General Chat

Not Greaders but people are often looking for suggestions of what to read. Feel free to add yours here. I have taken a copy of a couple of threads on the greaders thread.

Bridges of Madison Country by Robert James Waller is a lovely book, romantic without being sloppy, sad without being maudling a worthwhile read

PersephoneToday at 08:10
I used to own a second hand book shop in the nineties when Bridges came out - and a lot of people thought it was a true story - they would turn up looking for the National Geographic Magazine with it in. Of course it was never done by National Georgaphic, but one day someone brought in a couple of Country Music Mags and in one of them was pictures of the covered Bridges. I photo- copied it and gave away copies to all those that asked and have kept the magazine.

The book has another title which escapes me at the moment - will have to have a hunt through my shelves.

Luv
Persephone

AddAnn in glosToday at 08:47
Persephone, there is a sequel, Slow Waltz in Caesar Bend.

I love the covered bridges and when we went to America was so pleased to see a couple, can't remember where now though as we went to quite a few states at different times.

Things I Want my daughters to know by Elizabeth Noble
Some of the book is a series of letters written by a dying mother to her teenage daughters, some of it is about family relationships and some is romance. Funny and sad. A really good read.

Georgia by Lesley Pearse

When 9 year old orphan Georgia is unexpectedly fostered by kindly celia and her bank manager husband she can hardly believe her luck. But then on her 15th birthday she suffers the cruellest betrayal of all at the hands of her foster father and is forced to run away leaving everything she loves behind her.
Fired with a fierce ambition and blessed with a lovely voice her struggle for fame and fortune begins.

Well that went down like a lead balloon. Nobody else got any books to suggest.

From the library for a 'light' but enjoyable read

" Summer School (2008) Domenica de Rosa


In the heart of Tuscany, seven writers search for a happy ending.

Set in a thirteenth-century castle deep in the beautiful Tuscan countryside and led by best-selling author Jeremy Bullen (even though he hasn’t written anything new for twenty years), Patricia O’Hara’s annual creative writing course is always oversubscribed.
But this year, somehow, everything is different. Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s the influence of the moon but soon lifelong spinster Mary is riding on the back of chef Aldo’s vespa, Patricia is being tempted by an attractive Frenchman and even Jeremy is distracted from his pursuit of the prettiest student – by another guest’s writing. Add to this Fabio, the stunningly handsome odd-job man, and some unexpected visitors and the mix is complete.

By the time the course is over, the guests will have fallen in and out of love, unearthed deadly secrets and changed their lives forever. And one of them will even write a book... "

Thank you Rose, that sounds a good read.

Hi Ann, l do have a few to add but am going to turn off for the night as into another good book at the moment, so will add my thoughts tomorrow.

thanks Mummo

Hi Ann,

Have read all of Lesley Pearse`s ~am waiting for her new one to come out, so in the mean time i have been reading books written by Josephine Cox ~light reading is about all i can manage at the mo ~ Do you know of any goods authors?

x

James Patterson....."Pop Goes The Weasel"

Geoffrey Shafer: A man who never loses, he is prepared to play the game of games for the highest stakes of all.

Alex Cross: Senior homicide detective, he is determined, whatever the consequences, to unmask the man he has nicknamed the weasel, the prime suspect for a spate of killings Cross has been forbidden to investigate.

Very detailed in parts!!!! although l am very slow at reading, at night l can't put the book down!!

jude

Gypsy by Lesley Pearce

I couldn't put this down Linda

Review
'Full of love, passion and heartbreak' Best 'An emotional and moving epic that you won't forget in a hurry' Women's Weekly

Product Description
Liverpool, 1893, and tragedy sends Beth Bolton on a journey far from home ... Fifteen-year-old Beth's dreams are shattered when she, her brother Sam and baby sister Molly are orphaned. Sam believes that only in America can they make their fortunes so, reluctantly leaving Molly with adoptive parents, brother and sister embark on the greatest adventure of their lives. Onboard the steamer to New York there are rogues aplenty. But Beth's talent with the fiddle earns her the nickname Gypsy - and the friendship of charismatic gambler Theo and sharp-witted Londoner, Jack. And after dodging trouble across America, finally the foursome head for the dangerous mountains of Canada and the Klondike river in search of gold. How far must Beth go to find happiness? And will her travels lead this gypsy to a place she can call home?

Call The Midwife Jennifer Worth

A great read Linda

Sunday Express 7th July 2002 - Fiona McDonald Smith
Jennifer Worth can rival James Herriot with her descriptions of childbirth in the Poplar tenements. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving" (YORKSHIRE EVENING POST )

"Worth's portrait is subtle, skilfully describing a sense of community that no longer exists" (FT MAGAZINE )

"an amazing if at times gut-wrenching read... a detailed trip into history which may raise a few tears and many eyebrows" (WARWICKSHIRE TELEGRAPH )

"Misery memoir meets EastEnders with a bang!" (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

Shadows of the Workhouse Jennifer Worth

Another good book for us genealogists Linda

Review
"There's sadness, suffering, humour, strength and survival in this fascinating book" (SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE )

"a heartfelt, moving, witty book that vividly depicts this lost world with all its vicissitudes and its many joys" (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

Product Description
In this follow up to CALL THE MIDWIFE, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells more stories about the people she encountered. There's Jane, who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House - she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within 6 months of each other and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, visits the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric ninety-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatton Garden in the nun's room. These stories give a fascinating insight into the lives of the poor in 1950s London, of the shadow of the workhouse that always hung over their lives but also of the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties.

