General Chat

Have been reading the Agatha Raisin series at the moment and am on number 7. They are great for a bit of light hearted entertainment and i find them quite amusing. Am also reading The Red Tent which is set in biblical times (which i wouldn't normally read) but this is from a female view point and the red tent is where the women all congregate to menstruate and give birth. A fascinating well written book.
Cathy

not sure but I think I may have read House of Lanyon, is it a fairly old book.

The Agatha Raisin I have read as my DiL has them all and lent them to me. Sort of poor man's Agatha Christie/Miss Marples. Quite amusing.

Ann
Glos

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth.

true story about the life of a district midwife in London's East end in the 1950s.

Entertaining and informative. And when I realise I lived through that era, well, difficult to believe that we have come such a long way in those 50 years. worth reading.

Ann
glos

Ann i have read Call The Midwife to and found it fascinating. Found it amazing to think my mum was born 1950 and the poverty that was still around was truely appalling. Am keeping my eyes peeled for her new one Shadow of the Workhouse.
Cathy

No Time for Goodbye - Linwood Barclay

The house was silent. No sound of her parents getting ready for work, or her brother late for school. Were they punishing her for last night? She's been out on a date when she should have been studying, and had a huge fight with her father. So where was everyone now? Why had her family disappeared?

Twenty-five years later the mystery is no nearer to being solved and Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Were her family murdered? Abducted? If so, why was she spared? And if they're alive, why did they abandon her?

Then a letter arrives, a letter which makes no sense. Soon Cynthia begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made...

What an absolutely cracking read! I certainly never worked out the answer. This book should come with a warning telling you that there's no way you'll be able to put it down until you've finished. My daughter read it today! lol

The Blue Zone - Andrew Gross

They were the perfect family. And he was the perfect family man. One day changed it all.

Arrested for racketeering, Ben Raab must take his family into America's Witness Protection Program. Only his eldest daughter, Kate, stays on the outside.

But the program's perfect success rate is about to end. A case Agent is tortured to death and Ben vanishes. The one person who might be able to find him is Kate.

Persued by killers, forced to question everything she knows about her life, Kate is plunged into a terrifying existence for which nothing has prepared her.


Andrew Gross has written 5 books with James Patterson, 2 of which are my favourite Patterson books. So when he wrote a book in his own right I had to read it. Like Patterson, Andrew Gross writes short chapters so you think "I'll just read another one"...."I'll just read another one"....and before you know it you've nearly finished. It's not very often I read a whole book in a day but I did with this one. There's some fantastic twists at the end which leave you totally at a loss as to which person to shout for!

Jeanette i have now read No Time for Goodbye and you are right an absolutely brilliant read. Like you i didn't work it out and read it very fast. Will certainly keep my eye out for any more by that author.

I also love James Patterson and Andrew Gross and have read The Blue Zone...its very good.

Cathy

Just found this again
Cathy let me know if you find Shadow of the Workhouse - preferable when it is in paperback. i bet it will be interesting to read, especially as I have rellies who were in the workhouse.

Ann
Glos

Jennifer Worth who wrote the midwife one has another out -can`t remember the title , Ros xx

While I was away at the weekend I re- read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I had forgotten what a charming book it is and I really enjoyed it. This was the complete and unabridged version, i am sure the last time I read it, as a child it was 'doctored' as i don't remember the Yorkshire dialect. But it is the dialect that makes the book- I loved the garden descriptions and the animals and how they followed Dickon. It is a book deserving to be re-read and is as much for adults as for children.

Ann
Glos

nudge up for anyone looking for books to read

dancing in the Dark by Maureen Lee

Millie, a young woman recently divorced and in an on off relationship with James, is left instructions by her Great Aunt Flo that she should clear out and dispose of all her belongings after she dies.

Milly reluctantly starts to do this then gets more and more engrossed as she uncover family secrets that eventually involve her.

Flash backs put meat on the story.

This is a very well written book, I really enjoyed it.

Ann
Glos

nudged for Anne

Hi Ann, not part of your group as I read books as and when I can. Been quite lucky lately and found lots of good ones on the charity stall at the local supermarket, for 25p each and have had time to read.

I have read Dancing in the Dark a while back and it was a good read. My son got me some secondhand books as an extra birthday gift and one was called Blessings by Anna Quindlen, nice and gentle and easy to get through but it left me wanting more. I really enjoyed reading it.

Lizx

Dear All

Hello

Purple, hello and I hope you are well.

I am reading this book:

"The Longest Night"
10-11May 1941
Voices from the Blitz

By Gavin Mortimer.

It tells how London was hit by 400 bombs over the this weekend and how
the emergency services and people dealt with the destruction and chaos.

Told from different viewpoints by ordinary people.

Very sad, but overwhelmingly the determination of the people never to give up shines through.

Best wishes to all
xx

Hello all,

A piece of cake by cupcake brown.

I have just read a brilliant book, anyhow from the back of the book.

From beloved daughter to abused foster child to crack addict, this is the heart-wrenching ture story of a girl named Cupcake Brown.

Following her mother's death, cupcake was just eleven yrs old when she entered the child welfare system. Moved from one disatrous placemment to the next she was, like so many, neglected and sexually abused. She developed a massive appetite for durgs and alcohol- an appetite fed by hustling and turning tricks - and before long stumbled headlong into the wild notoriously dangerous world of gangsta. But ironically, it was Cupcakes rapid descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine addiction that finally saved her, After one crack binge she woke up behind a dumpster. Half dressed and more than half - dead, she finally knew she had to change her life or die.

Brutally fank, startlingly funny, A piece of Cake is the remarkable true story of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it. It is also the most genuinely affecting rollercoaster ride through hell and back that you will ever take.

Anne

angels in my hair

im reading at the moment,
in paper back

its lovely story bout an irish lady who tells her story from a child up to present day, how she grew up being thought of as strange or retarded as she refers to,
how she met her husband, and their children,
all the time being helped and followed by angels

Thanks Anne and Julie Ann, both sound a good read.

Back on so thought I would bookmark this

x Jill

The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey whasit
Read this afew years ago and loved it. Just been to see the film which was OK but the book is far better.
Going to read again but this time I will try not to keep flicking back to see whats going on....lol
Jen