frankie

I'm giving it a thumbs up! Coincidentally Kylie and I was just talking a few hours ago how this thread has been really quiet for a long time. I have bought a lot of Rory books while I've been here but I think there aren't that many of them that other people would like to read or would have them on TBR... I'm okay with Catcher in the Rye because I've been meaning to re-read it for a while. The Crucible one I'll have to give a miss because my copy is in Finland, and I read Great Gatsby just a while ago. Let's see what the others will have to say BTW, I'm reading a Rory book at the moment, I bought The Yearling at the book fair and am getting into it. I'm liking it so far.

Ah, sorry, I didn't realise there was a link in your previous post. I guess it's fair to assume you did not much like the book? Well, I hope you get over it soon and find better reads I'm still looking forward to the novel. Ah, sorry, I didn't realise there was a link in your previous post. I guess it's fair to assume you didn't think too highly of the book? Well, let's hope you'll get over it soon and find some more suitable reads to make you happy again I'm still looking forward to reading the book.

Why is The Magician's Guild rubbish?? I mean, I haven't read the books yet but I've heard great things about them and am really much looking forward to reading them.

Where did you get a The Office bookmark?? I want one! I'm currently using a crime theme magnetic bookmark, it's quite handy and it sticks with the book so I'm not able to lose it. I've also bought a platypus bookmark, I love it. I must take pictures of them at some point.

Hello Techavon! By joining this forum, you will soon have no trouble buying more books and reading more, you will get loads of great book suggestions on here and soon you'll be spending all your money on books It's been known to happen!

That is true. The other day we were talking about some political issues and Kylie was like "you need to read Atlas Shrugged!" She's making it sound really interesting, and I know I'll be ordering the book from play.com the minute I get back to Finland. I also want to get a copy of Fountainhead.

Weave, apart from the first season the TV series differs completely from the books. And there are even some differences between the first book and the first season. I'm totally in love with the TV series and would recommend it to anyone who's curious about it

Hello Johanna and welcome to the forum! Is that you in your avatar? I hope you enjoy BCF

I finally finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay last night. Started reading Sue Townsend's Rebuilding Coventry right after that, I've had a few giggles over it already

Good stuff, mtjm, I hope you enjoy the second novel as well! You've got to keep on reading them, the fifth novel is the best one

I aint's got no money yet, remember? Besides, I really want to finish the book first so I can take it to the bookshops with me to get more credit

I'm going to try and finish The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay today, goodness knows how much time I've spent reading it. I have the biggest urge to go secondhand bookshopping

This thread made me smile. It's always great to hear someone starting up reading again, after a few years break. And to hear that you set a target for yourself at the beginning of the year, and have stuck to it and surpassed it. And you've now started listing your reads, and are expanding your literary horizons. All good news in my book There are also some great titles on your list of read books 2010. I really hope you like Shadow of the Wind, it's one of my most favorite novels ever. Happy reading!