My East End Gilda O'Niell

Really good if you are interested in The East End of London Linda

Amazon.co.uk Review
The heart of the East End has always been Tower Hamlets; Gilda O'Neill is enough of a partisan to regard even Hackney as a bit out of bounds. My East End starts with the earliest times--the East of London has always been where dirty industry congregated, downstream from the Court and Parliament, and it has always been where incomers started, from Flemings in the Middle Ages to Bengalis today.
The greater part of this excellent book, though, is not a competent academic run through of the sources, but an invaluable collection of oral history, in which pensioners talk about the classic East End of late Victorian times and the inter-war period, a time when grinding poverty could just about be survived with luck, when people were forced to live in each other's pockets and children played around the open door of their homes until all hours: "There was always a jigsaw on the go and everyone that called had a go at putting some pieces in. Nanny usually came round on Friday nights and always brought a bag of sweets--winter warmers--and, as she was going home, she would call out 'Goodnight, kidlets'. I said that when I grew up I would go out singing in the streets and buy her a pair of blue bloomers."

O'Neill is fascinating about both the positive and negative sides of a way of life that went forever when families were moved out to housing estates on the fringes of London and about the parts of it that have survived into a new multi-cultural East End; My East End is a good book because it has an unsnobbish respect for the voices it draws on. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
'Every page is a delight. Every chapter made vivid by a writer who has poured heart and soul into her book'. Val Hennessy, Daily Mail The East End of London - cockneys, criminals, street markets, pub singalongs, dog racing, jellied eels ... it is a place at once appealing and unruly, comforting and incomprehensible. Gilda O'Neill, an East Ender herself shows there is more to this fascinating area than a collection of cliched images. Using oral history and more traditional sources she builds up a powerful image of this community - bringing to us, with wit and honesty, the real story of London's East End

Our Street Gilda O' Niell

Another East End One Linda

Product Description
Our Street is the perfect companion to Gilda O'Neill's bestselling My East End. This book focuses on the lives of Londoners in the East End during the Second World War. Showing the concerns, hopes and fears of these so-called 'ordinary people' Our Street illustrates these times by looking at the every day rituals which marked the patterns of daily life during WWII. It is an important book and also an affectionate record of an often fondly remembered, more communal, way of life that has all but disappeared.

About the Author
Gilda O'Neill grew up in the East End of London. Having left schoold aged fifteen, she later returned to education as a mature student and went on to take three university degrees. Since 1990 she has been writing full-tiem and has published ten novels and to non-fiction works. Gilda O'neill is married with two grown-up children and lives in the East End.

Thank you for those. RB maybe you will find some here that you would like to read.. Have you read any by Cathy Kelly? Or Sheila O'Flanaghan?

Hi all, last few weeks have read quite a few books so here goes :

Maureen Lee.......The girl from barefoot house
For Josie Flynn, life with her beautiful wayward mother in the heart of Liverpool was all she ever wanted-----------until Hitlers bombs ripped her childhood apart.
A really good read.


Katie Flynn..........A Liverpool lass.
From the slums of Liverpool to the Welsh valleys and the bloody fields of Flanders, they had each other.
Another good read.

Rosie Harris..........Love against all odds.
Why did so much tradedy come her way.
A good read.

Dee Williams...........Wishes and tears.
Womens Realm: A brilliant story, full of surprises.


Alice Carr............The last summer
Susan Sallis.......The pumpkin coach.
I couldn't get into these two books, read a few chapters but put them down, just didn't grip me.

Another author l do like is Lynda Paige, have read nearly all her books and could never put them down.

Hi Ann and others

I also enjoyed Elizabeth Noble's "Things I want my daughters to Know" and "Alphabet Weekends" by her, not quite as good but still very easy reading.
In fact have been doing a rund of the Elizabeth's - read a couple of Elizabeth Edmondsons and also been reading Elizabeth Bergs.
Was a late starter on Rosie Thomas but have nearly got through them all - she is so knowledgeable - Sun at Midnight set in Antartica was great. Have read nearly all of Marcia Willets as well.

For amusement M C Beaton's Agatha Raisin series - which I think was either on radio or Television in England.

Tongue in cheek Thrillers - Stuart McBride - very gruesome - but done as black comedy.
Stuart Paxon - and his Charlie Priest stories.
R D Wingfield who wrote the Frost Series - unfortunately he only wrote 5 books before he passed away.

The lists of good books is endless and may it always be so. They thought the advent of TV would do away with movies and it didn't. They thought that computers would do away with books and it hasn't.

Thanks

Persephone

Mummo, the Susan Sallis one - The Pumpkin Coach was a sequel to another book, I love Susan Sallis especially those thata re centred in Gloucester, some even in the village where I live.

Ann
Glos

Do any of you fancy the electronic book? My son has one and finds it useful for travelling but I can't imagine reading off a screen I just love the feel of books.

I too like Rosie Thomas and enjoyed Sun at Midnight.

Another favourite is Jodi Piccoult, read a lot of hers and have several to read on my book shelf.

Ann