vodkafan

Watched Bad Teacher last night. Very rude but very funny.

A bloke at work is reading a series of historical fiction books about Julius Caesar, I will find out what they are called for you. A really really exciting non fiction book I read about Rome is called Rubicon, I could not put that down when I read it, that might be a good background for you, even though not fiction. Here is a link to it on amazon, read the first few customer reviews, it is not a boring read more like a fantastic story, and all true. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rubicon-Triumph-Tragedy-Roman-Republic/dp/034911563X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319233888&sr=1-1

I have decided to go with The Seedling Stars by James Blish one of my purchases from the SF Gateway.

I have read 9 books in October already and there are two weeks left yet! Don't know what to read next but have many on my kindle to choose from.

I like the bit about vegetarians and humanitarians best!

53 is not old julie..hey the neighbour dispute thing that's quite civilized compared to some places here

Sell it on ebay kell and buy it as an ebook! Mwahahah (evil laugh)

It's a great book Nali I keep remembering bits.

I might give that a go. Got some other authors I want to try first though. Sheri S. Tepper sounds completely freaky and well before her time. Also I never read very much of Micheal Moorcock and Robert Silverberg and I think I should.

OK I saw (most of) the last one of my Austen spin-off "trilogy"- Becoming Jane. Unfortunately I could not finish it. I like Anne Hathaway (mostly for Rachel Getting Married and Passengers) but this film seemed just too much conjecture and supposition. We don't know whether Jane Austen was good at cricket. We don't know if she ever fell in love. So this one failed to hit the spot for me.

Thanks Paula. I have only read the first book but I got the idea that Eric was a much older Vampire this is a mere boy!

I saw the made for TV version about 20 years ago and that was well scary.

Have not seen the series. Have you got a link to an image of Eric, Kirsty? rather curious to see what can cause this alarming drooling of yours

I have Untying The Knot yet to read. I haven't read anything about it so I have no idea what it will be about. Sure will put the reviews on Amazon soon.

You don't .....have a kindle? How do you live?

Thank you both! Gonna check these out on Amazon

Glad you liked my review. I have one more of yours to read.... Wow! interesting the scenario was inspired by your events between between your mother and grandmother (though the book is fiction of course!) That makes the character of Gwen quite a clever plot device; she is both an observer (we find out about the family through her interactions and dialogue without need for any long explanations in the narrative) and also the catalyst that forces everything to change. That's so funny about the publisher. Last laugh for you. At some point I will put my reviews up on Amazon too if you want. PS I play boardgames too. I play with the kids. Ticket To Ride (Europe) and Pandemic are family favourites. Ludorum Games make a couple of great games.

We seem to like a lot of similar books poppyshake- yes please read it soon I would like to know what you think.

The Jester At Scar by EC Tubb (Dumarest Saga #5) EC Tubb was a prolific writer of SciFi (and other genres too I believe) I read nearly all of the Dumarest Saga as a teenager but this one stuck in my memory because of the very strange world (Scar) that the story takes place on, which caught my imagination. For that reason I bought this one book from the series on SF Gateway as a nostalgic re-read. Earl Dumarest is a wanderer about the galaxy of the far future when mankind has settled on thousands of worlds and the location of Earth has been long forgotten. In fact everybody believes Earth to be a legend. But Dumarest knows that it exists- he was born there! Travelling from world to world searching for information Dumarest is lonely hero who must live on his wits and can trust no one. He also unwittingly finds himself important to a sinister organisation of computer-like humans known as the Cyclan (nothing to do with Battlestar Galactica)who seek to extend their evil influence across the entire galaxy. Sometimes there is a little bit a romance but at the end of every book Earl is on his own again to continue his search. This series of books was very much a formula. EC Tubb was churning these out ( I think there was about 32 of them!) and if you read even a few of the series you can see he got quite lazy, sentences and phrases get copied verbatim from book to book. But if this is read as a one off this in my opinion is the best of the series. Scar is a small hot planet where the unusual climatic conditions mean the predominant forms of life are various unique fungi; some of which have value in other parts of the galaxy. However spores from these fungi can be breathed in and sprout in the lungs so this is not a good planet to be stranded on!

Time to catch up and review some books House Of Silence by Linda Gillard Gwen is an independent young woman who grew up without a normal family life. Therefore when she meets Archie, despite his warnings that he does not get along with his own family she insists on joining him for his annual Christmas get together with his sisters and his famous writer mother. I enjoyed this book . Archie's English middle class family are quite batty and have wonderful traditions like calling different generations of the cook, the gardener and the pet dogs by the same names even when the individual changes (there is a rational reason for this). The dialogue is naturalistic and the author gradually draws us through Gwen's eyes into the complex relationships between the siblings. I also felt that the old crumbly house was a character in itself. I was enjoying the book just for the reasons written above, I thought that was going to be the point of the story but then BAM! There feels something very old fashioned about this book to me but in a good way. The disfunctional family were probably quite typical of lots of middle class families of the 50s and 60's. There is definitely a sense they are stuck in time and cannot move forward. But that fits in exactly with the plot. It also feels comfortably English. The story is well crafted. There is a proper beginning, a middle and an end. Like Emotional Geology , I felt there was nothing in there that didn't need to be, just enough to tell the story.

The Shadow Of The Wind sounds brilliant chaliepud thanks.

Hi Paula enjoyed your review of Dark Matter. I like anything to do with Norway so I will have to read this one! Thanks

Hi Andrea , I know you read this a while ago but it was only a few posts back on here. I read IT recently but didn't enjoy it enough to review it. I agree with everything you wrote in the spoilers, especially the last one, as the character in question is only 11!. All in all I thought the whole book was a bit messy. I have only read 2 and a half King books but I don't really rate his writing. I don't believe gore can replace atmospheric horror

Hi Michelle who is CD? if you mean me no I haven't read any other book by her. I picked up My Lover's Lover out of curiosity from a charity shop in my pre-kindle days. There were one or two passages in it which stuck in my memory. If you had to pick her best which one would you recommend?

Hello I have looked through this whole thread out of curiosity. I don't know enough about the genre of chick-lit to know whether I should be surprised or not, but I read a book by Maggie O'Farrell (My Lover's Lover) which I thought was good. Yet nobody in this thread mentioned her. Maybe she doesn't count as chick-lit because it was not humorous?