Kell

If you go back to the first post where I posted my review, I say there. I was angry at several of the characters, not least Susie Salmon herself and I resented feeling guilty over it which went a long way towards spoiling the book for me. But I also couldn't get on board with the way much of it was written and some of the choices made (again with Susie near the end of the book) had me fizzing as it was, imo, totally unneccessary. I was severely disappointed by this book and no amount of pleading or cajoling could possilby inspire persuade me to try anything by this author again. I feel the same about Lionel Shriver after reading We Need to Talk About Kevin - awful book!

If the film is even remotely faithful to the book, I'll not be able to watch it as it was the story and characters that made me angry as much as not being able to get on with the writing style.

I prefer the "cartoon" covers too.

I'm an ex-cop turned hitwoman who runs an outdoor activities lodge in Canada. I may have a bit of a thing for a fellow hitman who is also a federal agent, but I'm unsure as to how he feels about me and don't know if I'd actually be relieved or hurt if it turns out he's not! (Made to be Broken by Kelley Armstrong - the 2nd Nadia Stafford book)

I've never walked out of a cinmea screen, but I have dozed off once or twice. Can't remember which films they were though - LOL! I have switched off a DVD and given up on it though. Sin City was one I never finished watching as it was so dire!

IT IS ASSUMED YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK BEFORE READING THIS THREAD, THEREFORE SPOILER TAGS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN USED IN ORDER TO FASCILITATE EASIER AND MORE OPEN DISCUSSION This book is available cheaply from Green Metropolis or through Amazon (please use the link at the top right of this web page) The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde: 'It looks like he died from injuries sustained during a fall...' Bestselling author Jasper Fforde begins an effervescent new series. It's Easter in Reading - a bad time for eggs - and no one can remember the last sunny day. Humpty Dumpty, well-known nursery favourite, large egg, ex-convict and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Following the pathologist's careful reconstruction of Humpty's shell, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his Sergeant, Mary Mary, are soon grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, the illegal Bearnaise sauce market, corporate politics and the cut and thrust world of international Chiropody. As Jack and Mary stumble around the streets of Reading in Jack's Lime Green Austin Allegro, the clues pile up, but Jack has his own problems to deal with. And on top of everything else, the JellyMan is coming to town... SOME BASIC QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: 1. Who was your favourite character and why? 2. Was there a particular part you enjoyed/disliked more than the rest? 3. Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author, has it encouraged you to read more? 4. Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with? 5. Overall, was reading the book an enjoyable experience?

Exactly why I'd be completely unable to read it then. I can't stand lots of "ands" in writing. And I tried to watch the movie - got about 20 minutes into it and switched it off as I was so bored!

And a few I've not yet read (all info from Amazon)... Waiting for Leah by Arnost Lustig: "Leah" is set in Theresienstadt, the ghetto created by the Nazis in northern Bohemia as a staging post for the transport of Jews to Poland. The time is September 1944; the war is going badly for the Germans, and they are in a hurry to complete their "Final Solution". Rumours are rife among the Jews in the ghetto, even though nothing definite is known of the Nazis' intentions, or perhaps it is deliberately not believed. The heroine of the novel, Leah, an eighteen year old girl from Holland, has, like most of those around her, given up living in accordance with her beliefs. The narrator is a lad of seventeen, likewise still relatively unaffected by the moral disinteragration around him. By chance, he encounters Vili Field, a pre-ward acquaintence who had seduced his young girlfriend. Vili takes the narrator to the tiny attic he shares with Leah. Thus begins an erotic entanglement that ends with the narrator and Vili being sent to their deaths in the East. Leah travels with them, but in a different part of the train. Conditions on this journey are unspeakable; Lustig evokes them memorably in this novel about impossible in appalling circumstances. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada: Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the nervous Frau Rosenthal, the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming working-class couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the devastating news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of his quiet existence, the usually taciturn factory foreman Otto is provoked into an action that will endanger both his and Anna

