Between the Lines discussion

Emilee wrote: "Beth: Extremely Loud... was great. I really liked it."

I read Pride and Prejudice after finishing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The author refers to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth a few times in the book. If you haven't read Guernsey yet, add it to your list!

Completed books '09:
1. One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich (amazing book from nobel prize recipient about life in a Siberian work camp)
2. Beginner's Greek (nice novel about love...)
3. Rebecca (Last night I dreamt of Manderlay...)
4. Sippy Cups are not for Chardonnay (funny book about being a new mother)
5. The Rules of Attraction (my first Brett Easton Ellis - liked it a lot!)
6. Alias Grace (real life Canadian murder mystery)
7. The Social life of dogs (funny book about the author's dogs (some of them))
8. Anna Karenina (simply amazing!!!)
9. The Year of Fog (interesting book about a child gone missing)
10. The Forest (about the history of the New Forest in UK, told in short stories about the people living there, didn't like this one very much)
11. Middlesex (Amazing book!)
12. The Audacity of Hope (interesting - especially to see the differences between US and Danish/European politics)
13. Chicago (about Egyptians muslims - a very different read from what I'm used to)
14. Hogfather (a nice Discworld novel)
15. Stolen Innocence (one of the girls from Warren Jeff's people tells her story)
16. Death and the Penguin (great novel about a man and his penguin - and the mafia)
17. Hotel New Hampshire (Never read this John Irving-novel before - loved it)
18. House in Paris (really great novel about two children happening to meet in a house in Paris and the story of why one of them was adopted)
19. Man Gone Down (amazing debut - not an easy or light read in any way but very rewarding and interesting - about a father struggling to get by in today's America)
20. Håndteringen af udøde (Handling the undead - the recently deceased wake up again and cause a lot of problems - liked this one a lot)
21. The Handmaid's Tale (for the group read)
22. Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (not my thing - rather repetitive - for the 1001-books you must read... list)

Currently reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle as well as Lovecraft inspired short stories.

Emilee, what did you think of Stolen Innocence now you've finished it?

I just finished #21 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Definitely a five star book. It made me laugh and cry and I'll never forget it.

I just keep hearing so many wonderful things about that book Beth, it's on my wish list. ;o)

You should really read it, Lorena. It's a book that will stay with me forever. It's right up there with The Book Thief, Life of Pi, The Road, The Kite Runner and Blindness.

Emilee, I have watched a couple of specials and documentaries on the subject and it seems that is not too easy to actually leave the compounds if you are a woman, for young boys it seems it easier (to leave or get kicked out) specially if they have shown interest in a girl that one of the older perverts has his eyes on.

I must agree with you about the odd ocurrence of these sects and some of the unspeakable acts that take place in them here in the US and in Canada, you'd think someone would care for the victims, but alas as long as they pay their taxes and the men have someone in politics the people in power, it would seem, are more than willing to turn the other way.

I read Stolen Innocence and Escape. And now Rumspringa. Why do so many religions/cults take as a central point the total submission of women to men as a central point?

1. Flower Confidential
2. Alex & Me
3. Otherwise Normal People
4. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
5. Within These Walls
6. Kabul Beauty School
7. The Family Tree
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
9. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
10 Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel.
11 My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
12 Annie May's Black Book
13 The Dressing Station
14 The Mistress's Daughter
15 Nowhere in Africa
16 Complications - Atul
17 Plato and the Platypus Walk Into a Bar
18 Great Big Beautiful Doll
19 If I Did It
20 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity.
21 Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
22 White Tiger.
23 Call the Midwife: a True Story of the East End in the 1950s.
24 Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
25 Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz
26 Seal Doctor
27 No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels

28 Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish
The book is a measured, thoughtful and well-researched view of the period between childhood and commitment to the church (or leaving the church) that the Amish call rumspringa - literally 'running around'. Everything is permitted for these teens and early twenties, or if not exactly permitted, then not forbidden. As an anabaptist sect, the Amish believe that baptism must be entered into freely by an adult, in full knowledge of the alternative, 'English' or mainstream America. This baptism is an unbreakable commitment to the Church and not, as the Baptist sects believe, any guarantee of an eternal dwelling in heaven.

