madcow Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 Okay I finished COAUS last night, it was my first venture into this genre/type and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was a different slant on the Cinderlla story from one of the stepsisters viewpoints. Next up... Being Emily by Anne Donovan Things are never dull in the O'Connell family. Still, Fiona, squeezed between her quiet brother and her mischievous line-dancing twin sisters, thinks life in their tenement flat is far less interesting than Emily Bronte's. But tragedy is not confined to Victorian novels. And life for Fiona in this happy set-up is about to change forever. Following the devastating events of a single day her family can never be the same. But - perhaps - new relationships will develop, built on a solid foundation of love.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted June 24, 2008 Author Share Posted June 24, 2008 If a book really interests me then I will read and read and read. I'm not fast I just ignore everything else when I'm engrossed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted June 28, 2008 Author Share Posted June 28, 2008 Finished Being Emily tonight. Very enjoyable book. Next up... Star Gazing by Linda Gillard Blind since birth, widowed in her twenties, now lonely in her forties. Marianne Fraser lives in Edinburgh in elegant, angry anonymity with her sister. Marianne's passionate nature finds solace in music, a love she finds she shares with Keir, the man she encounters on her doorstep one winter's night. Keir makes no concessions to Marianne's condition. He is abrupt to the point of rudeness, yet oddly and touchingly kind. But can Marianne trust her feelings for this reclusive stranger who wants to take a blind woman to his island home on Skye, to 'show' her the stars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 Well I finshed Star Gazing yesterday and I must say it's another cracking read from Ms Gillard. The way she writes you can close your eyes and be there and feel part of the story, you get the sense of what it would be like to be blind and the way Keir explains things to her is great. I would hate to go blind but if I did I hope I'd find somebody like him to help me along the way. Next up is The Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas "I come from a long line of midwives. I was expected to follow Mama, follow Granny, follow Great-granny. In the end, I didn't disappoint them. Or perhaps I did. After all, there were no more midwives after me." For generations, the women in Elizabeth's family have brought life to their community, heeding a destiny to tend its women with herbs, experience, and wisdom. All the births and dates are recorded in tall black ledgers kept by Elizabeth's mother, but there is also a smaller, red ledger. Elizabeth does not always feel comfortable with her fate as a midwife and when she discovers the true purpose of the red book she is shocked and disturbed by the contents. As Elizabeth loses her faith in her vocation, she also loses her heart, to the one man who will never return her love, even when she moves into his home to share his bed and raise his child. She finds solace in mothering Lauren, but Elizabeth, who has brought so many lives into the world, must also come to terms with the fact that she herself is barren... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icecream Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 That sounds like a good book Madcow. I would love to read it. This site is getting worse and worse for my TBR pile! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopyloo100 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Still reading COAUS but inbetween I've read Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard, for anyone who hasn't read it, do. A page turner from start to finish I couldn't put it down, I read it it under 6 hours Look forward to reading more of Linda's work. I'm really looking forward to reading this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 I have just finished The Midwife's Tale, it was an interesting story, when I picked it up from the library I assumed from both the blurb and the cover that it was set in the middle ages but it was actually early 1900's. It was an ok book but didn't draw me in like some recent ones I've read. Not sure what to read next I'll get back to you on that one when I've decided Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 I'm really looking forward to reading this! I'd highly recommend any of Linda Gillard's books they are all well written and give the reader a sense of seeing things from a different perpective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inver Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I'd highly recommend any of Linda Gillard's books they are all well written and give the reader a sense of seeing things from a different perpective. Me too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 Seeing as Elizabeth Chadwick is our featured author this month I'm going to read The Conquest by her. A tale of love, betrayal, conflict and loss across two generations, set during the Norman Conquest. When a comet appears in the sky over England in 1066, Ailith, a young Saxon wife, feels sure that it can only bode well, in spite of her husband's fears. With a child on the way, the couple are prosperous and content. Yet, within a year, Ailith's joy turns to heartache as her husband and child are taken from her and the conquering Normans advance. Ailith's grief turns to love for a brief period with Rolf de Brize, a handsome and womanising Norman invader. She bears him one daughter, but in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings she discovers a betrayal she cannot forgive... Years later, the spirited and strong-willed Julitta is determined to find happiness, and yet her life has been filled with pain: from surviving life in a brothal in Southwark to suffering the anguish of a forbidden love and a bitter, loveless marriage. Her quest takes her on a pilgrimage to Compostela, to a colourful horse fair in Bordeaux and to the terrors of piracy on the open sea... