Janet

As I said in my review, I found I couldn't laugh at Eleanor. I found her sad and endearing (and yes, heart-warming). I hope I didn't offend anyone - it certainly wasn't my intention.

The Bette Davis Club by Jane Lotter The ‘blurb’ The morning of her niece’s wedding, Margo Just drinks a double martini and contemplates the many mistakes she’s made in her fifty-odd years of life. Spending three decades in love with a wonderful but unattainable man is pretty high up on her list of missteps, as is a long line of unsuccessful love affairs accompanied by a seemingly endless supply of delicious cocktails. When the young bride flees—taking with her a family heirloom and leaving behind six hundred bewildered guests—her mother offers Margo fifty grand to retrieve her spoiled brat of a daughter and the invaluable property she stole. So, together with the bride’s jilted and justifiably crabby fiancé, Margo sets out in a borrowed 1955 red MG on a cross-country chase. Along the way, none of what she discovers will be quite what she expected. But it might be exactly what she’s been seeking all along. From acclaimed humor writer Jane Lotter comes this madcap, laugh-out-loud adventure, The Bette Davis Club. Margo Just is in California for a wedding. She hasn't really been looking forward to the event as the bride's mother is her wealthy half-sister Charlotte and the only thing they have in common is a deceased father who was a famous screenwriter. Margo plans to help herself to something stunning from her sister's wardrobe to wear to the wedding and to drink gin cocktails to help her get through the day. However, fate has a different idea, and when Margo's niece Georgia jilts her fiancé at the altar, Charlotte offers Margo $50,000 to bring back Georgia, and the items she has taken with her that don't belong to her. At Margo's disposal is their father's beloved 1955 MG – there is just one problem – Margo doesn't drive. So, seeking answers as to why Georgia fled from their wedding, her fiancé Tully reluctantly agrees to act as chauffeur, and the pair of the set off across the USA in pursuit of the runaway bride, but in seeking answers to Georgia's behaviour, Margo also uncovers some truths about her own past… Okay, I confess – I bought this on Kindle partly due to the cover! I wasn't sure if it would be 'my thing', and indeed it wasn't really the sort of book I normally read, and yet it was fun and I liked it. I loved the character of Margo – not only is wonderfully feisty but she's also in her fifties – it's nice to have a character like this who is a similar age to me! And Tully was the perfect foil – I liked how their alliance grew through her journey. Sure, it's not great literature, but it was a nice easy read and one that I enjoyed. The author, Jane Lotter, was actually a very successful US journalist. This is her only novel as she sadly died of cancer the same year her book was published. The paperback edition is 337 pages long and is published by Lake Union Publishing. It was first published in 2015. The ISBN is 9781503951075. I read it on Kindle. 3/5 (I enjoyed it) (Finished 14 February 2018)

Ah, my mistake. Thanks @Athena

Another country: Dominica - Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - 4/5 - finished 28.03.18 The author was born there, and the book is part set there too. 53 Books - 22.75%

I haven't come across anyone who hated this book. Most people seem to have very much enjoyed it. I hope those of you who haven't read it yet enjoy it. I haven't looked at her other books, @chaliepud - I might not bother!

I have never tried a graphic novel, but we have a whole section about them here. You may find something suitable there? Good luck.

IKR!! I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before! I love my hairdresser, but she does like to talk! Obviously it's impractical when she's putting the foils on, but once they're on and the colour is working its magic I was able to put the buds in no problem.

I'm a quarter of the way through Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'm enjoying it so I have downloaded a copy from Audible so that I can whispersync them! I'm currently having some highlights so have been listening here to stop anyone from talking to me as they invariably do when I'm reading!! (My hairdresser and her colleague are both lovely, I hasten to add, but I really want to devote time to the book!!).

