Janet's Reading Log

[Janet]

Compared to some of you, I'm not a very fast reader!


CURRENTLY READING



READ 2006

FICTION

Atlantic Shift - Emily Barr 7/10
Behaving Badly - Isabel Wolff 5/10
Eden Close - Anita Shreve 7/10
Eve Green - Susan Fletcher 7/10
gods In Alabama - Joshilyn Jackson 7½ /10
Hitchhikers Guide ToThe Galaxy (for about the 4th time!) - Douglas Adams 9/10
Hide & Seek - Clare Sambrook 9/10
I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith 3/10
Is There Anything You Want? - Margaret Forster 7/10
Gentlemen & Players - Joanne Harris
Life Swap - Jane Green 3/10
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 8/10
Othello - William Shakespeare 10/10
PS I Love You - Cecelia Ahern 6.5/10
Small Island - Andrea Levy 7/10
State of the Union - Douglas Kennedy 6/10
The Abortionist's Daughter - Elisabeth Hyde 5½/10
The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud - Ben Sherwood 6/10
The First Casualty - Ben Elton 7½/10
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 9/10
The Other Side Of The Story - Marian Keyes 6/10
These Foolish Things - Deborah Moggach 6/10
Undomestic Goddess - Sophie Kinsella 7/10
We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

NON-FICTION

Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger - Nigel Slater 8/10

TO BE READ

(I have many more than this, but these are the ones I'm likely to read!)

FICTION

Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew - Bernard Hare
B**locks to Alton Towers
The Sea - John Banville
All He Ever Wanted - Anita Shreve
Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
Night Crossing - Robert Ryan
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Coastliners - Joanne Harris
Ship of Brides - Jo Jo Moyles
More Lives Than One - Libby Purves

NON-FICTION

Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson

[Janet]

I guess I need to rethink how this thing works. I don't have any replies so it's nearly on page 2! Perhaps I update here when I've finished a book, as well as in the review thread? Is that what you do to keep it on page 1?

Anyway, I've just finished We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

I enjoyed it - need to think about what I'm going to say about it now!

[Kell]

Ooh, I'll be reading We Need to Talk About Kevin next (it's the Posh Club book for this month) & have been looking forward to it anyway, but now I shall look forward to it even more, since you enjoyed it so much. :)

And on the idea of little updates as you read - I LOVE to hear what people think of bokos as they read them! :)

[Janet]

Ooh, I'll be reading We Need to Talk About Kevin next (it's the Posh Club book for this month) & have been looking forward to it anyway, but now I shall look forward to it even more, since you enjoyed it so much. :)

All I will say is that it took me until about page 60 or so to really get into it, but once I did, I flew through it. :D

[Michelle]

I do a mixture.. my first post is a list of books as I read them, which I keep editing. I then also add a reply every now and again, saying what I thought of most of the books. :)

[Janet]

I've done a review of this in the relevant section, so this post is just to 'bump' my thread really as it's nearly on page 2 again!

I've recently read gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, which I really enjoyed. I thought it was fantastic for a debut novel.

I noticed last Friday that she has a second book out in paperback, which I might have to buy with my Waterstones gift voucher!

I'm just about to start The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which is my September book for my 'real life' bookworms group. I don't think I'd have picked this to read - which I guess is the good thing about reading groups!

[Janet]

I've just finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - it was brilliant, a 9/10.

I'm not sure what to read next - some non-fiction, perhaps...?

[Esiotrot]

I really fancy the Kite runner I have it in my Amazon basket just now.
Can I ask what your grade for Gentlemen & Players? I have it and would love to hear how you got on with it

[Janet]

Can I ask what your grade for Gentlemen & Players? I have it and would love to hear how you got on with it
I really enjoyed it - I gave it a 9/10 too, I think. I've read Chocolat, Five Quarters of the Orange and Blackberry Wine, and enjoyed them, but this was very different, and quite possibly my favourite of her books so far. :D

[Janet]

Now, I like Donny Osmond nearly as much as the next person (!) so I was looking forward to reading this.

