I have just read....

[Rhythm King]

Just finished 'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden (not seen the film)

I read this recently and I did enjoy it. I have seen the film too and very unusually I've come to the conclusion that I think I preferred the film to the book - normally it's the other way around. I would now like to see the film again though, as there was a lot of background detail about little things, like the significance of colours of collars and so forth, and I'd like to see if this is reflected in the film.

Recently, I have also read "To Kill A Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee. This is one of those classics that I'd never got around to reading, although most of my friends seem to have read it as children. I thoroughly recommend it, if you've never read it. (Embarrassing confession - it never occurred to me that "Scout" was a girl until about 8 pages in )

[linny lou!]

ive just read Immoral by Brian Freeman. i only bought this book to pass the time on the monotonous journey from inverness to Edinburgh and actually ended up liking it. its basically a murder mystery involving a twisted,ice maiden type teenager (nooo not mee this time ) and how she minipulates every1 in her path and fakes her own murder!(genius ) oh and she manages to get her mother to stab her new husband to death! yes yes i was very impressed lol

[LMC]

My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picolt it's a novel not a biography but rasies some serious questions.

It's about a girl who tries to get medical emancipation from her parents.
She was conceived deliberately by her parents to help her seriously ill sister, and from the first moments of her life is used as a donor for her sister (stem cells, blood, bonemarrow etc). The book highlights some of the issues regarding medical ethics of using siblings as donors from the donors view.

V good - I couldn't put it down. It's written from the view of the main characters and swaps throughout amongst them which only further draws you into the story.

I just read this. Generally, I've been avoiding the recent rash of "Oh, what a terrible awful childhood I had" books (altho' as Almost an Angel says, this one is not actually biographical) but we now have a work book club so I could borrow My Sister's Keeper for free

Synopsis as above. I found Anna, the "heroine" unrealistic, mainly because all Jodi Picoult's characters 'speak' in the same way - I didn't get a sense that someone different was speaking, just that the story was being continued from someone else's point of view.

I must admit, I read the book with the preconception that "Anna is right" - she was 'designed' to help her sister: as a small child she had no choice, and as an older child/young teenager, emotional blackmail from her parents comes into play - the "last straw" being her parents' assumption that they have the right (and she has no say) about donation of one of her kidneys to her sister.

Despite my preconceptions the book was better - i.e. less sensationalist and more sympathetic - than I had expected from the synopsis on the back. Although I found the "saminess" of the characters irritating (a 13 year old girl does not communicate in the same way as her older teenager brother or adults in their 30s and 40s), the moral and ethical dilemmas are clearly presented and there's never any sense that there will be a 'right' or a 'wrong' answer.

The ending was a bit of a cop out though - trying not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it and might want to, I felt it was a 'Gordian knot' solution.

[Dizzy]

I have just read The Labyrinthe by Kate Moss (no, not the supermodel). It is basically a story along the same lines as The Da Vinci Code where a woman finds a cave while excavating and finds 2 bodies and the story goes on the discover her ancestors and the story of the hunt for the holy grail.

I found the story itself quite enjoyable and liked the fact that the book kept skipping generations to tell the story of the characters from the past as well as the modern day ones but I did find that the book was extremely slow. As the story pogressed, I did feel that I had to read more and more but as the book ended, I felt the story anticlimaxed and came away feeling a bit disheartened.

[Missy D]

I got bored with reading 'We need to talk about Kevin' so cannot comment on that one yet.

I have just finished reading 'The Sexual Life of Catherine M by Catherine Millet. This book is the autobiography of Catherine herself. She spent many years in singles bars in Paris where she had sex with many men without regret. I thought the book was well written and very honest. Its not the kind of thing that a woman would normally write which is probably why I just couldnt put it down. Well done Catherine Millet

[LMC]

Special time-saving Dual purpose review (may also be used as a template for your very own best-seller, pseudonym recommended to avoid embarrassment)

Brain rotting train reading in (insert chosen pastel colour here) cover.

* = delete as applicable

(insert supposedly witty/zetigeist* title here)
is about 20/30*-something
fat/thin*
gorgeous-but-doesn't-know-it [ glamorous TV/PR/advertising/publishing/music industry* executive ] / put upon dogsbody in dead end random office job*
(insert trendy/ridiculous* name here)
who has a dysfunctional/so-fabulous-that-heroine-has-no-excuse-to-be-so-f***witted* family
and lives with funny flatmate(s)/cute pet/ [ dead/irresponsible* friend/sibling/ex* ]'s disgustingly precocious "adorable" kid*

