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Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2007


Liz

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It looks as though it's that time again for Richard & Judy to select a few more books for the summer.

This year they have chosen......

 

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Kim Edwards

 

Relentless

Simon Kernick

 

The House at Riverton

Kate Morton

 

Salmon Fishing In The Yemen

Paul Torday

 

Getting Rid of Matthew

Jane Fallon

 

The Savage Garden

Mark Mills

 

How to talk to a Widower

Jonathan Tropper

 

The Other Side of The Bridge

Mary Lawson

 

Is anyone tempted to join in and read one or two?

 

They have more information on their website:

 

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/R/richardandjudy/summer_read_07/summer_read.html

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I've heard some good things about The Memory Keeper's Daughter, so I might be tempted to take up that one at some point. I also listened to an audio short story by Simon Kernick and really enjoyed it (it was The Debt, written exclusively for BMW, in case anyone is interested), so he's perhaps another author I'd like to sample some more.

 

The others don't really jump out at me though.

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I read that list in the paper at work on Saturday and have been searching online to post it here, but R&J's website wasn't updated, so thanks for finding it. :roll:

 

I already have The Memory Keeper's Daughter (well, my Mum does so it's the same thing!). I will have to check out the others.

 

One was written by Ricky Gervais' girlfriend* apparently!

 

ETA: *Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon - I looked at this in Borders a few weeks ago.

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I have heard about 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter', I saw in Waterstones last week, its sounds a great read. x

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Mmph. They reccomended that crappy Labryrinth book, like Hell I'm reading anything off that list. Their book list always seems too womensy for my taste, nothing I fancy ever comes up. It's quite a good method of finding out which books to avoid like the bubonic plague, in my opinion.

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I wonder if they would have had it not been plastered with Richard and Judy stickers? Ah who knows. Tis all personal taste. I don't get how people can't love certain books I adore either. Both my mum and I got past the first three pages with :roll: kind of expression on our faces and chucked it in the charity bag without even a crease in the spine.

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LOL yeah, perhaps I did. I don't like those kinds of things. Over marketing turns me off. I'm even getting a little bit annoyed at all the advertising about bloody Deathly Hallows. You can't turn anywhere in Waterstones without it being there.

 

I have found, with many books I dislike though, that they have been hyped up a lot such as Labyrinth and that Mr Strange and Norrell thingy. I'm not a big follower of reviews and critics so when I hear of something through such avenues it has to be pretty hyped. Doesn't actually stop me from buying them though... I'm nosey.

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I read that list in the paper at work on Saturday and have been searching online to post it here, but R&J's website wasn't updated, so thanks for finding it. :roll:

 

I already have The Memory Keeper's Daughter (well, my Mum does so it's the same thing!). I will have to check out the others.

 

One was written by Ricky Gervais' girlfriend* apparently!

 

ETA: *Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon - I looked at this in Borders a few weeks ago.

yes that's the title
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think I've read 3 or 4 books that were R&J selections - The Time Traveler's Wife (yes, I believe it was one of their choices a couple of years back), The Abortionist's Daughter (again, I think this was one they chose), The Historian and Labyrinth. I enjoyed them all (my least favourite was The Abortionist's Daughter). Still, they were all read as reading circle or Posh Club choices and I didn't read them because of R&J at all.

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I have to admit I don't really fancy any of the books put forward. I've picked them all up at one time or another in the last month as Waterstone's are really pushing them. Maybe, The Memory Keepers Daughter but only if I get it from the library or something.

 

I did discover Jodi Picoult through R&J though and for that I am greatful as I would never have picked it up if they hadn't reviewed it.

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I totally rejected R+Js recommendations after my disappointment with The Jane Austen Book Club - however a year or so later I was watching their show when they reviewed The Island - I was so intrigued by the story that I borrowed it from the library and it became one of my favourite books that year (I recommended it to readers at the library and they in turn enjoyed it). However 'the list' makes me feel uneasy as to get on it guarantees huge sales for that writer and it feels like it's all down to money. On the other hand, anything that encourages people to read has to be applauded.

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I have to admit I don't really fancy any of the books put forward.

 

Neither do I. For some reason, the titles Amanda Ross picks (for it is she, not R&J who selects them) for the non-summer list are more appealing.

 

Like most of you, I've read quite a few R&J list books without realising that they would become picks! But I have nothing against them doing it and it doesn't put me off :)

 

When they featured Lori Lansen's The Girls (great book btw), I enjoyed the coverage they did: really interesting.

 

...'the list' makes me feel uneasy as to get on it guarantees huge sales for that writer and it feels like it's all down to money. On the other hand, anything that encourages people to read has to be applauded.

 

The other aspect of this list is that - superficially at least - it provided the first opportunity in a long time that publishers managed to wrestle a little promotional control from the big book chains. As we all know, WH Smiths, Waterstones et al charge publishers sky-high fees for promotional space. Well, after Amanda Ross introduced the R&J lists, publishers can now negotiate with the retailers! Because if their book is featured, they know it will sell by the truckload and the retailer looks silly if they don't have it in stock.

