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Lucybird

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  1. Lost and Found- Tom Winter

     

    Synopsis (from amazon)



    It started with a letter …


    Carol is married to a man she doesn’t love and mother to a daughter she doesn’t understand. Crippled with guilt, she can’t shake the feeling that she has wasted her life. So she puts pen to paper and writes a Letter to the Universe.


    Albert is a widowed postman, approaching retirement age, and living with his cat, Gloria, for company. Slowly being pushed out at his place of work, he is forced down to the section of the post office where they sort undeliverable mail. When a series of letters turns up with a smiley face drawn in place of an address, he cannot help reading them.



    Review

     

    Lost and Found is a rather quaint story. I don’t exactly have much to say about it. It’s not exciting, and although not exactly predictable nothing happens which you wouldn’t really expect, it could quite easily be true.

     

    That is not to say that it isn’t enjoyable to read. It had quite a conversational style which I enjoyed, and the characters were believable and likeable, especially Albert.


    I didn’t really like the ultimate decision which Carol made, but I did understand it, and maybe if she had made the other decision it would have made for a less enjoyable story.

     

    3.5/5
  2. Parent's evening today. Always a bit tiring. Only had to do an extra 45 mins though which isn't so bad. Glad to get home and have a cuppa.

     

    Me and the boyfriend have started looking at houses so booked an appointment to go and see a new development over the weekend. Bit scary but exciting.

  3. City of Women- David Gillham

     

    Disclaimer: This book was provided for me free of charge, by the publisher (via netgalley) in exchange for an honest review.

     

    Synopsis (from amazon)

    It is 1943 - the height of the Second World War. With the men taken by the army, Berlin has become a city of women. And while her husband fights on the Eastern Front, Sigrid Schroder is, for all intents and purposes, the model soldier's wife: she goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law. But behind this facade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former Jewish lover, who is now lost in the chaos of the war. Sigrid's tedious existence is turned upside-down when she finds herself hiding a mother and her two young daughters: could they be her lover's family? Now she must make terrifying choices that could cost her everything.

     

    Review

     

    I read Lisa's review of this book a month or two ago  which made me immediately search for and request it on netgalley. I'm  big reader of World War fiction and this one sounded a little more unique, plus the review made me think it would be well done.

     

    It was an interesting subject. I think we should really admire Germans who harboured Jews during Hitler's reign. It would be so easy just to ignore what was going on around you and stay safe (or at least relatively safe).

     

    I quite liked how Sigrid battled with wanting to be a 'good German' and not being able to ignore what was going on around her. It showed that she wasn't some sort of saint, but that this was the way she reacted to the situation. In thatsense it makes the idea rather hopeful, that anyone could do something amazing for a fellow human-being, given the right circumstances.

     

    In many ways she was just trying to get through the days, waiting for the war to end. And I can imagine it was that way for a lot of people.

     

    The story was very sad, but also hopeful. I really felt for Sigrid, even if I didn't always like her. Again it just showed that she was human.

     


    First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
    Because I was not a Socialist.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
    Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
    Because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me. - Martin Niemöller

     

    4/5

  4. Finished City of Women yesterday. Today I started Night Waking on the kindle and The Lifeboat on paper. Pretty much given up on Break the Skin

     

    I finished Dead Silence by Kimberley Derting this evening, the fourth and apparently final book in her Body Finder series.  I did enjoy it (4/5) but didn't think it lived up to book three, plus it really didn't feel like it had given a proper end to the story, it was left rather too open for that...

     

    Now starting The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde which was given to me by a friend for World Book Night, not my usual type of book but I'm keen to give it a go. :)

     

    The Eyre Affair was the book I was giving away for World Book Night. I hope you enjoy it.

  5. Finished Last Train from Liguria. Was a bit up and down. It had 3 stories in it, essentially, but only one really interested me. Full review in my thread.

     

    Started City of Women, which I am enjoying so far.

     

    Considering giving up on Break the Skin, am about 50 pages in but finding myself reading anything other than it. It's a review request book though and I don't really like giving up on those.

