Could not stand The English Patient book. Overwritten pretentiousness at its best IMO.
Didn't mind the film though. I love Kristen Scott Thomas.
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Could not stand The English Patient book. Overwritten pretentiousness at its best IMO.
Didn't mind the film though. I love Kristen Scott Thomas.
I don't think I can come into this thread anymore... :o Did not like The English Patient or Michael Ondaatje??? What is this foolishness? The English Patient is one of my all time favourite movies. I did Running In the Family for my English lit degree.
His latest book, The Cat's Table, was actually quite different to his others. I may not be the best guide if you didn't like his others, but it was definitely worth the read.
I just finished the second book in the An unfortunate fairy tale series - fairness by Chanda Hahn. As well as, the books in the My Blood Approves Series by Amanda Hocking. Found on iBooks.
So I have finished a few recently.
Mystery of mercy close by Marian Keyes
Year of wonders by Geraldine brooks. Quite interesting, about a village the quarantined itself from the outside during the plague.
Puberty blues.
A dance with dragons by George r r Martin. Can't believe the next book won't be tout till 2015.
If you want something like the fifty shades series, the the crossfireseries by Sylvia day. Plot line is very similar but much better written.
Year of Wonders is pretty good LC. Have you read March or People of the Book by the same author?
AFM, picked up The Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory and started reading it yesterday. I have had it there a while as I went through a phase of being interested in 15th and 16th century British history a while back. It's okay. A good summer read.
Well it turns out the Maeve Binchy I was reading was not the 'new' release, rather a novella, which explains it's price of $3 on Kobo. Still enjoyed it then I went and purchased her real new release A Week In Winter which I am loving so far.
I have been doing a bit research and discovered a couple of my favourite new Authors are releasing or have released. Just need to wait till they hit Kobo...the very frustrating part. Might bite the bullet and buy a 'real' book if I get desperate :lol:
n2l - I have a read alot of the Phillipa Gregory books. I love them. I am a huge fan of the Henry the eighths wives series.
Tithe. Holly Black. Awesome urban fantasy with a feisty lead character and some very nasty fairies.
Just finished 'Bloom' by Kelle Hampton - the blogging lady who's 2nd child was born with DS and they were unaware until birth.
working my way through the Collegium Chronicles by Mercedes Lackey - currently reading bk 2 Intrigues, hoping to get bks 3 & 4 from the library tomorrow
Finished Maeve Binchy's A Week in Winter. Sad this was her last book.
I am about to start The Vintage Teacup Club by Vanessa Greene. It's about three women who all spy the same vintage teacup in an antique shop, they don't know each other. They decide to all buy it and share it between them. I love these sort of books..especially after Friendship Bread.
I'm reading Kyle Sandilands' autobio. :hide:
It's really, really interesting. I didn't really go in with any preconceived notions of him (I've only ever seen him on Australian Idol (and quite frankly, there's nothing much wrong with him on that) and on listening to the recording of him and Jackie O with that poor teenager whose mother dragged her onto the lie detector show, and I felt really sorry for everyone involved in that mess) and so I'm just finding it interesting. It's not well written, there a lot of parts where I wonder what he was thinking, but it's just the tale of a guy with a bad childhood who swings between egomania and self loathing again and again and again ... and so many of us do that ... !
I've been reading Paullina Simons' two latest books, and given up on them both.
"Children of Liberty" is the prequel (prilogy?) to the Bronze Horseman trilogy but it just doesn't work. The characters aren't likeable, the scenarios aren't authentic, it sucks.
"A Song In The Daylight" has the most heinous and unrealistic "heroine" of all time, some of the most ludicrous factual matrices I've ever come across, some of the blandest secondary characters, and while I understand she's doing a few throwbacks to Shakespeare and dabbling with a little intertextuality, the ending is just rubbish.
Her one before these (Road to Paradise) was overly self important and didn't seem to be thought through (slabs of dialogue, pages of it at a time) which just read as though it was the author sussing out what she thought about certain philosophical questions, and it was a bit crap, but there was enough to keep it moving and keep it interesting.
These two, not so much. I've put them both down. The first because I loved the three original books, and I don't want to ruin them but delving too deeply into the backstory which hurts the understanding of the characters... and this one (a stand alone 800 page monolith) because, well, it's useless.
Time to pick another book off the shelf, ladies...
What's everyone else reading?
I've just gone back to Magician by Raymond E Feist
Just finished Odd Thomas and about to start on Forever Odd. Never in my life did I think I would read Koontz, but I have been sucked in. I think my main genre has changed from fantasy to thriller.
Also reading the last Sookie Stackhouse - Dead Ever After. My first E-book purchase :D
I have just finished reading The Storyteller by Jodi Piccoult. It's about the holocaust/WWII told from the point of view of a nazi & a jew. I bought it because it was cheap on amazon but it was still hard to put down! It was written in her typical style but it's been a while since I have read one of hers so that didn't matter.
Astrid - you won't look back :)
I saw that his newest (last ever?) one for that chain is out. I need to grab it for DH...:
PS: I like Dean Koontz a lot, but after reading maybe 15 of his books, I find that the same 6 or so characters just keep popping up... do you find that?
