what is in the book pile on your bedside table?

We're looking for everyone's Unsung Heroes/Heroines for April's Mumsnet Book of the Month selection - books you love that aren't very well known, or writers who don't seem to have the recognition they deserve.

If anyone fancies putting forward a personal favourite do pop it up here

Flossie - yes THAT'S it, Estates by Linsey Hanley. It's a really excellent, well written book (she grew up on a council estate and lives in a tower block now, so written from a personal POV as well). Really recommend it.

GOML, is that council estates book by Lindsay something? It sounded good if a bit grim.

I cleared off my bedside table as I was building a skyscraper of books which was threatening to topple. I always read about 3-4 books at a time so there are books all over the place (drives dp mad!)

Bedside table (now removed to be replaced with a new pile of books!)

John Betjeman's bio (AN Wilson)
Michael Palins Diaries
Letters between Mitford Sisters
London in the 19th Century
A book about council estates (can't remember title or author, bloody good book though)
Katharine Hepburn Remembered by F Scott Berg
Oliver Twist
Polo by Jilly Cooper

Pile of books in the loo !

Assasins Cloak (diary anthology)
Alan Clark Diaries (Into Politics)
On Royalty by Jeremy Paxman
Alliance (author forgotten) about Churchill, Stalin and Rooselevelt
Charlie Wilson's War (haven;t started this one yet)
Plus last week's Grazia.

Didn't I say I had my fingers in my ears ?

Seriously, I found Hey Nostradamus hard enough... DS1 is already angst-ridden at nearly 9 and I have enough things to berate myself about in my parenting without adding "potential high-school killer" to the list.

Good tip about Ebay, Squilly (though bugger - forgot to list anything. And I'd marked the email with a star and everything).

Dorasboots - how weird, just returned Rebecca to the library having read it for the 2nd time! Couldn't remember it from the 1st as it was years ago and absolutely loved it. You won't get much else done once you've started it, I can promise you that!

Dear Zoo, Who's Making That Mess and Busy Little Jungle currently. And Sudocrem.

I've loads to get through at the moment - library books, some I got for Christmas, some passed on to me by my mum / sister & loads I haven't been able to resist from the local 2nd hand bookshop / Tesco, etc! That's it now though, I've promised myself I'll get through this lot before I buy any more .

I have (not counting those I have hidden away in the wardrobe as no more room):

• Salmon fishing in the Yemen (Paul Torday) - library book, almost finished it now
• The River Cottage Meat book
• Tana Ramsay's Family Food
• How to talk so kids will listen...
• The Devil wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)
• Notes from a Family Album (Isla Dewar) - read this but not taken back yet
• The Naked Civil Servant (Quentin Crisp)
• The Steep Approach to Gabardine (Iain Banks)
• The Chocolate Run (Dorothy Koomson)
• The Consequences of Marriage (Isla Dewar)
• AA Caravan & Camping Guide
• The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy (Fiona Neill)
• Reading Lolita in Tehran (Asar Nafisi)
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Jean Dominique Bauby)
• Your Child & You (Tanya Byron)
• Split Ends (Zoe Barnes)
• The Rise & Fall of the Queen of Suburbia (Sarah May)
• Fermat's Last Theorem (Simon Singh)
• a couple of Torey Hayden books
• Ladder of Years & a Patchwork Planet (Anne Tyler)
• A Spot of Bother (Mark Haddon)
• The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
• PS I Love You (Cecilia Ahern)
• Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks)

I said there were quite a few.

I am a fairly quick reader, but still, I think that should keep me going for a while!

oooh oooh

just read Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Loved it.

Going to start the Tractor one.

I also have Booky Wook. I don't normally read autobiographys. And certainly not of 30 somethings! Dh bought it for me, so i should try to read it. It just gets pushed further and further under the bed.
Maybe the dog is reading it, he spends lots of time under the bed.

I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS A SEQUEL TO PILLARS OF THE EARTH!!!

Janni, I loved 'Kevin', fantastic if disturbing read. Read it Flossie!

Thanks Squilly - I'll read it as light relief after 'Kevin'.

Hi all

Janni...Petite Anglaise is a lovely book....so far. I'm only on page 41, but I'm finding it engaging, not too challenging, but different enough to be worthy of attention. I'd say it's worth a read but I suppose that's a bit dangerous, as we're all different.

I love Radio 4 too...will be tuning in as soon as I can get rid of the old man today, whilst I contemplate starting a blog.

