The Bookworm's Thread 2017

Ames · 7 March 2017 at 9:37PM

I've finally finished Empire of the Sun. It was based on the author's experiences of being in a Japanese POW camp in China in WW2, interesting and very thought provoking. I don't think teenage boys nowadays would be so naive, but I think in many ways it was his naivety that allowed him to survive in the POW camp. He was totally oblivious to how nasty and dangerous some of his fellow prisoners were, and his relationships with the Japanese verged on what would now be called Stockholm Syndrome.

I want something different next, so I'm about to start on Flyte, the second in the Septimus Heap series of children's fantasy books.

Winchelsea · 9 March 2017 at 9:04PM

Ames - I loved Empire of the Sun. - one of those books where you want to turn to p.1 and read it all over again.
Love the film too.

Winchelsea · 9 March 2017 at 9:16PM

I finished Dancing at the Rascal Fair, by Ivan Doig, last night. I rate my books out of 5, and it was definitely a 5 - loved it. I've got the other two in the trilogy lined up.

In P***ndland this afternoon I picked up The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry (obviously for a pound!) He's such a good writer. I enjoyed A Long Long Way, also The Secret Scripture. I started reading this new (to me) one on the bus back from town, and it looks promising, so this will be my next read - off to it in a minute!

I occasionally find really good books in that shop, buried among the dross. Brand new, usually hardbacks, publishers' remainders. Worth a look!

greentiger · 10 March 2017 at 12:03PM

51zfQ0b4fSL._AC_US218_ by Bobbie Doctor, on Flickr

Just started this. It is certainly different; the character, long dead but returned (?), is talking to herself about a painting she did.

"How to be both is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There's a renaissance artist of the 1460s. There's the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real - and all life's givens get given a second chance."

Nelski · 10 March 2017 at 12:24PM

our new book in my book club for next month is

joanna-trollope-city-of-friends_2.PNG?ext=.png

also for the fast readers

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Enjoyed our last group book Baby Doll by Hollie Overton and we also added the Widow by Fiona Barton which I havent got round to yet but others in the group say it was really good

VfM4meplse · 10 March 2017 at 12:30PM

greentiger wrote: »

I saw this in a chazzer last week... it resisted. I'll P'in it if you recommend it, though?

oldtractor · 10 March 2017 at 2:48PM

can I join please?

pollypenny · 10 March 2017 at 3:01PM

Of course, you can, old tractor!

I didn't know Poundland sold books, Winchelsea. I'll have to have a look.

I enjoyed The Essex Serpent, but wouldn't call it a fast read, there's a lot in it, mostly allegorical.

VfM4meplse · 10 March 2017 at 3:17PM

oldtractor wrote: »

can I join please?

Lol if you can fit it in between all the carrot-munching!

I once bought a Hanif Qureshi from Poundland: its rare that they access good quality authors (lots of D-list autobiographies etc) but worth keeping an eye on. The Essex Serpent sounds right up my street! P'inned.

sugarbaby125 · 10 March 2017 at 8:37PM

i have just finished reading The Soulmate by Debby Holt which was easy reading. I enjoyed it. It is about searching for love in the modern world with parallel stories of a Father and his daughter in their search for 'The One'

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The Bookworm's Thread 2017

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