     

     

    Finished the Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber and made a start on The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, which is so far good but odd!

     

    Did you enjoy The Crimson Petal and The White?

  6. Last Train From Liguria- Christine Dwyer Hickey

     

    Synopsis (from amazon)

     

    In 1933, Bella Stuart leaves her quiet London life to move to Italy to tutor the child of a beautiful Jewish heiress and an elderly Italian aristocrat. Living at the family's summer home, Bella's reserve softens as she comes to love her young charge, and find friendship with Maestro Edward, his enigmatic music teacher. But as the decade draws to an end and fascism tightens its grip on Europe, the fact that Alec is Jewish places his life in grave danger. Bella and Edward take the boy on a terrifying train journey out of Italy - one they have no reason to believe any of them will survive...
     
    Review
     
    I was surprised to find that this book had three storylines running through it, as only one appears in the synopsis. The first (and probably main) story is the story of Bella. A spinster essentially (considering her age and the time she was living in) who is sent to Italy in the reign of Mussolini by her father to care for a young boy- Alec.
     
    The second story, which takes place in modern times,  is that of a woman who watches as her Grandmother slowly dies in front of her eyes and finds out that, despite being brought up by the woman, she barely knew her at all.
     
    The third is the story of a man who flees his home after killing his sister in a drunken rage- also set during the run up to the second world war.
     
    Somehow all the storylines were a little too much. We enter the story with the last storyline, which put me off a little as it was not at all what I expected. In some ways this story added a flavour to the story- and maybe explanations for later on, but it wasn't really needed.
     
    The second storyline just frustrated me because it took me away from the story I was interested in, and it definitely wasn't needed. I'm not even sure why Dwyer Hickey decided to include it.
     
    The main story itself did take sometime to get going. But it did mean that I felt like I was building a relationship with Bella, and although at times it did feel a little like it was dragging ultimately it made me care about her, enough that her story ended too abruptly for me.
     
    I loved the way atmosphere was built in this story. The beauty of Italy contrasting with the increasingly tense atmosphere. It was like some sort of reverse pathetic fallacy (is there actually a term for that? I'm sure there is but really cannot think of it).
     
    As a war story, Last Train From Liguria is different, maybe it is more realistic in its way. Bella seems very naive but maybe she was just in denial? I'm sure there were plenty of people like that.
     

    3/5

  7. I'm still (sorta) reading The Crimson Petal and the White, but the style is really not doing it for me.  I'm about 19% into it.

     

    In-between I'm reading (finally!) Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King.  It's the last installment of the Mary Russell/S. Holmes series.  I'm enjoying it already at about 35 pages in.  Her depiction of someone with amnesia is startlingly excellent. 

     

    I;ve also started Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor.  One my all time favorites, but haven't read it in, oh at least 30 years.  It still holds up.

     

    I found The Crimson Petal and the White a bit hard going at first too, but in the end it was worth it. I read it on kindle but can't remember where I started getting really interested.

     

    I finished The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and started Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple

     

    How was The Storyteller? I really want to read it but am trying to wait for the paperback.

     

     

    I took part in World Book Night today, I gave away 20 copies of The Eyre Affair.

     

    Am almost done with Last Train to Liguria, and I'm happy I persevered. Break the Skin is not going so well though.

  8. It's World Book Night tonight (at least in the UK and US) and I've been a giver for the first time. I was giving out copies of The Eyre Affair to parents of the kids where I work. It made me a little nervous at first but everyone I offered a book to accepted which was much better than I expected. Some of the parents started alking about how they liked books and reading too which was pretty awesome. I had a few left at the end of the day so just left them in random places, I hope someone finds them and enjoys.

  9. Still Alice- Lisa Genova

     

    This book was read as part of the wishlist challenge.