Donald, thank you kindly. If you like what you see here on the forum, maybe you should join us and create an account and introduce yourself! I'm sure you would like it on here And some random, anonymous person got to Chrissy's computer and asked for the turd story? Well well, how likely and convenient for the rest of us! As requested by three people who can turn into five if necessary. This is dedicated to you guys: Big Boy, as found in David Sedaris's book Me Talk Pretty One Day: "IT WAS EASTER SUNDAY IN CHICAGO, and my sister Amy and I were attending an afternoon dinner at the home of our friend John. The weather was nice, and he'd set up a table in the backyard so that we might sit in the sun. Everyone had taken their places, when I excused myself to visit the bathroom, and there, in the toilet, was the absolute biggest turd I have ever seen in my life -- no toilet paper or anything, just this long and coiled specimen, as thick as a burrito. I flushed the toilet, and the big turd trembled. It shifted position, but that was it. This thing wasn't going anywhere. I thought briefly of leaving it behind for someone else to take care of, but it was too late for that. Too late because, before getting up from the table, I'd stupidly told everyone where I was going. "I'll be back in a minute," I'd said. "I'm just going to run to the bathroom." My whereabouts were public knowledge. I should have said I was going to make a phone call. I'd planned to urinate and maybe run a little water over my face, but now I had this to deal with. The tank refilled, and I made a silent promise. The deal was that if this thing would go away, I'd repay the world by performing some unexpected act of kindness. I flushed the toilet a second time, and the big turd spun a lazy circle. "Go on," I whispered. "Scoot! Shoo!" I turned away, ready to perform my good deed, but when I looked back down, there it was, bobbing to the surface in a fresh pool of water. Just then someone knocked on the door, and I started to panic. "Just a minute." At an early age my mother sat me down and explained that everyone has bowel movements. "Everyone," she'd said. "Even the president and his wife." She'd mentioned our neighbors, the priest, and several of the actors we saw each week on television. I'd gotten the overall picture, but natural or not, there was no way I was going to take responsibility for this one. "Just a minute." I seriously considered lifting this turd out of the toilet and tossing it out the window. It honestly crossed my mind, but John lived on the ground floor and a dozen people were seated at a picnic table ten feet away. They'd see the window open and notice something dropping to the ground. And these were people who would surely gather round and investigate. Then there I'd be with my unspeakably filthy hands, trying to explain that it wasn't mine. But why bother throwing it out the window if it wasn't mine? No one would have believed me except the person who had left it in the first place, and chances were pretty slim that the freak in question would suddenly step forward and own up to it. I was trapped. "I'll be out in a second!" I scrambled for a plunger and used the handle to break the turd into manageable pieces, all the while thinking that it wasn't fair, that this was technically not my job. Another flush and it still didn't go down. Come on, pal. Let's move it. While waiting for the tank to refill, I thought maybe I should wash my hair. It wasn't dirty, but I needed some excuse to cover the amount of time I was spending in the bathroom. Quick, I thought. Do something. By now the other guests were probably thinking I was the type of person who uses dinner parties as an opportunity to defecate and catch up on my reading. "Here I come. I'm just washing up." One more flush and it was all over. The thing was gone and out of my life. I opened the door to find my friend Janet, who said "Well, it's about time." And I was left thinking that the person who'd abandoned the huge turd had no problem with it, so why did I? Why the big deal? Had it been left there to teach me a lesson? Had a lesson been learned? Did it have anything to do with Easter? I resolved to put it all behind me, and then I stepped outside to begin examining the suspects." All possible typos are mine of course.

Hehe Consider it considered! We still have only three requests though. 2 more to go.

If Typo-Bloopers is the book that was making you giggle in your library so hard that I heard it downstairs the other night, I want to take a look at it

Of course I'm right I definitely enjoyed it, I already fancy a re-read! Charm, now that you've read Lost Souls and know what Poppy Z. Brite can and cannot do with her books, you must have lowered your expectations and might enjoy Exquisite Corpse a lot more than you did LS. Maybe you should just give it a try I think it's a stand-alone novel, and if not, I read it as such and didn't get the feeling of missing something or not getting everything. Yeah, I got it! Chrissy, you are such a riot!! I'm considering it a number two, although I don't see a number one request on my thread? I think Kylie told me that she made a comment about the request thing but for some reason I don't see her post anywhere? There are more horror stories by Chris Priestley?? I definitely need to look them up and get them at some point, thanks for the heads up poppyshake! I gave the book to Kylie who seems interested in it, I hope she likes it too. Hahaa, I believe we have our third request here?! *** I'm relieved to hear that you, Paula, also find the narrative a bit hard to get into. I kind of wish I knew about the ending of the story before I started reading the novel, it would've been much easier that way. Although that would defeit the purpose, of course. I've seen at least two different novels by Haig while I've been rummaging through Australia's bookshops and secondhand bookshops, and I'm definitely going to look up The Radleys and The Last Family in Britain (or what was it called, I can't remember for sure). Have you read those already? And Paula, it was thanks to you that I read UMToT in the first place, so thank you! *** Edit: I just remembered how I learned the word 'turd'! I was in a Written English class in uni, and this girl was talking about something and said the word 'third', but her pronunciation was a bit off and our Australian professor thought she was saying 'turd'. Then he explained what a turd is. We got a fairly good giggle out of it.

