Janet

Sorry to hear that, but better to know now than later on I think.

Ella Minnow Pea is a cracking read, Alex. Enjoy.

Good stuff. Enjoying someone's company can be as good a start as fancying them - and if nothing else you may become good friends

The BFG by Roald Dahl The ‘blurb’ Just imagine suddenly knowing you may be eaten for breakfast in the very near future; dropped like a rasher of bacon into a frying pan sizzling with fat. This is exactly what worries Sophie when she is snatched from her bed in the middle of the night by a giant with a stride as long as a tennis court. Luckily for Sophie, the BFG is far more jumbly than his disgusting neighbours whose favourite pastime is guzzling and swallomping nice little chiddlers. Sophie is determined to stop all this and so she and the BFG cook up an ingenious plan to rid the world of trogglehumping, bogthumping giants for ever! It wasn’t until after reading this that I learned it’s an expansion from an episode that took place in Danny the Champion of the World… which I haven’t read yet! Sophie lives in an orphanage – not a very happy orphanage as it happens. One day see meets the BFG, the Big Friendly Giant, who is not like the other giants – he is kind. The other giants are rotten and Sophie and the BFG resolve to get rid of them, which they do with the help of someone rather unexpected! I’m sure everyone knows that the Sophie in this book is Sophie Dahl, the model, who was Roald’s granddaughter. How lovely to be immortalised in the pages of this fun story which I enjoyed reading. I must try to see the film version now. There are rumours of a remake by Dreamworks – but the rights were bought in 2011 and nothing seems to have been mentioned since, maybe this won’t happen? The paperback is 208 pages long and is published by Puffin. It was first published in 1982. The ISBN number is 9780140315974. 3/5 (I liked it) (Finished 17 June 2013)

Book #29 - World Challenge, Israel Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz The ‘blurb’ A teenage son shoots himself under his parents' bed. They sleep that night unaware he is lying dead beneath them. A stranger turns up at a man's door to persude him that they must get rid of his ageing mother in order to sell the house. An old man grumbles to his daughter about the unexplained digging and banging he hears under the house at night. As each story unfolds, Amos Oz, builds a portrait of a village in Israel. It is a surreal and unsettling place. Each villager is searching for something, and behind each episode is another, hidden story. In this powerful, hynotic work Amos Oz peers into the darkness of our lives and gives us a glimpse of what goes on beneath the surface of everyday existence. Israel is a country I don’t know a great deal about, and I must admit that if I pictured it in my mind, I suppose I saw people living a simple life with little of modern civilisation around them, as ignorant as this perception now sounds! In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth and the people in this book could easily be transported to the West. The book is a series of short stories – each interlinked in some small way (eg, some of the people within the stories overlap). Oz writes very poetically and his stories give one a taste of life in Israel, although most leave the reader with a sense of unease at the end. Unfortunately, I put off this review and as it was a library book I no longer have it to refer to – which is shame because this review really doesn’t do it justice! The paperback is 265 pages long and is published by Vintage. It was first published in 2009. The ISBN number is 9780099541363. 3½/5 (Somewhere between liked and loved it) (Finished 16 June 2013)

Me too! I quite often forget a book weeks after I've read it - even if it's one I've enjoyed! It never used to be like that!

Thanks, Julie. I think of the bathroom as the room upstairs - the one downstairs doesn't have a bath in it - just a toilet/loo/lavatory. Claire's right - Amazon.com sell Spineless Classics.

I like the sound of A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea - and I love the cover!

There's a children's version too, which I also love!

I've been coveting the Pride and Prejudice one too, Claire. I really want one of these in our downstairs toilet (is it polite to say toilet, or should one say loo - or lavatory - I'm never sure! We call ours a cloakroom... but it doesn't actually have any cloaks in it! ). I love it so much I can even forgive the fact that Thomas Hardy has nearly been pushed up out of Dorsetshire!

Try a local auction house or a local second-hand book seller. www.yell.com will help

Do you know what... don't bother.

Book club was postponed until 18 September so I've delayed The Night Circus for a bit or I'll forget what the story is! Instead I'm reading I Can't Stay Long by Laurie Lee.

You didn't ever respond to my email - or make any comments whatsoever about my essay of Of Mice and Men - does that mean you thought it was crap?!

I'm doing this challenge and I've read some brilliant books (and some not-so-brilliant!) that I definitely wouldn't have picked up otherwise. I hope you enjoy it.

He is - I think I'll keep him!

I posted a long reply last night and then our internet went down. I'm a bit embarrassed because you say it's one of the most famous opening lines and I've never heard of it. I love the sound of the book though (I have, at least, heard of it!) so I've added it to my wish list. Thanks for the review.

Oooh, well done! I started Summer by Edith Wharton for August's reading circle today - I'm about half way through.

We're not able to provide valuations here - we are a site for book lovers to talk about their likes and dislikes of books and authors. Your best bet is to find a local antiquarian book shop - or an auction site - and start there.

I'm afraid it's one of my most loathed books! I might have felt differently had I read it as a teen, but I doubt it. I hated the protagonist for his self-indulgent whinging - what a phoney!!

I *nearly* bought it again for Kindle, but decided that would be silly! I didn't read anything at all yesterday. I'm going to start August's Reading Circle book - Summer by Edith Wharton - later today, I think.

Great news, Julie.

Thanks. Last week I bought a book (The Road to Rouen by Ben Hatch) for £7.80 from Amazon for book club - and today it's one of Amazon's daily Kindle deals for £1.49.

I was reading those last night - it won't affect someone like JKR (in whatever guise she's using) but it annoys me when people who haven't read the book/tried the product review it. It's just sour grapes.

I finished The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber today. What an awesome book!