I Read Therefore I Am discussion

Septembers monthly author will be Daphne du Maurier
You can choose any book by, about, or featuring her.
Here are a few options:
A selection of Novels and Short Stories

The House on the Strand
Rebecca - on 1001 list
My Cousin Rachel
Frenchman's Creek
Jamaica Inn
The King's General
The Scapegoat
Mary Anne
The Birds
Don't Look Now

Some Biographies
Daphne Du Maurier- by M Forster
Daphne du Maurier: A Daughter's Memoir
Daphne du Maurier and her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy, Bird and Bing



Daphne - a novel featuring Daphne Du Maurier

Brilliant - I love Du Maurier books!

me too - and there are loads that I haven't read :0)

Octobers monthly author will be John le Carré

Here is a selection of his novels:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Secret Pilgrim
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold 1001 list
A Perfect Spy
The Russia House
The Tailor of Panama
The Constant Gardener
The Honourable Schoolboy
Smiley's People 1001 list
A Most Wanted Man

Du Maurier is one of those authors I've meant to read but never have, so I will definitely give her a go next month

Hope you like her Ellie - I loved both Rebecca and Jamaica Inn so would definitely recommend either of those to you!

Lee - does the monthly author come from the random generator thingy as well?

I have just finished Rebecca and am keen to try more. Not sure ill fit it on for September, but I'd like to read My Cousin Rachel.

@ Laurel - yes it does -based on the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide - I'll be skipping any authors that come up who have loads of entries in the 1001 list though.
@ Laurel & Ellie -yes Rebecca and Jamaica Inn are great-I enjoyed Frenchman's Creek too - I think I'm going to try some of her short stories this time, though.

Here are the links to the Wikipedia pages for Daphne Du Maurier and John le Carre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_D...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_le_...

I've got The Birds & Other Stories and I might read one of the biographies as well.

I think I might go for the birds too, and I quite fancy the novel Daphne it's about Daphne du Maurier and the Brontes and it's got a good review from Kirsty. What's not to like?

ooh that one looks good, I might have to check that out as well!

Love Du Maurier and a big fan of le Carre but haven't read either for a while. I think I'll re-read favourites I haven't looked at for years rather than chose new ones. Is that lazy? I might think about that again nearer the time but for the moment I'm going for Jamaica Inn and A Perfect Spy.

OMG, I never realised Du Maurier wrote The Birds

@Hilary no, not at all. For me, a books only good if you want to reread it. That's the one problem with reading new books, not so much time for re reading old books :0)

@ Ellie - Yes I was surprised when I found out - she also wrote the short story that another of my favourite films was based on- Don't Look Now.

I've also been meaning to read some Du Maurier some time, so I'll definitely try to join in next month :)

Yay!

Novembers Monthly Author will be - Tibor Fischer


Here is a selection of his novels:
The Thought Gang
The Collector Collector
Voyage to the End of the Room: A Novel
Under the Frog
Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid: Stories
Good To Be God

Heres a link to Tibor Fischer's Wikipage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibor_Fi...

This should be interesting - I've never heard of him.

I'm looking forward to it too,I've never read anything by him - though I do believe that there's one of his books lurking in my TBR pile.

He isn't listed in my copy of Boxall, poor soul must have been dropped in favour of someone else - ahhhhh!

Hadn't heard of him but had a look at the wiki page last night and some of his books look very interesting! Will see what I can find at the library

Hilary wrote: "He isn't listed in my copy of Boxall, poor soul must have been dropped in favour of someone else - ahhhhh!"

Just to confuse everyone our monthly authors come fromBloomsbury Good Reading Guide: Discover your next great read rather than Boxalls- it's basically an A-Z of authors - each one having about 2 pages about their writing style/subjects and their most popular books.

Sorry Lee, I didn't realise this. I have just tried to get The Thought Gang and I'm told not one library in Northumberland has a copy, likewise Effi Briest, Amazon here I come!

These libraries ! What are they playing at?

Have never heard of Tibor Fischer either - thought he might be another German, as I've just started Effi Briest on the Kindle.

The only one that my local library (Bexley) has got is "Good to be God", so may try to get hold of it, when I'm a bit further through Mason & Dixon.

Actually, the one I quite like the look of is "Collector, Collector" narrated by a Sumerian pot in South London. It appeals to my sense of humour.

Maureen wrote: "Actually, the one I quite like the look of is "Collector, Collector" narrated by a Sumerian pot in South London. It appeals to my sense of humour."

Lol, that tickled me as well Maureen!

I like the idea of that one too - I think I'll go for it and The Thought Gang (as it's already in my TBR pile)

December's monthly author is Alice Munro.

