Janet

I have a couple of my Paddington books from when I was a child. I'd like to read them again some day. I read an excerpt from the new one in a newspaper recently!

Hello and welcome.

Hello Coffeebean and welcome to the forum. I have quite a few coffee books but tend to use the same two all the time!

You're called Twentyfirst?! My keyboard is the same, but thankfully I can touch-type and was taught that looking at my fingers whilst doing so is a cardinal sin!

I think I should try to reread Blackberry Wine one day as I read it years ago and the details are a bit sketchy. I know I loved it though! My Mum, who has a very similar taste in books to me, just couldn't get on with it.

Damn I nearly bought that today (£2.99 in WHS if you bought The Times) but I forgot to go back for it. It has a very pretty cover!

Yup - I did one here.

I did that for A2 level English. It was okay (I wouldn't rave about it) but I hated the end bit where Tom Sawyer got involved - it was so irritating!

Thanks guys. I read that some people didn't like the ending after I'd finished the book. I'm glad I didn't read that before. Personally I thought it rounded it off quite nicely!

Ohh - not a bad haul.

I try not to, unless it's for a book I don't know.

What a lovely thing to do.

I've just read Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - what a fab book! It only took me 24 hours which is unheard of for me! 10/10

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks The ‘Blurb’ Spring 1666: when the Great Plague reaches the quiet Derbyshire village of Eyam, the villagers make an extraordinary decision. They elect to isolate themselves in a fateful quarantine. So begins the Year of Wonders, seen through eighteen-year-old Anna Frith’s eyes as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love. Based on a true story, this novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggles of seventeenth-century science and religion to interpret the world at the cusp of the modern era. I read a review about this a few years ago and loved the sound of it. I’d forgotten all about it though until I found it in a charity shop recently. What a fabulous book! Based on a true story, it tells how the plague is brought to the small village of Eyam in some flea ridden cloth sent from London to a journeyman tailor lodging with Anna. The villagers take the decision to quarantine themselves, leaving money and requests for goods on the village boundary stone and in return people from the next village leave the items for them to collect, ensuring that they are able to survive without contact with the outside world. The book is so well written that it’s easy to lose yourself in it. I would love to visit Eyam, which I know has a good museum dedicated to this remarkable incident. The paperback is 304 pages long and is published by Fourth Estate. The ISBN number is 978-1841154589. 10/10 (Read July 2008)

Do you win many of them?

Just thought I'd update... I got to about 90/429 pages but I didn't really get into it. I'm sure it would have got better but I figure if it's taken me this long to read just over a fifth of it then I'm not really enjoying it - so I've given up.

Me too (or is that me fifteen?!). I recently peeled a Waterstones one off a new book and it took some of the shiny top coat off the book with it. I was really careful too. You can't actually see it unless you hold the book to the light but that's not the point. I think their labels must contain Superglue.

There was a great TV adaptation of it a few years ago. I thought it was charming, but I might not have appreciated it when I was 14.

You hated it? What did you hate about it? I read this a few years ago and I loved it!

Noooooooooooo. No. No. No. Gutted.

Yeah, great review. This got a 10/10 from me (and my Mum when she read it) too. It's definitely a book that will stay with one for a long time.

I've just heard on the news that the ICC have decided that the result of the 2006 Oval Test between England and Pakistan is going to be changed to a draw. England were given the win after Pakistan refused to come out of the changing rooms - it was decided they'd forfeited the game. Now they've made this ruling, does it automatically mean that if one side stays in the changing room then the game is declared a draw?! Daft!

Thanks - it's great. Ooooh loads. A few we've done are... The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith The Soldier's Return - Melvyn Bragg Casino Royale - Ian Fleming Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne And loads more. So a good mix!