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Chonsim

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  1. Hi all. Wondering if anyone has any ideas that I can pass onto a young cousin of mine (who is in the US)? Here's the gist: Cousin is doing a school project on narrative songs - lyrics that tell a story (a la Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Major Tom, Diary of Horace Wimp) - but she doesn't want our old 80's (and 70s) songs. And she likes British music. Do you know any recent British narrative songs - that she could actually find online? I am so not up to date with current music, at least not enough to know the lyrics of things that well, but wondering if any of you might have some thoughts? Thanks in advance!
  2. Okay, so I'm slightly getting carried away with trying to think of books that fit this category, but here's another possibility - again, not contemporary, but a classic. You could try A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. Forget about all the Hemingway "manly man" stuff people seem to dislike him so much for - this is a great memoir that captures a period of time in Paris. 'If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.'
  3. Generally, I avoid any books that would make me cry. I read blurbs on the back of books and those that say anything along the lines of "...then a terrible tragedy occurs that changes her life forever..." I think, Why on earth would I want to read that and depress the heck out of myself? That said, I did cry reading the memoir of one of the Jewish children who was sent to the UK during the Holocaust. Her experiences in England were fine but it was after the war when she was trying to find her family that was so sad. I'm sorry to say I can't remember the title of it. And I did cry reading P.S. I Love You. Okay, I don't think it was a great book, but the idea of it really got to me if I thought about what it would be like to lose a loved one. And I cried reading Wild Swans. Some of that, a lot of that, is just so heart-breaking.
  4. A second vote for A Prayer for Owen Meany. I did like Cider House Rules, but it does deal with the subject of abortion pretty graphically. I've also read The Hotel New Hampshire which was pretty good, but very out there on the quirkiness scale. I listened to Widow for One Year, and that was definitely one that made me want to go back to doing my work so that I could continue listening to what was going to happen next!
  5. What about The Motorcycle Diaries? Not read it myself (only saw the film), but that's Che Guevara travelling when he was in his early 20's.
  6. I'd suggest Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. An absolute classic and Laurie Lee's prose is so beautiful. It may not be as contemporary as you had in mind, but I'd highly recommend it anyway. Please give it a try. From Amazon: It was 1934 and a young man walked to London from the security of the Cotswolds to make his fortune. He was to live by playing the violin and by labouring on a London building site. Then, knowing one Spanish phrase, he decided to see Spain. For a year he tramped through a country in which the signs of impending civil war were clearly visible. Thirty years later Laurie Lee captured the atmosphere of the Spain he saw with all the freshness and beauty of a young man's vision, creating a lyrical and lucid picture of the beautiful and violent country that was to involve him inextricably.
  7. Lisa Jewell - I'd say she's chick-lit, right? I've really enjoyed all the books of hers that I've read. And I quite enjoy Katie Fforde as well.
  8. Highly recommend Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. When I first got it I thought it looked terribly old-fashioned and garish with the colours and thought the rhyme was just silly. But I'll tell you, my twins really took to it. And as I started reading it to them I could see how it "worked", and I've fallen in love with it. I had the thing memorised by the time they were one, I had read it that often. At 22 months they still like listening to it. I've found lift the flap/peekaboo books worked well from when they were around a year. Dear Zoo is great for that, and DK has a series of peekaboo books that are good (Playtime Peekaboo, Bathtime Peekaboo, etc). The "That's not my... Puppy/Plane/Kitty/Lion..." (there are loads of different titles) are excellent. I also read them Each Peach Pear Plum, but they appreciate it a little more now that they are that bit older. I don't know what country you are in, but I was given a subscription to Babybug magazine (it's an American publication although mine is shipped to me in the UK), and that is also excellent for a variety of baby/toddler geared stories and poems.
  9. I always recommend The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. Although I'd maybe start with the second book in the series, "The Dark Is Rising", as opposed to the technically first one "Over Sea, Under Stone" as I didn't find it quite as engaging as the others and I think was written for a younger market. There's quite a good synopsis on Wikipedia. Avoid film adaptation at all costs!!! Travesty!!!
  10. Chonsim

    Hello

    Thanks for the welcome!
  11. I haven't had a mishap myself, but I was the "victim" of someone else's mishap...or actually maybe it was more of someone else's disgusting habit. I was happily reading a Barbara Vine book I had taken out of the library (The Brimstone Wedding) when I noticed that it seemed like the previous person to read it had been eating crackers over the pages. Upon closer inspection I realised to my horror, these were not cracker crumbs, but bits and pieces of fingernail and skin - dried callous skin!!! I think they had been peeling their callouses over the pages of this book. Yuck! And I was reading it in bed. Double yuck! Book promptly shut, returned to the library unfinished, and the poor librarian practically picked it up using only two fingers when I told her what was within the pages. To date I have still to get another copy and finish that book. Which is a shame because I was actually quite enjoying it.
  12. Chonsim

    Hello

    Just a brief hello from another new member. Love reading, but don't have much time for it lately with twins under two and being self-employed. However, given that a lot of my work involves assembly-line type activity where I don't need to think too much, I do listen to quite a lot of books on tape/cd. I'm limited to what the library has on offer, and there's not a bad selection of up to date material, but I tend to rely on the mid-range mystery/thriller genre as these are plentiful and make the time pass quite enjoyably. Mind you, a bad reader can really waste an otherwise decent book. Looking forward to reading discussions and participating in a few as well!
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