Anyone want to help refine my holiday reading list

[Wheelybug]

Have finally unpacked my books having moved 9 months ago (we were having a bit of work done first) and have unearthed rather too many unreads.

Spot of Bother
Half a yellow sun
Labyrinth
Shadow of the winds
Star of the sea
Saturday
This is your life (John O'Farrell)
A number of phillipa Gregory (Queens Fool, Constant Princess, Virgins Lover)
A number of Jodi Picoult (The Pact, Vanishing Act, Perfect Match, Salem Falls)

On my definite list so far
I will still be reading the biog of Emma Hamilton
Big Cherry Holler - Trigiani

Definitely would like to take a phillipa Gregory - anyone any views on which one is best ?

Any views on any of the others - good or bad ?

Thanks.

[Wheelybug]

Part of my post got missed out - how strange.

Was meant to say - am going on hols on Sunday when I will have some reading time so would like to start getting through some of the unreads. This is a shortlist.

[policywonk]

Loved, loved, LOVED Star of the Sea

Think Phillipa Gregory is a load of old crusty pants though, so what do I know?

[Wheelybug]

LOL at 'a load of old crusty pants'. They're a good light read if you ignore historical accuracy IMO.

[Notyummy]

I alos loved Star of the Sea. Liked the Constant Princess the most of those three. Found Big Cherry Holler a bit twee and could see the ending a mile off. A bit too much 'she swept her luxuriant hair off her face and placed her hands on her slightly curved hips as she gazed at the setting sun...' and so on and so forth.

[chocolateshoes]

Finished Saturday last week and although I found it a bit hard going at the beginning it was brillinat and I truely think you should read it. Its also quite a quick read. Enjoy!!

[policywonk]

Oh, yes, didn't see Saturday on the list - I really enjoyed that too

[Notyummy]

PS: Have also read Labyrinth. Quite good - very mucha ligght read and rather cheesy, but good 'switch off the brain and relax' material.

[Wheelybug]

Thanks.

Right so, A star of the sea, saturday, constant princess...

Notyummy - I have just read Big Stone Gap and found it really ploddy during the first half and then suddenly really got into it and loved the second half (except a bit obvious in the ending too !) so thought I ought to read the next one whilst the first was still fresh (and it won't take v. long).

Thanks for opinions gals. Any more ?

[Pinkveto]

only take one jodi picoult - they are all much of a muchness but perfect "brain not totally in gear" reading

[Wheelybug]

Thanks Pinkveto - I quite enjoyed My Sister's Keeper and so kept buying them when on special offer in Smiths but having read Keeping Faith I have realised the much of a muchness about them hence why they've sat unread.... but as you say, good for switching off. I feel I ought to take one just to get them read !

[toomanydaves]

half of a yellow sun is GREAT.

[Pinkveto]

remind me - is half a yellow sun chimonda something or other, set in nigeria?

its brill if it is!

(lost brain about a year ago when pregnant...)

[Wheelybug]

Thats the one PV...

Oh shall I just take them all and pay extra baggage allowance ?? I also want to peruse (i.e. purchase one or two) the 'airport' paperbacks (you know when you get the hardbacks as paperbacks) ....

[TotalChaos]

yes, I like to do that too Wheelybug.

I really liked Labyrinth, most people don't see to, but I think it would be a great holiday book, it's a bit of a doorstop. Half of a yellow sun is very good but not exactly cheerful (to do with Biafra/civil war in Nigeria/famine).

[toomanydaves]

No but it (Hoays) is funny and beautifully written.
And I knew jack about Biafra before and now I know a tiny bit more.
She is only 30 and she writes with the maturity of someone much older. She rocks.

[Wheelybug]

Right - will definitely take Half of a yellow sun.... Am getting somewhere I think .
Maybe I should just close my eyes and pick randomly - I'll read anything once I'm there.

[poppy34]

queens fool then virgins lover then constant princess. Star of the sea good holiday reading. I've not read half a yellow sun but dh raved about it.

[Carnoodleusfudge]

Didn't think Spot of Bother was as good as curious incident
Reading half a yellow sun - better than I thought would be (yes set in Nigeria during civil war but not all guns etc - a "human story" IYSWIM)
Saturday - fab

Have you read Restless by William Boyd?
Also The Tenderness of Wolves by someone who I can't remember.

[Wheelybug]

Right Half a yellow sun definitely coming on hols with me. I may well go with Queen's Fool mainly because I started it just before dd was born (2.5 years ago) and didn't finish it (my brain couldn't even concentrate on P. Gregory ).

Haven't read either of those Carnoodle - hmmm... more books to think about....

[kerala]

Saturday and Star of the Sea. Both great, memorable and thought provoking.

[hana]

not sure if you've decided, but 'The Girls' is a brilliant book
have c and p blurb from amazon

Conjoined twins Rose and Ruby Darlen are linked at the side of the head, with separate brains and bodies. Born in a small town outside Toronto in the midst of a tornado and abandoned by their unwed teenage mother two weeks later, the girls are cared for by Aunt Lovey, a nurse who refuses to see them as deformed or even disabled. She raises them in Leaford, Ontario, where, at age 29, Rose, the more verbal and bookish twin, begins writing their story?i.e., this novel, which begins, "I have never looked into my sister's eyes." Showing both linguistic skill and a gift for observation, Lansens's Rose evokes country life, including descriptions of corn and crows, and their neighbors Mrs. Merkel, who lost her only son in the tornado, and Frankie Foyle, who takes the twins' virginity. Rose shares her darkest memory (public humiliation during a visit to their Slovakian-born Uncle Stash's hometown) and her deepest regret, while Ruby, the prettier, more practical twin, who writes at her sister's insistence, offers critical details, such as what prompted Rose to write their life story. Through their alternating narratives, Lansens captures a contradictory longing for independence and togetherness that transcends the book's enormous conceit.