bookworm87

Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Synopsis (from amazon.co.uk) Who are you? What have we done to each other? These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? Review This is the kind of book that you literally can't put down until you've reached the end, just because you can't imagine what is going to happen! I obviously can't reveal too much of the plot because there a few surprises along the way, but it certainly kept me guessing. The book is split into three parts and in the first section, everything that happens seems to be telling you loud and clear what happened and why Amy is gone. But, once you get to the second bit everything is turned in its head completely. The most striking thing about the story for me was the portrayal of a dysfunctional marriage. Love makes people do crazy things and often two people can be bad for each other, but can't let go of their relationship and I thought this was beautifully shown in Gone Girl. The character of Desi I found very unbelievable and a bit weird, and the ending is quite a controversial one. I think it will divide readers between those who find it unrealistic and those who don't. Personally, I felt Flynn just about pulled it off and the ending was definitely unexpected and sinister - it left me feeling unsettled and a little confused but in a good way! If you're going on holiday and want a good beach read, or if you just want something that will keep you hooked and turning those pages then I would recommend Gone Girl - I give it 4/5

Hi bobblybear, It's a really good one - I fully recommend it!

Hi Alexi, This made me laugh because it was exactly what I thought as well It sounds like you had a very similar reading experience to me with this one, so I was really interested to read your comments!

Who was your favourite character? I found myself liking Maureen the most, she wasn’t a character I initially warmed to but as the story progressed I felt like I was rooting for her to open up and establish a connection with Harold again Was there a particular part you enjoyed more than the rest? I started off quite enjoying it, but as the story went on I liked it less and less, so I’d have to say the first few chapters. I liked the way Joyce depicted Harold’s decision to start walking in a low key way, there was no over the top drama etc. Was this the first book you've read in this genre/ by this author, has it encouraged you to read more? This is the first book I have read by Rachel Joyce and I’m afraid it will probably be my last. The story and style of writing just didn’t appeal to me at all. Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with? Yes, I found the whole David storyline a bit peculiar. Maureen’s sudden change from being happily married to despising Harold once David was born I found really unbelievable. Also, David’s problems and suicide formed a central element of the novel and I felt they were completely glossed over. It was mentioned in passing that he may have been on drugs/depressed, but it was never actually depicted in any depth. I also found the incident where Harold destroys his boss’s clowns and Queenie covering for him (again, a central theme) as a bit of an anti-climax. I thought it would be revealed that Harold had done something like burn the brewery down! Overall, was reading the book an enjoyable experience? Unfortunately not for me, but I am glad I read it as it was something a bit different that I wouldn’t normally have read How important do you think the girl in the garage was? She seems to represent Hope and Faith in the book and Harold sees her as the embodiment of these qualities I think, so she is an important character in the book Why do you think strangers who met Harold wanted to help him? They saw the essential goodness of what Harold was doing and identified with it. I think the strangers were also meant to give a ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ message. Are there any morals to be drawn from the other "pilgrims" who joined Harold Most of them seemed pretty mean and selfish, it made me quite mad that they hijacked Harold’s pilgrimage and made it into something completely different. Did he help Queenie in the end at all? I think she probably recognised him, but Harold’s dissatisfaction when he reaches her really made me feel depressed to be honest and I found his behavior quite selfish. The ending was the worst part of the book and I found myself getting more and more annoyed with the doom and gloom. Was Harold's Pilgrimage all in vain? No, by the end he and Maureen seemed to have a better understanding of each other, so I think it was worthwhile in that respect.

I have Things Fall Apart on my wishlist, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of it

Review: On Beauty by Zadie Smith Synopsis (from amazon.co.uk) Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? Set in New England mainly and London partly, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family. Review Firstly, it has taken me an absolute age to read this book! I have recently started studying for a work-related qualification, so my beloved books have temporarily been replaced by study texts and I have been struggling to fit in reading for pleasure. Sometimes I'd quite like to press a 'Pause' button and snatch some time to read Zadie Smith is one of those authors that I have always wanted to read, but never quite gotten around to doing so. She generally gets very good reviews, so I was really interested to see for myself what was so special about her writing. It's quite hard to describe the plot of On Beauty - not much happens in terms of action and I would say it's more a study of human relationships, family dynamics in particular. Smith states in her introduction that she has based the book on Howard's End by E.M Forster, I have seen the film so I roughly know what happens, but the book is on my TBR pile and i think it might have been beneficial if I had read it first to be able to make more of a comparison. The theme of Howard's End is 'Only Connect' and I think Smith does quite a good job of weaving this theme through the book. I won't try and go too much into plot/characters etc, because as I said it is actually difficult to summarise the story! There were several storylines which left me a little confused and felt unfinished: there are references to Haiti and Haitian immigrants throughout the book and they seem to always be present throughout the novel, but I'm not sure how I was meant to view them as a reader or what point they were meant to be making. However, the main thing I took away from this book is Smith's sheer talent as a writer. I know good writing when I read it, and this book is full of it. She's got such a skill for writing her characters' speech in a totally realistic way and I could completely understand why she is so praised. This book gets 5/6. The writing alone was superb and I found myself really identifying and liking a lot of her characters. I'll definitely be reading more Zadie Smith in the future

