vodkafan

Gonna try and stay off the 'puter at work tonight and read all of Courtesans. After I have had a little browse what youse are all doing of course.

Well I just finished The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. I read it many years ago as a teenager and it made a huge impression on me. I am glad to say its power has not diminished. Some things he said and his world view made much more sense to me now I am adult. I will try to write a review soon. Reading a very different book now, Courtesans by Katie Hickman One of those entertaining history books I like. Bye for now

I will be interested to hear what you think about the Doris Day book (haven't read it myself). I have got interested in her lately. Seen some old film s with her in when I was a kid and they didn't impress me, but I think now in her own way she was an important feminist Icon for her time.

I keep meaning to read this someday. Er Kylie what did...Donald..think of the book?

Hi Frankie you are back home? Thanks pal that was a really funny turd story. If you are ever in that situation....the solution is very simple. You get a big bowl or bucket and pour lots of water on top of the offending log. This creates an overpressure so that when you flush it it WILL go down never to be seen again. important note: that is assuming of course that the toilet is not actually BLOCKED. If it is, then with all the extra water you have just put down when you flush it will simply overflow.

1000 pages? Wow yes 7 of those would be a struggle. But 7 ordinary books? No problem. When I am in a real reading mood (and have the time) I can easily read a book a day. Thanks for the welcome back.

Thanks Ooshie! I have just added some cracking books to my small TBR pile. They are: Courtesans by Katie Hickman; Mrs Kimble by Jennifer Haigh; Dina's Book by Herbjorg Wassmo. The last is a famous book in Norway. I don't know if I will like the book but I have a thing about Norway. I am looking forward to reading these.

Thanks Kylie.

Just updated my list of read books (on page 1 of this blog.) I have read 45 books this year so only seven to go to reach my target before Christmas. I have felt really out of it lately, the reading is coming back but I have missed talking to punters on here.

Wow Frankie you must be in heaven with all those books and Kylie there too to share all the bookhunting and buying with. Glad you are having a good time. I think you are going to be shocked at the cost of shipping so many books home though. Might mean reading as many as you can there and facing some very tough choices....

Just finished The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. Quite a nice little story. Inspired a by a true life man who the author knew who lived and died on the landing of an apartment building in Bombay. He earns food by doing odd jobs for the apartment dwellers on his floor. But now he is in the process of dying, hovering over his body in a heightened mental state part dream, part memories and part out of body projection where he can observe the lives of the families and couples in the building around him. I enjoyed the idea although many of the references to Hindu religion were lost on me.

Yep 'fraid so. Got fed up seeing them around so collected them all up and put them in a bin bag. I only buy second hand books for pennies so I am not losing money. I used to offer them up here for swop or giveaway but nobody is really interested.

On a more serious note I read this book a couple of months back. I enjoyed the wartime flavour too, that is one of the strengths of the book. My mum was there back then and it was how she described it. In the book, I liked the fact that everyone had a job to do, even people who would have been otherwise marginalised by society, there were more important things than your sexuality. Also it was quite masterful to have the male CO character, was it Viv's brother? (somebody's brother, can't remember offhand) who was a fairly weak character but had to find a different sort of strength. Thought Waters was saying something there about how gay people must feel most of the time. The bit about the main character turning her jealousy pain inwards into self harming was quite shocking to me. Could not understand what the appeal was for Viv with her married boyfriend and why she was so loyal to him. He was not a nice person. The way it was left at the end it looked like she had ended it which was good. All in all a good read.

My mojo is coming back. I read Pay It Forward last week . We saw the film ages ago and the plot of the book is not significantly different. However reading it stirred up powerful emotions and I admit I got quite choked up at points in the story. I particularly liked the authors painting of the character of Arlene and chuckled at her dialogue. Reading one from my TBR pile now, The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. After that I only have 5 books left but 3 of them are doorstops. I have also thrown out about 30 books I have read, I am only keeping my Jack Vance, Sarah Waters and one or two others.

No we still talk like that over here

Hiya Frankie, I haven't read many but Pages For You by Sylia Brownrig was good.

Good review Kate. I enjoyed the book but I preferred the film, it was a bit tidier and made more sense. This is the ONLY flim I like Hugh Grant in!

Oh yeah Kylie, read it soon and let me know what you think. Funny enough I was the same way, I don't know what made me buy it. Thought it was going to be dry and boring, it is anything but.

I am still not reading very much but I have just finished The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. I did enjoy this one, it was a sort of turn of the 20th century murder mystery with psychoanalysis thrown in and lots of historical characters such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to name only two. It is 1909 and Freud is making his one only ever visit to the United States to promote his new , rather shocking theories that neuroses have sexual origins. At the same time, a dead girl is found: a sexually deviant killer is at loose in New York City. Can Freud help? Or are the two events connected? It was very good , the pace of the book never let up, loads of red herrings and two love stories in it too. Freud comes over as a heavyweight intellect, but getting older and failing in his physical powers. I will leave the next reader to make their own minds up about Carl Jung!

My sort of book CW. Not the subject just the price I might get a book finished today.

Better take a packed lunch Abby you know you will be there all day... I have only 6 books in my TBR pile now !! I also took about 30 books to the charity shop last week. I find it easy to be ruthless to inanimate objects at the moment.

I gave up on a book today. It was Either Side Of Winter by Benjamin Markovits. It was basically stories about the private lives of teachers at a school. I got half way through and just didn't see the point. Sorry Benjamin, life is just too short. I am sure I have some belly button fluff that needs attending to.

Not reading very much. But I managed to finish Duel today by James Landale. It is the true story of the last fatal duel to take place in Scotland back in 1826, the surviving duelist being the authours ancestor!! It was an interesting read and contained a lot of anecdotes, funny, sad or just strange about other duels. Probably more of a man book really