Our heroine undergoes various traumatic vicissitudes - falls in love with someone completely unsuitable/her gorgeous but emotionally stunted boss* and suddenly realises that she is suffering from realistic self-perception, diagnosed as low self-esteem, in addition to which, she has to cope with (select one or more of following):
suspected terminal illness of sibling/gay best friend
being left by bastard boyfriend/husband
obtaining an odd/interesting* job for which she is qualified in exactly no way whatsoever by some staggeringly unlikely set of co-incidences
being unfairly sacked
moving into a flat with one or more people who are weird enough to be in Big Brother
getting a pimple on her chin
addiction to something sexy
eating too much and having to buy clothes in a double-figure clothing size
constant delays on the Northern Line

and spends lots of time indulgently (select one or more of following):
crying/drinking excessively with amusing best friends/obsessing about her unhealthy lifestyle/worrying about her overdraft/eating way too much chocolate*

but is still amusingly witty and, of course, gorgeous.

Through the investment of quality time in one or more of the activities listed above, and via'
one or more steamy sex scenes/interludes of coyly described bucket-inducing lurve-making*

our heroine matures into someone who could just about reasonably be compared favourably with an socially functional 14-year old and is rewarded by living happily ever after (despite arguing constantly through the previous 250 pages) with gorgeous and used-to-be-emotionally-stunted-but-has-been-saved-by-love-of-good-woman boss (who turns out to be a millionaire of course)/male best friend who has appeared throughout the book/some other modern Mr Darcy clone*.

The above book was (copy Daily Mail review extract from back cover of chosen chick-lit)

The above raises the following profound questions:

Why oh why is this rubbish so feckin' addictive ?
Who actually buys these books brand new so they can end up at 3 for a quid in my local charity shop?
Why don't they just print the damn things in chocolate so you can at least eat the book after reading it?

[David Franklin]

[the heroine] is about 20/30*-something
fat/thin*
gorgeous-but-doesn't-know-it [ glamorous TV/PR/advertising/publishing/music industry* executive ] / put upon dogsbody in dead end random office job*
(insert trendy/ridiculous* name here)
~snip~
suspected terminal illness of sibling/gay best friend
being left by bastard boyfriend/husband
obtaining an odd/interesting* job for which she is qualified in exactly no way

If that isn't a book by Jane Green, it should be!

Anyone here read Bookends by the same? Would have hugely enjoyed it anyway, but it's set in a bookshop in West End Lane pretty much where I used to live, and (surprise, surprise) there was a bookshop not entirely dissimilar to the one in the story approx 50 yards down the road. Where, in real life my mum did poetry readings, and, um, tried to set me up with one of the staff. Who managed to let me know that she actually had a girlfriend. Fortunately, I did not recognize myself in the book...

[LMC]

Jane Green is one of the "better" chick lit authors IMO - she is at least *really* funny sometimes. I enjoyed Bookends and it wasn't actually a boomerang (= goes straight back to the charity shop after reading): like most of the better ones it will probably go to my sister

I'm currently re-reading Philip K. Dick's short story collections - now back in print, hooray (my ex kept them ) So many sci fi blockbusters are based on his stories or novels - BladeRunner (novel: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck (all short stories) immediately spring to mind and there are others. Unfortunately, the films, in general, actually miss the point in some ways: most of the stories feature normal middle-aged people (not young and gorgeous) who are actually sometimes rather small-minded and dull - who end up in extraordinary situations. Sometimes the characters are reacting to the stress of change, sometimes their peculiar situations are status quo. "Humanity" is accurately pictured IMO, but being short stories, they don't really go into character - they explore themes. There is a pervasive sense of paranoia throughout all - many were written in the McCarthy era. But many make you think - PKD is a philosopher as much as a sci fi writer.

One of the ones which really sends shivers down my spine appears in the second book of the collection (conveniently called Second Variety), which I haven't got handy right now. The story hinges on an exploratory mission to Mars following nuclear holocaust (many of PKD's short stories are set in a post-holocaust era). The explorers are most annoyed to find that the Martians have used everything on the planet (minerals, water, organic matter) - just leaving dust and empty cities. It becomes apparent that the Martians have emigrated to another planet, and at the end of the story, the explorers discover where... Amazing that a story written 50 years ago is still so relevant today - as many of them are. Highly recommended reading.

[Sparkles]

Jane Green is one of the "better" chick lit authors IMO - she is at least *really* funny sometimes. I enjoyed Bookends and it wasn't actually a boomerang (= goes straight back to the charity shop after reading): like most of the better ones it will probably go to my sister

Have just finished reading "Life Swap" by same.
Have to say I was hugely disappointed. Like you, I've thought that Jane Green is one of the "better" chick lit authors, but IMO this book fails to deliver.
There's too much pre-amble to the 'Life Swap' and then when it does take place nothing much happens...