Spectacles by Sue Perkins The ‘blurb’ When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'Why is our house full of this shhhhhhh?' Sadly, a recycling 'incident' destroyed the bulk of this archive. This has meant two things: firstly, Dear Reader, you will never get to see countless drawings of wizards, read a poem about corn on the cob, or marvel at the kilos of brown flowers I so lovingly pressed as a child. Secondly, it's left me with no choice but to actually write this thing myself. This, my first ever book, will answer questions such as 'Is Mary Berry real?', 'Is it true you wear a surgical truss?' and 'Is a non-spherically symmetric gravitational pull from outside the observable universe responsible for some of the observed motion of large objects such as galactic clusters in the universe?' Most of this book is true. I have, of course, amplified my more positive characteristics in an effort to make you like me. Thank you for reading. I think I first grew to love Sue Perkins when she appeared alongside Giles Coren on TV in the "Supersize" franchise, so when this popped up as a Kindle 99p Deal of the Day I snapped it up. I don't read many autobiographies so I don't have much to compare this too, but it definitely sounded like the words were coming off the page in Sue's voice (I believe she narrates the audio version – I imagine that would be a great listen). As to the content, there were some great parts – the sections where she writes about her father's illness were very moving and of course I loved reading about her relationship with Mel Giedroyc. She writes with warmth and obviously with her trademark wit and humour. There were some parts which I found less interesting but overall it was an enjoyable read. The paperback edition is 464 pages long and is published by Penguin. It was first published in 2012. The ISBN is 9781405918558. 3/5 (I enjoyed it) (Finished 12 July 2017)

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman The ‘blurb’ Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life. Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine? An astonishing story that powerfully depicts the loneliness of life, and the simple power of a little kindness “If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.” Eleanor Oliphant is nearly thirty years old and is alone in the world. There is Mummy, of course, but she is away somewhere and only talks to Eleanor by telephone. Eleanor and her mother had a fractured relationship and Eleanor was fostered since being a small child. As a result, she is socially awkward and has no friends. She has been in the same job for many years, but her colleagues treat her with derision. However, all this is about to change when Eleanor leaves the office at the same time as co-worker Raymond and they witness a man have a fall. Brought together by this event, they form an unlikely friendship, which might just thaw Eleanor's sad heart and make her learn to face her past, stand up for herself, and to really begin to live. This book was everywhere towards the end of last year and I kept picking it up but as it was in hardback I didn't buy it. I treated myself to the paperback as soon as it came out, and looked forward to getting stuck in. I started off by hating Eleanor, but I grew to love her as she grew as a person – and who couldn't love Raymond?! It's a book of hope and courage and I very much enjoyed the story. Eleanor is actually rather endearing – she makes jokes at her own expense, but I found I couldn't laugh at her but I was rooting for her every step of her journey. I guessed the ending, largely because a similar storyline occurs in another book I have read (I was going to put the title in a spoiler tag, but then I realised that was pointless as nobody would know whether to click on it or not! ). However, guessing didn't spoil my enjoyment of this book. One of my Book Club members was going to choose this last year, but as it was only out in hardback at that time it wasn't picked, but I think it would make a good book for discussion. The paperback edition is 400 pages long and is published by HarperCollins. It was first published in 2017. The ISBN is 9780008172145. 4/5 (I really enjoyed it) (Finished 29 January 2018)

Thanks, @bobblybear. Goodreads tells me I'm four books ahead of schedule, which I'm happy about.

