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Janet

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    Janet's Log - stardate 2013

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    I love the covers! The Chrysalids cover is my favourite, and I like the Web cover too - minus the spiders.

     

    I'm afraid I really dislike The Chrysalids cover, which unfortunately is the one I own (or do I? I can't remember if I've already replaced it).

     

    The  chyrsalids cover is the one that was on the version of the book we studied in school. It's bizarre because the cover has absolutely nothing to do with the story as I remember.

    An interesting mix of opinions there - thanks all.  :)

     

    The reason I started collecting these particular covers is because I came across the copy of The Day of the Triffids and that was the same as the one I studied at school.  I really like it!  I wouldn't have bought any of the others because of their covers if I came across them first, but I love the fact that they match!   :)

    Spiders

    in General Chat

    Posted

    I couldn't kill them, anyway my Mum used to say their big brothers and sisters would come and find me if I did!!

    That's what I think too!   I hate them, but I do the old 'glass and cardboard' thing - or, if he's home,  my son picks them up for me and puts them outside!

    Janet's Log - stardate 2013

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    I've been collecting John Wyndham books that have covers illustrated by Peter Lord, having come across the version of The Day of the Triffids that I read at school in a charity shop a few years ago.  I found another three over the past few years...

     

    Wyndhambooks2_zpsf3863f17.jpg

     

    Today Peter and I went to a National Trust property in Hampshire called Mottisfont and I found a copy of Web in their charity shop for £1.50.  :D

     

    WyndhamWeb_zps64ea23f2.jpg

    Janet's Log - stardate 2013

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    I've wishlisted this book, it sounds quite good!

    I hope you enjoy it when you read it.  :)

     

    The Seance is a great book, glad you enjoyed it. The Ghost Writer is fab too. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on that when you get to it.

    I'm not meant to be buying any books this year* (I'm failing miserably at that!) so it probably won't be any time soon, but if I find it second-hand then I will definitely buy it! 

     

    *I might have bought another book today, taking my total new books in 2013 to 33. :hide:   I need help! :thud:

    A river runs from cover to cover

    in Book Search and Reading Recommendations

    Posted

    Two suggestions for fiction...

     

    The obvious suggestion is Jerome K Jerome's excellent Three Men in a Boat.  :)


     


    A comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat includes an introduction and notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin Classics.

     


    Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a 'T'. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks - not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian 'clerking classes', it hilariously captured the spirit of its age.


    In his introduction, Jeremy Lewis examines Jerome K. Jerome's life and times, and the changing world of Victorian England he depicts - from the
    rise of a new mass-culture of tabloids and bestselling novels to crazes for daytripping and bicycling.

     

    Although classed as a children's book, Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is largely set on the Mississippi

     

    Mark Twain's story of a boy's journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken, abusive 'Pap' and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.

    Janet's Log - stardate 2013

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    012-2013-Mar-12-Wonder_zpse0fcf81a.jpg

     

    Wonder by R J Palacio

     

    The ‘blurb’

    'My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'

     

    August 'Auggie' Pullman is ten years old, but unlike other ten-year-olds, he has never attended mainstream school, instead being home-schooled by his Mum.   The reason for this is because Auggie was born with a severe facial disfigurement.  However, things are going to change for Auggie – he’s going to start at  Beecher Prep – and that’s going to test him to the limit.

     

    Told in turns by August, his sister Via, school colleagues Summer, Jack and Justin and an older girl - friend of Via’s called Miranda the book is the story of what  happens to Auggie and how he copes with becoming the centre of attention when really he’d often rather hide.  It’s a story of overcoming his disability and of fitting in and I really enjoyed it.

    Janet's Log - stardate 2013

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    011-2013-Mar-08-TheSeance_zps546c1b83.jp

     

    The Seance by John Harwood

     

    The ‘blurb’

    London, 1881. Constance Langton lives in a gloomy home with a distant father and a grief-stricken mother; seeking refuge and  comfort, she secretly attends a séance which has tragic consequences. Left alone, her only legacy is a mysterious inheritance that will blight her life and take her deep into a world of apparitions, betrayal and blackmail, black-hearted villains - and murder...

     

    After the death of her sister, Constance’s mother becomes depressed.  In an attempt to cheer her mother up, Constance arranges for them to attend a Séance in the hope of being able to speak to her dead sister from beyond the grave.   Instead, something terrible happens and Constance ends up alone.  She receives a bequest – an old house – but with it comes a warning – that Constance should “sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plough the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there….

     

    The story unfolds told in turn by Constance, John Montague, a man charged with finding out ownership of the Hall and Eleanor Unwin, a woman with psychic abilities – their stories interweave until the story reaches its superb climax.

     

    I loved this brilliant novel from the outset.  Harwood evokes the Victorian period with ease and the book feels as though it could have  been written during that period! It is very atmospheric and chilling at times.  I’ve seen the writing style compared to that of Wilkie Collins and the Brontë sisters and it certainly felt similar to works of the latter.  I’m definitely going to read his earlier book, The  Ghost Writer. 

     

    Thanks again to Noll, who bought me this for Christmas.  :hug:  :xmassmile:

    Janet's *very* long-term Around the World challenge

    in Reading Challenges

    Posted

    I enjoyed it.  I gave it 3½/5.  :)  It's autobiographical and entirely based in Guyana and covers the period from Maggie's birth up to 1971 when the family moved to the UK when she was about 17 years old.  It's a collection of stories about her family and her childhood - it's quite... chatty in style - not great literature, perhaps, but enjoyable nonetheless.   :)

    Janet's Log - stardate 2013

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    ' (and how many Kylie must have :P )

    :giggle2:

     

    There weren't any copies of Going Solo in my library.   It would have cost me £1 to reserve it but I was lucky to find a copy for 50p.  :)

     

    I don't count my Kindle books because I can't see them! 

     

    ETA: What a lovely BF!  :D

    Janet's Log - stardate 2013

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    xI recently bought this book too, I've heard good things about it.

    I hope you enjoy it too.  :)  I read the first installment, Boy, last year, and thought it was really good. 

     

    xI haven't read any books by this author, my mum has though (in Dutch) and quite liked them. I hope you like this one :).

    It's another of his YA books.   We went to a charity coffee morning and... well, you have to buy something, don't you?!  :giggle2:   I read The Prince of Mist last year and that was great.  :)  I haven't read any of his books for adults though.

     

    xThis is on my TBR, look forward to hear/read what you think :).

    Thanks.  :)  I haven't read any Jojo Moyes before.  We're not discussing it until June, so it'll be some time before I get round to it. 

     

    xlook forward to hear/read what you think, it used to be on my wishlist but I read one bad review and decided to remove it (for some reason that I can't remember).

    My friend gave it to me.  She bought it - and then someone bought it for her birthday so she had a spare copy! :)

     

    xMe either but I can't say I'm very bothered by it. I dread to think what I would do if I didn't have any books left to read (or if I've reread all of them recently)! That said, possibly in a while I might have to cut back on book buying for a long time. I'm glad I have at least my TBR to look at and think about, I won't be without books to read for a while etc.

     

    Good luck though on reading more books! :)

    Thanks.  :)  I think I could get snowed in for a year and not run out of books! :giggle:

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