book reviews (what book are you reading at the moment?)

[budge]

well ive just finished a book called

''the light in the window'' by June Goulding

its a memoir written from inside the walls of a Catholic home for unmarried mothers in the 1950's in Ireland. June Goulding worked there as a nurse and when she left she promised all the mothers in the home that she would one day write a book about it and tell the world the truth.


I found it very moving and shocking that things what she described actually happened.
Id highly recommend the book - its an eye opener. Here is a web site link about the author and book.
http://www.duffyandsnellgrove.com.au/au ... ulding.htm
Has anyone else read a book recently and would like to share.?

 

[Minxy]

I'm reading everything I can get my hands on at the mo, but just finished a great book called 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver.

It's about the mother of a 16 year old who kills some fellow students in a high school massacre, and she goes back to her pregnancy and right through his troubled childhood and difficult relationship to look for clues.

it's heavy going at times and can be a tough book to read when preggers as it ask questions about what happens if you don't like your child (?!) but I found it fascinating! great twist at the end too!

 

[chezzabell]

not sure if i should tell u, iam reading jade goodys book

 

[budge]

does it tell you how she cleans her trotters? mwhaaaaaaaaa

 

[chezzabell]

not that i have read just yet

 

[hayley]

i'm working my way through all the MARTINA COLE books..

At the moment i'm on MAURA'S GAME... if you like books about the East End, prostitution, murders, drugs, the criminal nder world then you'll love her books....

x

 

[luce1]

Baby Whisperer - some really good advice!

 

[chezzabell]

thats a good book the baby whisper

 

[skatty]

This is a great thread as I love to read

I have just finished My Best Friend's Girl by-Dorothy Koomson. It was about two best friends and one fell pregnant with her friend's fiance's baby. they fall out but then the one with the daughter falls terminally ill and asks her ex-friend to adopt her daughter. Its so sad but funny too, a good easy read.

One of my favourite books ever is Man and Boy by Tony Parsons. If you haven't read that I totally reccommend it. Actually all men should read it as I think it could scare them more than Fatal Attraction!

Hayley I also love Martina Cole, have you read The Know, its disturbing! Actually its probably not a great read when pregnant!

LittleMinx I loved We Need to Talk About Kevin. It was so well written and I found it hard to put down. Its such a different book to anything else I read.

Budge I'm going to check out your book. I read a book about the Magdelene Laundries and it was fascinating. I can't believe how recent these terrible things were happening.

Please everyone keep this thread going, it will be like a book club

 

[budge]

skatty im sending the book to my friend in Ezeter for her to read and when she sends it back ill be happy to pass it to you.

your book sounds good too (my best friends girl). I do like things like that. Im going to look in the library tomorrow. Isit fiction or fact?

 

[hayley]

Skatty - i've been working my way thou them all.. (martina Cole) the know - isn't that the one about the peodophiles... and the bloke who is funding the ring finds out that the local prostitues daughter is his daughter too... find out when its too late the peodophiles have already taken her and he kills himself... everyone in the neighbourhood blames the fat bloke that lives with his dad because he's a little strange... poor bloke they torture him then realise it's his bloody dad who's been fiddling with the kids... no not a good one to read when pregnant..

just finished two woman and faceless... read them both in a week... two women is about a young girl who is abused by her dad (physically, mentally and sexually) she grows up and marries a man just like her father who repeats the torture.. until one day she comes home and finds out he's raped their daughter... she hits him over the head 100 times with a sledge hammer... good read!!!!

faceless was about a prostitute who gets out of prison after 11 yrs for killing her 2 best mates after a drug fuelled nite... she doesn't remember a thing about it but was found covered in their blood.. so she does her time - looses her 2 children (her daughter ends up having a baby to the man she has a son to - he's a dirty pimp) she finds out it was her brother and the pimp who's liked her 2 best friends 11 years ago and covered her in the blood... her brother shoots himself with guilt and she goes after the pimp... for ruining her life and her daughters.. another good book...

x

 

[Amanda]

I love crime novels - especially forensic science ones. I've just finished reading all of the Kathy Reichs ones (the woman who produces the TV series Bones with the georgeous David Boreanaz, yum), and now am re-reading Patricia Cornwell because I can't find anyone else as good.

