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The Lovely Bones - by Alice Sebold

This is the story of a young girl who is murdered and follows her post life thoughts as she watches her family and friends from a distance. She watches the connections, her family falling apart, her boyfriends and most interestingly her murderer.

It is a well written book with a good story line but I did not find it as touching as Lizzie.

All in all .

Mike wrote:The Abortionists Daughter - Elizabeth Hyde

The plot is painfully poor. This is a murder mystery without much mystery and to be honest the ending is so abrupt and poorly resolved it is not worth reading (due to the intense disapointment!)

I actually thought it was a pretty good read - definatly 'in the bath and no brain cells left after working week' book - but even still entertaining enough. L x

The ending just sort of fell over though - it revealed its plot line in a very jerky and disjointed way. Maybe I am being too critical! :D

Yeah, I have to agree with Mike. The book itself was quite entertaining, but I guessed the ending within about 3 chapters !! I was hoping for a surprise twist at the end, which never came - the ending let the book down severely !!

Saying that I finished the book - so it can't be all that bad.

The Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman

This is a book about magic and mystery and follows the life of an orphan Lyra and her Daemon Pantalimon. It is a very entertaining book and is a very clever story and setting. The text is literally written from the perspective of Lyra and like children tend to they explain everything they understand which is quite endearing.

Hollywood has made a film about it called the Golden Compass which is to be out soon.

Our Man in Havanna - Graham Green

I have not finished this book yet but it is a sort of satirical comedy about 'our man in havanna'. Recruited as a spy for the British Secret Service, Mr Wormhold, a vacuum cleaner sales man is in a bit of financial trouble. He dotes on his only daughter, Milly, and she is costing him a fortune. Mr Wormhold decided to start engineering his reports to reduce the danger and to increase his expenses claims. This quickly gets out of hand and he gets wrapped up in his own lies.

Very entertaining!

Finished this book now and it retains its very high ranking!

Mike wrote:The Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman

The other books in the series of His Dark Materials are good but the ending is weird from my recollection. Actually, really weird if it is the one I am thinking of.

The Old Man and the Sea - Earnest Hemmingway

This is a tale of futility of life (or just a fishing trip if you prefer) and is an interesting read. I do feel very gipped by the £5.99 price tag for this little novelette though. All in all

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

I finished reading this book the other day - ah, the joys of having time to read in the holidays. I would say I enjoyed it more than Northern Lights but I'm not sure if that's just because there's a whole different world order to get your head around and I am simply understanding it better now I'm on the second book. Also, it pays to read big bits of it without gaps in between a la during term time. I digress. I think this book is extremely well written; Pullman's imaginative prowess is mighty. The characterisation and language are good, and - more importantly - there is little saccharine: if you think J.K. Rowling is not afraid to kill characters...

Suffice to say I'm 3 chapters into The Amber Spyglass...

Claire wrote:The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

Suffice to say I'm 3 chapters into The Amber Spyglass...

Freaky. . . I must have been unknowingly reading these books in Tandem with you. I have also just finished The Subtle Knife and am three chapters into the Amber Spyglass AND was just coming online to write a review about it!

The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
I agree with Claire when she says that the second book was better written than the first. It is also easier to read a second book in the series as you have already fallen for the character's portrayed in the novel and are keen to know what they are up to. He also left this book on a bit of a serious cliff hanger which was interesting. I could not wait to pick up the final book in the series.

The story centres on Lyra and her new companion Will (Roger was unceremoniously killed in book 1 - not that you would have got that from the highly disappointing film. . . .). The story is located between two worlds. One like ours and one that is tormented by Specters whom suck the 'life force' or 'soul' from the victims. Lyra is trying to help her new friend find his father and stop Lord Asreal from starting (or at least finishing) a fight with The Authority.

All in all not a bad read and much better written. I shy away from giving it the full monty of ratings but I will rate with .

Right, Michael, we must not talk of this again until we're sure both of us has finished!!! I'm about to start chapter 7 and there's naff all on TV tonight so we'll see how far I get!

Curiously, when I click on The Hit List, it always directs me to the first page, not the most recent, and has anyone else spotted Fez's review of the book I Am Legend, in view of us having recently seen the film. I won't read it though. 1. it was too scary. 2. i'm a book first, film second kinda gal.

My two favourite books are:
Bram Stokers Dracula- no prizes for guessing why! Its good in all departments, horror, action, love. Its just BRILLIANT.

Slightly more obscure is
Dona Tart: The Secret History- "THE SNOW in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation."

My Dad originally lent me this, and I bought a copy for myself. Its a murder mystery with a twist.
Set amongst a group of classics students at a vermont college. The book explores the events leading up to the murder, but also the consequences of it for all the main characters.

P

stimpsonslostson wrote:Bram Stokers Dracula- no prizes for guessing why! Its good in all departments, horror, action, love. Its just BRILLIANT.

Bram Stokers is an amazing book no doubt about it!

Bill Bryson : Shakespeare

'We don't know if he ever left England. We don't know who his principal companions were or how he amused himself. His sexuality is an irreconcilable mystery. On only a handful of days in his life can we say with absolute certainty where he wass. We have no record at all of his whereabouts for the eight critical years when he left his wife and three young children in Stratfrd and became, without almost impossible swiftness, a successful playwright in London. By the time he is first mentioned in print as a playwright, in 1592, his life was already more than half over. For the rest, he is a kind of literary equivalent of an electron - forever there and not there.'

An excellent book that is well worth reading. Written in the excellent style of Bryson - fast-paced, witty in places, thoughtful in others, this is both educational and enjoyable. Seriously, it is. Bryson looks at what we actually know about Shakespeare's life and roughly what happened, succintly discusses theories surrounding his life's work, constantly refers to the relevant merits of Shakespeare and other literary authors/playwrights such as Marlowe and Jonson, shares some very interesting knowledge on the Elizabethan time period and cuts out out the wild speculation to get right to the point. It isn't exactly a page-turner but it is certainly a book I enjoyed settling down to and reading at night.

The Amber Spyglass By Philip Pullman

This is the third book in the Dark Materials trilogy and follows Lyra and Will to a climatic finish where the rebels are squaring up to the Authority and are ready to do battle. The book is a great story with a slightly anti-religious themes in a strange way. The book is well worth a read if you have been keeping up with the other in the series. I will post no further spoilers. All in all a better than average story with average writing technique.

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