Flossie - The latest Thursday Next book is due out in paperback 26th June 2008 (from what I can see). So not TOO long to wait. And you can pick it up for a steal on Ebay...especially as it's a cheap listing day today/tomorrow, so hordes of people, like me, will be listing our old books to try to generate a bit of holiday money! (quick plug for Ebay...hope no-one noticed!)

Lol @ Flossie The scary thing is she doesn't have children in real life, but (whispers) somehow she KNOWS the awful things we think and feel when we've had enough...

You're right - it is a truly terrifying book but I love it.

I have a book pile next to the bed, one under the bed, plus a whole shelfsworth to be read on the shelves.

I'm addicted to the charity shop/library sales, plus Amazon/the Book People/friends, so have far more than I can ever read.

The main book pile contains:

Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler, part way in
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - read, as thankfully short
Theft - Peter Carey
Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me - Lucia van der Post
My BookyWook (I know, I know)
Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters
A Quiet Belief in Angels - R J Ellory (borrowed)
Animal's People - Indra Sinha
South of the River - Blake Morrison
the Diana Chronicles - Tina Brown
book about the artist Louise Bourgeois
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
Journal of a Solitude - Mary Sarton
In Defence of Food - Michael Pollan (DH put it there, wants me to read it)
How to Feed your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet - Gill Holcombe

Fiction

Perfume Patrick Suskind
Room with a View (bookclub) E M Forster
Frankie and Stankie (Mumnsnet bookswap)
The Stand (last bookclub book - given up on it) Stephen King
Sleeping Doll Jeffrey Deaver

Non Fiction

How to talk so children will listen
Punishment through rewards Alfie Kohn
How Children Learn John Holt
Unconditional Parenting Alfie Kohn
Latest Good Food & Junior Mags
A couple of books on helping children learn to read
One to One Gareth Lewis
How to stop your kids watching too much TV
Toxic childhood Sue Palmer

Must clear my books out, they seem to reproduce all by themselves

shirley hughes - autobiography

oliver sacks - uncle tungsten

barbara kingsolver - animal vegetable mineral

haruki muakami - sutnik sweetheart

No way am I reading Kevin. Ever.

Hated Master Georgie, and Arlington Park, and On Cape Three Points v disappointing.

Went to hear Anne Enright read on Thurs night and picked up an older one of hers - What Are You Like? Nearly finished and vvvvvv good, if a bit too surreal in places.

Squilly, I love Jasper Fforde too but have yet to pick up the return of Thursday! Is it out in pb yet?

Good Food magazine
Gordon Ramsey-Sunday Lunch
Good Housekeeeping-Complete cookery course

I heard the author of 'Petite Anglaise' interviewed on Woman's Hour and thought I would get the book. Is it a good read?

I am reading Lionel Shriver's 'We need to talk about Kevin'. I'm sure it's been dissected on MN but really, WHAT a book. WHAT a visceral dissection of motherhood, quite shocking and unnerving but truly compelling.

I am also reading Barack Obama's autobiography.

What an eclectic lot you all are...some real mixes out there, which makes me feel better about my strange reading subjects.

I love Jasper Fforde and am waiting with baited breath for his latest book. I also wish Audrey Neiffeneger would write another one and I loved Stephen Fry's Moab book!

Current books on bedside table are:

Cry Wolf, Tami Holt
Special Assignments, Boris Akunin (Mothers day gift)
Fangland, John Marks (half read, but too scared to read the other half)
Sophie Kinsella, Remember Me (finished & enjoyed for what it is, candy floss reading)
Katie Fforde, Practically Perfect (as above)
Petite Anglaise, Catherine Sanderson (my current read)
Primary Spelling Dictionary (for dd)
The Ode Less Travelled, Stephen Fry
and
The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy (delicious for it's slumminess).

Currently having a 'light read' phase, which will last for a while. Prior to these, I've just cleared out my Kelley Armstrongs (vampire and werewolf books with a difference); Alexander Solzhenitzin , The Life and Times of Ivan Denisovitch (someone bought it me years ago and I've just re-read it...it was soooo bleak at times, but very satisfying); and Terry Goodkind, Confessor (good old escapist fun).

history of ghengis khan
bill bryson
jeremy clarkson
andy mcnab

i just pick them up and read at random depending how i feel -i have read them all before- i just swap books about

The Shakespeare Secret, by JL Carrol. have just started, it seems ok so far

Stand and Deliver, the Adam Ant autobioghraphy
The Knitting Circle - have finished it

PIes and Prejudice - Stuart Maconie
Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay

Both gifts and not really reading either as by the time I get to bed it's to go to sleep!

The Wagner Clan - Jonathan Carr
Raising Boys - Steve Biddulph