September book options :)

[Emma]

Here are the choices for September, as selected by Ms Dangerous Curves. I believe she's going to put some reviews under the poll so people know more about the books

I was thinking it might be cool if those who want to take part in the 'read' post that they are, so that we know who's taking part

I'll make the poll last a week, then we can have the choices up and running soonish. Obviously anyone can take part, even if they haven't voted.

Has anyone read the August books? (afraid I didn't )well, I started the Bill Bryson but fell by the wayside very quickly. I think it's probably a fab book, it's just I wasn't getting into the story somehow

[DianaS]

Talk about coincidence! I've read the No 1 detective agency, it's excellent and am currently reading The Kalahari typing school for men. It's by the same author and the forth in the series..The style is very evocative and the chapters of No 1 read like short stories, with one chapters per case so its easy to pick up and put down.A warning though once you start reading them you tend to go through the series quite quickly

No idea about the "Eats shoots and leaves" book except the old joke about the Panda who goes into a bar orders a beer, drinks it, pulls out a gun and shoots the bar staff. When a punter complains he remonstrates "I'm a Panda - Look it up!"
Panda
Eats, shoots and leaves...
The moral of the comma lives on

[DangerousCurves]

I got the following reviews from Amazon (and deleted any spoilers!!)


The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoterica culled from 2,000 years of Western history. A murder in the silent after-hours halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle.
The duo become both suspects and detectives searching not only for Neveu's grandfather's murderer, but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England and history itself. Brown has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture's greatest mysteries--from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown's conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. --Jeremy Pugh, Amazon.com


The Star of the Sea – Joseph O’Connor

Tragedy is a word too often used. Nevertheless, in Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor manages to achieve a real sense of the tragic, as personal dramas of the most distressing kind play themselves out against the background of the Irish potato famine and the almost equal nightmare of the mass emigration that it caused. As passengers die of starvation and disease in steerage, a drama of adultery, inadvertent incest and inherited disease plays itself out in first class. O'Connor raises, and does not attempt definitively to answer, real questions about responsibility and choice.


No 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith

An absolutely wonderful start to what is hopefully is a long-running detective series set in modern Botswana. This fast-reading book isn't so much a set piece mystery as it is the story of an African woman in her late thirties who stakes her entire inheritance on the crazy idea of becoming the country's first woman private detective. Precious Ramotswe is a intelligent "traditionally built" woman with a keen sense of human nature and a desire to help people in distress. This book tells of her childhood, her loving miner father, an ill-considered marriage to a trumpeter, her strong belief in her own abilities, and skeptical take on the forces of progress and modernization. This volume contains her first cases, which she adroitly solves with the assistance of her expert typist secretary and the local master mechanic, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.
But the book is not just about her, but also aims to portray a positive picture of modern Africa, one all too rarely seen in the West. The cases often intertwine with issues such as development, social structures, power, and gender, but in a disarmingly light and gentle way. The stories are delivered in a delightfully fluid and simple prose with pacing that makes the book quite difficult to put down.


The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.

Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com


Eats, Shoots & Leaves – The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation – Lynne Truss
Everyone knows the basics of punctuation, surely? Aren't we all taught at school how to use full stops, commas and question marks? And yet we see ignorance and indifference everywhere. "Its Summer!" says a sign that cries out for an apostrophe. "ANTIQUE,S," says another, bizarrely. "Pansy's ready", we learn to our considerable interest ("Is she?"), as we browse among the bedding plants. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss dares to say that, with our system of punctuation patently endangered, it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them for the wonderful and necessary things they are. If there are only pedants left who care, then so be it. "Sticklers unite" is her rallying cry. "You have nothing to lose but your sense of proportion--and arguably you didn't have much of that to begin with."

This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset about it. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to Sir Roger Casement "hanged on a comma"; from George Orwell shunning the semicolon to Peter Cook saying Nevile Shute's three dots made him feel all funny", this book makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.


I hope that there is something there for everyone. Oh, and in the course of my researches I discovered that there is a fifth novel in the No.1 Detective Agency series.... good news for me (and Dianas, by the sound of it )

[Rachel]

Originally Posted by DangerousCurves

No 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith ...

I've just recently read this - the only one of September's book list that I know - and, though I'd hate to put anyone off (I know I wouldn't - you're all perfectly capable of forming your own opinions), I really didn't like it too much.

Well, that is to say, I quite enjoyed the line of the story - very easily readable and quite entertaining. But I also found it incrediby patronising and contrived. The author seemed to feel as if he had to (not very delicately) slot into the story snippets of background information about the culture or whatever, which we would otherwise be too stupid to know and therefore not understand the full story. Only, he slides these little facts into dialogues and such, where they just don't go - they interrupt everything and bring you back to a sharp reality where the author is having to explain things to you. Much too disruptive to be able to engross yourself in the story.

But if it's one of the chosen books, I'd be really interested in hearing what others think!
Rachel

[Trish]

Originally Posted by Rachel

I've just recently read this - the only one of September's book list that I know - and, though I'd hate to put anyone off (I know I wouldn't - you're all perfectly capable of forming your own opinions), I really didn't like it too much.

