Lilywhite

I managed to finish the trilogy now and in a way I'm quite sad, it's like a good friend moving away What a brilliant set of books though, I loved this story. Definately worth a read if you would like some low level fantasy and fun to be around characters.

I too, have put this one down, not because I'm not enjoying it but because it caused such a backlog in my reading I know I will finish it, but it will be a slow reading week when I do. I am enjoying the book so far, I like Emma and her meddling ways. I love the way she's oblivious to everything that is not in her plans and how everything is so trivial yet vital to the story. Just like many ladies lives where (I think) when husbands worked and they were ladies of leisure.

Finally finished Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud, which completes the Bartemaeus Trilogy. I absolutely loved these books and would recommend them to everyone. I think everyone should have the chance to enjoy Bartemaeus' company Seen as some books are due back at the libarary soon, I am limited as to what to read next but I think I will chose Sarah Waters ~ Night Watch Synopsis Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller. This is the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching ...Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret ...Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover ...Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances ...

I know, but I go every week

I know I promised myself I would be good and not get any more books until I had made a dent in those waiting to be read but I couldn't resist 3 for

I have read Sharon Osbourne's bio and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It really makes you look at her in a different light. I like the Torey Hayden books too, they are so different to anything I have read before.

I just found this on Amazons pre-release list..... due out 28th August The Boleyn Inheritance Synopsis From the bestselling author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" comes a wonderfully atmospheric evocation of the court of Henry VIII, and the one woman who destroyed two of his queens. The year is 1539 and the court of Henry VIII is increasingly fearful at the moods of the ageing sick king. With only a baby in the cradle for an heir, Henry has to take another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves. She has her own good reasons for agreeing to marry a man old enough to be her father, in a country where to her both language and habits are foreign. Although fascinated by the glamour of her new surroundings, she senses a trap closing around her. Catherine is confident that she can follow in the steps of her cousin Anne Boleyn to dazzle her way to the throne but her kinswoman Jane Boleyn, haunted by the past, knows that Anne's path led to Tower Green and to an adulterer's death. The story of these three young women, trying to make their own way through the most volatile court in Europe at a time of religious upheaval and political uncertainty is Philippa Gregory's most intense novel yet.

I finished The Golem's Eye today, and I think that I will start the last one in the trilogy while we have it here. I loved Golem's Eye and I found it a much better story than The Amulet of Samarkand. You have to love Bartemaeus though, so funny. Next book Ptolemy's Gate ~ Jonathan Stroud Three years on from the events in "The Golem's Eye", the magicians' rule in London is teetering on a knife-edge, with strikes, riots and general unrest. The Prime Minister is largely controlled by two advisors, one of whom is 17-year-old Nathaniel. Meanwhile, living under a false identity, Kitty has been researching djinn. She has come to believe that the only way to destroy the magicians is for an alliance of some kind between djinn and ordinary people. Kitty seeks out Bartimaeus and embarks on a terrifying journey into the djinn's chaotic domain - The Other Place - which no human being has ever survived. But even as she does so, Makepeace engineers a dramatic coup d'etat. The outcome is a shattering of the magicians' control and all magical laws are turned upside down. Can Bartimaeus, Nathaniel and Kitty settle old scores if they are to survive and prevent the earth's destruction?

Ok, I think I'd better do some real reading, really fast.... I'm having to dig my way through books in my flat, and for some unknown reason, more keep arriving in the post I wonder why Just managed to get my two reserves from the library today, but I still have previous books to read first.....decisions eh?

I am enjoying this one so far Michelle, I have waited quite a while to read it too. Unfortunately it means I haven't finished Emma yet, but I will get there, eventually.

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Anybody read any interesting biographies lately that they would recommend??? Any with juicy gossip?? Fascinating people??

If I ever made a dent in my TBR pile I might try this one, it sounds like you really enjoyed it. I'm always a little more willing to pick up a book if I know someone else enjoyed it.

I finished Undead and Unwed and thouroughly enjoyed this one. It's so funny, in it's Sex and the City crossed with Dracula kind of way. Definately recommended if your not into run of the mill chick-lit. AM now going to read the long awaited Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud Two years have passed since the events of "The Amulet of Samarkand" and the young magician, Nathaniel is rising fast through the government ranks. But his career is suddenly threatened by a series of terrifying crises. A dangerous golem makes random attacks on London and other raids, even more threatening, are perpetrated by the Resistance. Nathaniel and Bartimaeus travel to Prague, enemy city of ancient magic, but while they are there uproar breaks out at home and Nathaniel returns to find his reputation in tatters. Can he rescue it from his Machiavellian adversaries in the government bent on his destruction? A thrilling sequel in which the relationship between the young magician and the djinni remains as teasing and complex as ever.