I hope you do too! I don't think it helped that I was reading it with a raging cold, so I was in a bad mood to start with I'm quite glad I didn't love it, because sometimes it adds a bit of extra interest to talk about a book you don't like rather than one you do, so I'm really looking forward to the reading circle and finding out what others thought of it.

Review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce Synopsis (from amazon.co.uk) When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life. Review As I read this for the July Reading Circle, I’m not going to do a full review. However, I will say that after I finished this book I felt very disappointed and I struggled to explain why. As I was reading, I knew I was meant to be finding the story moving/life affirming etc., but the reality is that I didn’t. For whatever reason, I couldn’t connect with the characters and I found the whole thing quite predictable and even boring at points. I have a feeling I’ll be in the minority on this one, as it has rave reviews elsewhere, but hey – sometimes a book just leaves you cold and this was one of those books for me. That’s not to say there weren’t any positives at all, but I give this book 2/6 – it’s not one that I’ll be reading again in a hurry.

Review: Moranthology by Caitlin Moran Synoposis (from amazon.co.uk) Possibly the only drawback about the bestselling How To Be A Woman was that its author, Caitlin Moran, was limited to pretty much one subject: being a woman. In MORANTHOLOGY Caitlin 'gets quite chatty' about many subjects, including cultural, social and political issues which are usually left to hot-shot wonks and not a woman who sometimes keeps a falafel in her handbag. Review Caitlin Moran writes columns for The Times newspaper as well as the book How To Be a Woman, which I really enjoyed when I read it last year. She’s a very skilled writer who writes both movingly and humorously on every subject under the sun, so this collection of her articles was ideal for a quick, enjoyable read in between more serious novels. Whilst I liked the collection overall, I thought it could have been longer and a bit better structured. For example, all the interviews she does could have been put together rather than scattered randomly throughout. Some of the pieces in here are brilliant, especially her reviews of the BBC TV programme Sherlock, where she talks so passionately about it that it makes you want to run out and buy the box set! I give this collection another 4/6!

Thank you Frankie!

Review: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory Synopsis (from back cover) 1464. Cousin is at war with cousin, as the houses of York and Lancaster tear themselves apart… …And Elizabeth Woodville, a young Lancastrian widow, armed only with her beauty and her steely determination, seduces and marries the charismatic warrior kind, Edward IV of York. Crowned Queen of England, surrounded by conflict, betrayal and murder, Elizabeth rises to the demands of her position, fighting tenaciously for her family’s survival. Most of all she must defend her two sons, who become the central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing Princes in the Tower. Review I have always enjoyed Philippa Gregory’s historical novels, and I was expecting The White Queen to live up to what I’ve read before. Like many people, I saw that the book is becoming a BBC drama, so I was keen to read it before the TV programme aired. Gregory moves away from the Tudor period this time and choses the War of the Roses as the setting – a period that I have to admit I’m not that familiar with (although being from Leicester, Richard III is someone I’ve heard a lot about recently ). Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I will definitely be reading the others in the series. It also inspired me to read more about this period in history, as it genuinely is fascinating and anyone who enjoys Game of Thrones will notice marked similarities – York and Lancaster/Stark and Lannister, need I say more?! I warmed to Elizabeth Woodville as a character and I think that’s because Gregory is not afraid to show us her flaws. She is ambitious, sometimes to the detriment of those she loves and she condemns others for qualities she herself shares, but I couldn’t help but like her fighting spirit and her bravery in some truly terrifying situations. The character that really made an impression on me however, was Elizabeth’s mother Jacquetta. She is a really likeable and intriguing character and I’m looking forward to reading the Lady of the Rivers (the third book in the series), where she takes centre stage. If you’re looking for spot on historical accuracy, then you might not be too pleased with some of Gregory’s plotlines. She weaves a strong magical element through the book and while I liked it, I can see how it might put others off. She also has a very interesting take on the Princes in the Tower’s fate that would be very exciting if it were true! There were some things I disliked about the book. I find the way characters speak in Gregory’s books quite contrived sometimes; they often repeat certain phrases and refer to other characters by their full title - e.g. George, Duke of Clarence – which I don’t think is particularly realistic. I also found the jumps in time which occur throughout meant that it was hard to get a clear picture of Elizabeth and Edward IV’s marriage. We’re told they are very much in love, but it isn’t really demonstrated and I felt quite distant as a reader from them together. I give this book a strong 4 out of 6: I enjoyed it, it inspired me to find out more about the period and the characterisation was excellent