# Please Look After Mother by Shin Kyung-Sook The ‘blurb’ Please Look After Mother is the story of So-nyo, a wife and mother, who has lived a life of sacrifice and compromise. In the past she suffered a stroke, leaving her vulnerable and often confused. Now, travelling from the Korean countryside to the Seoul of her grown-up children, So-nyo is separated from her husband when the doors close on a packed train. As her children and husband search the streets, they recall So-nyo's life, and all they have left unsaid. Through their piercing voices, we begin to discover the desires, heartaches, and secrets she harboured within. And as the mystery of her disappearance unravels, we uncover a larger mystery, that of all mothers and children: how affection, exasperation, hope and guilt add up to love. Compassionate, redemptive and beautifully written, Please Look After Mother will reconnect you to the story of your own family, and to the forgotten sacrifices that lie at its heart. The titular mother in this book married young and has spent her adult life looking after her husband and children. When she goes missing at a busy train station, having missed the train that her husband gets on, each family member must examine her life, and their own lives to look for clues to where she is and reasons that she hasn't found her way home again. This was chosen for our Book Club, and I was initially pleased as it counts towards South Korea in my Very-Long Term World Challenge. However, sadly it just didn't appeal to me at all – it was a chore to read, rather than a pleasure, and I would have definitely abandoned it had it not been for Book Club. It's narrated in the second-person point of view ("you did this… you said that…") which is not a style of writing I'm mad about and the trouble is that none of the characters are nice, so some eight months since I read it (I'm *so* behind with my reviews!) and I can recall very little of the actual story! Apparently it's been adapted into a musical!! I think I'll give that one a miss… The paperback edition is 288 pages long and is published by W&N. It was first published in 2008 1860. The ISBN is 9780753828182. 2½/5 (It was okay) (Finished 6 July 2017)

Copied from my blog: Please Look After Mother by Shin Kyung-Sook The ‘blurb’ Please Look After Mother is the story of So-nyo, a wife and mother, who has lived a life of sacrifice and compromise. In the past she suffered a stroke, leaving her vulnerable and often confused. Now, travelling from the Korean countryside to the Seoul of her grown-up children, So-nyo is separated from her husband when the doors close on a packed train. As her children and husband search the streets, they recall So-nyo's life, and all they have left unsaid. Through their piercing voices, we begin to discover the desires, heartaches, and secrets she harboured within. And as the mystery of her disappearance unravels, we uncover a larger mystery, that of all mothers and children: how affection, exasperation, hope and guilt add up to love. Compassionate, redemptive and beautifully written, Please Look After Mother will reconnect you to the story of your own family, and to the forgotten sacrifices that lie at its heart. The titular mother in this book married young and has spent her adult life looking after her husband and children. When she goes missing at a busy train station, having missed the train that her husband gets on, each family member must examine her life, and their own lives to look for clues to where she is and reasons that she hasn't found her way home again. This was chosen for our Book Club, and I was initially pleased as it counts towards South Korea in my Very-Long Term World Challenge. However, sadly it just didn't appeal to me at all – it was a chore to read, rather than a pleasure, and I would have definitely abandoned it had it not been for Book Club. It's narrated in the second-person point of view ("you did this… you said that…") which is not a style of writing I'm mad about and the trouble is that none of the characters are nice, so some eight months since I read it (I'm *so* behind with my reviews!) and I can recall very little of the actual story! Apparently it's been adapted into a musical!! I think I'll give that one a miss… The paperback edition is 288 pages long and is published by W&N. It was first published in 2008 1860. The ISBN is 9780753828182. 2½/5 (It was okay) (Finished 6 July 2017) 52 countries completed - 22.32%