Hehe Ooshie, don't worry about it, I know what it's like You don't have time to write one review, then you read another one and as soon as you start thinking about updating your reading blog, something else comes up and soon enough you have a whole pile of books to be reviewed, and you think you need heaps of time to do it all so you decide to postpone the reviewing a bit and there you go It's all too familiar and all too easy to happen! Poor Walt it's not a good feeling, having to read the book but not wanting to, and all the while the book is resting on your bedroom drawer. Why did the man have to write in such a boring way? Why wasn't he also a perfectionist editor? He could've edited a couple of lines from the book... Hm, all the Jodi Picoults I hear about sound really good. I might as well just start reading all the ones that come my way. Good to have you back Ooshie!

Hello Adelaide and welcome to the forum!

Hello Amesy and welcome to the forum!

Hello neighbor and welcome to the forum!

Wow, this is definitely going on my wishlist! It sounds like a really original story and I'm glad to hear it's well written as well. I'm quite certain that this novel is right up my alley, having read your review on The Art of Racing in the Rain and loving that book as much as you did. Thanks for the review Ruth!

Excellent review poppyshake! I really want to read this book, I already have it on my wishlist but now I'm all the more keen on reading it. Kylie, I added this novel to my wishlist after reading Janet's review on it, maybe that's how you spotted the book as well?

Well, the turd story gets 5/5 from me, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the turd story takes no more than 3 pages in the 272 pages long book. In fact, if I receive more than 5 requests, I promise to type the whole turd story on this reading blog of mine, and will save you all the waste of having to buy the book.

87. Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay I was very happy to find this newish Baclay novel at the book fair. I read Too Close to Home in the beginning of the year and really loved the novel, so I've been most eager to read other Barclay thrillers. Barclay knows how to write, I really like his style. I found the story line very interesting as well, although I have to say that it didn't quite manage to captivate me as much as TCtH did. Towards the end there were a couple of scenes which to me had 'a Hollywood movie' written all over them, but I feel like I had to give Barclay some slack. The ending was a bit abrupt and one of the twists was a bit over the top but all in all a really enjoyable read. Looking forward to reading No Time for Goodbye and the latest Barclay novel soon. 4/5 88. An Australian Son by Gordon Matthews "An Australian Son describes an incredible journey of self-discovery - a deeply moving and courageous story which strikes at the heart of Australia's own struggle for identity. Gordon Matthews was a boy who never belonged. Adopted at birth, he grew up in the 1950s in the leafy suburbs of Melbourne. While he had every comfort, colour set Gordon apart and he had no answers to the crucial questions of who he was and where he came from. Through an extraordinary chain of circumstances, Gordon came to believe he was of Aboriginal descent. It was the turning point of his life. Passionately, Gordon formally embraced his new identity and acquired a profile in the diplomatic service. He became a proud spokesman for his race; he also decided to look for his natural parents. Armed with a few snippets of information - his mother was Anglo-Saxon and unmarried, and had travelled from Sydney to Melbourne to have her child - he embarked on a remarkable search. That search would ultimately take him round the world, and shatter his dream." A very compelling autobiographical read. It was a random pick from the book fair's Australia section, me being here in Australia and wanting to read about Australia and Australian people. Here is a guy who's first Australian, then turns into an Abo and goes on this seach of his own identity. Can there be a more fascinating read? I bet not. Good stuff. Didn't manage to convince Kylie to read it after me, though. 4/5 89. The Possession of Mr Cave by Matt Haig I was really looking forward to reading this novel, having read some amazing reviews about it on the forum. All in all it was a really captivating read in some senses, especially after having finished it and realising why it was written in that particular way. However, not knowing all the details at the beginning made it really difficult for me to understand the structure of the novel and I had a hard time with the narrative. I feel like I failed this book 2/5 90. Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley Another BCF recommendation. Now comes with frankie's recommendation as well. The terror tales in the novel managed to truly creep me out, something which I didn't expect at all. I loved the atmosphere in the novel. People need more books like this! Highly recommended. 4/5