TestaRossa

Maybe even a Prosecco to get things going with a celebratory pop!

Haven't read any of your picks, so that's interesting! I have one of them, I think, which is "Dark Heart" bizarrely!

I only buy the Richard and Judy cos they are normally cheap on Amazon and The Book Dep. I bought 4 on my last order, 2 have been really good, one was just boring and I haven't read the 4th in favour of the follow up to "Wicked" called "Son of a Witch". I've been re-reading Jane Austen as well recently.

I'll have a look on Amazon at your picks. Do you want us to vote for one or do you just want to say which you want us to read first? I'm easy !

lyndamh

Hi

I'd love to join up if you guys are still going ahead...

Any first book suggestion is fine by me.

I just arrived in La Spezia, so Sands, happy for a cuppa if you're up for one.

Regards

Lynda

sands

I like the title "Son of Witch" - conjures up all sorts of things...

I'm happy for us all to take a vote on a book, how about that? Let's see who else might want to join in too!


Lynda would love to meet for a cuppa - is next week (Wednesday 5ish or Friday afternoonish ok?). Sorry it's so far ahead, but there's a few things happening at the moment, plus I have to rely on a lift, as I live about 30 mins from La Spezia. Will email my phone number later if you like.

lyndamh

Hi Sands

Next Wed would be great if you are free. I think that Friday is a public holiday?????

I will email my details to you.

Any book is good with me by the way!!! But if we are going to take a vote I could list down the titles.....

Regards

Lynda

Lorna at Vicenza

Ok - for light entertainment or "chick lit" surely everyone has read Bridget Jones' Diary.

For something a little more serious but very very good - The Kite Runner - I know it's just come out on film but as often happens - book is 10 times better !

kathrynverona

i've got a copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns as well if you fancy a read. I 've got a mate at work who lives in cornedo so I could organise a spot of book trafficking..

sands

ok Lynda glad Wed would be good! I think it's best to write down the book titles and we'll all take a vote. TestaRossa has already chosen the wine

Hi Lorna -I've read the Kite Runner and agree it was a lot better than the movie. I'll add it to the list if you like, but could you bear to read it again? I must be the only person on this planet not to have liked Bridget Jones diary that much! But then again I'm quite perverse in that I'll head for the hills rather than read the book or see the film of the moment. I was able to avoid 'Titanic' for at least a year!

Kathryn I had to laugh at your message, I can see that living away from our usual environment does tend to lead to creative description!! I'd LOVE it if you could somehow get A Thousand Splendid Suns to me, thanks.

TestaRossa

You know, I have managed to avoid Thousand splendid... and Kite Runner so far - just not me at all! But if that's the decree - I'll just drink the Prosecco !!

I do read "serious" books but they have be about something that interests me and neither of these do I'm afraid. I could never read all the "Boy called It" books for the same reason. I've recently read two books back-to-back about Jews in the second and first world wars - didn't know this when I chose them but they were very good and interesting. The problem I have with the two books at the top is that I have heard so much about them I already have preconceptions, which is probably a shame - same thing with anything by Ian McEwan or some of the other Brit-lit authors!

I've just bought the DVD of Edge of Reason - it just makes me laugh! And I like watching Colin Firth and Hugh Grant scrapping!

It took me a while to get around to reading "The Lovely Bones" but I was glad I did. I tend to read for a laugh now, I admit, probably because I read so much Literature as a teen and in my 20's. If it said Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh or Booker I was there! I can't be bothered now. Someone I know here only reads books that win prizes! I'm so tempted to buy her the Smarties Winner!!

sands

Let's read a book for fun then Do you have the name of the books you mentioned about the Jewish folk in WW1 and 2? I'm Jewish myself and always interested in new literature I don't know about. Thanks!

Lorna at Vicenza

I'm a real bookworm but I used to be a lot choosier about what I read - now it's so damn hard to get hold of English books that I'll read just about anything. I have even read Danielle Steel just to have something to read with a cuppa or before truning the lights out - now that is desperation with a capital D.

