~Andrea~

Welcome. And do check out the writer's section on the forum

Enjoy your trip Devi. Hope you enjoy Of Mice and Men. It's a great book.

I would certainly recommend the first one. I'd say I'm probably enjoying it as much as the Assassin books so far. There are lots of interesting female characters which appeals to me.

Hi Steve, I have indeed, well OH has the other two, so I'll get to them soon I hope. Was it the length that put you off lol? She certainly seems to like writing tomes!

I love the sound of Where'd you go Bernadette. Added to the wish list! (Also talking of forgetting recommendations, lately I've started linking to recommendations in my wish list so I'll definitely know it was you )

Well I arrived back from Croatia (which was lovely and I highly recommend it) and am now half way through Ship of Magic which I am thoroughly absorbed by and enjpying immensely. I wonder if I will enjoy reading it in Newport as much i as I did on looking out over the adriatic sea *sigh*

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a wonderful book. We had a reading circle with it a couple of years back. Do beware of the very longwinded section on Notre Dame and Paris though. A lot of people struggled and gave up at this point. With any Victor Hugo skim-reading is your friend.

Thanks Athena It's a great book - though a bit hard going in places, especially all the phonetically written dialect, but if you can persevere it's definitely worth the effort.

She's really good. I'll def be on the lookout for more audio books by her. Hmm I'm quite tempted by the Patricia Routledge one now too . Aw it's horrible when technology becomes obsolete. I still have cassettes and LPs that I can't listen to but can't bear to throw away. And thank you, I'm really looking forward to it x

Hi Poppy. Juliet Stevenson is narrating and doing a very good job. It's an abridged version unfortunately (or fortunately as I seem to remember the book being rather long-winded in places, but this has been chopped rather keenly) I am enjoying it but I've had to stop listening as my croatian phrase book with CD has turned up and I've ousted Wuthering Heights for that I'm afraid. I guess I won't pick it up again until after my holiday (although I suppose I could put WH on my ipod and take it with - there's a thought.) But yes it's great. And I love the Kate Bush song too - I remember it came on the radio when I'd just finished reading it in my early twenties and I was in heaven listening to it. I watched a youtube video of Kate Bush WH recently, and my goodness but that girl is bonkers!

I'm looking forward to the Tawny Man trilogy (once I've got through the Live Ship one, goodness knows how long that will take me!). I only learned the other day how many books she'd written, and they're all so long! She's so prolific.

I really enjoyed The Martian Chronicles. I also enjoyed The Illustrated Man which is a collection of short stories tied together by a theme. I've yet to read any of his other novels but Farenheit 451 is on my wish list.

Hi Athena, no need to apologise Yes I have read 3 other Robin Hobb books, all from the farseer trilogy and I loved them. I know she has written loads of series, so I don't know which ones are best but I can definitely recommend the Farseer trilogy. It was a great read. I know what you mean though. I read the 3 farseer books with a fair gap between each one. But they are so readable I'm sure you'd rattle through them. How are you enjoying A Game of Thrones? I haven't read those but enjoy the TV series. My OH is reading the books and loves them.

I finished A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness yesterday. It was quite different to what I was expecting and I was almost disappointed to start with that it wasn't dark enough. However it turned out to be a great little book, with brilliant illustrations and it had me in tears more than once. Recommended. Started A Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb on Saturday which is going to be my holiday read. At over 800 pages it should keep me going lol.

Finished Jekyll and Hyde yesterday. It's a fantastic little story. I'm almost annoyed I didn't read it rather than listen though. I did get used to Christopher Lee's narration by the end. I think I found his voice, when straight reading the prose, a little drawling. The acted bits (i.e. the dialogue) were very good though. I also finished Part 3 of The Making of Modern Britain, which means I can now get back to A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

Flowers for Algernon is a fantastic book. I think you'll like it. I loved it

Oh, I'm really tempted by this now. I've already been considering watching some of the old Dr Who and Blake's 7 too. What to do first?

Wow - that's great news!! Pleased for you

Pleased to report that I'm really enjoying Jekyll and Hyde. The story is great, the audio narration good enough. I ordered "Seeking Spirituality" by Ronald Ronheiser the other day, which should arrive on Monday.

Is it fiction or non-fiction?

Finished The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Little Women (which annoyingly turned out to be part 1 only) and have started Jekyll and Hyde (audio) again. This time I'm enjoying it much more though I would say I'm not loving Christopher Lee's narration (it's not terrible but not fantastic either)

Right, got back into Making of Modern Britain last night and I'm determined to finish Part 3 before I start or continue with anything else, with the exception of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner which I started and nearly completed on Saturday while I was waiting to have new tyres fitted.

Yea I watch this. We too have been watching since the first series. The first episode of series 3 was quite interesting. Looking forward to seeing where this series will go. I think the first series was the best and it's ending worked quite well as an ending to the whole thing, (I guess because the writers didn't know if it would be recommissioned) so in some ways I feel the subsequent series are a bit contrived. I still enjoy watching it though. Who was the actress playing the rough short-haired girl in S3 ep1? I feel like I recognised her from Eastenders or something. It wasn't Natalie (of the Bianca and Ricky love triangle) was it?

That sounds really good. Another one for the wish list.

Started A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness last night. I also really need to read some more of The Making of Modern Britain as I am way behind schedule to have finished that by end of May!