I need to complete purchasing the chaos war saga ones:
I am about halfway through The Light Between Oceans and can't wait to finish it tonight. I'm not usually one for movies based on books. However I thought this would make a good one and have just been googling and found that the rights to it have been bought. Can't wait to see it!
Given up completely on that book.
Getting the new Sookie Stackhouse officially given to me tomorrow, as part of my Mothers' Day present. Have already had someone unintentionally spoiler me on it, but oh well. Still gonna read it of course!! Hope it's still good :D
Oh My God. Such emotional hard yakka! Loved it though. If you enjoyed that, try The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Similar themes, with a bit of mystery thrown in. Good fun.:
I'm now reading J.M.Barrie Ladies' Swimming Society.
Power to the double post.
Oh I listened to The Forgotten Garden on audiobook and really enjoyed it - I found it because search the library audiobooks by Narrator when I find a Narrator I like.:
Bring up the bodies the sequal to wolf hall...both won the Mann booker prize.
I've been in a reading funk since my most recent foray into fantasy...loved game of thrones but struggled to follow it up, then read hunger games then call the midwife. I'm hoping this book takes me back to the fantastic scenes of wolf hall.
I am reading The Avalon Lady's Scrapbooking Society. A lovely book by Darien Gee who also wrote Friendship Bread. Loving it, another beautiful story.
I just finished the 50 shades series.
Think I will re read the Tara Moss ones
a book called the birth house
i'm searching for fiction, set in historical times, when big pandemics were decimating populations, like black plague, cholera etc. When people got sick because they didn't have plumbing and sanitation or refridgeration, and no access to doctors. What they did to cope.
i loved this book, and am looking for more of similar historical setting Year of Wonders
sounds gruesome i guess, but i am fascinated by how people survived, in these conditions. Makes me feel so grateful to be living in the period of history, that is now.
Gigi, if you don't mind reading young adult fiction, there's At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum and Petals In The Ashes, both by Mary Hooper. Sugared Plum covers the plague, Petals covers the Great Fire of London. Jackie French also does lots of historical fiction, but again, young adult. I'll come back if I can think of anything adult.
I'm reading a book called "The Natashas" which is about sex workers, and how and why they end up in that field. Then I've got the mirroring book called "The Johns" which is about men who pay for sex, and the general categories of factors which leads them to do so.
Very, very confronting, and very, very eye opening.
I'm going through The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Loved the TV series, books are really good too!
Gigi, I loved Edward Rutherford's 'London', if you want a good historical account in a novel-like manner. Very long, but a good, accurate read.:
I'm having a 2nd teenagerhood. Just finished The Host (maximum entertainment value from comparing the ways in which it was so like Twilight)! Now starting City of Bones, trying to beat the movie (Mortal Instruments) release. After that I'm reading another YA about mermaids.
Mermaids.
So there.
I quite liked City of Bones MD. And mermaids are cool :)
Gigi, you have inspired me to read Year of Wonders. It's not my usual genre so fingers crossed I'll enjoy it. My first thought when I read your post was water for elephants but google told me I was wrong lol. What about Love in the time of Cholera?
I must have another look over this thread because I've resorted to reading vampire/werewolf porn :hides: It was cheap and not what I expected lol.
What age would you start reading Harry Potter to kids? I'm thinking DS is still a bit young. He's 4 but still quite immature compared to other 4yo's I've met. Maybe Enid Blyton would be better. I think he'd like the far away tree books.
I'm reading 'I'll be seeing you' by s Hayes and l nyjan. Dh got it for my birthday. I'm loving it. It's the tale of 2 war wives during the Second World War. They write letters to each other sharing their live and shanaigans while husbands are away. Can't put it down!
The concepts are quite mature. I worked in a primary school book supplier and the first three books were put into schools for the upper primary levels. The remaining books were then on a school by school basis - we would share the themes with them and then they would decide. The final book was shunned by most that we talked to due to what happens to Hermoine. I have read them all and have no plans to read them to DD1 for a few years yet (she's also 4) - not because I don't think she wouldn't grasp some of the story, but because I want her to fully enjoy it for everything that it is.:
My DD didn't get a handle on Harry Potter until she was in Grade 6 or 7. Whereupon she turned into an instant fan girl. LOL. We had a shot at reading it when she was about 8 or 9, but she watched the movie & then decided the book was boring. I would wait a bit because there are some big ideas in there.
My youngest DD is 5 now and I'm starting to think she might like the faraway tree etc soon. We got hold of an Enid Blyton bedtime story book and she listens to that happily, but it's still a stretch to get to the longer format of a novel (more words, fewer pictures) plus the language in blyton is more old fashioned. I'm thinking of trying her on some easy readers like Tashi or those rainbow fairy ones & see how she goes with those first.
Thanks ladies, that is pretty much what I was thinking. He has some longer story books with heaps of pictures based on the cars movies. I might stick with them for now and see how we go.
Case law ... lots of case law. Does that count?
Currently reading "The Man Called Ove" what is everyone else reading.
Currently reading "We are all completely beside ourselves" which I am loving.