the 1940s. The book obviously concentrates on the police investigation and the characters involved, but a coda at the end of the book reminds us of the most important person in the story - the victim.
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rainbow
member
Reged: 28/05/2008
Posts: 16
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The Outcast, by Sadie Jones (Vintage, £7.99, 2008)
In her debut novel, shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize, Sadie Jones creates a bleak landscape of a Surrey community in the 1950's, full of hypocrisy, abuse, double standards and preoccupation with class.
Lewis suffers in silence his mother's death by drowning, lack of communication, the ongoing violence towards neighbouring children by their sadistic father, and all the ways in which people prefer not to see what is really going on. But, then, not surprisingly, he loses control.
I could hardly read this quickly enough as the pace is just so fast and the characters so convincing. Totally absorbing.
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dryad
member
Reged: 11/02/2008
Posts: 243
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The Stepmother’s Diary – Fay Weldon
This novel offers a new slant on a well known fairy tale for here we have not the wicked stepmother but the wicked stepdaughter. Sappho and Gavin are happily married; however, Gavin’s manipulative daughter is far from happy and then the trouble begins. Sappho’s mother looks after ‘the stepmother’s diary’ and is shocked by what she reads. Will Sappho discover a way to outwit them all – not only stepdaughter but husband and mother-in-law too?
Fay Weldon always shows acute insight into the female mind; in this brilliant new novel she focuses on the complications of family life in today’s world.
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maxijam
member
Reged: 17/04/2009
Posts: 2
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'Me and Mr Darcy' - Alexandra Potter
New York bookstore manager Emily Albright is at the end of her tether after yet another disastrous date. All she wants is her very own Mr Darcy but it’s hard to find the perfect man when they have to measure up against the honourable, devastatingly handsome leading man of ‘Pride and Prejudice’. A chance encounter leads her on a literary tour of Jane Austen’s England, along with a rather grumpy, badly dressed journalist called Spike whose first impression of Emily isn’t much better than hers of him. But is Emily letting her own pride and prejudice cloud her judgement?
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dryad
member
Reged: 11/02/2008
Posts: 243
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The Girl on the Landing – Paul Torday
This is a fascinating novel: do we ever really know a person? Michael is a wealthy, rather boring man, locked into the routine of working as Secretary to his gentleman’s club in Mayfair or stalking deer on his estate in Perthshire. However, a visit to friends in Ireland appears to trigger a change in his behaviour. Though she is puzzled, his wife, Elizabeth, delights in the company of the ‘new’ more exciting Michael. But then she discovers the truth about Michael and his past and her world is shattered. This is a compelling and unsettling story – definitely a page turner.
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dryad
member
Reged: 11/02/2008
Posts: 243
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Portobello – Ruth Rendell
On a shopping trip someone found an envelope containing money. Rather that reporting the matter to the police, he wrote a note which he then stuck to a lamp post near his house. He suggested that anyone who had lost a certain sum of money, should phone the number written below.
This note is the catalyst for the story – it links the lives of a number of very different people, people with obsessions, problems, dreams and despairs. Set in the bustling Portobello area of West London, this disturbing psychological thriller demonstrates yet again that Ruth Rendell is an outstanding writer.
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