Thank you pontalba Hi willoyd, I have heard of Jenny Uglow, I think she has done a book on Charles II that I was interested in too, so I'll take a look and add her to my wishlist I am saving my Schama and Ackroyd for when I feel I can give them my full concentration as they are both big books! I love Claire Tomalin too, I've read her biographies of Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and each one was amazing Hi Devi, Thanks for the welcome!

Thanks chesilbeach, vodkafan and Athena - I'm sure you guys will have a few suggestions to make that wishlist even longer!

Hi Janet, Yes this post is now open for comments I know - there's a few years worth of classics there for me to get through. I'll be pretty pleased with myself if I can eventually work my way through them!

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WISHLIST I didn’t think I would have many titles on this…..Ha! Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively Brooklyn – Colm Toibin Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides Country Girl: A Memoir – Edna O’Brien John Saturnall’s Feast – Lawrence Norfolk Ignorance – Michele Roberts The Heat of the Day – Elizabeth Bowen The Death of the Heart – Elizabeth Bowen Brick Lane – Monica Ali The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen NW – Zadie Smith Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter Where’d You Go Bernadette? – Maria Semple The Transit of Venus – Shirley Hazzard Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of an Ordinary Lady – Kate Summerscale Life After Life – Kate Atkinson Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill – Antonia Fraser Blood & Beaty – Sarah Dunant Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin The Innocents – Francesca Segal How Should A Person Be? – Sheila Heti Sweeth Tooth – Ian McEwan The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London – Judith Flanders A Possible Life – Sebastian Faulks The Scapegoat – Daphne du Maurier Fall of Giants – Ken Follett Merivel: A Man of His Time – Rose Tremain Lucky Jim – Kingsley Amis The Diviners – Libba Bray Tigers in Red Weather – Liza Klaussman The Daylight Gate – Jeanette Winterson Beautiful Lies – Clare Clark Complete Short Stories – Elizabeth Taylor An Education – Lynn Barber The Kindly Ones – Jonathan Littell An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears Peaches for Monsieur le Cure – Joanne Harris The Glass Room – Simon Mawer The Girl Who Fell From The Sky – Simon Mawer The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner Property – Valerie Martin Regeneration – Pat Barker Agent Zigzag – Ben Macintyre The Uninvited Guests – Sadie Jones The Chemistry of Tears – Peter Carey The Amateur Marriage – Anne Tyler The Pinecone - Jenny Uglow Elizabeth Gaskell; A Habit of Stories - Jenny Uglow A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration - Jenny Uglow George Eliot - Jenny Uglow The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory The Lady of the Rivers - Philippa Gregory The Kingmaker's Daughter - Philippa Gregory Falling Angels - Tracy Chevalier Queen’s Gambit – Elizabeth Fremantle One Step Too Far – Tina Seskis The Woman Upstairs – Claire Messud Reconstructing Amelia – Kimberly McCreight Kiss Me First – Lottie Moggach Too Much Happiness – Alice Munro Asylum –Patrick McGrath Secrecy –Rupert Thomson Talking to the Dead – Helen Dunmore The Siege –Helen Dunmore Lucky Bunny –Jill Dawson Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Housekeeping– Marilynne Robinson Gilead –Marilynne Robinson The Idea of Perfection – Kate Grenville Eveless Eden– Marianne Wiggins The Lacuna –Barbara Kingsolver Painter of Silence – Georgina Harding The Promise –Ann Weisgarber The Long Song – Andrea Levy The Secret Scripture – Sebastien Barry Stoner: A Novel – John L Williams Fever – Mary Beth Keane Instruments of Darkness – Imogen Robertson The Lady and the Unicorn – Tracy Chevalier The Virgin Blue – Tracy Chevalier The Help –Kathryn Stockett Passion –Jude Morgan Flappers:Women of a Dangerous Generation – Judith Mackrell The Suspicions of Mr Whicher – Kate Summerscale Servants: A Downstairs View of 20th Century Britain – Lucy Lethbridge A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided - Amanda Foreman The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon Restoration London: Everyday Life in the 1660s - Liza Picard Dark Fire - C.J Sansom Russka - Edward Rutherfurd Paris - Edward Rutherfurd The Little Friend - Donna Tartt The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

