Karl’s Neighborhood

A Fine Balance is a fantastic read. It is a bit Dickensian - ie a big fat read, brilliantly drawn characters and a strong story line. Utterly compelling. I could hardly bear to put it down. Tragic story though. I thoroughly recommend it.
The Story of You = RUBBISH !
The Diana Chronicles = Even worse!! What can I say? It was a moment of madness - I am not proud of myself. I just want to draw a line under the whole sorry sordid choice I made.
Roll on July's books!

Baroness Thonrton, Sophie Grigson and adorable children!

I found the The Inheritance of Loss difficult to read because it was so painfully depressing. Beautifully written with incredibly real, flawed characters that I feel are still living and breathing despite me finishing the book.Powerful

The other side of you - okay for train/plane/tube ride. Not as good as Miss Garnetts angel.

Mary Swann I really enjoyed. It had lots to say about what we readers "do" to writers. It was a wonderful read.

If you are stuck at home with babies "Arlington Park" is probably not for you. The sheer relentlessness of the misery could push you over the edge.Cusk is a skilled writer and she uses the structure of a single day in suburbia to great effect. I found it really depressing. The hatred many of the women feel toward the bizarre alien toddler children that inhabit this book is disconcerting. These "desperate housewives" are stuck in hell. I was pleased to finish it. Liked the cover though.

It rained relentlessly through "Arlington Park", my next book it snowed ad nauseam. Stef Penney could give the innuits a run for their money on the million or so different ways she was able to describe snow in "The tenderness of Wolves". Ok I may be exaggerating a little- but boy did we know about the weather. I am probably being unfair as this was a beautifully written book but it didn't do much for me.

"I'm not scared" takes place in a scorching hot summer in Sicily.Its bleak, dark and brooding. Like the other 2 books the weather is a metaphor that is also worked to death. Not brilliant literature but a good enough thriller for a train journey.

I enjoyed Zadie Smiths book "On Beauty" so much that I decided to read, "Howards End". Great book.Typical English weather though!

I have n't posted for a while so the books are backing up! Bad food Britain is fantastic. Did you know 1 in 3 Britons says that they don't eat vegetables because they are too much trouble to prepare. Slightly different to Australia Piers? Read it and weep! The Dawkins book is laugh out loud funny and well worth a read. I am looking forward to my next run in with an evangelical christian.The Labyrinthine was not my cup of tea at all and I could n't have cared less about any of the characters by the end. It started off promising, and there were some nice touches with historical details but not enough to make it compelling.Sadly, despite all her research I think she could have learnt a thing or two from Dan Brown with regard to pace.