Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2007

[Liz]

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

[Kell]

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.

[Janet]

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. :)

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.

[Michelle]

Time for R&J tomake loads of money again.. for themselves, and for the authors! <cynical me>

Anyway.. I'm reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter at the moment, and really enjoying it. I haven't checked the others yet.

[Gyre]

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

[happyanddandy]

I am still reading last year's or the year before!! I will look at them though as I have to say they do select a good read (if it really is them that does it)

[Fiona]

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.

[Michelle]

Mmph. They reccomended that crappy Labryrinth book, like Hell I'm reading anything off that list.

Actually, many people here actually liked that book. ;)

[Fiona]

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 :sarcastic: kind of expression on our faces and chucked it in the charity bag without even a crease in the spine.

[Michelle]

Again.. I believe a few of us picked it up before R&J got hold of it. I know I certainly don't pick up books because of those stickers. Did you reject it because of the stickers, I wonder?! :)

[Fiona]

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.

[scottishbookworm]

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. :)

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

[Kell]

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.

[Maureen]

Well i know next to nothing about Richard & Judy, but The Memory Keeper's daughter looks as if it is a good story.

p.s Fiona, they can't always get it wrong either! :lol:

[Lilywhite]

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.

[JudyB]

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.

[Polka Dot Rock]

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! ;)

[Freewheeling Andy]

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.

[Polka Dot Rock]

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? ;) :mrgreen:

[maclsj]

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.

[Janet]

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.

[Freewheeling Andy]

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? ;) :mrgreen:


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.

[Polka Dot Rock]

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! :)

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! :mrgreen:

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 :lol: 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).

[Freewheeling Andy]

Good. Just as long as you know that :lol: 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.

[angerball]

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-Agree: You took the words right out of my mouth, maclsj. :) 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. :blush:

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.

[Janet]

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! :)
Yes and no! :p

Before I had my children, I mostly read detective novels and Dick Francis ( :blush: ), then when they were born I found I didn't have an awful lot of time to read, so I switched to chick lit.

However, I've always loved reading and I love people and would love to work in a library. About 3 years ago, two jobs came up which would have been *perfect* for me - library assistant, one at Bath Uni and one at Bath Spa Uni, so term time only. However, they stipulated that applicants must have GCSE Maths and English. The maths wasn't a problem - I got a grade B about 5 years ago (I was a 'naughty' girl at school - not in behaviour as such, but because I did no revision and put no effort into my CSEs and therefore failed the lot!), but I hadn't got the English, so I signed up for GCSE English Language two years ago and got an A*.

I loved the course so much, and read Of Mice and Men (which I really enjoyed) and Shakespeare's Othello (which I adored) together with many excerpts from other literature.

When I discovered that the same 'teacher' was doing AS I signed up, because she's so enthusiastic and such fun! This was after I was a member here, but before I was so active on the forum, however, the forum has definitely expanded my reading matter, and that can only have helped with the AS Level (hopefully!). :)

[Polka Dot Rock]

Ah, that's a great story! And I picked up on this...

When I discovered that the same 'teacher' was doing AS I signed up, because she's so enthusiastic and such fun!

...Enthusiastic teachers are sooooo important - I pretty much owe everything I've achieved to two of mine (both English teachers, naturally ;)).

[Michelle]

Having almost finished The Memory Keepers Daughter, I would say to anyone please don't dismiss it because it's a R&J book, as I have found it a beautifully written book.

Obviously it won't suit everyone, but if it does appeal to you, don't let the R&J sticker put you off. ;)

[Leona]

i really enjoyed the memory keepers daughter too-
i like those lists, at least they give you something to think about, i agree with whoever it was who said that if it encourages reading it's got to be a good thing-i'm paraphrasing obviously-i'm a bit of a technophobe and am scared of the quote thing!

i think they've picked really good books- like other people have said, the time travellers wife(loved it), lovely bones, and 'the Star of the Sea'-fantastic read -i really loved it, and i don't think it's just cause i'm irish,anyway, am babbling now
keep up the good work R and J!!!!!!

[Janet]

i really enjoyed the memory keepers daughter too-
i like those lists, at least they give you something to think about, i agree with whoever it was who said that if it encourages reading it's got to be a good thing-i'm paraphrasing obviously-i'm a bit of a technophobe and am scared of the quote thing!
The quote thing is easy - honest! :) All you do is click on quote and it will quote the whole post. If you only want a little bit of it, just make sure what you are quoting starts with:

[ quote=person you are quoting's name and the number ]

and ends with:

[ /quote]

(without the spaces I've left after the [ - if I didn't put the space in, then what I'd typed would have appeared as a quote box!)

I'm waiting for my Mum to read The Memory Keeper's Daughter - but at the moment, she's reading a book about Mary Wesley for her bookworms group so I'm having to be patient!

I've nearly finished The House at Riverton - I have to say, I'm really enjoying it!

[nicx27]

I'm reading along with the R&J books for the first time (unfortunately I set the video incorrectly on Wednesday night and missed the discussion). I'm now reading The House at Riverton and it's excellent.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter was a bit slow, but I still thought it a reasonable read, and Relentless was all a bit far-fetched, but again an ok read.

[Hazeltree]

I was given the House at Riverton and the Savage Garden for my birthday. Not got round to reading them yet but they look good.

[Michelle]

The Memory Keeper's Daughter was a bit slow, but I still thought it a reasonable read,

Yep, I think that it's going to be a book you either love, or find slow. I can get a little bored with slower books, but I actually really enjoyed this one.

[Inver]

My sis has recently read Memory Keeper's Daughter for her book group and she enjoyed it. Think she mentioned a bit harrowing in places but is worth a read. She is keeping it for me to read (eventually!!!)

[Kell]

One of my colleagues has loaned me The Memory Keeper's Daughter, after reading and enjoying it herself, so I guess I'll be getting to that shortly (after Dracula and The Name of the Rose!).

[aromaannie]

I was having a quick look on Amazon at their best selling crime/mystery/thriller section and I noticed that Simon Kernick has 1 book in the 10 and another 3 in the top 50.

His book Relentless is part of the Richard & Judy book club. I only bought this book because it was on sale at Tesco's in their fiction chart (not because of their recommendation). Would it have been in the fiction chart without their backing - probably not so I would never have picked it up.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and immediately added all his previous books onto my wish list as Amazon. It seems I'm not the only one by the way his sales are going for his older books.

So not only have Richard & Judy given him a real booston sales with this book but it has also has had a massive impact on his back catalogue too.