Here is a selection of her short story collections:
Lives of Girls and Women
Friend of My Youth
Dance of the Happy Shades
The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose-Boxalls 1001 list
The View from Castle Rock
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
Runaway
Here's a link to her Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Munro

January's Monthly Author will be Rosamond Lehmann
Here's a selection of her books:
The Ballad and the Source
Dusty Answer
Invitation to the Waltz
The Weather in the Streets
The Echoing Grove
A Sea-Grape Tree

My random app has chosen Boris Akunin to be our February monthly author.
According to the Bloomsbury Good Reads guide, Mr Akunin is a Russian author who has written a series of wildly popular detective novels featuring a government special investigator in late 19th century Imperial Russia.
There is also a 2nd series starring a "gauche but resourceful nun"
Here is a selection of his novels:
The Winter Queen, The Turkish Gambit, The Death Of Achilles, Special Assignments,
Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog, Pelagia and the Black Monk, and Pelagia and the Red Rooster

In order to give library users more of a chance to get hold of our group reads, I'm starting to announce things a little earlier.
So after Borus Akunin in Feb, our March monthly author is William Golding.
Here are some of his novels:
Lord of the flies (Also in the Boxall's List)
Pincher Martin
Free Fall
Rites of Passage
Fire Down Below
The Inheritors
Close Quarters
The Paper Men
The Spire

I'm looking forward to this - I read the Spire last year and really enjoyed it.

ok cool, might finally get around to reading Lord of the Flies then!

I've read three of the Golding novels, lord of the Flies, pincher Martin and The Inheritors, so I may give Golding a miss. I didn't particularly enjoy Pincher Martin but the Inheritors was very interesting. Lord of the Flies is outstanding!

I've just ordered The Spire second hand, looking forward to it!

Yay! I hope you enjoy it - I can't really compare it to anything else I've read.

Don't forget, everybody - It's Boris Akunin first :0)

After William Golding in March it's Michèle Roberts
Here is a selection of her novels
The Mistressclass, Reader, I Married Him,Fair Exchange, The Looking Glass: A Novel, Impossible Saints, The Wild Girl, Ignorance, Daughters of the House: A Novel, The Book Of Mrs Noah

After Michele Roberts in March (whose novels , according to Bloomsbury "combine a sensuous and poetic appreciation of the natural world with an inventive re-imagining of history, religion, the relationships between men and women and those between mother and daughter")' we have -
in April- Arturo Perez- Reverte
Bloomsbury says that his novels are "on one level, very old fashioned and full of buckle and swash" but in another sense they are "post-modern games where Perez-Reverte teases the reader with riddling references to everything from chess and treasure maps to theological controversies and the correct way to use a rapier"
Here is a selection of his novels
The Club Dumas
The Seville Communion
The Nautical Chart
Queen Of The South
The Flanders Panel
The Fencing Master
El pintor de batallas (the Painter of Battles)

@Lee should this be April and May?

Yes of course it should - I was thinking this was February! Thanks Hilary
So Michele Roberts - April
And Arturo Perez- Reverte - May
Sorry folks.

June's monthly author is Russell Hoban - Bloomsbury Good Reads Guide says "Hoban 1st made his name with children's books, but over the last 35 years has published a number of highly imaginative novels for adults. each one is different from his other works and all are largely unlike anything else being published in England"
Amongst his books are:
The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz
Riddley Walker
Kleinzeit
The Bat Tattoo
The Medusa Frequency
Her Name Was Lola
Come Dance with Me
My Tango with Barbara Strozzi
Angelica Lost and Found

July's monthly author is Ursula K. Le Guin
The Bloomsbury Good Reads guide says "Le Guin made her name writing the prize winning Earthsea novels, originally aimed at children but one of the great works of 20th century fantasy writing.
Le Guin uses alternate-world fantasy to discuss social, ecological and political themes. many of her other books are technically sci-fi, set in the future and on other planets but they explore the same questions of race, sexuality and politics tackled by main stream authors, often with more elegance and style"
Here is a selection of her novels and short story collections:
The Earthsea Quartet
Rocannon's World
Planet of Exile
The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Lathe of Heaven
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Telling
Lavinia
City of Illusions
The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
Changing Planes

August's Monthly Author will be John Steinbeck.

Here is what The Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide has to say.

Until he settled down to writing in 1935, he moved restlessly from one job to another; he was a journalist, a builders labourer, a house painter......This experience gave him first hand knowledge of the dispossessed, the unemployed millions who suffered the brunt of the US depression of the 30's.
Their lives are his subject and he writes of them with ferocious documentary intensity and in a style that seems to exactly capture their habits of both mind and speech.
The ruggedness of his novels is often enhanced by themes borrowed from myth or the Old Testament; Tortilla Flats about "wetbacks" ( illegal Mexican immigrants) uses the story of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere, East of Eden is based on the story of Cain and Abel. Though Steinbeck never thrusts such references down the readers throat, they add to the grandeur and mystery which together with documentary grittiness are the overwhelming qualities of his work"
And breath.
Here is a selection of his novels;
Grapes of Wrath
Tortilla Flat
Of Mice and Men
Cannery Row
The Pearl
The Moon Is Down
East of Eden
The Winter of Our Discontent
Sweet Thursday
The Wayward Bus