Category: Other

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Other

Look what I’ve bought!

I don’t normally do posts like this, as I usually only buy one or two books at a time, but this morning I struck book gold!!

Someone with great reading taste must have made a donation to the charity shop recently!!!
16 books I really want to read…..

16newbook

 The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry

I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time. I’m so pleased I finally found a copy.

Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve never read this. I must rectify this situation as soon as possible!

Rabbit at Rest – John Updike (The last book of his trilogy, so I’ll need to do a bit more buying before I can read this!) 

In the Beauty of the Lilies – John Updike

I have never read any books by John Updike, and don’t think these are the right ones to start with, but at least I have them for the future! Can anyone recommend a good Updike book to start with?

A Quartet in Autumn – Barbara Pym

I have heard so many good things about this book, so it is really good to finally find a copy.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami

I love Murakami, but for some reason I’ve never read the most famous of his books.

Faceless Killers – Henning Mankell

I have a few of his books in my TBR pile already, but now I’ve finally got hold of the first in the series I can start working my way through them!

The Red Book – Meaghan Delahunt

Has anyone read this book? I saw an amazing print review of it in a paper once, but haven’t seen anyone mention it since.

Kristin Lavansdatter – Sigrid Undset

I have been wanting to read this ever since I saw Michelle’s reviews. I am so lucky to have found the complete trilogy!

New Moon – Stephanie Meyer

Eclipse – Stephanie Meyer

I still haven’t read Twilight, but it makes sense to have the rest of the series waiting doesn’t it?!

Cloudstreet – Tim Winton

Megan recommended that I try this book, so it is great to find a copy!

Birds of a Feather – Jacqueline Winspear

Messenger of Truth – Jacqueline Winspear

I have never read a Jacqueline Winspear book, are either of these a good place to start?

A Fraction of the Whole – Steve Toltz

This was nominated for the Booker prize last year, so is a compulsory addition to my TBR mountain!

Shadow Without a Name – Ignacio Padilla

Finally, this arrived in the post this morning via bookmooch. It is Matthew’s favourite book of all time, so I’m really looking forward to reading it.

and to top it all off I also found this brand new pasta maker for only £12:

pasta

You can’t beat days like today!

Categories
Orange Prize Other

Who is going to win the Orange Prize this year?

I have now read all six books short listed for the  Orange Prize 2009.  Overall, I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of books which made the short list. I think that the judges this year must be fans of literary fiction, particularly books which are reflective and full of wisdom. I prefer great characters and a complex plot, so I didn’t get much pleasure from reading the final six.

So who is going to win the Orange Prize this year?

Here are my thoughts on each book’s chances…..

 

The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt

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My review

I don’t think this has a real chance of winning. Some people enjoyed it, and it does have some interesting literary devices in it, but overall it doesn’t have the feel of a prize winning book.

Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden

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My review

There is an outside chance that this could win the Orange Prize. Fans of literary fiction really enjoy this book, and lovers of general fiction (like me) do not find anything wrong with it. It is a nice gentle read, and it does have a great ending. If the judges are a mixture of literary fiction and general fiction lovers then they could well compromise on their favourite book by agreeing to choose this as a winner. 

Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman

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My review

I don’t think this has a realistic chance of winning. There is nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t have that magic spark. It is a reasonable read about an important historical case, but I think it did well to get nominated.

Home by Marilynne Robinson

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My review

I think that Home has a very real chance of winning the Orange Prize. Fans of literary fiction love this book, they rave about it being their favourite book of the year, and how amazing the poetic prose is. I didn’t enjoy it at all, but I’ve a feeling that the judges do and so it will probably win.

The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

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My review

This my favourite by a long way. The writing was so moving and thought provoking. It was in a league above the rest for me and I really hope that it wins, but I’m not that sure it will.

 

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie

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My review

Burnt Shadows has an outside chance of winning. The plot is very ambitious, and I don’t think it quite worked, but everyone enjoyed it to some extent, and there were quite a few literary devices to please those judges. I wouldn’t be overly surprised if this managed to sneak through to win, as not many books try to achieve the things this one does.

 

The winner is announced on 3rd June, and I really hope that The Wilderness wins, but if I had to place a bet I’d put my money on Home.

Have you read any of the shortlist?

Who do you think will win?

I look forward to hearing your opinions!

Categories
Other Uncategorized

Reviews so good….. I bought the book!

I have been looking through my stacks, trying to decide which books to read in June. I noticed that I have built up quite a large number of books recommended by fellow bloggers. In order to get through these, and gain an insight into the tastes of my favorite bloggers, I am going to make an effort to read as many of these books as I can in June and July (before the Booker long list is announced on 29th July).

Here are the books I was persuaded to get hold of:

Brothers by Yu Hua 

The moment I finished reading this review by Nonsuch Book I bought a copy online. It sounded so different to the other Chinese books I’d read that I had to have a copy.

Sugar Cage by Connie May Fowler

Sandy’s continual repetition of how good this author is finally wore me down, and I tracked down a copy of this book on Bookmooch. I’m looking forward to reading about the real Florida!