     

    Synopsis (from amazon)

     

    When Alice finds herself in the rapidly downward spiral of Alzheimer's Disease she is just fifty years old. A university professor, wife, and mother of three, she still has so much more to do - books to write, places to see, grandchildren to meet. But when she can't remember how to make her famous Christmas pudding, when she gets lost in her own back yard, when she fails to recognise her actress daughter after a superb performance, she comes up with a desperate plan. But can she see it through? Should she see it through? Losing her yesterdays, living for each day, her short-term memory is hanging on by a couple of frayed threads. But she is still Alice.

     

    Review

     

    I read a review of Still Alice on a blog quite some time ago (long enough ago that I can't remember whose blog it was, sorry!) which made me put it on my wishlist. By the time I actually bought it I couldn't really even remember what it was about.

     

    In terms of books about Alzheimer's I found it rather emotive and there were moments I just felt so, not despairing exactly, but almost pityful for Alice. At times it was just gut-wrenching.

     

    I liked Alice a lot, even as she forgot more and more, and I think that's part of what made it so emotive. However I did not like John. He didn't seem supportive at all, and I found him rather selfish.

     

    There were a couple of little things which annoyed me. First Alice was a psychology professor but still didn't recognise her symptoms as being Alzheimer's, however I was able to forgive this. Even if you know something it's easy to pretend it isn't happening, or to attribute it to something else. The second thing was that one of her daughters had noticed something but said nothing. I can see it being awkward to talk to her Mum about it, ut I would have thought that she might at least have brought her thoughts up with someone else in the family.

     

    4/5

  10. Just went for our first antenatal scan and got our official due date (19th October). It's finally all very real - there really IS a baby in my tummy and I haven't been imagining things or suffering psychosomatic symptoms - hurrah!

     

    attachicon.gif19.04.13 - Scan pic of Button at 13 weeks and 6 days.JPG

     

    So, this is Button! (Xan was known as Tadpole when he was "on the inside" - LOL!)

     

    Congratulations Kell :) One of the kids at work recently had a baby brother who was called button when he was 'inside'

  11. No "job" today (if you call a job helping teens with their homework) because I don't feel ok.. so I started and finished Running with Scissors by Augusten Borroughs..  liked it, but it's so harsh in some passages I had to force myself through.

     

    I think we read this as a reading circle...or maybe it was a Rory book. I can't remember it very well but I have others by Borroughs on my wishlist so I must have enjoyed it.

  12. Friends Like These- Danny Wallace

     

    Synopsis (from amazon)


    Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a cliché.

     

    Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he's swapped pints down the pub for lattes and brunch. For the first time in his life, he's feeling, well ... grown-up.

     

    But something's not right. Something's missing. Until he finds an old address book containing just twelve names. His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with being grown-up too?

     

    And so begins a journey from A-Z, tracking down and meeting his old gang.

     

    He travels from Berlin to Tokyo, from Sydney to LA. He even goes to Loughborough. He meets Fijian chiefs. German rappers. Some ninjas. And a carvery manager who's managed to solve time travel. But how will they respond to a man they haven't seen in twenty years, turning up and asking if they're coming out to play?


    Part-comedy, part-travelogue, part-memoir, Friends Like These is the story of what can happen when you track down your past, and ofwhere the friendships you thought you'd outgrown can take you today...


    Review

     

    I nicked borrowed this book off the boyfriend the other week when nothing on my kindle was inspiring me and I just fancied an easy read. I actually got it  for him for Christmas because he loves the film Yes Man- I wasn't sure if he had read the book the film is based on so I went for another Danny Wallace instead. When he read it he said I should too.


    Well I did say after reading Charlotte Street that I wanted to try some of Wallace's non-fiction, and who am I to deny an offer of a book?

     

    I'm sure everyone knows the sort of friends Danny is trying to find. Those friends who you somehow lost, never really intending to, but still it happens. So I think Danny's feelings about his friends are easy to relate to (not that most of us have the time or money to find and visit all our friends from primary school).


    In a way I liked this more than other similar types of books (i.e. comedian goes on an adventure to find people, or things e.g. Googlewhack, Around Ireland with a fridge, Dave Gorman Vs. The Rest of the World), because it was more real. It was sort of inspirational. Not in the sense of I would go around the world to find people I knew in school, but in the sense of wanting to try and reconnect with lost friends.
     
