'No More Buying Books Until I've Read the Ones I've Already Bought' Thread

mrs-moneypenny

Back from my hols and while away managed to read 3 books, private peaceful, the burnt out town of miracles and more chicken soup for the soul. I'm now on Carole Mathews a cottage by the sea.

[Deleted User]

Hope you had a great time, Mrs-m:beer:

mrs-moneypenny

Thanks carbootcrazy, it was brill.
We always go to Norfolk - only one of the children couldn't make it so we had 4 kids, a couple of their partners, set of partners children and our DGS so two houses between us all. Walked up to sheringham park and while there saw a cow give birth, literally as we were walking past it it gave a loud moo and produced! It was amazing watching it nuzzle and lick at its little one until ten mins later she got it up on its feet, she got a cheer from the crowd that had gathered to witness the event. I got to meet up with a couple of lovely MSEers during the week, and DS1 treated us all to tickets to a flogging Molly concert in Norwich which we enjoyed far more than we thought we would. Apart from that time was spent just sitting on the beach enjoying the family or reading. It was I think our best holiday yet.

Enjoying reading a cottage by the sea now I'm back home.

kezbabybabe

Finished Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell and as I suspected I had read the book before, but I enjoyed it none the less, though some of her characters in that one are slightly infuriating.

Currently waiting for a library book to come through, book 3 of the Jack Howard series by David Gibbins, so in the meantime I am currently reading the A-Z of Betws-y-Coed.

CurlyTop

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Am tempted by Jeffrey Archer's Be Careful What You Wish For but as it's volume 4 of the Clifton Chronicles and I haven't read the first 3 I'm wondering if I should seek them out to read first. No sign of them on my friends' shelves unfortunately. If anyone has already read it, can it be read as a standalone without losing too much or would it be best reading the others first.

I wouldn't advise reading out of order. They are too good a series of stories to do that to. The series tells the story of the Clifton family and it plays out through the five books in the set. Best stories I've read in a long while. There's a twist at the end of each tale, so to speak. Would thoroughly recommend.

Think the most I paid was £2.99 and as much as I begrudged the price, the story had me engrossed.

Hope this helps

Bubblesmum

Morning all

Realised have not updated for a while, have read

60 postcards - the inspirational story of one woman's journey to celebrate her mother one postcard at a time by rachel Chadwick.
Although this is about a young woman's grief about coming to terms with the sudden death of her mother aged 60, it is an uplifting story about how she went about honouring her, and for me who also lost my Mum at similar ages, I could really relate to her feelings that nobody has done before.

The Children's Act - Ian McEwan - for book club was a fast read, and although very hard hitting was a really good thought provoking read.

The Constant Princess - Phillipa Gregory - the story of a young Karherine of Aragon - well written using narrative and her voice - I didn't like her but I did admire the way she coped with all the challenges of a woman in this era

[Deleted User]

Well, my plan to revel in the wonderful selection and quantity of books at my friends' house whilst I'm cat-sitting has hit the buffers:eek:. For now at least.

I suddenly realised that my Library Van books are due back this afternoon and I tried to renew them online but find 2 that I really wanted to keep for a bit longer (hadn't even started them ) can't be renewed as have been reserved by someone else:mad:. So have managed to get them read but am now definitely feeling I need a bit more sleep as I was up half the night getting them finished:(.

Both were reasonably easy reads and I'm so glad I read them, for different reasons. the first was Political Death by Antonia Fraser (a Jemima Shore mystery). My first Antonia Fraser and will probably be my last:rotfl:. Nothing really wrong with it, quite entertaining really about the theatre and politics, but there was something about her writing style that I didn't like.

The second one was my first ever Anita Shreve, The Lives of Stella Bain. Absolutely loved this one and can't wait to read some of her others. How have I missed out on reading her for so long?:o.

Now, back to the Alice Munro short stories that I had to put aside in a hurry. Only got a couple of pages in (am supposed to be entertaining my friends' cat after all and not just sitting there reading whenever I'm in the house:rotfl:). Will take it home and finish it tonight but signs are very good that I'll enjoy it.

Itsa_Longshot

Finished The Great Hunt, the second book in The Wheel of Time series, on to the next one - The Dragon Reborn.

It's been brilliant reading through the first two books again, just so many 'oh yeah!' moments! :rotfl:

blindtoast

I finished Go Set A Watchman at the weekend. I'm really glad I read it but I was really disappointed in it .

It read like it was unedited and not proof read, and the writing seemed clumsy at times as if they'd found the manuscript and just published it as it stood without reading it.
There was next to no plot or development throughout the book, which seemed a massive shame since the characters are so well built in TKAM it could have been an opportunity to develop their stories further.

It felt like much heavier subject matter than TKAM which makes sense as Scout is now grown up and its still from her point of view but since I mainly like the normal bits of the children's lives in TKAM it wasn't something I would have chosen to read normally.

It was interesting to see where TKAM started off from and I enjoyed the flashbacks and the funny conversations and observations present throughout that felt like the same style as Mockingbird.

I would probably give it 2.5 out of 5 but it would be less without the background TKAM gave and the insight into how that book came about and was developed.

blindtoast

Getting back into reading Insurgent now - I started it months ago and got distracted half way through so I thought I'd try again and try and finish the trilogy