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Original poster

What books did you get for Christmas ?

70 replies

wheelybahhumbug · 30/12/2007 17:01

Me -

Can Any Mother help me ? Not started yet.

Shopoholic and baby ? () Obviously read in an afternoon after our christmas guests left yesterday. Twas rubbish as expected but a bit of light relief

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Started today, am enjoying so far but is a bit sad.

OP posts:
MaryAnnSingleton · 30/12/2007 17:03

I've just read the Esme Lennox - is v sad but good !
I got Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader - signed first edition too - yay !

foxinsocks · 30/12/2007 17:07

(didn't ask for them but MIL gave me her 4 fave books of the year - lovely pressie)

the yemen fishing one
Digging to America
Black Swan Green
In My Father's House

JackieNo · 30/12/2007 17:15

I had the Uncommon Reader too (but not a signed first edition)
Also Bill Bryson's Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, The Woman's book, plus 2 fantasy novels by someone I'd never heard of, Elizabeth Bear - Blood and Iron, and the follow up, Whiskey and Water. Have read Blood and Iron already, and really rather enjoyed it.

MaryAnnSingleton · 30/12/2007 17:29

I love being given books - gave dh Peter Ackroyd's Thames

MaryAnnSingleton · 30/12/2007 17:30

JackieNo - my mum,bless her, didn't realise it was signed !!

PrismManchip · 30/12/2007 17:32

I got none! That's a first.

I did get Jonathan Coe "The Rain Before It Falls" for my birthday last month and it was lovely, really moving and evocative.

LuckySalem · 30/12/2007 17:32

DP bought me (should say bump really) 3 books.
Book of fairy tales
Beatrix potter collection
(can't remember the name) book about the trile goddesses

foxinsocks · 30/12/2007 17:33

I love love love Jonathan Coe but have tried to start The Rain...3 times now and just can't get into it .

pinetreedog · 30/12/2007 17:34

none, goddam.

foxy, just read black swan green. let me know what you think of it

donnie · 30/12/2007 17:34

The Kite Runner at long last, and Mary lawson's 'Other side of the bridge'. I read her other novel 'Crow Lake' recently and adored it, has anyone else here read it? I think there was a thread about it a while back, I can recommend her! I also got a poetry anthology and a new edition of Conrad's 'secret agent' as my old copy is my teaching one and has virtually disintegrated!

donnie · 30/12/2007 17:34

Oh I love Jonathan Coe - haven't read that one though.

pinetreedog · 30/12/2007 17:35

oh, and I've read digging to america

PrismManchip · 30/12/2007 17:35

FIS, I think the beginning is rather slow and laboured. Some of the prose is a bit...er...not up to his usual standard. It really gets going when she starts listening to the tapes (as you know she will...).

foxinsocks · 30/12/2007 17:39

I may just not have been in the right mood. I tried to read it on the train (v busy, packed commuter train so not particularly relaxing!) and I probably need to read it quietly at home (if I ever get a chance!).

Ooh pointy. Am half way through yemen fishing so will get to it next.

bramblebooks · 30/12/2007 19:04

Just read Esme Lennox, loved it. Have started 1000 suns and am loving it more than kiterunner.

I bought 'fetch the midwife' for mum - had a sneaky read first and had to sit with a box of tissues, great read about a midwife in the eastend during the 50s.

Original poster
wheelybahhumbug · 30/12/2007 22:53

Finished Esme Lennox this evening. 'Twas great but v. sad and thought provoking.

Already into 'Can Any Mother Help me ?'. It is olden days Mumsnet to a 't'.

It is the last of my christmas books so good job I also have £55 of book vouchers

OP posts:
ibroughtxmascake · 30/12/2007 22:57

No books this year

I asked mil to get DD books, which she did and then whispered to DD that she would get her a toy because 'books aren't proper presents'

discoverlife · 30/12/2007 22:58

4 books by Anne McCaffrey a Science fiction writer that I love.

LaDiDancesroundtheXmastree · 30/12/2007 23:02

I got and have read Esme Lennox. thought it was excellent, the best Maggie O'Farrell yet imho.

I've just started Case Histories by Kate Atkinson and I also got So Many Ways to Begin by Jon Mcgregor.

MulledWino · 30/12/2007 23:04

I got: Soul to Soul by Gary Zukav
Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul
An Angel Held My Hand by Jackie Newcomb
and
A Little Piece of Me Gone by "Poppy's Mum) (my illustration on the first page )

Hulababy · 30/12/2007 23:05

I got Atonement, which I started reading a couple of nights ago.

Elasticwoman · 31/12/2007 20:21

The trouble with threads like this is that they provoke lists, not discussion.

I got: Driving Miss Smith by Warren Lakin (biog of late Linda Smith)
and The Wagner Clan by Jonathan Carr
and Don'ts for Wives (1913)
and an out of date Oldie magazine.

Have you seen the film of Atonement, Hulababy? If so I wonder which you will prefer.

Mercy · 31/12/2007 20:32

I got none.

Yes, count them - NONE!

I bought everyone else at least one book

Nymphadora · 31/12/2007 20:32

Got loads [smug grin] and then bf gave me £50voucher for Waterstones so will be out with that next week

Read Chevil beach(brilliant) yesterday , Shakepeare by
Bill Bryson(very interesting especially since I was in Stratford for a theatre weekend), Atonement(loved it), John O'Farrell history book (brilliant too!) and can't remember the rest

Niecie · 31/12/2007 20:40

Oh £50 book tokens! Lovely.

I got:-

a book on beading
The Mind - A Users Guide by Raj Persaud
What to do When you Want to do Everything by Barbara Sher (I think)

I was hoping for Cranford to see if the books are as amusing as the tv but the hints seem to have fallen on stony ground.