After reading the book, which is written from the point of view of an interested and not-unsympathetic mainstream American, I have a great deal of respect from the Amish's ideas of community and how to maintain it, of their pacifist and non-judgmental stance and forgiveness of all acts by their children, no matter how against their ethics and even the law, during their rumspringa. It is difficult, however, to sympathise with the extreme submissiveness and abnegation of all self-determination of the women, and their insistence on only the most basic of formal education ending at 14. The various bans on electricity, telephones and motors in most circumstances but not all seem hypocritical. It strikes me as ridiculous that ownership and driving of cars (outside of rumspringa) are forbidden, but riding in them and hiring them with a driver isn't. Needless to say, most religions have these strange little peculiarities, but generally they aren't so obvious as with the Amish.

This is a good book, deep, interesting and well-written. Its a slice of America that is generally regarded as quaint, antiquated and a bit of a tourist show. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Amish are a thriving, growing religion that is deeply introspective and cares little what the world thinks of it.

Emilee - Rumspringa is a far better book than Escape, although Escape is a pretty good book too. I also read Stolen Innocence. I think the Amish are very interesting with their combination of real down-to-earth ways of looking at the world and the absolutely ridiculous prohibitions and ways around them. Orthodox Jews are very much the same - solid ideas a load of nonsensical prohibitions with creative ways around them. (I was raised as an Orthodox Jew).

btw I'm not a feminist. I wouldn't limit myself by subscribing to their little ambitions.

Few words scare people as much as Feminism does, well maybe socialism, but I won't get into that, however:

Oxford's dictionary ...

Feminist: A person who supports the equality of women with men.
One who believes in the social, political, and economical equality of the sexes.

Webster's ...

Feminist: n. adj; the principal that woman should have political, economic, and social rights equal to those of men.

I do not belong to any political movement that uses Feminism as a platform, well, truth be told I don't subscribe to political parties or organized religions, but I do believe that I, my daughters, my sister, my mother and all the other women deserve and should expect equal rights, oportunities and the respect our male counterparts receive.

My books read for 2009
1. Crown Jewel by Fern Michaels
2. Stranded with a Spy by Merlin Lovelace
3. No Place Like Home by Fern Michaels
4. A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight
5. Pretty Woman by Fern Michaels
6. Irresistable Forces by Brenda Jackson
7. First Impressions by Fern Michaels
8. The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts
9. Family Blessings by Fern Michaels
10. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory
11. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
12. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
13. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
14. Speed Dating
16. Kiss Me Deadly
17. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
18. The Giver by Lois Lowry
19. Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly
20. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
21. Snowbound by Janice Kay Johnson
22. Messenger by Lois Lowry
23. Price of Passion by Susan Napier
24. The Handmaid's Tale by margaret Atwood
25. Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren
26. Homespun Bride by Jillian Hart
27. The Glory Cloak: A novel of Louisa May Alcott and Clara Barton by Patricia O'Brien

Lorena: I don't believe women should seek equality with men.

I wouldn't lower myself.

*January*
1. Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
2. Dragon Rider, by Cornelia Funke
3. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
4. Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
5. The Handmaid's Tale, By Atwood
6. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
7. The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr
8. Through the Looking Glass And What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll
(Illustrated by Ralph Steadman)
9. Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins
10. Put me in the Zoo, by Robert Lopshire

*February*
11. The Great Wheel, by Robert Lawson
12. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
13. Lincoln: A Photobiography, by Russell Freedman
14. Lady Chatterley's Lover, By D.H.Lawrence
15. The Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
16. The Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad

*March*
17. Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers, by Ralph Moody
18. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
19. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter
20. Deadly Exchange, Geoffrey M. Gluckman
21. Cheaper by the Dozen, by Gilberth
22. The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman
23. Emma, by Jane Austen
24. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

Currently Reading
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - by Mildred D. Taylor
The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman
In the Time Of The Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez
A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, by C. Coco De Young

I obviously need to keep better track of the books I have read. These are the ones that I know for sure I have read since the beginning of the year:

1. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
2. Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith
3. 1000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
4. Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
5. Wondrous Strange by Leslie Livingstone
6. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
7. The Gathering by Anne Enright
8. Kingfisher Days by Susan Coyne
9. The Interior by Lisa See
10. The Thai Amulet by Lyn Hamilton

Of this list by far 1000 Splendid Suns and Complicated Kindness are my favourites. Comforts of a Muddy Sunday and Kingfisher Days were the most disappointing. I will have to continue to wrack my brain to remember the others that I have read this year.
Not sure if I get to count the ones I read out loud to my son so here they are separate:
1. Hardy Boys the Yellow Feather
2. Magic Treehouse Moonlight on the Magic Flute
3. Geronimo Stilton It’s Halloween You Fraidy Mouse
4. Geronomo Stilton Shipwreck on the Pirate Islands

I am currently reading The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. and The Sister by Poppy Adams (was released as "the Behaviour of Moths" in the UK)

Heart of Darkness was good and short. The writer's style was hard for me to get into and I must confess I had to take breaks in between reading the book -I couldn't read for an hour straight as I usually do- but the subject matter is very interesting, much more so given the fact that it was written by someone who had actually been there and witness the devastation of the colonization process not only on the native people but on the land itself.