    But it had what those types of books have too. It was funny, and a bit stupid, and a little unbelievable and over the top.
     
    4/5

  13. Without question, I would bring back "Northern Exposure". However, I believe it was a show where the specific actors/actresses are a necessity to make the show as great as it was.

     

    LOL, most of you are probably too young to have watched Northern Exposure.

     

    I watched it when I had a broken leg err...4...years ago. (When I joinned the forum actually) My Mum's friend lent me her box sets. I really enjoyed it.

     

    Gilmore Girls

    That 70s Show

    Scrubs

    Firefly

    Roswell

     

    I agree with Gilmore Girls, although it ended at an appropriate place I think.

     

    I used to love Scrubs but they kept i going when it stopped being so good, so don't really agree with that one.

     

    For me I'd love to see Heroes as it was meant to be. They stopped it early because of the recession, and they did wrap it up bt as they'd had several series planned there were quite a few questions which were never answered.

  14. Miserable.  I used to get what I called hormonal migraines. No fun at all.

     

    I get that type, and I get them when I'm stressed, when I'm tired, and when I eat tuna, but I hadn't had one for a while.

  15. The Mine- John A. Heldt

     
    Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge by the author in exchange for an honest review
     
    Synopsis (from amazon)
     
    Seattle, 1941. Grace Vandenberg, 21, is having a bad day. Minutes after Pearl Harbor is attacked, she learns that her boyfriend is a time traveler from 2000 who has abandoned her for a future he insists they cannot share. Determined to save their love, she follows him into the new century. But just when happiness is within her grasp, she accidentally enters a second time portal and exits in 1918. Distraught and heartbroken, Grace starts a new life in the age of Woodrow Wilson, silent movies, and the Spanish flu. She meets her parents as young, single adults and befriends a handsome, wounded Army captain just back from the war. In THE SHOW, the sequel to THE MINE, Grace finds love and friendship in the ashes of tragedy as she endures the trial of her life.
     
    Review
     
    Sorry if this review is a little all over the place, I've had a migraine this weekend and my head is still a little fuzzy.
     
    The Show is the third book in the Northwest Passage series. It continues where the first book in the series, The Mine, left off. I have not read the second book in the series, The Journey, but it follows a different storyline so it isn't needed (in fact I'm not really sure why Heldt put a random non-joining story in the middle). You could probably even read The Show as an independent story, but I would recommend reading The Mine first.
     
    When I first got the e-mail about a sequel to The Mine I was interested to see what happened with Grace and Joel next, and to see how Grace settled into modern life.

    However when I read the synopsis I was a little less sure. It seemed that Heldt was trying, unnecessarily to stretch the sci-fi element by making Grace time travel again. In a sense this was true, and I think I would have preferred a book which showed how Grace got used to the new millennium. Having said that there was a certain element of this too the story, and once I got into the story after she had time travelled it didn't really matter to me whether it was too much of a stretch or not.
     
    When reading The Mine I had preferred Grace to Joel and it was nice to have a story which was more from her perspective. Also because I already knew Grace from reading The Mine I cared a bit more about her. Her emotions once she lost Joel again were quite well built, and I could imagine myself acting in a similar way, however I think she got over the loss and moved on a little too quickly. It was again a sense of Heldt pushing a story in a direction which didn't seem quite natural. Whilst I did enjoy the plot in terms of a story in it's own right, I didn't really like it as it related to The Mine.
     
    There was one this in particular that bugged me about this book. It was only a little moment, not even an important one, but it really bugged me. Especially as it's partly billed as a historical novel. In the book two girls move from England to America. They talk about how happy they are to move to the US because it's so much more liberated than England. As a Briton that grated at me, but I was ready to overlook it. But then they started talking about how women could vote here, but not in England. Which made me think, wait a sec...didn't votes for women exist in the UK before the US? Which yes they did, in fact at the time that the book is based women couldn't vote in most of America.
     
    2.5/5

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