chesilbeach

I'm good thanks hope this finds you well too. I've got some bookshop vouchers burning a hole in my purse at the moment, and I think at least one Margaret Atwood book will find its way into my house this week

I hope you like it, frankie I have no objection to other people buying it, I'm just fed up with it being rammed down my throat! *rant over* I'll shut up now

Hmmm ... I'm in two minds about this. It was commissioned after being based on a blog if I remember rightly, and was one of those books that got a lot of publicity before being published for that reason. It's now also a film, which I must admit I'm tempted to see, if only because Meryl Streep is in it. Potentially interesting story, and curiosity about the route to publication might tempt me to read it, so I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on it after you've read it.

I still have a hankering for my childhood favourites as well, and love returning to books set in boarding schools. For a child living at home, attending an average state school, there's something magical about boarding schools and being away from home and parental supervision.

Margaret Atwood is one of those authors I always intend to read more of. I read Lady Oracle a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it a lot, and there are a lot of her earlier books on our shelves that my partner read years ago, but I've just never got around to them. I keep seeing the arresting cover for The Blind Assassin on the shelf at my local Borders, but I never actually manage to pick it up. I might well think about Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood to kick start my Atwood reading, as from your review, it sounds like they're excellent reads

I barely read anything yesterday Hoping to rectify that today, and try and finish my current book, and make a start on The Moonstone for the reading circle.

I am a woman grieving after a family tragedy.

If you've got an independent bookshop near you, you could try asking one of the shop assistants, as it's one of the things that usually gives them the edge over the big chain stores, in that their staff are usually big readers and will have the time to provide this sort of service. The big chains are good too, and might be able to help, but the indies tend to choose the more dedicated readers for their staff. They also will often provide recommended books, or recommended reading lists in the shop as well, which can be a good source of inspiration.

I don't need silence, but I can't read while the television is on and I can hear it, so I tend to put earphones in and listen to some music to drown out the television and concentrate on my book. I can read anywhere and everywhere using this method, so I'll read at my desk during my lunchbreak, in the car while waiting to pick up someone, in a cafe or coffee shop (my favourite reading place!) or anywhere else I might find myself with 5 minutes to spare. The only thing is, the music must be either instrumental (e.g. classical or jazz) or the singing must be in a foreign language (e.g. flamenco or latin)

I don't think I'm a born reader, even though I did read an awful lot when I was small, I still remember my first love being numbers and maths. According to all my family, I knew my times tables by the time I was three, and remember that Sunday morning fun for me, was getting my mum to fill an exercise book with sums that I would work my way through. I think I temporarily lost my reading mojo from about the age of 15 or 16, but it came back with a vengeance about five years ago, and hasn't left me since.

Thanks for the review, ii. I'd never heard of Anna Davis before, but I've just looked up the two books and I think I'll try to find them during my next book shopping trip, although The Jewel Box isn't out in the UK until November.

I'm fed up with being asked every single time I buy a book if I'd like to pre-order this book for half price/

Childrens books dealing with WW2 that I've read and would recommend: Once by Morris Gleitzman The Silver Sword by Ian Serrallier There are a few threads looking at books set during the war, so I've collated some of the books that have been reviewed: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (link to reading circle thread, so it may contain spoilers) Hitler's Canary by Sandi Toksvig The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian - I couldn't find a review, but it is mentioned in a couple of "Favourite" lists.

I've read some more of Mourning Ruby today, and something very nice arrived in the post today ... some lovely book tokens! Looking forward to going and spending them next week

How could I have forgotten that????!!!!! Baz Luhrmann is my hero.

I am very fond of books set in India, and I'm not sure where that fondness comes from. I have no inclination to want to visit the country, but I'm always drawn to both novels and travel books about it. Any book in the shop that I catch a glimpse of that even vaguely looks like it might be set there will automatically be picked up, and if it looks remotely interesting, I will buy it, even ahead of others I might have specifically gone in to buy.

Jaffa cakes

I'd definitely recommend Annie Sanders books, particularly Busy Woman Seeks Wife: Alex may be an excellent marketing executive, organized, efficient and dedicated, but when it comes to her domestic life, she’s seriously lacking. Her washing machine is broken, the leaking shower is causing complaints from the neighbour in the flat below, and when she arrives home from her latest overseas business meeting, her cleaner is otherwise engaged in Alex’s bed! Telling Saffron, her best friend who is a full time wife and mother, Alex receives a telephone call informing her that her mother has fallen off a stepladder and broken her arm, and is going to need supervision in her convalescence. With another business trip on the cards, Saff comes up with a brilliant idea to get someone to help Alex with all areas of her home life, and writes the advert to be placed in the local paper – Busy Woman Seeks Wife … This is the third Annie Sanders book I’ve read, and it is probably my favourite one so far. Annie Sanders is actually two writers, Annie Ashworth and Meg Sanders, who write both non-fiction and fiction books together. Their novels definitely need to be placed in the “Entertainment” category of my reading, as they are pure escapism. Characters are always real people with real lives, who have flaws and problems but who you grow to know and love through the course of the book. This one is no exception, with five main characters to get to know, each of them is important to the plot as well as having their own story to develop. Annie Sanders books will be placed squarely in the chick-lit genre, and while there is nothing wrong with that, I feel their books are much more about the observation of the lives of their characters social situations, than about the standard romance-led chick-lit novels, dealing with issues of motherhood and careers in the 21st century. They are warm and funny, full of charming people who are recognizable as people we all know. Annie Sanders are quickly becoming some of my favourite chick-lit books to read, and “Busy Woman Seeks Wife” is no exception. If you like authors like Jane Green and Sophie Kinsella, and are, like me, getting a bit too old for mainstay of chick-lit, the twenty-somethings searching for true love, then I would definitely recommend this book for you.

We're on the coast road to Zennor from St Just. Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore

Eventually managed to start a new book today, and decided on Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore which I need to read before the meeting next week. Also popped into Waterstone's to get a book for OH and came out with that and one for me too Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile by Fran

I agree with the BBC adaptations of Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion, and Emma Thompsons Sense & Sensibility, plus the three Lord of the Rings (although I didn't really enjoy the books that much and actually prefer the film versions ) My additions to these would be the Merchant Ivory productions of E. M. Forster novels, A Room With A View and Howards End.

I did say "some" people I know there are people who read both, but I do find it odd than in a group of usually 12-15 people at my book club, and amongst most of my friends, most of us would choose, as our comfort reading books, either chick-lit or crime, but not both. I too am a hopeless book-addict, just not generally crime/horror/murder type book

Back To The Future

I'd recommend Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth. It's a historical murder mystery, but it's very accessible, under 500 pages long, and it's the start of a series, so if people like it, they can read another one. I don't read a lot of either historical fiction or thrillers, but I really enjoyed the two of these books I've read, so I'd say it was a good choice for a book group.