CLASSICS TBR I’ve done a separate section for this because I own a lot. Almost all of these are from either the Penguin English Library or Penguin Clothbound Classics series. If anyone is looking to buy a Classic, then I would really recommend these books. They’re beautifully designed and as soon as I saw them it was love at first sight. Anyway, as you can see, I’ve collected quite a few. Some of these I have read before, but plan to re-read. The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle The Five Orange Pips and Other Cases – Arthur Conan Doyle Hard Times – Charles Dickens Evelina – Frances Burney Ivanhoe – Walter Scott The Pickwick Papers – Charles Dickens Bleak House – Charles Dickens Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James Under the Greenwood Tree – Thomas Hardy Wives and Daughters – Elizabeth Gaskell Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins Washington Square – Henry James David Copperfield – Charles Dickens Little Dorrit – Charles Dickens Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell Middlemarch – George Eliot A Room with a View – E.M Forster Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens The Wings of the Dove – Henry James Sons and Lovers – DH Lawrence Mansfield Park – Jane Austen Villette – Charlotte Bronte The Mystery of Edwin Drood- Charles Dickens Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton New Grub Street – George Gissing Dombey and Son – Charles Dickens The Return of the Native – Thomas Hardy Barnaby Rudge – Charles Dickens Daisy Miller and the Turn of the Screw – Henry James Martin Chuzzlewit – Charles Dickens Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy Dubliners – James Joyce Shirley – Charlotte Bronte Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray Emma – Jane Austen The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell The Time Machine – HG Wells The War of the Worlds – HG Wells Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales – Edgar Allen Poe Two on a Tower – Thomas Hardy The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell Frankenstein – Mary Shelley Where Angels Fear to Tread – EM Forster Dracula – Bram Stoker Howards End – EM Forster The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte Daniel Deronda – George Eliot The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy Lady Audley’s Secret – Mary Elizabeth Braddon Pride & Predjudice – Jane Austen Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald Lady Chatterley’s Lover – DH Lawrence Sense & Sensibility – Jane Austen Persuasion – Jane Austen Great Expectations – Charles Dickens Parade’s End – Ford Madox Ford Madame Bovary - Gustav Flaubert

BOOKS TBR I think there are probably quite a few more to add to this list as I recently moved in with my boyfriend and my big bookcase is still at my parents’ house, so I haven’t had time to rifle though the shelves and see what’s there! FICTION On Beauty – Zadie Smith Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell Gillespie & I – Jane Harris Bared to You – Sylvia Day An Experiment in Love – Hilary Mantel The Sister – Lynne Alexander Restless – William Boyd The Stranger’s Child – Alan Hollinghurst The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides Starter for Ten – David Nicholls The Children’s Book – A.S Byatt The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing The Alexandria Quartet – Lawrence Durrell Tides of War – Stella Tillyard Pure – Andrew Miller Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell Death Comes to Pemberley – P.D. James To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee Wideacre - Philippa Gregory The Favoured Child - Philippa Gregory Meridon - Philippa Gregory The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory Lady of the Rivers - Philippa Gregory The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce NW - Zadie Smith Possession - A.S Byatt Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn The Kingmaker's Daughter - Philippa Gregory Ignorance - Michele Roberts Mrs Robinson's Disgrace - Kate Summerscale May We Be Forgiven - A.N Homes Flight Behaviour - Barbara Kingsolver The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Simon Mawer Watch Over Me - Daniela Sacerdoti Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory Where'd You Go Bernadette - Maria Semple The Case of the Missing Boyfriend - Nick Alexander White Teeth - Zadie Smith The Winter King - Bernard Cornwall The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley Umbrella - Will Self Bridget Jones’s Diary/Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason – Helen Fielding A Spell of Winter – Helen Dunmore Fred and Edie – Jill Dawson Life After Life – Kate Atkinson She Rises – Kate Worsley The Last Runaway – Tracy Chevalier The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath London - Edward Rutherfurd The Waves - Virginia Woolf The Secret History - Donna Tartt One Step Too Far - Tina Seskis Queen's Gambit - Elizabeth Fremantle The Forbidden Queen - Anne O'Brien The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory The Greatest Knight - Elizabeth Chadwick The Scarlet Lion - Elizabeth Chadwick Lady of the English - Elizabeth Chadwick The Silent Duchess - Dacia Maraini NON-FICTION Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted – Andrew Wilson The Horologicon: A Day’s Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language – Mark Forsyth The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century – Ian Mortimer Thomas Hardy: The Time Torn Man – Claire Tomalin Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution – Simon Schama London: The Biography – Peter Ackroyd John Adams – David McCullough What Matters in Jane Austen? - John Mullan Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses - Alison Weir Moranthology - Caitlin Moran Operation Mincemeat – Ben Macintyre Double Cross – Ben Macintyre Agent Zigzag– Ben Macintyre The Journals of Sylvia Plath - Sylvia Plath Country Girl - Edna O'Brien Wild Swans - Jung Chang River of Destiny - Barbara Erskine POETRY The Complete English Poems – John Donne Sylvia Plath Poems chosen by Carol Ann Duffy - Sylvia Plath