Anyone know a really good crime writer????

 

[Minxy]

Hayley, I've read a few Martina Cole but by fave one of hers is set in the past (turn of the century ish). It's still about the East End and prostitution etc and is about a girl with a name begining with 'B'? Have you read it?

Skatty, like the sound of your recent one, will check it out

MY TOP 5 BOOKS OF THER LAST YEAR!

1) The Time Travellers wife- Audrey Niffenegger
2) Perfume- Patrick Suskind
3) We need to talk about Kevin- Lionel Shriver
4) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (!)- JK Rowling
5) Sophie's World- Jostein Gaarder (re-read, to stretch my head!)


Anyone read these? What are your top 5?

 

[lisanat]

I've just finished one by a crime writer called Tess Gerritson called Vanish.

Tankett Ive just started reading tess gerrittson and shes a great crime writer.I like Kathy Reichs too. Another couple of good ones are;
Karen Slaughter (forensic ) and James Patterson's Alex cross novels.I cant put them down once Ive started.

Im a bit of a bookworm so I like to read any thing.
And Man and Boy is one of my favourite books too!!!

Lisa
xx

 

[hayley]

littleminx - trying to think which one that could be? most of her books have a prostitute in them... i think there all set in the east end.. well the ones i read so far are... there still a few i've got to read so maybe i'll come across it soon... half way throu one and have another yet to start...

I like reading true crime books.. used to collect true murder books...

tankett do you watch CSI and criminal minds?

x

 

[Minxy]

'Goodnight Lady' by Martina Cole about Briony Cavanagh was the one I was thinking about Hayley.

it's not turn of the century but 1960's

Blame my pregnancy brain!

 

[hayley]

not read that one... will add it to my list... thats if i get time to read when the baby is here!!!!!

x

 

[skatty]

Budge that's really sweet of you but I logged straight onto Amazon and bought it, a second hand copy! Did you find the book I reccommended at the library? If not my friend is reading it but can then send it to you, the only problem is it took her 3 months to read her last book

Tankett have you read anything by Michael Connelly? His books are great. Faye Kellerman is another good one, she has a whole series with a couple called Detective Decker and Lisa Lazarus and although the crimes are different each time their relationship moves on in each book.
I love crime too but I especially like books set in London or at least the UK as I can imagine the scene and I also find them more gritty. Lynda La Plante is another fave of mine

 

[Amanda]

Thanks Skatty, I haven't read any of those. I'm about halfway through one at the minute, so I'll have a look tomorrow when I take it back to the library.

 

[HayleyB]

I know i'm not a 3rd tri girly... but no-where else has a book thread!!!

Am currently reading "but inside i'm screaming" by Elizabeth Flock.
Its about a woman who has a breakdown and goes into a psychiatric unit, but doesn't feel like she belongs there.... am not very far into it at the minute, but has got me gripped.

I started reading "we need to talk about kevin" but put it down, need to pick it up again!!

I loved Labyrinth - Kate mosse - It had me gripped from start to finish, and i think i even shed a couple of tears!

I love biography books - but not of famous people, just "normal"people - I loved "geisha of Gion" - Mineko Iwasaki - not as glamourous as the memoirs of a geisha... have read afew of the geisha books, can't remember what they were all called!!

Kathy's Story has got to be my favorite book that i've read in awhile, it made me cry so much - its written by Kathy O'Beirne - She was sent away from her family to a "school" and ends up going through psychiatric wards and finally to a magdalen laundry. Its so sad, but gripping!!


My favorite Fiction book is - The Five People you meet in Heaven - by Mitch Albom.... Can't describe this book in words, its just amazing!!!
Definately worth buying if you see it on the shelf somewhere!!

Sorry for the long post!

Am a bit of a bookworm!!!

xox