1. Flower Confidential
2. Alex & Me
3. Otherwise Normal People
4. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
5. Within These Walls
6. Kabul Beauty School
7. The Family Tree
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
9. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
10 Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel.
11 My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
12 Annie May's Black Book
13 The Dressing Station
14 The Mistress's Daughter
15 Nowhere in Africa
16 Complications - Atul
17 Plato and the Platypus Walk Into a Bar
18 Great Big Beautiful Doll
19 If I Did It
20 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity.
21 Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
22 White Tiger.
23 Call the Midwife: a True Story of the East End in the 1950s.
24 Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
25 Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz
26 Seal Doctor
27 No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels
28 Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish

29 This Child is Mine. (Fiction).
A teenage girl gives her baby up for adoption as she doesn't want her boyfriend to give up his acting dreams and get a proper job. Years later, the boyfriend is a major soap opera star, they meet, they marry and they want their baby back. Will reuniting a natural family win out over a child's love for his adoptive mother? The characters were badly-drawn, the plot was clichéd and the court scenes more schlocky than anything on Court TV. But you have to read to the end of the book, just in case Denker pulls a Jodi Picoult surprise ending. Am I going to tell you if he does? No. Do I recommend you read this book? No, just fuggedabout it and see what's on the tv.

#22, Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books.

Yeah Rumspringa looks good. My parents used to have a farm in Pennsylvania that we rented to the Amish people and I've always found them fascinating. It would be really interesting to learn more about their faith.

Emilee's Completed books for 2009:

1. Clockwork Orange (pgs 192)
2. Loving Frank (pgs 362)
3. Marley & Me (pgs 466)
4. Secret Life of Bees (336)
5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (368)
6. The Comfort of Strangers (pg 128)
7. Moby Dick (pgs 700)
8. Emotional Blackmail (pg 272)
9. A Room of One's own (pgs 112)
10. A Seperate Peace (pgs 208)
11. Nanny Diaries (pgs 320)
12. Sacred Stone: The Temple at Nauvoo (pgs 166)
13. A Grief Observed (pgs 112)
14. A Child's Garden of Verses (pgs 72)
15. The Age of Innocence (pgs 336)
16. Emma (pgs 512)
17. Jane Eyre (pgs 507)
18. War of the Worlds (pgs 224)
19. Pride and Prejudice (pgs 352)
20. The Handmaid's Tale (pgs 323)
21. Prodigal Summer (pgs 446)
22. Stolen Innocence (pgs 438)
23. Where Angels Fear to Thread (pgs 148)
24. The History of Joseph Smith by his Mother (pgs 315)
25. Alice in Wonderland (pages 76)

Emilee,

One quarter done... Right on time. Excellent!

Thanks Beth!

Emilee's Completed books for 2009:

1. Clockwork Orange (pgs 192)
2. Loving Frank (pgs 362)
3. Marley & Me (pgs 466)
4. Secret Life of Bees (336)
5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (368)
6. The Comfort of Strangers (pg 128)
7. Moby Dick (pgs 700)
8. Emotional Blackmail (pg 272)
9. A Room of One's own (pgs 112)
10. A Seperate Peace (pgs 208)
11. Nanny Diaries (pgs 320)
12. Sacred Stone: The Temple at Nauvoo (pgs 166)
13. A Grief Observed (pgs 112)
14. A Child's Garden of Verses (pgs 72)
15. The Age of Innocence (pgs 336)
16. Emma (pgs 512)
17. Jane Eyre (pgs 507)
18. War of the Worlds (pgs 224)
19. Pride and Prejudice (pgs 352)
20. The Handmaid's Tale (pgs 323)
21. Prodigal Summer (pgs 446)
22. Stolen Innocence (pgs 438)
23. Where Angels Fear to Thread (pgs 148)
24. The History of Joseph Smith by his Mother (pgs 315)
25. Alice in Wonderland (pages 76)
26. The Mormon Battalion US Army of the West (pgs 375)

Last night I finished #23, First Darling of the Morning Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood

The other (not me) Beth wrote: "Last night I finished #23, First Darling of the Morning Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood..."