BOOKS READ IN 2013 (20TH MAY-DEC) Here goes – the start of my Reading Log 2013! I’ve never recorded how many books I read before, so it’ll be really interesting to see how many I actually get through. I plan to use the following rating system (which I shamelessly stole from bobblybear’s list because I liked it ): 1/6: I didn't like it 2/6: It was okay 3/6: I liked it 4/6: I really liked it 5/6: It was amazing 6/6: On my 'best of all time' list Currently Reading: Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England - Amanda Vickery No Angel - Penny Vincenzi May 2013: The White Queen - Philippa Gregory (finished 30/05/2013) June 2013: Moranthology - Caitlin Moran (finished 03/06/2013) The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce (finished 09/06/2013) On Beauty - Zadie Smith (finished 27/06/13) July 2013 Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (finished 07/07/13) Bridget Jones Diary/Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason The Chimp Paradox - Dr. Steve Peters August 2013: Ausperity: Live the Life You Want for Less - Lucy Tobin (finished 02/08/2013) Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses - Alison Weir (finished 08/08/2013) Holy Fools - Joanne Harris (finished 15/08/2013) September 2013: October 2013: November 2013: December 2013:

Hi Athena, I absolutely loved the Game of Thrones books and devoured them all one after the other, which I wish I hadn't done because now I have to wait for George RR Martin to write another one I thought exactly the same about War and Peace when I read it, but I wa ssuprised to find that I really enjoyed it. I much preferred it to Anna Karenina, so I would definitely recommend it. Because it's so big, I tried to split it into sections and have a break in between them to make it more manageable. I think you will enjoy Jane Austen - Persuasion is one of my absolute favourites and always brings a tear to my eye at the end!

I read Forever Amber a few years ago and Amber still stands out in my mind, which I think is the sign of a really well drawn character. It's a great book, so I'm glad you enjoyed it too

I read that Denmark or Norway were expected to win, personally I hope someone a bit wacky wins I've just about given up on the UK, there's so much amazing British music around so it's a shame we always have to revert to artists who are already known and not very 'current'. I can't wait for Eurovision though, I always go to my friend's house for a party when it's on. Have fun watching tonight Kell!

Hi chesilbeach, yes I would definitely recommend The Blind Assasin. It's beautifully written and the story is compelling as well. Alias Grace is also brilliant and is good for fans of historical fiction as it's set in 19th century Canada. Lady Oracle and Moral Disorder are ironically ones I haven't read!

Thanks for the welcome everyone - I'm really excited to get involved and you all seem a lovely bunch of fellow bookworms I really appreciate you taking the time to say hi, so thank you x Hi Bobblybear, thank you for the welcome - those are my two favourite Atwood books, especially The Blind Assasin. I've read that three times and always get something different out of it Hi vodkafan, no I haven't read any Linda Gillard, but I will be having a look at her work after the recommendation. I feel as if I belong here too and I will certainly be letting you all know about any good reads. Can you start a Reading Blog if you're half way through the year? Probably a bit of a silly question but thought I'd ask!!