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pipread

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  1. I recently read A Game of Thrones and now I'm nearly half way through A Clash of Kings. A really good series I hope books 3,4 and 5 are just as good! I've also got The Hunger games waiting - so many books, so little time! Happy reading
  2. It certainly was a great read I recently read The sealed letter also by Emma Donoghue, quite different to The Room, but it was good! yesterday I was given Slammerkin written by her as well I was also given The Prince of Mist ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
  3. Still reading A Clash of Kings ~ George R.R.Martin, I was struggling to read the small feint print in the book I had so now I've downloaded it to my kindle and it's making much easier reading
  4. I've just finished Bitter Water ~ Gordon Ferris, a good fast paced read, next book on the menu is A Clash of Kings, the second book in George R.R. Martin's A song of Ice and Fire series. I really enjoyed the first in the series so hoping this one doesn't disappoint!
  5. I've just finished Game of Thrones as well, I enjoyed it much more than I expected to, like you I'm going to have a break before I read the next in the series Good to see you back Charm Hope that mojo sticks around for you!
  6. Now reading A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin. I think it will take me a while to read somehow!
  7. I finished Love You More - Lisa Gardner, a good thriller but not my favourite of her books. Now I've started A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin, enjoying it so far but I think it'll take me a while to get through it!
  8. I finished The Sealed Letter ~ Emma Donoghue this morning, it's written by the author of Room, which was brilliant, this book is very different but very good! It's set in Victorian London and is based on a real life scandal in 1864, forbidden love and a rare divorce case! Now I've started The Cold, Cold, Ground - Adrian McKinty a police story set in Belfast in the 1980's, good so far
  9. I think this was my favourite read last year and I found it so much better than I expected as well although I struggled a bit with some aspects of it. Enjoy I've just finished The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Did I enjoy it? Yes very much. Could I tell you what happened? No not really!
  10. What a great challenge! I read most of the Roald Dahl books when I read them to my daughter, now she's a mum herself! I love them I didn't know about The Gremlins though. Happy reading Janet.
  11. I was in WH Smiths this afternoon dithering over this book! I decided not to buy it but think I'll get it on my kindle soon. I've just started The Angels Game ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon, only read 3 chapters so far but enjoying it.
  12. The Sacrificial Man ~ Ruth Dugdall from Amazon What I want to say is that suicide is my choice. No-one else is to blame. Man seeks beautiful woman for the journey of a lifetime: Will you help me to die? When Probation Officer Cate Austin is given her new assignment, she faces the highest-profile case of her career. Alice Mariani is charged with assisted suicide and Cate must recommend a sentence. Alice insists her story is one of misinterpreted love, forcing those around her to analyse their own lives. Who is to decide what is normal and when does loyalty turn to obsession? Investigating the loophole that lies between murder and euthanasia, Cate must now meet the woman who agreed to comply with her lover's final request. Shocking revelations expose bitter truths that can no longer be ignored. My thoughts I found The Sacrificial Man to be a dark and disturbing psychological thriller. It's the first book I've read by this author so it was unknown territory for me. I liked the fact that a probation officer was one of the main characters, it made a change! It was a chilling read with many twists and surprises. For most of the book the only character I liked was Cate Austin, the probation officer, but as the story unfolded and I learned more about Alice, who is charged with assisting a suicide I could empathise with her, and also Smith, the suicide victim. I will definately look out for more books by Ruth Dugdall.
  13. Emotional Geology ~ Linda Gillard From Amazon A passionate, off-beat love story set on the bleak and beautiful island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Rose Leonard is on the run from her life. Haunted by her turbulent past, she takes refuge in a remote Hebridean island community where she cocoons herself in work, silence and solitude in a house by the sea. Life and new love are offered by friends, her estranged daughter and most of all by Calum, a fragile younger man who has his own demons to exorcise. But does Rose, with her tenuous hold on sanity, have the courage to say "Yes" to life and put her past behind her?... My thoughts I'd read many good reviews about this authors books and so needed to see for myself what the fuss was about! Despite all the good things I'd read I still really expected Emotional Geology to be a simple love story. It is a story of love but it was so much more as well. Mental illness, love, life, pain and tragedy are all covered in this story. It is almost poetically written with wonderful characters and such a beautiful scottish island I would love to go there to stay a while. I loved the story and the way it was written. I'll definately be reading more of Linda Gillard's books.