If you, like me, enjoyed "Mr Maybe" and thought that this would be more of the same, think again!

I think I have read all Jane Green's books now, and this was by far the worst - sorry Jane!

[Dreadful Scathe]

She spent many years in singles bars in Paris where she had sex with many men without regret.

Well, that would save her money in hotel rooms I suppose but still, I didnt realise they were quite THAT open on Paris.

It is basically a story along the same lines as The Da Vinci Code

It'll be pish then ?

There's too much pre-amble

Too much standing around?

[mrs_warwick]

A Town Like Alice, Neville Shute

Girl meets boy, thinks boy has died, find out he lives, goes to Australia to look for him.

The English girl (Jean) meets the Australian boy (Joe) when both are under the control of the Japanese in Malaysia during the 2nd World War. She thinks he dies at the hands of the Japanese, but when she returns to Malaysia some years after the war ended, she discovers that he is still alive. She goes to Australia to find him, starting her search in Alice Springs (the Alice of the title).

A beautiful book, with evocative descriptions. No great car chases, no complicated technical or scientific details to keep up with (unlike the other book I've just read, Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs). Just a simple love story beautifully told.

[LMC]

I have pretty much a complete set of Neville Shute's books, picked up second hand before they were back in print. If you liked A Town like Alice (also one of my favourites) then Pastoral and The Far Country are possibly the next ones of his that you might want to read (think they are both back in print now)

[mrs_warwick]

I have pretty much a complete set of Neville Shute's books, picked up second hand before they were back in print. If you liked A Town like Alice (also one of my favourites) then Pastoral and The Far Country are possibly the next ones of his that you might want to read (think they are both back in print now)

I shall be looking out for them.
I have to say, the only reason I bought Town like Alice is that a local church were having an everything must go, books 1p each sale.
I splashed out and spent 10p!

[DavidY]

I Know You Got Soul by Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson writing about 21 machines "with that certain something".

Despite his Top Gear background, only 3 of the machines mentioned are cars -and it's not all about fast machinery (the Hoover Dam for instance is notoriously stationary). Lots of interesting historical snippets and Clarkson does write with an amusing style IMO.

Bought it at the airport on Saturday and it was ideal for a flight, (if you don't mind a few descriptions of plane crashes ) because it's the sort of book you can just dip in and out of.

[straycat]

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

This is one of the most wildly imaginative books I've ever read. A very dark fantasy of sorts, with elements of horror, beautifully written. There's enough ideas in one chapter of this book to fuel four or five standard novels, and you get the feeling that such love and devotion has been expended on creating the characters and settings... it's extraordinary. As an example - a set of characters makes an appearance for a couple of chapters who in most other books would be throwaways - but by the time their part in the story came to an end, I was so intrigued by them that I wanted the author to write another book just based around them...

The sequels are great too (The Scar and Iron Council)

[azande]

Agree with Perdido Station and The Scar, but I didn't enjoy that much Iron Council, I couldn't get myself interested in one of the main character, can't even remember his name now, Judah's lover, and that spoiled the book for me.

[straycat]

but I didn't enjoy that much Iron Council, I couldn't get myself interested in one of the main character, can't even remember his name now, Judah's lover, and that spoiled the book for me.

I can understand that - Cutter is very hard to sympathise with - but in a way, because he just acted for much of the book as a passive observer, I didn't mind too much. It is very different in style from the other two books. I loved Judah's character and story though, together with the whole concept of Iron Council & its journey... which is what made the book for me.

Certainly not as well-liked as the first two though, and it's my personal least favourite of the three - although I do love them all.

[Beowulf]

Well going by the recommendations above I have just purchased Perdido Street Station and have just started it. I'm only a couple of chapters in but already I see it has promise.

and the best thing? I got it on Amazon market place for £2.70 when I've finished it I'll let you know what I thought !!

[jiveaddicted]

I Know You Got Soul by Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson writing about 21 machines "with that certain something".

Despite his Top Gear background, only 3 of the machines mentioned are cars -and it's not all about fast machinery (the Hoover Dam for instance is notoriously stationary). Lots of interesting historical snippets and Clarkson does write with an amusing style IMO.

Bought it at the airport on Saturday and it was ideal for a flight, (if you don't mind a few descriptions of plane crashes ) because it's the sort of book you can just dip in and out of.

Read this a couple of months ago very good i also read another of his books it was basically his little rants about various things. Laugh out loud funny. i belive its called the world according to clarkson not positive tho.

[Crazy Russian]

‘War and peace’ by Leo Tolstoy.

I think that it is one of the greatest novels ever.

By the way, have you read Dostoevsky? I wonder to know your opinion.