If my OH ever travels through a British airport for work he usually gets me whatever is on offer "3 for £10" in WHSmith which is how I sometimes end up with the latest 'best-seller' like The Kite Runner

sands

I know what you mean. And then I end up feeling really guilty spending money on books online, just to have something to read. One of our wedding present ideas was to have vouchers from WH Smiths! I wish we could organise a giant book swap day or something similar, but we're all over the place, logistically.

Lorna at Vicenza

I'm going to put a list of my books that I'd be happy to post to anybody on here - just as long as they promise to post me a different one back -
just not now as other stuff to get done first - and I have a lot of books to list!

TestaRossa

Do none of you use The Book Depository with its free postage? I only use Amazon or the bookshops here if that fails me! Having said that my last lot was off Amazon.

Sands - I'll e-mail you and I can stick those books in the post - no-one else in my family will be reading them and they aren't the sort I will probably read again. One was "The Book Thief" and the other was "Random Acts of Heroic Love" (I think!!) The first is told by Death and is about a German family that helps a Jewish chap in the second world war. The second is two stories that appear unrelated until the final few chapters - not giving anything away as this is pretty obviously going to happen at some point. The first is about a bloke that loses his girlfriend in an accident in South America. The second is about a Jewish chap that crosses Siberia during the First world war for his teenage love. He is telling his story to his children a few weeks after Crystal Night - you can probably guess the rest, but one child is around now to make sure his story is told. What I really liked about this one is that the author based this part of the story on his grandfather who really did walk across Siberia back to then Austria but eventually Poland over the course of the First world war.

A book for fun!!! Any thoughts? I like sci-fi and fantasy, and if it's any good, chick-lit ( but I guess that depends on your definition!). I've read Bridget Jones, a few Celia Ahernes and Marian Keyes. In the other genre I re-read them all anyway as they are my real escape books, my two faves being Terry Pratchett and Iain M. Banks(in his sci-fi persona!). Those are my offerings, but I'm happy to go with whatever really!

Should we start another thread saying "Book Club" or are we happy with the number we have?

sands

I'm in two minds about starting a separate thread, shall we start slow and see how it goes for next time? I'm hoping Patty will be back on this site soon as I noticed she's a great reader too, and she'll prob want to join in too!

I had started to use The Book Depository along with Amazon but it's still a long way from a proper library or charity shop books or the second hand bookshops I used to lose myself in Brighton to! Never mind, this Book Club will be nice for us

Thank you so much for your offer of sending those books to me, they sound a really good read for me. How can I repay you as I'm not sure about c.o.d. here and I don't have any spare books around for a while. I'm going home next month so would there be any culinary offerings I can bring you back that you can think of?!

Re Sci Fi - I've read The Wasp Factory which was weird and wonderful. I don't know much about Terry Pratchett, - I read one of his once called The Unadulterated Cat, very funny. My OH has all his books starting from The Colour of Magic but I just haven't got around to reading any of the others yet. A good time for us all to start maybe? Oh choices, choices!

TestaRossa

You have very obviously married a man of great taste! Ask him which is his favourite. I'm torn between The Hogfather and Night Watch. Most people start with the Rincewind books but I prefer Death and the Vimes books - ask your fella, he'll explain! The only one to really avoid is Monstrous Regiment, which was a bit of a disaster to most fans minds! Living in Florence is like living in Ankh Morpork too, with it's river and Republican origins. There is even a character called Leonardo da Quirm who keeps inventing what he thinks are innocuous machines like "the gonne" and has to be locked away in a secret room where he can't do any harm!

Never read Wasp Factory - that's actually one of his normal books!!! Tells you everything really doesn't it?! My husband read it before we were married and told me it was so gross and weird that I have still never got around to reading it nearly 30 years later! I have read a few of the normal ones though and "enjoyed" them! I like in his sci-fi that the space ships have "minds" and are the real rulers of their world. They have wonderful names like "Now Look What You've Made Me Do" and "I Blame The Parents".

Sorry to ramble on - can you tell these are my favourites?