  14. The Auschwitz Violin ~ Maria Angels Anglada synopsis from Waterstones In the winter of 1991, at a concert in Krakow, an older woman with a marvelously pitched violin meets a fellow musician who is instantly captivated by her instrument. When he asks her how she obtained it, she reveals the remarkable story behind its origin...Imprisoned at Auschwitz, the notorious concentration camp, Daniel feels his humanity slipping away. Treasured memories of the young woman he loved and the prayers that once lingered on his lips become hazier with each passing day. Then a visit from a mysterious stranger changes everything, as Daniel's former identity as a crafter of fine violins is revealed to all. The camp's two most dangerous men use this information to make a cruel wager: If Daniel can build a successful violin within a certain number of days, the Kommandant wins a case of the finest burgundy. If not, the camp doctor, a torturer, gets hold of Daniel. And so, battling exhaustion, Daniel tries to recapture his lost art, knowing all too well the likely cost of failure. Written with lyrical simplicity and haunting beauty-and interspersed with chilling, actual Nazi documentation - "The Auschwitz Violin" is more than just a novel: it is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of beauty, art, and hope to triumph over the darkest adversity. My thoughts I enjoyed this story, I thought it was beautifully written. It captures the horrors of the concentration camp whilst telling the story of Daniel a master violin maker who is a prisoner in Auschwitz and his passion and pride in the task he is set of making a violin. I only wish the story had been longer so that other characters could have been developed further.
  15. The Final Murder ~ Anne Holt synopsis from waterstones A talk-show star is found killed in her home, her tongue removed and left on her desk, cleaved in two. And when a second body, that of a right-wing party leader, is found crucified to the bedroom wall, Superintendent Adam Stubo is pulled from leave to lead the investigation. Is there a celebrity-slaying serial killer on the loose? His partner, Yohanne Vik, agrees to help with the case but begins to see a pattern, one that traces back to her FBI days. If she's right, the pattern will end in the murder of the investigating officer: Adam. From the internationally bestselling Anne Holt, this is the latest thrilling instalment in a gripping and compulsive series. My thoughts The Final Murder is the 2nd book that features Adam Stubo, a detective and Johanne Vic an FBI trained profiler of sorts. Stubo and Vic are now married (having met in the 1st book) and are new parents. A series of murders with no links and no clues baffle Stubo and he asks his wife to help him out. This book kept me interested but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one, it seemed to lack something that I can't quite put my finger on. However I will read the next book in the series at some time.
  16. Thanks Andrea, I've often thought of trying audio books but have never taken the plunge Happy reading
  17. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this I've read 2 quite different books by him and enjoyed them both. I'm a third of the way through The sacrificial Man ~ Ruth Dugdall, enjoying it now, although I found it slightly confusing to begin with,
  18. A Stolen Life a memoir ~ Jaycee Dugard synopsis from waterstone On 10 June 1991, eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard was abducted from a school bus stop within sight of her home in Tahoe, California. It was the last her family and friends saw of her for over eighteen years. On 26 August 2009, Dugard, her daughters, and Phillip Craig Garrido appeared in the office of her kidnapper's parole officer in California. Their unusual behaviour sparked an investigation that led to the positive identification of Jaycee Lee Dugard, living in a tent behind Garrido's home. During her time in captivity, at the age of fourteen and seventeen, she gave birth to two daughters, both fathered by Garrido. Dugard's memoir covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present. In her stark, compelling narrative, Jaycee opens up about what she experienced, including how she feels now and the struggle to re-build her life after eighteen years in captivity. Garrido and his wife Nancy have since pleaded guilty to their crimes. my thoughts This is not a genre I would usually read, but a friend who I've been trying to encourage to read more bought it! read it!! and then passed it on to me so the least I could do was read it as well. It is a true story, an account written by a 30 year old woman who had been abducted by a paedophile and his wife at the age of 11 and who was their prisoner for 18 years. It gives an insight into Jaycee's life before, during and after her imprisonment. I felt sorry for her from the start because her step father didn't seem to want her around, then she was tasered and taken away whilst on her way to school one morning. There were times that I had to remind myself that this was a true story, nobody, least of all a child should have to suffer what Jaycee did and at times I found it difficult to read. She gave birth to 2 daughters, the first when she was 14. It is a sad and emotional book, but love and hope come through this honest account, that must have been painful to write about at times but I imagine it was part of the therapy she needed to help her move on. The book wasn't the best in terms of the writing but amazing considering Jaycee's education stopped at 11 years old, it's not a long book, I read it in a day, but it's anything but easy either. I was glad that I felt Jaycee is a strong person, who loves her daughters and has the love and support of her family and I felt that the future looks good for her, I got the impression that with help she is putting the past behind her and looking to the future.
