Hi Shani, just noticed that you are also a librarythinger!! We don't share much but you know what's consuming my time at the moment. Take care.

posted by PeterMuir at 5:52 pm (EST) on Jul 4, 2007

I am reading [Middlemore] by [[Judith Lennox]] and thoroughly enjoying it. This author never fails to delight me with her simple English.

posted by Phethean at 3:38 pm (EST) on Oct 8, 2006

LUCY ENGLISH – OUR DANCING DAYS…Now what on earth was that
all about…..?

I read this on the back of Lucy English’s previous novel Children of Light – which I had found excellent. I found the first few pages very interesting and set the scene well… then we went off on a journey around and through a number of characters, none of which I was particularly sympathetic or even interested in. They were predictable cardboard cut outs…Downward spiral to tragedy…the death scene was thrown away, and I still expected the hero/villain to appear at the end of the book. Boring and trite. BCID: 592-3534079

posted by Phethean at 9:35 am (EST) on Sep 25, 2006

Reading at Frenchay earlier this year, I then became emboldened by this reading spurt and decided to give the previously discarded “THE PEPPERED MOTH” BY MARGARET DRABBLE a whirl. BCID: 487-3534075 Well – the Daily Mail described this book as “Wonderfully fluent and engrossing…dazzling” – they lied is all I have to say. I found the tone patronising and positively nasal in some parts of the tale…
“Now let us return to….” Or “We will hear about that later” The Narrator (which on the last page we discover was in fact the author talking through her psychotherapist, or some sort of excuse vaguely familiar… The author should have been renamed Margaret Dribble. She does though explain her difficulties with sorting out who should tell the story and how she had a difficult relationship with her Mother, on whom the book is based. There were some lovely phrases - very poetic snippets running through the tale... but that was the only thing to its credit I warn you.

posted by Phethean at 9:34 am (EST) on Sep 25, 2006

I have just finished reading Tessa Hadley's Everythings will be All Right. Oh I do wish it would have been.

Even though there were sentences and expressions within, which I found to be very insightful, I found the whole experience of reading the book a terrible chore.

It basically was the life history of three generations of women, seen through their eyes. Their life's were full of self-inflicted grief, and it really was an account of how they got themselves into scrapes and out again, mostly involving men, and a baby thrown in for good measure (not to mention the death from meningitus).

It isn't a book I would recommend, I only finished it because I set myself the task, which felt more like hard labour, and because I met the author, who I found very interesting, unlike her tale - which appears was loosely biographical tales from her family. I also took it's promise on the cover at face value...

"Everything will be alright" - well I wished it had been, but unfortunately it wasn't. Shani 21.09.06

posted by Phethean at 4:25 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2006

Yeah! Welcome!

I see you've got one book listed, so you're well on your way. I hear you about the not getting enough time to read . . . I tend to sneak away 20 or 30 minutes before bed when the little ones have actually fallen asleep in their own beds :)

I will be watching as your library grows. One of the groups I joined is just a running list of posts of what people are reading right now. I've already added a couple of titles to my "To read" list, so you might want to check that out. I always have a stack of books in waiting anyway, what's a few more?!

Looking forward to sharing yet another passion with you, Shani. It has been so wonderful meeting you and conversing these past few weeks - and to think I was afraid of getting too involved with this whole internet thing ... Now I can't stop!!!

posted by nfoskett521 at 5:59 pm (EST) on Aug 7, 2006