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 7, 2008 Author Share Posted August 7, 2008 I have finally finished The Conquest tonight. Great book. It took me so long because I didn't read for two weeks when I was ill. The characters really came alive and whilst reading I could picture the scenes in my head. I love historical fiction and now I've found another author to indulge in I'm not sure what to read next....off to have a think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 8, 2008 Author Share Posted August 8, 2008 Ok I've decided to read Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald Krissie and Sarah have been best friends since they were children. While Sarah has been married to her doctor-husband Kyle since university and trying - so far unsuccessfully - to have a baby, Krissie enjoys a carefree, single existence and indulges instead in a series of one-night stands. Everything changes when Krissie accidentally becomes pregnant following a drug-fuelled dalliance in a Tenerife toilet cubicle. For Sarah, who's been trying to conceive for what seems like forever, Krissie's unplanned pregnancy can't help but seem unfair. Things between the two friends go from bad to worse during a walking holiday round Loch Lomond with Kyle. At first the days pass blissfully as the three friends laugh, chat and reminisce. But one night friendship turns to betrayal, and betrayal turns to murder... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyanddandy Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 That sounds like a good read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 10, 2008 Author Share Posted August 10, 2008 Started and finished Dead Lovely this morning! I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it or not but it turned out to be a great read although I thought the ending could have been a bit better. Next up is Tess Gerritsen's Body Double Maura Isles deals with death. As a pathologist in downtown Boston, she has seen more than her share of corpses. But never before has the body on the medical examiner's table been her own. There can be no denying the evidence though. The dead woman is her mirror image right down to the most intimate physical details. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. Then a DNA test confirms that Maura's mysterious double is indeed her twin sister, and suddenly an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing excursion into a past full of dark and deadly secrets... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted August 10, 2008 Share Posted August 10, 2008 Started and finished Dead Lovely this morning! Blimey - that was quick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 10, 2008 Author Share Posted August 10, 2008 It was an easy book to read plus everybody else was still asleep lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 Finished Body Double last night, another cracking read from TG, had me hooked from page one. The next in the series is Vanish but I read that earlier on this year so I've picked up The Mephisto Club. In a rundown house, a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leaves veteran cops in shock. Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image word in Latin that, translated, says 'I have sinned'. Then a second woman is found butchered on Beacon Hill, just outside the home of the leader of the Mephisto Club, a secret society dedicated to the study of evil. On the door have been scrawled yet more ancient symbols. This is evil that the Boston PD has never encountered before. And the only way Maura Isles can defeat it is by turning to the people who understand the devil himself... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supergran71 Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 That sounds horrific MC, not sure I could read that How is your leg btw? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louiseog Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 That sounds horrific MC, not sure I could read that How is your leg btw? It is but a great read! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 21, 2008 Author Share Posted August 21, 2008 That sounds horrific MC, not sure I could read that How is your leg btw? It does sound gruesome but if her other books are anything to go by I'll love it. The leg is almost better thanks just a bit of discolouration (sp?) left and I'm back walking the boys without it hurting It is but a great read! So far so good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 25, 2008 Author Share Posted August 25, 2008 I finished The Mephisto Club this morning and really enjoyed it, I've loved all the Isles/Rizzoli series and can't wait for the next installment (does anyone know if there is one?). Although saying that the ending to me left an opening for a sequel for the 'club'. I've enjoyed getting to know all the characters in this series and want more!!! TG has become my favourite author and I aim to get through her other books too. Not sure what to read next...goes off to ponder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 25, 2008 Author Share Posted August 25, 2008 (edited) Ok I've decided to read Final Demand by Deborah Moggach. Natalie is a girl who should be going somewhere. Beautiful, bright and ambitious, she's stuck in a dead-end job in the accounts department of Nu-Line telecommunications. Living her life through wild weekends, yearning for something more. When she sees a chance to change her life, she takes it. After all, it's only a minor crime. Nobody's going to get hurt. But other people do get hurt, because Natalie's actions do have consequences - tragic consequences that result in lives being terribly and irrevocably change... Edited August 25, 2008 by madcow spelling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyanddandy Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 Sounds like my cup of tea - I just finished a Moggach and I think I have a few to read of hers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted August 27, 2008 Author Share Posted August 27, 2008 Just finished Final Demand, quite enjoyed it, not my normal reading matter but a pleasant change. The story interweaves nicely and at just over 220 pages it doesn't take long to read. Next up... Life Mask by Emma Donoghue From the author of the best selling Slammerkin comes a gripping historical novel about three famous Londoners - an artist, an actress and an aristocrat - based on the true story of a love triangle that scandalised late eighteenth century London. Looks like it goes along the lines of Michel Faber's Crimson Petal and The White, if it's half as good as that then I'm in for a treat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~V~ Posted August 27, 2008 Share Posted August 27, 2008 I finished The Mephisto Club this morning and really enjoyed it, I've loved all the Isles/Rizzoli series and can't wait for the next installment (does anyone know if there is one?). Although saying that the ending to me left an opening for a sequel for the 'club'. I've enjoyed getting to know all the characters in this series and want more!!! TG has become my favourite author and I aim to get through her other books too.Not sure what to read next...goes off to ponder Yes, I thought there would be a bit of a branching out when I read it. Glad you reminded me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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