Sorry to disagree with you Rachel, but personally I loved this book, and am in agreement with DianaS! I can understand you point of view if you know anything about Botswana - I guess then it could be patronising, but as I don't know a thing I found all the African details really gave me a flavour of the place, and helped me imagine it. I'm on the second book now, and have already bought the third (buy one get one 1/2 price in WH Smith if anyone's interested). I found the details about the characters are that bit different to most books I've read recently and the little detective stories are really clever.

Not read any of the others, but I've heard of a few of them, and I'm sure any of them would be interesting.

Trish

[Rachel]

Originally Posted by Trish

Sorry to disagree with you Rachel, but personally I loved this book, and am in agreement with DianaS! I can understand you point of view if you know anything about Botswana - I guess then it could be patronising, but as I don't know a thing I found all the African details really gave me a flavour of the place, and helped me imagine it. ...

By all means disagree - that's what makes this so interesting. My objection was more the way he inserts the extra details in, IMO, inappropriate places, disrupting the flow and making them feel intrusive and condescending.
R.

[Divissima]

Originally Posted by Emma

Has anyone read the August books? (afraid I didn't )well, I started the Bill Bryson but fell by the wayside very quickly. I think it's probably a fab book, it's just I wasn't getting into the story somehow

Me - I've read them all now except for the Louis de Bernieres - so far I haven't been able to buy the paperback (the paperback is advertised as being available on Amazon but you can't actually order it from them yet). Anyone else? I'm happy to start a thread on the Bill Bryson if enough people have read it.

[Lisa]

The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

Don't forget to have your tissues handy for this one. I cried at the end of chapters 1-6. Very sad and comforting at the same time. I enjoyed it.. didn't like the ending but it was a realistic one I guess.
I followed with a much happier but easy to read book..starter for ten which made me laugh at every chapter! If only I could be an 18 yr old student again!

Lisa xx

[DangerousCurves]

Having read and collated the reviews, I got so interested in each of the books that I've now bought all of them!

Bring on the poll! I'm ready, whatever the outcome!!!

[John S]

I've read the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and the next 3 in the series - thoroughly enjoyed them and found them very easy to read, gently written and sympathetic characters. However, I did feel a bit uneasy sometimes that perhaps the style was a touch patronising - but maybe that's being over-sensitive and ultra-PC, I guess the only way we would really know would be if some Botswanan is on the Forum and wants to offer an opinion!

I bought The Star of the Sea a few months ago, but it's still lying in the growing pile of unread books - going on holiday soon, so maybe its turn will come!

Am still plodding through Bill Bryson's book from August - can't get very enthused about it, much preferred his travel writing.

[drathzel]

i bought the next three the other day i'll get to read them when i am finished the one i'm reading

[Divissima]

Being the perverse kind, I have just finished 'The Da Vinci Code' although I have not yet read the book for August

I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I wish that Dan Brown had had a decent editor, though - a few irritating errors of grammar and research slipped through the net.

It is perhaps fitting that this month's book is on the subject of punctuation. Looking forward to reading it and revelling in pedantry!

[drathzel]

[quote=Divissima]Being the perverse kind, I have just finished 'The Da Vinci Code' although I have not yet read the book for August

QUOTE]

I have decided not to read the da vinci code as i am easily scared!!!

[David Franklin]

Originally Posted by Divissima

Being the perverse kind, I have just finished 'The Da Vinci Code' although I have not yet read the book for August

I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I wish that Dan Brown had had a decent editor, though - a few irritating errors of grammar and research slipped through the net.

I enjoyed it too - but I don't know much about history (cue song theme...), so the fast-and-loose research didn't bother me too much. But then I read his book "Digital Fortress", which is about encryption, computers, public key cryptography etc. This is an area I know reasonably well, and the book gets almost everything wrong - not just arcane details, but the fundamentals. Of course, the whole plot depends on ignoring the fundamentals. After which I was a lot more cynical about the Da Vinci Code et. al.

Dave

[drathzel]

Eat shoots and leaves:-i'm finding this one a little bit boring.....its a bit thought provoking... not good for a light read!!! oh well i will try and carry one with it... things can only get better

[Sand Dancer]

After reading the Da Vinci Code, bought Dan Brown's Angels and Sinners (I think that's what it's called) - even better than Da Vinci. Highly recommended as a can't put down book!

[Divissima]

Originally Posted by Sandie Gilchrist

After reading the Da Vinci Code, bought Dan Brown's Angels and Sinners (I think that's what it's called) - even better than Da Vinci. Highly recommended as a can't put down book!

Sounds cool, Sandie. I may well give it a try.... after reading my current tome 'Bloodline of the Holy Grail'. I may be some time I found the Da Vinci Code thought provoking in an unexpected way and was inspired to read more about the historical background. Knowing that most authors of fiction (perhaps quite rightly) won't let historical accuracy get in the way of a cracking good yarn, I wanted to read more about the historical background on the Holy Grail, etc. Interesting stuff.... Need a :nerd: smiley to insert here.......

[Emma]

I loved 'The Da Vinci Code' and am halfway through 'Angels and Demons'. I'd probably be loving that too if it weren't for the fact I read Da Vinci right before and it's kindof too the same.

I had to stop halfway through to read 'A Round Heeled Woman' by Jane Juska, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Catholic Church (it's the memoir of a woman who aged 66 puts an ad saying she'd like to meet some nice men for lots of sex in the New York Review) and is the best book I're read since I last read a really really good book

[drathzel]

new month... new book options?