Library hasn't processed (?) my reserved books, even though I have the two letters saying they are ready for collection Grrr Arrg Managed to get hold of Sarah Waters ~ Night Watch Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller. This is the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching ...Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret ...Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover ...Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances ... Also, Undead and Unwed ~ Mary Janice Davidson arrived today from RISI 'The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry...' It's been a hell of a week for Betsy Taylor. First she loses her job. Then she's killed in a freak accident only to wake up as a vampire. On the plus side, being undead sure beats the alternative. She now has superhuman strength and an unnatural effect on the opposite sex. But what Betsy can't handle is her new liquid diet...And whilst Betsy's mother and best-friend are just relieved to find out that being dead doesn't mean Betsy's can't visit, her new 'night-time' friends have the ridiculous idea that Betsy is the prophesied vampire queen. The scrumptious Sinclair and his cohorts want her help in overthrowing the most obnoxious power-hungry vampire in five centuries. (A Bella Lugosi wannabe who seen one to many B-movies.) Frankly Betsy couldn't care less about vamp politics. But Sinclair and his followers have a powerful weapon in their arsenal - unlimited access to Manolo Blahnik's Spring collection. Well, just because a girl's dead - er...undead - doesn't mean she can't have great shoes... I'm going to be naughty and read Undead and Unwed, even though I haven't finished Emma.

I'm still trundling along with Emma, it's quite a slow read. Although I do have Bitten ~ Kelley Armstrong and Tainted Blood ~ Arnaldur Indridason to pick up from the library tomorrow

It does feel like a language barrier sometimes. I know she's speaking English but she really takes the long way round lol I don't think it's because of the time period of the story, I just think it's the time period of the author. I get the story, I just have to concentrate on the phraseology (sp).

wow this one really does feel like an uphill struggle. If I concentrate I can read a 400 page book in a day, now in three days I've managed 50 pages. She makes me laugh though, because you read a huge paragraph and by the end all you realise has happened is an invitation to tea has been accepted I'm liking Emma at the moment, she's quite devious in a butter wouldn't melt, kind of way.

I like this book, very gritty, very Tess Gerritsen. I loved all the medical stuff involved (I am a big fan of E.R. so it was like reading an episode at times) and the storyline was gripping. A real page turner. Next will be Emma ~ Jane Austen

I finished The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets today, in a cool spot I quite nejoyed this one, a lovely light summer read. Not too taxing on the old grey matter. Set in the 1950s, in an England still recovering from the Second World War, THE LOST ART OF KEEPING SECRETS is the enchanting story of Penelope Wallace and her eccentric family at the start of the rock'n'roll era. Penelope longs to be grown-up and to fall in love; but various rather inconvenient things keep getting in her way. Like her mother, a stunning but petulant beauty widowed at a tragically early age, her younger brother Inigo, currently incapable of concentrating on anything that isn't Elvis Presley, a vast but crumblng ancestral home, a severe shortage of cash, and her best friend Charlotte's sardonic cousin Harry... Next will be Harvest ~ Tess Gerritsen A car-crash victim's heart is to be harvested to Nina. Instead, Dr Abby makes the transplant go to a dying 17-year-old boy. When a new heart for Nina suddenly appears, Abby makes a terrible discovery, it has not come through the right channels. Abby plunges into an investigation that reveals an intricate and murderous chain of deceptions.

I finished Purple Hibiscus and made a start on Eva Rice ~ The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets last night. So far i am liking it, it's a nice light read. Disappointed with the library today, I did my checking on their website to see which books I wanted that they had in. I had about ten in mind and when I got there, I couldn't find a single one they even had 10 copies of one book and i couldn't find them. The staff are less than helpful with comments like 'have you checked the fiction section' when there are really only two sections, fiction and, of course, non fiction. Grrrrrrr, why is it so difficult to actually find a book in the library???? I know what they want, they want me to pay to reserve it, but then that gets very expensive, the amount I read. Shame on them anyway..... Rant over..... for now

I was rooting for her too

It's one of those books that has been jumping out at me for a while now and the Olympic Challenge gave me the perfect excuse to read it

I managed to read both Vanishing Acts and Tenth Circle (it wasn't like I needed my arm twisting though ) and I thought they were both great. Both topics you never thought you would find yourself in but Picoult shows you just how easy it is to fall into them. They both make you question your feelings on moral/social issues too.

I managed to finish Small Island this afternoon, no mean feat as its over 500 pages!! Not too sure what I think of this one now, although I do feel it was a little over hyped. The story itself is a good one, well worth a read, but it is a little long winded at times, hence the size of it. Not one I'd rave about but interesting enough for a random pick at the library. Next I think it might be Purple Hibiscus. The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer. When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love - and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family. Centring on the promise of freedom and the pain and exhilaration of adolescence, Purple Hibiscus is the extraordinary debut of a remarkable new talent.