There's also Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres. From Amazon: It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscien-tious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous - and a consumate musician. When the local doctor's daughter's letters to her fiance go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. From Amazon: Lines may divide us, but hope will unite us ...Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas. Bruno's friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation. And in exploring what he is unwittingly a part of, he will inevitably become subsumed by the terrible process. Lovely Green Eyes by Arnost Lustig. From Amazon: Fifteen-year-old Hanka Kaudersova has ginger hair and clear, green eyes. When her family is deported to Auschwitz, her mother, father and younger brother are sent to the gas chamber. By a twist of fate, Hanka is faced with a simple alternative: follow her family, or work in an SS brothel behind the eastern front. She chooses to live, her Aryan looks allowing her to disguise the fact that she is Jewish. As the German army retreats from the Russian front, Hanka battles cold, hunger, fear and shame, sustained by her hatred for the men she entertains, her friendship with the mysterious Estelle, and her fierce, burning desire for life. Lovely Green Eyes explores the compromises and sacrifices that an individual may make in order to survive, the way a woman can retain her identity in the face of appalling trauma, and the value of human life itself. This is a remarkable novel, which soars beyond nightmare, leaving the reader with a transcendent sense of hope. -------------- It's interesting to see how diverse these books are, even though they are all set during the same period with the same major event as the central theme!

The Secret Purposes by David Baddiel is excellent. From Amazon: THE SECRET PURPOSES, David Baddiel's third novel, takes us into a little-known and still somewhat submerged area of British history: the internment of German Jewish refugees on the Isle of Man during the Second World War. Isaac Fabian, on the run with his young family from Nazism in East Prussia, comes to Britain assuming he has found asylum, but instead finds himself drowning in the morass of ignorance, half-truth, prejudice, and suspicion that makes up government attitudes to German Jews in 1940. One woman, June Murray, a translator from the Ministry of Information, stands out - and when she comes to the island on a personal mission to uncover solid evidence of Nazi atrocities, her meeting with Isaac will have far-reaching consequences for both of them. A haunting and beautifully written tale of love, displacement and survival, THE SECRET PURPOSES profoundly questions the way that truth - both personal and political - emerges from the tangle of history. And although I've not yet read it, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is supposed to be very good. From Amazon: For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret.

Nope, no sign of him in Neverwhere, I'm afraid. And bizarrely, it turns out he's not even Welsh - he's from Sheffield. So, why the Welsh accent, Mr Coyle?

I think he first appears in the 4th episode of season 1 (Escape from Dragon House).

Richard Coyle was also in Strange (playing the main character). He has a lovely soft Welsh accent that makes me melt! And personally, I wouldn't bother with The Colour of Magic. If you were disappointed with Hogfather, I doubt you'll be best pleased with what they did to the first two books in the series!

My favourite has to be the "I texted you three times!" in the bath scene. Gives me the judders - ooh, that man makes me go all wibbly!

I think I've bought maybe 5 or 6 brand new books, but about 40 or 50 second hand ones so far this year!

The cast list has been released for the adaptation of Going Postal by Terry Pratchett by Mob Films: Moist von Lipwig - Richard Coyle Reacher Guilt - David Suchet Lord Vetinari - Charles Dance Adora Belle Dearheart - Claire Foy Drumknott - Steve Pemberton Groat - Andrew Sachs Miss Cripslock - Tamsin Greig I am SOOOOOOO pleased to see Richard Coyle and Charles Dance in that list - I think they'll be amazing in those roles. And as for David Suchet, well, he always adds a touch of class to whatever project he's working on. In August a bunch of Pratchett fans will get to be extras as they film in Budapest (how exciting is THAT?!). No fixed release date yet other than to say "2009", so I'm guessing it'll be around Xmas again. I'm so excited - what a great cast! Hoefully this will be a whole lot better than the previous offerings - I was slightly disappointed by The Hogfather and VERY disappointed with The Colour of Magic!

It's Tara (she makes a joke about being named after the plantation in Gone with the Wind early on in the first season - LOL!). She and Lafayette both seem to play larger roles in the TV series than in the books, but so far it's a positive thing, although I prefer Lafayette to Tara (she's a bit bolshy for my liking!). And I LOVE the theme tune. I have it on my computer and play it quite often.