 

Some small publishers and quite a few independent retailers have benefited because of this new tactic.

 

However - and nothing has been said about this so I'm not implying anything - that doesn't mean that Ross isn't influenced by the publishers of the books she reads... Or she may be totally impartial, who knows? But at least it's made things interesting in the bookselling world!

 

Amanda Ross isn't called The Most Powerful Person in Publishing for nothing! :roll:

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I almost refused to buy Cloud Atlas because it had a Richad and Judy sticker on the front.

 

Fortunately, the cool name and the fact that it was linked to Murukami in some kind of "exciting Japanese influenced fiction" display in my local Waterstones, overpowered the R&J badness. Right decision by me. But I can't be the only one who is actively put off books that are recommended by determinedly low-brow daytime TV presenters.

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But I can't be the only one who is actively put off books that are recommended by determinedly low-brow daytime TV presenters.

 

Oh Andy, as opposed to buying books from an "exciting Japanese influenced fiction" promotion by Waterstones, where all the publishers of those books paid a good deal of money to be part of that promotion? :):roll:

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I think like all lists there is some hit and miss elements to it. I will always prefer to read a synopsis and review as opposed to being presented with a list of books I should try. I read Empress Orchid last year, and that too was a Richard and Judy booklist one. I didn't pick it because of that but I couldn't put the book down at all! I would highly recommend it.

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I think anything that encourages reading is a good thing. I probably wouldn't have read 'The Time Traveler's Wife' when I did if I wasn't abroad where English book choices were limited.

 

Until I discovered this forum, I only ever read 'chick lit' - Jane Green, Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, Sheila O'Flanagan - but since coming here, I haven't read any of those and have branched out to stuff that I wouldn't have looked at twice.

 

I may be low-brow in some of my reading choices - I tried a Murukami (which I really wanted to like, maybe I'd have been better off with a different one) but felt at the end of it that I might have understood it better if I'd eaten a few magic mushrooms - but I certainly wouldn't pick a book just because it had a R&J sticker on it - but nor would I reject it.

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Oh Andy, as opposed to buying books from an "exciting Japanese influenced fiction" promotion by Waterstones, where all the publishers of those books paid a good deal of money to be part of that promotion? :):roll:

 

 

Well, yes. But I was going through a Murukami phase, and will get excited by anything with "Atlas" in the title. The connection was one that appealed, whereas the connection with R&J is one that instinctively turns me off, being the pretentious pseud that I am.

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Until I discovered this forum, I only ever read 'chick lit'... but since coming here, I haven't read any of those and have branched out to stuff that I wouldn't have looked at twice.

 

I didn't know that, Janet! Is that how you ended up studying for your A Level, because of how your reading changed after joining the forum? That's really interesting! :lol:

 

I may be low-brow in some of my reading choices - I tried a Murukami (which I really wanted to like, maybe I'd have been better off with a different one)...

 

Oh no, I don't think your reading choices are low brow at all... I also tried Murukami but was just bored by it. I felt like I just didn't care about what was going on and that I'd read it all before.

 

So you're not alone there! :roll:

 

Well, yes. But I was going through a Murukami phase, and will get excited by anything with "Atlas" in the title. The connection was one that appealed, whereas the connection with R&J is one that instinctively turns me off, being the pretentious pseud that I am.

 

Good. Just as long as you know that :) But don't let those stickers put you off! I've been really surprised by some of the books they've picked (especially ones I've read before the list has been announced).

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Good. Just as long as you know that :roll: But don't let those stickers put you off! I've been really surprised by some of the books they've picked (especially ones I've read before the list has been announced).

 

Ah, no. It doesn't put me off now. The two books I've read that I know have been R&J books, Cloud Atlas and Time-Traveller's Wife, are both great.

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I think like all lists there is some hit and miss elements to it. I will always prefer to read a synopsis and review as opposed to being presented with a list of books I should try.

 

:roll: You took the words right out of my mouth, maclsj. :lol: I wouldn't specifically read or not read a book simply because it was a Richard & Judy book; I'd pick it up and read the blurb on the back to see if it was my kind of book, though the sticker would probably catch my attention.

 

I just had a flick through the Richard & Judy website, to see their previous recommendations, and out of them, I have read and enjoyed The Lovely Bones, The Time Traveler's Wife, My Sister's Keeper,and The Interpretation of Murder. I've also read The Historian, which I loved initally, but towards the end, I just found myself losing interest, and wanting it to finish so I could move on to something else. :)

 

They actually seem to have a quite wide range of books, so I think for most people there will be a lot of hit-and-misses.

 

I can't see myself reading all of the 2007 Summer Read books, but the following are ones I'd give a go: The Memory Keeper's Daughter (that one looks quite painful), The House at Riverton, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, and The Savage Garden.

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