RedAlligator

Not sure if anyone can get this outside NZ but Kathy Linskey Pinot Gris is one of the nicest Pinos Gris I have had. Not sure how this happened but we have in our possession a couple of bottles of Veuve Cliquot which I love. Because its so damn expensive I keep on staring at the bottles on my shelf instead of drinking it!

I cant wait for the second series of Life on Mars to start over here in good ol NZ (which to be honest not 100% sure its coming) but I know Ashes to Ashes is coming very soon and cant wait for that. So I am naturally presuming that wouldnt dare to show Ashes to Ashes without showing the second series first!! We dont have nearly enough good English programmes over here unfortuntely.

Heres my list. Have read more than I thought. Don Quixote - Cervantes Candide - Voltaire Danerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen Mansfield Park - Jane A Emma - Jane A Frankenstein - Mary Shelley Oliver Twist - Dickens Nicholas Nickleby - Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit - Dickens The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas Vanity Fair - William M. thackeray Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte David Copperfield - Dickens Hard Times - Dickens Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert The Woman in white - Wilkie Collins The Mill on the Floss - George Elliot Great Expectations - Dickens Silas Marner - George Elliot Les Miserables - Victor Hugo Uncle Silas - Sheridan le Fanu alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll Theresa Raquin - Emile Zola Little Women - Louisa May alcott the Moonstone - Wilkie Collins Around the World in 80 days - Jules Verne Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy Anna Karenina - tolstoy Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy Nana - Emile Zola the Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Tess of the d'Urbervilles - thomas Hardy The Time Machne - H G Wells The Forstye Saga - John Galsworthy The Old Wives Tale - Arnold Bennett A Room with a view - E M Forster Howards End - E M Forster Sons & Lovers - D H Lawrence Of Human Bondage - Somerset Maugham Women in Love - D H Lawrence The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton A Passage to India - E M Forster The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fiztgerald Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons Thank you Jeeves - P G Wodehouse Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald A handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh Gond with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier The Razors Edge - Somerset Maugham Animal Farm - George Orwell Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 1984 - George Orwell Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford The Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham The Lord of the Rings - Tolkein The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndhamn Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey The Collector - John Fowles In cold Blood - Truman Capote The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov 100 years of solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez The French Lieutenants Woman - John Fowles The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan Schindlers Ark - Thomas Keneally The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks Perfume - Patrick Suskind The Handmails Tail - Margaret Atwood Oranges are not the only fruit - Jeanette Winterson Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro London Fields - Martin Amis A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro Possession - A S Byatt Wild Swans - Jung Chang Hideous Kinky - Esther Freud The Crow Road - Iain banks The Secret History - Donna Tartt The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwod The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks The Shipping News - Annie Proulx Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry The Reader - Bernhard Schlink The Unconsolved - Kazuo Ishiguro American Pastorl - Philip Roth Enduring Love - Ian McEwan Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden The God of Small Thngs - Arundhati Roy Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho The Hours - Michael Cunningham Amsterdam - Ian McEwan The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood Under their Skin - Michael Faber White Teeth - Zadie Smith The Devil & Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho Life of Pi - Yann Martel The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen Atonement - Ian McEwan Dead Air - Iain Banks Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides Unless - Carol Shields Fingersmith - Sarah Walters The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time - Mark haddon The Colour - Rose Tremain On Beauty - Zadie Smith Saturday - Ian McEwan Never Let me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

I wont read Danielle Steel or Marion Keys. Any chick lit basically. Dont like horror either or sci fi. Also do my best to avoid Salmon Rushdie as well - have given him one go but I just cant do it!

Yes read it and loved it. Have to say preferred it to 100 years of Solitude.

Aramis from the Three Musketeers Prentice McHoan the Crow Road Elizabeth Bennett and Lottie Wilkins from The Enchanted April

In Aunt Julia & The Scriptwriter there are two policeman characters and one is called: Apple Dumpling Arevalo and the other is Snotnose Camacho! I queried these names with a Spanish friend who said that is not what the names are if its read in Spanish! Didnt like the book much but those names made me laugh.

Oh dear bit scared to tell you my story. Personally, I'm not that worried about the state of my books as long as they havent been dropped in the bath or something like that. I cant really understand how people read books without bending the spine - how do you it. Anyway, I borrowed Lady Chatterly's Lover from my cousin - one of those old penguin ones with the orange spine and she was one of those that hated bent spines. In fact she didnt even like to have a crack in the spine at all, not even a wrinkle. So I took it, more fool me, and I was completely paranoid the whole time I had it and just couldnt bring myself to read it at all as I was so scared. I had it for a while and had every intention of giving it back to her as she gave it to me so I kept it on my bedside table to remind me. But in doing that I also forgot it was there and my OH made a cup of tea one day while I was reading in the bedroom (not Lady C) and without thinking I put the cup of tea on the book!!! OMG, the ****** cup left a great big round tea stain on the book that I could not get off for love nor money! And it wasnt like I could buy her a new one to replace it as it was the old penguin ones that were not published like that anymore!!! I tell ya I learnt my lesson - I never borrow books anymore if people are that protective of their books. I cant live with the terror.

Classic/Deceased:- Wilkie Collins and Jane Austen Adult Modern: Ian McEwan, Kate Atkinson, Kazuo Ishiguro Children's Modern: Dont really read children's books. Author of your favourite book: Elizabeth Von Arnhem for Enchanted April & Sebastian Faulks for Birdsong

My faves are: Heroes Lost Brothers & Sisters Grey's Anatomy Top Chef Coronation Street Gordon's Kitchen Nightmares We dont get much in the of English programmes in NZ unfortunately but we did get Life on Mars and loved it. We havent got the second series yet. Am praying the second one makes its way here. Consequently we havent got Ashes to Ashes here yet either! But oldies I love are: Only Fools & Horses Blackadder The Office Did anyone ever watch a programme called North Square - it was on BBC2 about 8 years ago now and was absolutely brilliant. Rupert Penry Jones and Phil Davis were in it and was about barristers in Leeds. Dont know many people who saw it but it was great.

Please do, I would love to hear your thoughts on them especially The Unconsoled. Mainly for the fact that its quite an odd book and its an either love it or hate it type book I think. I think you might enjoy (hopefully) The Enchanted April, its just lovely.

I adore musicals. In fact I have always wanted to be in one but the fact that I cant sing, doesnt really help! Anyway, my favourites are: West Side Story 7 brides for 7 brothers - I love Russ Tamblyn Guys & Dolls Les Miserables - seen this 3 times. Company Into the Woods Sweeney Todd Fiddler on the Roof High Society Oliver Moulin Rouge and I am incredibly excited as Priscilla Queen of the Desert is finally making its way to Auckland (the musical version) and I cant wait.

I cant pick just one either so here is my top 5, in no particular order: Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons Enchanted April - Elizabeth Von Arnham The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro.

Where are you living now? I love Auckland, great place. Although not quite so as lively as I would like it - I'm originally from just outside London but I'm getting used to it.

This is the only one of hers I havent read but its definitly on my list though. My favourites are: The Joy Luck Club and Saving Fish from Drowning.