  19. Time to Say Goodbye - Katherine Jenkins (?) best describes my day, I went to an uncles funeral!
  20. I'm a full time teaching assistant in a special school, it can be challenging and quite exhausting at times but it's never dull and there's no two days the same! I love it!
  21. I've just finished reading Emotional geology ~ Linda Gillard, I really enjoyed it, it's so beautifully written. I'll definately be reading more by this author.
  22. Penal Colony ~ Richard Herley description from Amazon The future. The British government now runs island prison colonies to take dangerous offenders from its overcrowded mainland jails. Among all these colonies, Sert, 25 miles off the north Cornish coast, has the worst reputation. There are no warders. Satellite technology is used to keep the convicts under watch. New arrivals are dumped by helicopter and must learn to survive as best they can. To Sert, one afternoon in July, is brought Anthony John Routledge, sentenced for a sex-murder he did not commit. Routledge knows he is here for ever. And he knows he must quickly forget the rules of civilized life. But not all the islanders are savages. Under the charismatic leadership of one man a community has evolved. A community with harsh and unyielding rules, peopled by resourceful men for whom the hopeless dream of escape may not be so hopeless after all ... My thoughts The story is set in the year 1997, the future, as the book was written in the 1980's. The book is well written, fast moving and for me a real page turner. It is based on an interesting concept - what would happen if murderers and rapists were sent to a remote island and left there with just a satellite to keep watch and a weekly helicopter drop delivering post and food parcels? I (surprisingly) found that I grew to like many of the characters, they felt believable and so did the way they lived. All in all a very good book and amazingly it's free on the kindle so give it a try!
  23. I've just finished The Auschwitz Violin ~ Maria Angels Anglada, a short, beautiful, poignant story. I wish it had been longer though.
  24. Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet ~ Arthur Conan Doyle description from Amazon When Dr John Watson takes rooms in Baker Street with amateur detective Sherlock Holmes, he has no idea that he is about to enter a shadowy world of criminality and violence. Accompanying Holmes to an ill-omened house in south London, Watson is startled to find a dead man whose face is contorted in a rictus of horror. There is no mark of violence on the body yet a single word is written on the wall in blood. Dr Watson is as baffled as the police, but Holmes’s brilliant analytical skills soon uncover a trail of murder, revenge and lost love. My thoughts The first story about the famous fictional detective, gives a good introduction to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The book is told in two parts, in the first half of the book the story is told by Watson about how Holmes and he met and investigated a crime, he describes Sherlocks eccentricities and amazing talent for solving mysteries. The second half tells the history of the people featured in the crime and doesn't involve Holmes or Watson. I thought A study in Scarlet was an entertaining story with good strong characters and plenty of atmosphere. I'll definately be reading more of Holmes adventures, most of which I have read before but a long time ago. The brilliant TV series Sherlock has inspired me to re-read these brilliant stories.
  25. Just Henry ~ Michelle Magorian description from Waterstones From the award-winning author of "Goodnight Mister Tom" comes "Just Henry": a gripping mystery-thriller and an insightful snapshot of time, set in post-war Britain. It's 1949 and life is bleak for Henry. He misses his father who died a war hero, and he escapes from his annoying stepfather and stepsister whenever he can and goes to the cinema - his passion.One day in the cinema queue he meets Mrs Beaumont who also loves films, and lends Henry a camera for his school project. Henry is disgusted that he's been put in a group with Jeffries, the son of a man who went AWOL, and Pip, who was born illegitimate; but he's about to learn that tolerance and friendship are more important than social stigmas.Henry will need his new friends when he processes the film and makes an alarming discovery.Like a bomb waiting to explode, Henry's world is about to unravel. my thoughts Having enjoyed Goodnight Mr Tom by the same author I had to download and read this when it was on offer in the 12 days of kindle! Although it was written for the younger reader I thoroughly enjoyed it. Set in the period just after the end of the 2nd world war, the author captures the feeling of 'make do,' of rationing and the destruction caused by the bombings. It also reminds the reader or the prejudice and stigma faced by the families of deserters and unmarried mothers and their children. The characters felt real, the writing is good and the pages flew by with interesting plots. My one criticism would be that Mrs. Beaumont, a central character is a bit too good to be true, but then I have to remind myself that it is a work of childrens fiction! An entertaining read that can be enjoyed at any age.
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