Kell
18th June 2008, 18:54
Your three choices for the July reading Circle Poll are as follows:
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne:
The story of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzerald:
The parties at Gatsby's Long Island mansion were legendarily glamorous affairs.
Yet amid the throng of guests, starlets and champagne waiters, their host would appear oddly aloof. For there was only one person Jay Gatsby sought to impress. She was Daisy Buchanan: married, elegant, seducing men with a silken charisma and 'a voice... full of money'.
As Gatsby pursues shady deals and his doomed obsession with Daisy, F. Scott Fitzgerals distills the essence of the Jazz Age, and probes to the empty heart of the American Dream.
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle:
'My name is Paula Spencer. I am thirty-nine years old. It was my birthday last week. I was married for eighteen years. My husband died last year. He was shot by the Guards. He left me a year before that. I threw him out. His name was Charles Spencer; everyone called him Charlo.' "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" is one of Roddy Doyle's finest achievement to date, the heart-rending story of a woman struggling to reclaim her dignity after a violent, abusive marriage and a worsening drink problem. Paula Spencer recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her powerless. Capturing both her vulnerability and her strength, Doyle gives Paula a voice that is real and unforgettable. Lean, sexy, funny and poignant, "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" shows, yet again, that Roddy Doyle has an unparalleled gift for transforming ordinary life into great literature.
The poll will close on the evening of Wednesday 25 June to give everyone plenty of time to get hold of the winning book.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne:
The story of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzerald:
The parties at Gatsby's Long Island mansion were legendarily glamorous affairs.
Yet amid the throng of guests, starlets and champagne waiters, their host would appear oddly aloof. For there was only one person Jay Gatsby sought to impress. She was Daisy Buchanan: married, elegant, seducing men with a silken charisma and 'a voice... full of money'.
As Gatsby pursues shady deals and his doomed obsession with Daisy, F. Scott Fitzgerals distills the essence of the Jazz Age, and probes to the empty heart of the American Dream.
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle:
'My name is Paula Spencer. I am thirty-nine years old. It was my birthday last week. I was married for eighteen years. My husband died last year. He was shot by the Guards. He left me a year before that. I threw him out. His name was Charles Spencer; everyone called him Charlo.' "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" is one of Roddy Doyle's finest achievement to date, the heart-rending story of a woman struggling to reclaim her dignity after a violent, abusive marriage and a worsening drink problem. Paula Spencer recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her powerless. Capturing both her vulnerability and her strength, Doyle gives Paula a voice that is real and unforgettable. Lean, sexy, funny and poignant, "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" shows, yet again, that Roddy Doyle has an unparalleled gift for transforming ordinary life into great literature.
The poll will close on the evening of Wednesday 25 June to give everyone plenty of time to get hold of the winning book.