To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Beth voted this one of her favourite books of 2008. I hadn’t heard of it at the time, but have since seen lots of good reviews. Beth’s review persuaded me to part with my cash straight away!

Margery Sharp

Jane has mentioned Margery Sharp several times. I recently found three of her books, The Nutmeg Tree, Britannia Mews and Harlequin House. I’m going to read one of them – Jane – Which should I try first?

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The Master and Margarita

Matthew’s raving about The Master and Margarita persuaded me to buy a copy. It arrived in the post this morning, so will probably be the first one I read.


The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak

Nymeth’s review was so powerful, that I ordered a copy straight away. I have since seen some average reviews of it, so am hoping that Nymeth was right in persuading me to buy this one!


Firmin by Sam Savage

A couple of weeks after reading a great review of this book I saw it in a charity shop, so picked it up straight away. I was convinced I saw it on Diane’s blog, but can’t find it there. Have you reviewed this book recently? I’d love to correctly identify you here!

There are a few other books which I’m hoping to get my hands on in the next couple of months. Most notably De Niro’s Game by Rawi Hage recommended by Claire and The Room of Lost Things by Stella Duffy, recommended by Simon. Hopefully I’ll be able to get these books and read them too!

 

 

Some of your probably weren’t even aware that I bought the book on the strength of your recommendation alone. Are you surprised by the book I bought? Approximately how high in your list of favourite books is the one I have chosen? Number 1? Top 10?, Top 50?

If you could make me read one book – which would it be?

I hope to repeat this excerices frequently, so please nominate the book you’d most like me to read, and if your pitch is good enough I will get hold of a copy!

Categories
Other

Tags and Categories? Please help me!!

1-1232472552p4l3I need to decide on a new system for organising the posts on my blog. I have been very random in my use of tags and categories, but I think this blog is getting to the size where this isn’t good enough any more. I have looked at a few blogs, and everyone seems to use tags in a different way. Some people display tag clouds on their blogs, and the only ones which seem to be used are ‘review’ and ‘audio book’.

Do you ever use tags on other peoples’ blogs? If so, which words are the most useful?

Categories seem to be used even more infrequently. Is this because it is an option not available to everyone?

At the moment I am mainly using the category section for my challenges, but this isn’t going to be useful in the long-term when I start to repeat challenges, for example the ‘pub challenge’ category is going to be  redundant at the end of the year, so perhaps I should have a ‘Books Published in 2009’ category?

I was thinking of just having categories for each of the book prizes, but I’m not sure how to split tags and categories. Should I be using them for two separate things?

What categories would you find useful?

Have you seen a blog which makes really good use of tags and categories?

All thoughts and opinions very gratefully received!

Categories
Other

Things which have caught my eye this week…..

The winner of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize was announced yesterday. The winning book is The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas of Australia.

 

 Chair of the judging panel the Hon Justice Nicholas Hasluck commented on the  winning book:

“A controversial and daring novel, The Slap uses the iconic scene of a suburban Australian barbecue to examine identities and personal relationships in a multicultural society. Offering points of view from eight different characters, it taps into universal tensions and dilemmas around family life and child-rearing. This book is sure to challenge readers and provoke debate.

It sounds really interesting, so I actually attempted to buy a copy, but it’s price and rarity put me off. I’ll have to wait until it’s inevitable reprint.

The winner of the best first book was A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif. This was short listed for the Booker prize last year, and has been on my wish-list ever since then – I’m still on the look out for a bargain copy! 

Other books which have caught my eye this week include:

The Rooftops of Tehran as reviewed by Gautami Tripathy. I don’t think I have read many books set in Iran, and this one really stood out for me. It’s gone straight on the wish-list.

Matthew’s continual repetition of his love for The Master and Margarita managed to persuade me to part with my cash, and I now have a copy winging it’s way to me – I hope it lives up to his claims!!

Jo wrote a great review of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. She has really inspired me to read it –  I didn’t realise how short it was! I’ll have to try and get hold of a copy soon.

On a lighter note……

I smiled quite a few times when I found this blog dedicated to finding things that are wrong!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an interview with a stick of butter before!

Has anything special caught your eye this week?

Have you read any of the books I highlighted?

Categories
Other

How many book cases can you buy for £18,000?

Here in the UK the major news this week has been about MPs fraudulently claiming things on their expenses, which the UK taxpayer has to foot the bill for. The latest scandal is that Labour MP Tam Dalyell is said to have claimed £18,000 for book cases. The thing I was most shocked about is that you can actually spend that amount of money on a book case, and so I decided to look into how what you can buy for that amount of money.

Cost: £27.99

Number you could buy with £18,000: 642

Cost: £49.99

Number you could buy with £18,000: 360

b-pop-up-kartell-8005
Cost: £329

Number you could buy with £18,000: 54

Cost: £659.99

Number you could buy with £18,000: 27

 

flexa
Cost: £1529

Number you could buy with £18,000: 11

b-pop-up-driade-frame-pCost: £8163

Number you could buy for £18,000: 2

I don’t know what he spent his £18,000 on. All I can say is that I wish I had that amount of money to spend on book shelves, and a home big enough to put them in.

Do you like any of these book cases?

What is your idea of the perfect book case?