Recent reads!

In the blurb at the front of the copy I have there are reviews from various newspapers saying phrases like "we await the sequel" and hints that she is working on a second book. Will be keeping a look out.

Is there a sequel due? I didn't realise, I'll look out for it too.

It's very different from Brick Lane and although I enjoyed Brick Lane this is a much easier read (so far). I'm enjoying it so much that I have already been on Amazon looking for the sequel but it doesn't look like it's available at the moment.

Oh thanks for letting me know Demented, I was a bit worried - especially after you loved Brick Lane which I hated!

sis, I'm reading Too Close to the Falls now. I'm about a third of the way through, it is brilliant, fantastically written, thanks for recommending it!

I'm reading The Curious Incident just now and it is fantastic, really different.

I think I was the only one disappointed by the book.

Have read Lucky and think it is worth reading. Great book called Tully by Paullina Simons-the rest of hers are crap but this is a good one. Mark Billingham writes great crime novels if you are into that sort of thing. I love Joanne Harris - have read just about everything. Louise Voss is a new discovery - Are You My Mother and think she has a new one out. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb is perhaps the best book I have ever read especially as it is written by a man.

read The Lovely Bones few months ago and loved it - anyone read lucky by same author? worth buying? I have just finished one of the best books I've read in a good while If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things by Jon MacGregor loved it would highly recommend to those who have enjoyed Maggie O Farrell, Alice Sebold.

Sorry I'm joining this so late but I've just read Lovely Bones - on special in Tescos - and read it in a day. I thought it quite beautiful and so very very sad. But we share feelings about heaven completely. My dh has just taken it over and has read the first 50 pages straight off - he usually manages 10 pages a day of anything. Brick Lane was sooo looong but I liked it. The Curious Incident of the Dog is brilliant. All my children have now read it and all enjoyed it - 18, 14, 14 & 13. Just finished Bonesetter's daughter too. Excellent.

My dad buys tons of books and then realises he's already got some of them and so I get surprise book bundles form time to time.
Read astonsihiong spalshes of colour last month. Absolutely wonderful, unputdownable although very sad.
Have just finished The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa - fascinating book about dictator regime in the Dominican Republic - not the most obvious topic I know but gripping stuff.

Im reading 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'. Half way through. Just about to start Frodo and Sam's adventure. Ive got into this book more than I did with 'The Fellowship of the Ring'

I am nearly finished Middlesex,by ... eugenides.Can't remember first name of author.It is gripping and fascinating,all about a boy/girl with gender identitiy issues.Beautifully written,don't want it to end,but give it a chance it atarts of kinda weird.

loved margaret forsters latest "diary of an orsinary woman " but was dissappointed that it wasn't true,stupidlt didn't realise this until halfway through and saw novel on the price tag.

Has anyone read the latest anne fine book?

Loved nelson mandelas biography,slightly too involved for a bedtime read at times but really enjoyed it.I knew he would come across as an amazing man ,but the whole political story is amazing

Halfway through 'The Bookseller of Kabul' by Asne
Seierstad, portraying the life of an Afghan family living under the Taliban. Written as fiction but apparently based on real people. It's fascinating and has opened my eyes to a culture I knew very little about. Very readable.

aloha, hooray, someone has finally picked up my Little Boy Lost recommendation ... did it floor you?

Here's my next: the current Granta has a memoir by Diana Athill which also meets my standards. Bit of warning: it's about a m/c - but read read read.

Has anybody read Nelson Mandela's autobiography? I would love to know what other people thought.

I lived in SA for a long time and was brought up to think he was a terrorist!! But my friends over there think he is fab. I loved the book and has changed my opinion on so many things that happened - and that I lived through.

Please feedback

sis, I haven't read the book you recommended yet, I have gone a bit book mad lately, what with all the recommendations on MN and good deals in the shops. I've got a drawer full!

Reading The Blue Diary just now and I think I am going to read the Curious Incident next, that leaves about a dozen!

I'm reading Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski from the wonderful Persephone Books (fantastic forgotten classics,mostly by women, you can order over the net or go to their lovely little shop in Lambs Conduit St in London). It's almost unbearably moving - keeps making me cry. About a man searching for the lost son of his dead wife in post-war France. Someone else recommended it on Mumsnet and it is wonderful with a fantastic portrayal of the difference between sexual and paternal/maternal love and of the way children make you love them.

Finished "Notes on a Scandal" last night - couldn't put it down yesterday and felt myself getting "annoyed" when DH/kids interrupted me LOL!

Have got "Astonishing Splashes of Colour" lined up next.

I'm glad you like it Demented, no really, I am glad. I'm going to slink off now before you say how rubbish my recommended book was esp compared to Brick Lane.

Yes, tamum, I would to know about Chanu too.

have just read 'the curiuos incident of the dog etc etc' and thought it was briliant - teh boys voice and way of thinking come across as completely authentic. its very easy to read and a real pageturner. also enjoyed notes on a scandal - want to reread it now to look for clues that Barbara is barking maad from teh beginning! (hope that haasn't spoilt teh book for anyone)
one of my insomnia cures is trying to imgaine who'd play charactesr in teh tv/film versions of books. For Notes on a scandal i thought of michelle collins as sheba, annette crosbie (1 foot in the grave) as Barbara and Paul Nichols (mad Joe from Eastenders as Connolly though he is possibly far too goodlooking it would eb nice to see him get his kit off!!

Oh phew, Demented, I've been checking this thread nervously every time it comes back! It's a nice ending, isn't it? I'm desperate to find out how Chanu gets on though.

I have read all of Amy Tan's novels and find them wonderful. She writes with sucha mix of old and modern day tales, but all of them have made me cry at some point!!
I think she has a biography out of some sort - anyone know?

Just finished Brick Lane, IMO it has a lot of slow bits but the end is worth it. I really got to like the characters and when it came to the last three chapters or so I couldn't put it down, hence my children have been very neglected this afternoon!

I think I will read The Blue Diary next, it's my MN swap book and I really should read it so it can be offered up again.