# Please Look After Mother by Shin Kyung-Sook The ‘blurb’ Please Look After Mother is the story of So-nyo, a wife and mother, who has lived a life of sacrifice and compromise. In the past she suffered a stroke, leaving her vulnerable and often confused. Now, travelling from the Korean countryside to the Seoul of her grown-up children, So-nyo is separated from her husband when the doors close on a packed train. As her children and husband search the streets, they recall So-nyo's life, and all they have left unsaid. Through their piercing voices, we begin to discover the desires, heartaches, and secrets she harboured within. And as the mystery of her disappearance unravels, we uncover a larger mystery, that of all mothers and children: how affection, exasperation, hope and guilt add up to love. Compassionate, redemptive and beautifully written, Please Look After Mother will reconnect you to the story of your own family, and to the forgotten sacrifices that lie at its heart. The titular mother in this book married young and has spent her adult life looking after her husband and children. When she goes missing at a busy train station, having missed the train that her husband gets on, each family member must examine her life, and their own lives to look for clues to where she is and reasons that she hasn't found her way home again. This was chosen for our Book Club, and I was initially pleased as it counts towards South Korea in my Very-Long Term World Challenge. However, sadly it just didn't appeal to me at all – it was a chore to read, rather than a pleasure, and I would have definitely abandoned it had it not been for Book Club. It's narrated in the second-person point of view ("you did this… you said that…") which is not a style of writing I'm mad about and the trouble is that none of the characters are nice, so some eight months since I read it (I'm *so* behind with my reviews!) and I can recall very little of the actual story! Apparently it's been adapted into a musical!! I think I'll give that one a miss… The paperback edition is 288 pages long and is published by W&N. It was first published in 2008 1860. The ISBN is 9780753828182. 2½/5 (It was okay) (Finished 6 July 2017)

New books. Goodo!

Is your thread open? If not, let me know and I'll delete. I just wanted to say what a lovely time I had with you guys and Claire yesterday. The time flew by!

It was lovely to see you (and Kay and Alan) yesterday - I had a great time, as ever. I can't believe we were together for four and a half hours - the time just whizzed by! Did you have a nice day off today? I didn't buy any books yesterday!

Thanks, @frankie x

The Plague by Albert Camus is one of today's Kindle deals. I have fancied trying this for some time, so I have snapped it up for 99p!

Phew!

Copied from my blog... Maggie and Tom live at the titular Mill on the river Floss with their parents. They have a stormy friendship, going from best friends to enemies at the drop of a hat! Tom attends a local school, but his father has ambitions for him to gain an education that will enable Tom to get a job of higher status than running the mill so he sends him to live with the Reverend Stelling who will tutor Tom. Maggie lives for visits to Tom and on one occasion meets Philip Makem with whom she forms a close friendship. Tom and Maggie's father is in dispute with a neighbour over water rights to the mill. He believes he will win a lawsuit against the man, Mr Wakem, who also happens to be Philip's father - but he loses, and to add insult to injury he is then offered employment by Mr Waken who has bought the mill. Unable to provide for his family without this job he reluctantly agrees. Saved from starvation he and his family lose all their possessions, but worse, they lose their standing in the community. Time moves on and the children grow up. Tom works his way up in his uncle's business making a successful career for himself, whilst Maggie gets a job as a governess, but the relationship between the siblings is strained, and when a flood affects the area it seems that the turmoil of their relationship is not the only problem thy will have to contend with… In terms of the challenge, it did give a feel for the county. However,iIt is some time since I read this book – I had scribbled some notes about the story as I was going, and it was a good job I had, as I found when I sat down some seven months after finishing the book I really couldn't recall the storyline without them! It's a shame as I very much enjoyed Middlemarch and Silas Marner. I think the problem was that I felt this book dragged – especially the first part of the book. It did pick up towards the end though. I guessed the ending which I thought I could see coming a mile off... and was completely wrong!

