BABBLING BOOKS

Amie · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:15 pm Post subject:

Holes - Louis Sachar a nice little read about a boy sent wrongly to a juvenile prison camp. 3/5

White Teeth - Zadie Smith a book about a couple of families in London through three generations. I loved this, I liked the style of writing which was a lot easier to read than I expected. I wanted to read more about the families, but I guess it had to end somewhere. 5/5

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell (Leeds reading group) I thought it was rubbish, supposedly about a woman leaving a mental institution after 60 years but she had no trouble adjusting or anything. I didn't feel for the characters and just thought that it could have been so much better than it was. 1/5

Cancer Ward - Aleksander Solzhenitsyn A great read about a man in a soviet cancer ward. I found the similarities in treatment between there and the west interesting and it was a great 'human' story about a period I've read a lot of non fiction books about. 5/5

Tokyo - Mo Hayder Quite disturbing looking at the massacre of Nanking and its effects 70 years later, with a bit of a thriller storyline to it too. I couldn't put it down, I really like her style and have another on my tbr. 4/5

Escape - Carolyn Jessop (Yorkshire Readers book club) About a woman escaping a fundamentalist Mormon cult in America. Mostly about her awful experiences while in the cult. Poorly written even though it was done by a ghost writer. 4/5

Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin A boy in a strict church in New York can't please his father. Ok but I didn't really see how it was a 1001 read, it didn't do much for me. 3/5

The Master and Margharita - Mikhail Bulgakov A 'magic realism' (or, fantasy written by a literary author) set in Moscow when the devil visits and has some fun. Quite hard to read but I really enjoyed it. 4/5

Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell a great read, just as good on the second outing, my thoughts are in the threads on the monthly book choices. 4/5

The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy Love and tragedy, not my favourite hardy but I really enjoyed it and read it much more quickly than I expected. Not as tragic as I thought it would be either, I guess I should stop expecting them all to be as bad as Jude!

I also gave up on Women in Love - 150 pages and no hint of a storyline, it just didn't do it for me.

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Kill the tbr - currently 124
Currently reading:
War and Peace - Leo Tolsty
Wild Swans by Jung Chan
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

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