Re: What are you reading?
 

Just finished The Orchard On Fire by Shena Mackay:

When Percy and Betty Harlency abandon their seedy Streatham pub for the Copper Kettle Tearoom in Kent, life for their daughter, April, changes dramatically. She is befriended by the wonderfully dangerous Ruby, whose red hair and brutal home life emphasize her love of fire, and by the creepy but immaculately dressed Mr Greedridge, who likes to follow her around the village.

Mingling the innocent with the sinister and laced with the tragic and the bizarre, this is a true evocation on a 1950s childhood.

Excellent novel: great characters who you really empathise with, really well written with wit & compassion - definitely recommend it ;)

Re: What are you reading?
 

I picked up Something Rotten in the airport bookshop yesterday while I was waiting to fly home. I bought it after being hit smack between the eyes by the most unbelievably surreal opening I've ever read in any book.

A pair of special detectives are on the trail of a minotaur who has escaped from his own novel and has gone to ground in the back-story of a third-rate western. And it gets a whole lot wierder than that. I bought it and am now reading avidly. :D

I just finished Ben Bova's latest 'tour of the solar system' novel, Mercury. It is by far the weakest of the four I've read so far (already finished Mars, Return to Mars and Venus). Mercury suffers from a disappointingly thin plot and a series of increasingly unlikely coincidences about two-thirds of the way through a flash-back that itself occupies about three quarters of the entire book. The whole thing reads like he knew he had to write Mercury to add to the series but didn't have much in the way of ideas for an actual story. Unless you're particularly a fan of the series (and so are interested in how the characters and events fit into the overall back story he's created) I wouldn't bother.

Hey, I used 'back story' twice in one post. Does that make me a real critic? :D

Re: What are you reading?
 

I just finished The Stand again - The Complete uncut version.

One of my most read books, I definately have a hankering for an apocolyptic story and this delivers on so many levels.

I bought 'IT' by the same author today, which is one of the few books by King that I've not read.

Re: What are you reading?
 

I just finished reading Michael Crichton's newest creation: Prey. I only have one word to describe it: SUPERB. This book is really great. The plot gives us an insight on what would become of nanotechnology when it is incorporated with genetic engineering and computer engineering. It also shows us what happens when our own creations become our own enemies. I really recommend it to those who love science fiction books, but beware of the jargon. Those who are not familliar with modern physics and some biology terms might not find this book easy to understand.

Re: What are you reading?
 

I've posted about "Always A Marine" previously, but have just clocked this link to a newspaper article about the author. Cool I thought.

http://archive.thisisthenortheast.co...16/214137.html

Re: What are you reading?
 

I' currently reading: Comm Check...: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia

...and then after I have: Space Race

...got both for Christmas!

Re: What are you reading?
 

Velocity by Dean Koontz - prolly the best thriller I've ever read.

Re: What are you reading?
 

Last 5 books I read:-

1) Life and time of Oscar Wilde
2) Uncle Toms Cabin
3) Catcher in the Rye
4) Playboy Annual
5) The Shankill Butchers

Re: What are you reading?
 

The Chronicles of Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Re: What are you reading?
 

Bit of a bump:

I am reading "The Golden Compass", part of Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy.

TBH, I don't know if I can be bothered to finish it. Seems pointless so far.

Re: What are you reading?
 

Schon, D.A. 1987 Educating the reflective practitioner :disturbd:

Re: What are you reading?
 

Thud... Terry Pratchett

As the last (so far) of the Guards series of Discworld books, having read the previous ones in order one after the other.

Re: What are you reading?
 

Well theorectically you are reading a children's book...so you can't be blamed for not enjoying it.;)

By the way folks if anyone suggests you read Historian don't bother..All you are getting is a mishmash remake of Bram Stokes Dracula in the typically stodgy way that Stoker wrote.I had to force myself to finish it because it was a present.

Now the present giver is rising to the challenge of reading it all the way through..with any luck he'll never buy me a book again.When I say I want perfume I mean it...:mad:

Re: What are you reading?
 

Excellent, if a little confusing towards the end....:)

Re: What are you reading?
 

The reason I am reading it is several adult friends did, and said it was very enjoyable..