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot The ‘blurb’ Maggie and Tom Tulliver are both wilful, passionate children, and their relationship has always been tempestuous. As they grow up together on the banks of the River Floss, Tom's self-righteous stubbornness and Maggie's emotional intensity increasingly brings them into conflict, particularly when Maggie's beauty sparks some ill-fated attachments. George Eliot's story of a brother and sister bound together by their errors and affections is told with tenderness, energy and a profound understanding of human nature. Maggie and Tom live at the titular Mill on the river Floss with their parents. They have a stormy friendship, going from best friends to enemies at the drop of a hat! Tom attends a local school, but his father has ambitions for him to gain an education that will enable Tom to get a job of higher status than running the mill so he sends him to live with the Reverend Stelling who will tutor Tom. Maggie lives for visits to Tom and on one occasion meets Philip Makem with whom she forms a close friendship. Tom and Maggie's father is in dispute with a neighbour over water rights to the mill. He believes he will win a lawsuit against the man, Mr Wakem, who also happens to be Philip's father - but he loses, and to add insult to injury he is then offered employment by Mr Waken who has bought the mill. Unable to provide for his family without this job he reluctantly agrees. Saved from starvation he and his family lose all their possessions, but worse, they lose their standing in the community. Time moves on and the children grow up. Tom works his way up in his uncle's business making a successful career for himself, whilst Maggie gets a job as a governess, but the relationship between the siblings is strained, and when a flood affects the area it seems that the turmoil of their relationship is not the only problem thy will have to contend with… It is some time since I read this book – I had scribbled some notes about the story as I was going, and it was a good job I had, as I found when I sat down some seven months after finishing the book I really couldn't recall the storyline without them! It's a shame as I very much enjoyed Middlemarch and Silas Marner. I think the problem was that I felt this book dragged – especially the first part of the book. It did pick up towards the end though. I guessed the ending which I thought I could see coming a mile off... and was completely wrong! The paperback edition is 624 pages long and is published by Vintage. It was first published in 1860. The ISBN is 9780099519065. I read it on Kindle. 3½/5 (I enjoyed it) (Finished 1 July 2017)

I'm always a bit nervous when people add books when I've loved them but I do hope you love it too, @~Andrea~. If you have a Kindle it's free on Amazon and Project Gutenberg.

Thanks, @Athena. I will definitely read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea at some stage. I looked on Fantastic Fiction and he's written loads more books than I've heard of. I'd no idea he was such a prolific writer.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne The ‘blurb’ Jules Verne's pioneering science fiction classic tells the story of the distinguished but eccentric Professor Lidenbrock, who finds a scrap of parchment in an old manuscript. A cipher written in runes, it tells of an entrance to another world - a world hidden beneath our own, illuminated by an electrified gas and populated by strange, prehistoric beings. So with his nephew reluctantly in tow, the Professor follows this cryptic clue down into a dormant volcano in Iceland, and the further they descend, the more extraordinary the discoveries and creatures that they encounter, the greater the dangers, and the more ancient the living past that surrounds them. Axel Lidenbrock lives with his eccentric uncle Otto – a Professor of Geology in Hamburg. When Professor Lidenbrock finds a document inside an old manuscript that appears to be written in some kind of cypher, the pair decipher the code and it seems to be notes about the discovery by 16th Century alchemist Arne Saknussemm of a passage leaving from a dormant volcano in Iceland down the centre of the earth. Excited by this discovery, Professor Lidenbrock, accompanied by a very reluctant Axel, heads to Iceland and there finds an Icelandic guide, Hans, who is prepared to accompany them on a top-secret expedition to follow in Saknussemm's footsteps. To the centre of the earth? Well, only time will tell. I started reading this whilst waiting for friends because I had forgotten to pick up my book and had this already downloaded on the Kindle App on my mobile – thank goodness! I had already read, and enjoyed Verne's Around the World in 80 Days but I thought that this book might be out of my comfort zone – and I was right! The writing is simply brilliant – so atmospheric. Although I have never liked the idea of potholing, and I did feel slightly uncomfortable when visiting Wookey Hole Caves and some caves we visited in Turkey I don't consider myself to be claustrophobic at all, but I found this almost difficult to read because I felt so stifled, and also afraid for Axle (who I loved) and his uncle (who I wasn't so keen on!) and the enigmatic Hans. Despite being written over 150 years ago, the journey itself didn't really feel too dated – I found it suffocating, thrilling and chilling in equal measure. Initially a 4/5, having digested it I think it's definitely worthy of five stars. The paperback edition is 288 pages long and is published by Penguin. It was first published in 1864. The ISBN is 9780141441979. I read it on Kindle. 5/5 (I loved it!) (Finished 29 January 2018)