What can I say about it? Well, first of all, I did quite enjoy it, but not as much as I’d hoped.

It tells a lot about the early Osmonds stuff and about Donny and his music career from the early 70s up to nearly, but not quite, the present day, and I have to say that he’s done masses more stuff than I realised.

Although his career pretty much died a death in the UK from the late 70s until media interest increased when he did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Coat in Canada, I hadn’t realised just how much stuff he’d done in the USA - not all of it successful!

I only really knew Donny from his big hit Puppy Love, and his couple of hits with Marie, and as I was only 6 or so when these were out, I did like Donny, but he wasn’t as big for me as The Bay City Rollers were! :oops:

He’s quite open about his ‘social phobia’ in the book. Personally though, I think I’d have enjoyed it more if he’d written more about his day-to-day family life. He travelled extensively with his wife Debbie and their sons in the 80s and 90s, and I’d have been interested to read about the affect that had on his family.

Very recently, he updated the book with part 2. This second part is just 44 pages long, and feels very rushed - the writing is much more clipped. It’s a pity he didn’t spend a little longer on it!

I’m sure I’m not going to persuade anyone who hasn’t an interest in him to read it, and to be honest, I don’t think I’d have missed out had I not read it myself. Still, it was okay - but I’m glad I’ve finished it!


The paperback is 416 pages long and is published by Orion. The ISBN number is 0752877984.

4½ /10
(Read September 2006)

[Janet]

This book won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and it also won the Booker prize in 1971. Normally I’d steer well clear of prize winners such as this, but this book is our November bookworms read - we’re discussing it tonight!

On the front cover, it reads “IN A FREE STATE. A NOVEL with two supporting narratives”. There is also an epilogue and a prologue, which are taken from Naipaul’s own travel journals.

The themes in this book are exile, freedom and prejudice.

The paperback is 246 pages long and is published by Picador. The ISBN number is 0330487051.

Whilst it wasn’t the most exciting book I’ve ever read, I did quite enjoy it. It’s not something I’d have picked up if it wasn’t a Bookworms choice.

4½/10
(Read October 2006)

[Janet]

I've just finished The Secret River by Kate Grenville.

I have been researching my family tree, and have got back to the early 1800s on many branches of my family (and as far back as a 1775 birthdate on one relative!), so when I spotted this book in Tesco, it seemed like fate, as the story is set around that time, and although I haven’t found any relatives that were transported, I have found one Australian branch of my very distant family, so you never know…

The story starts in London and the first part of the book is about William’s very poor childhood up to the time he marries his childhood sweetheart Sal. A run of terrible luck changes their bad fortunes to worse and William is caught stealing and sentenced to hang in Newgate prison. His sentence is later commuted to transportation to Sydney.

The rest of the book tells of the life that he and Sal, and their family, make for themselves in Australia, and their struggle to live side by side with the native Australians.

It’s a very easy read, and a good yarn. This novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It wasn’t quite as ‘in depth’ as I thought it might be, but was very enjoyable and I would recommend it.

I don’t normally read historical novels, but really enjoyed the change and would certainly recommend this.

8/10
(Read November 2006)

[Renniemist]

I am glad you enjoyed it Bagpuss. I have it on my TBR pile. I think I will bump it up a bit and try to get to it soon. Thanks.:)

[Janet]

I've just finished Wise Children by Angela Carter.

It’s not the best book I've ever read, but it was quite amusing and got better towards the end. I think it'll give way to some good discussion at college. This is one of our set texts for AS Level English, and will be in our exam in May (so I guess I’ll be reading it more than once…!).

The paperback is 232 pages long and is published by Vintage Books. The ISBN number is 978-0-099-981107.

5½/10
(Read November 2006)

I've now started The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gardeer, which is my real-life bookworms December read.

[Janet]

Finished The Christmas Mystery. It was a good read. It's our Bookworms December read, and I'll probably give it 7½/10.

I don't know what I'm reading next - need to check out my massive 'to read' pile!

[Janet]

I've just finished The Ruby In The Smoke by Philip Pullman. 6/10

20 books read in 2006