chesilbeach

Hey Michael

These sound right up my street. I love the Alex Rider and Young Bond series, so I think I'll have to invest in these as well. More books on the shopping list

It was called Lost and Found (link to IMDB page here) I don't think I've ever seen it, and despite quite a low star rating on IMDB, it sounds like to sort of film I like, so I'll keep my eye out for it on television (it seems like one of those films the digital channels show on a weekday afternoon).

Years ago, we went on holiday to Florence, and OMG the ice-cream was amazing! I could have quite happily lived off it for the entire holiday, but we were in Italy so couldn't ignore the other wonderful food Favourite flavour would have to be pistachio.

I hope you like it Nicola. I'm a recent convert (thanks to BCF), but I'm enjoying her books a lot. Bitten is one of my favourites

Great review Kylie. I've never read any Eugenides, but I might try this one, as it sounds really interesting, and I'm intrigued to find out what the twist is now. Isn't fantastic when a book you're not sure of turns out to be an excellent read?

I think I was so disappointed because the story had bags of potential, but I just felt it needed some serious editing, and it completely put me off reading the other books, which is such a shame, as I suspect I might have enjoyed them if her writing had developed to where it got to in My Best Friend's Girl.

I never thought I'd like short story collections, but after I read People I Wanted To Be by Gina Oscher, I've become more tempted by them. The Sarah Salway book looks interesting and has been added to my wishlist. Thanks

Definitely a bookmark, although I have been known to put the open book face down at the page I'm reading, breaking the spine (almost as bad as turning the page corner down )

Just had an email to say the Twenties Girl is ready for me to collect at the library, so I'm hopefully looking forward to reading it this weekend!

The first Dorothy Koomson book I read was My Best Friend's Girl, and liked it enough to buy three more by her in a 3 for 2 offer. I then read The Cupid Effect, but I was mightily disappointed. I thought the writing was weak, and the book needed some editing, as it was too disjointed and there were sections that were out of place in the story and felt unnecessary to the narrative. I then realised that two of the three books I'd bought had all been re-marketed after the success of My Best Friend's Girl in the Richard & Judy Book Club. In fact, I was so frustrated with The Cupid Effect that I actually gave away all three books to the charity shop, as I couldn't face reading the other two.

I'm not sure if my hopes for this book were too high, but I when I read it a few years ago, I was disappointed and more than a little bored, and I think I got about two thirds of the way through before putting it aside, as I just wasn't interested in the characters or their stories.

It is completely lovely, and I'd love to hear some other peoples views on it, so I hope you read it, amethyst

It's definitely worth the effort. I read it in just over a week (including footnotes!), but it rattled along at a good pace so it never felt like it was a chore to read it.

I'd really like to read this book but it seems to be a bit tricky to get hold of - most online stores have a 2-3 week delivery estimate for it, and the area library website doesn't have it listed either. I might have to try to get one of my local bookshops to order it for me.

Although normally, I would insist on reading a book first before watching a film adaptation, this is one book that I'm not even tempted to pick up, yet I love Tim Burton's work enough to be looking forward to the film with anticipation.

I really hope so, Gyre!

Ah I see, that sort of makes sense, although I wonder if I might lose the thread of the story with some of the very long diversionary footnotes. At least reading it from the book, I can easily re-read a few sentences before the footnote marker if I need to, or leave the footnote until a more convenient place.

I loved the book too, but just out of curiosity, did the audiobook include the footnotes? If so, how did they incorporate them into the reading?

I don't think the author's ever said, other than in an interview where she says she, "set the story in a somewhat isolated small town on the west coast of Wales", and "and is the town where I grew up, but it

Thanks for the link to Beautiful Books, Michelle. Just a quick glance at the home page, and I've noticed a few books I've already had my eye on, especially Love Begins in Winter. They seem to put a great deal of effort in to their design, with distinctive, interesting covers, which always encourages me to pick up a book.

Hurrah! Arranged to go and see The Time Traveler's Wife next week - can't wait

Although not strictly astronomy, Lord of Twitter, Stephen Fry, has linked to this today ... http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg - puts our place in the Universe into perspective!

I've read six of the Women of the Underworld so far: 1. Bitten (2001) 2. Stolen (2002) 4. Industrial Magic (2004) 5. Haunted (2005) 6. Broken (2006) 7. No Humans Involved (2007) So far my favourite is No Humans Involved followed by Bitten and Broken - there's something about the werewolf stories I just love! I've been reading through this thread and found the talk about Kelley Armstrong's website with some extra online books and short stories, so I'm going off in search of those later this evening to keep me occupied until I can get to Waterstone's at the weekend to pick up three more, since they've got them on a 3 for 2 offer at the moment.

As I've run out of vampires, werewolves, witches, necromancers, sorcerers and demons, I've had to restort to the normal books on my shelf , so I've started Just Friends by Robyn Sisman today. I'm a bit worried that it might be a bit dated as it's nearly 10 years old already, and recent experience has shown me that chick-lit doesn't seem to stand the test of time! I did enjoy Weekend In Paris by the same author a few years ago, so I'm hoping this one will be good too.