Is it good? I just added it to my TBR list.

Beth & Beth A. how was First Darling.......

LOL Emilee, I guess I wasn't very clear, it did look like I was saying I had read "First Darling". I didn't. I was just asking how it was. I edited my post, hopefully it will be more clear now.

I can't read. I read a bit, newspaper, magazine, book, and put it down. My days and nights are spent either visiting or nursing my mother or trying to deal with my brother's large and unruly family that I have no place in and where books and reading are something people did in school. Its hard to adjust to cities and people and sickness when I am so used to living in a rainforest alone except for my son and where health is taken for granted.

I am sorry Petra. My thoughts and prays are with you and your family.

Emilee's Completed books for 2009:

1. Clockwork Orange (pgs 192)
2. Loving Frank (pgs 362)
3. Marley & Me (pgs 466)
4. Secret Life of Bees (336)
5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (368)
6. The Comfort of Strangers (pg 128)
7. Moby Dick (pgs 700)
8. Emotional Blackmail (pg 272)
9. A Room of One's own (pgs 112)
10. A Seperate Peace (pgs 208)
11. Nanny Diaries (pgs 320)
12. Sacred Stone: The Temple at Nauvoo (pgs 166)
13. A Grief Observed (pgs 112)
14. A Child's Garden of Verses (pgs 72)
15. The Age of Innocence (pgs 336)
16. Emma (pgs 512)
17. Jane Eyre (pgs 507)
18. War of the Worlds (pgs 224)
19. Pride and Prejudice (pgs 352)
20. The Handmaid's Tale (pgs 323)
21. Prodigal Summer (pgs 446)
22. Stolen Innocence (pgs 438)
23. Where Angels Fear to Thread (pgs 148)
24. The History of Joseph Smith by his Mother (pgs 315)
25. Alice in Wonderland (pages 76)
26. The Mormon Battalion US Army of the West (pgs 375)
27. Better Than You Think You Are (pgs 212)

Emilee and Beth A: First Darling of the Morning Selected Memories of an Indian Childhoodwas pretty good, however the first half flowed much better than the last half. I gave it 4 stars but I would have given it 3.5 if we could use .5's. Her mother was supposedly an awful person but she really didn't reveal too many details of this throughout the book, the way i would have expected it. It was like she mentioned some stuff in the beginning but didn't carry it out to the end.

I have read a 100 books befor in 2007 when I was really sick and pretty much bedridden but this year I've only read 12 in three months. Sad!!!! I will try, sometimes you just need the right push. Here's my list so far:

Year of Wonders
When She Was Bad
Deranged
The Girl Next Door
Frozen
Primal Waters
The Seventh Sacrament
Night Kills
Shadowman
Cross
A Wicked Snow
Into the Wild

As you can see I really like suspense but also just like a good read. I amcurrently reading Birdman and trying to get through Grapes of Wrath. If I'm ever going to meet this challenge I need to read more and spend less time on the internet. Discipline!!!!!!

Susan C

Susan that's a great start! Some members in the group are doing 50 books but you only need to be to 33 books by April 30 to be on track. But you could spread out some of them. Granted, you'll find yourself reading a lot more on GR!

My books read for 2009
1. Crown Jewel by Fern Michaels
2. Stranded with a Spy by Merlin Lovelace
3. No Place Like Home by Fern Michaels
4. A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight
5. Pretty Woman by Fern Michaels
6. Irresistable Forces by Brenda Jackson
7. First Impressions by Fern Michaels
8. The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts
9. Family Blessings by Fern Michaels
10. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory
11. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
12. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
13. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
14. Speed Dating
16. Kiss Me Deadly
17. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
18. The Giver by Lois Lowry
19. Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly
20. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
21. Snowbound by Janice Kay Johnson
22. Messenger by Lois Lowry
23. Price of Passion by Susan Napier
24. The Handmaid's Tale by margaret Atwood
25. Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren
26. Homespun Bride by Jillian Hart
27. The Glory Cloak: A novel of Louisa May Alcott and Clara Barton by Patricia O'Brien
28. The Real Deal by Fern Michaels
29. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
30. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
31. His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls
32. The Reader by Bernard Schlink
33. Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry
It is not even the end of April and I am a third done. I am so proud of myself for reading all these books. I just went to the library yesterday to get more books!

Wow Wendy, I'm impressed! I'm reading #24 and 25 right now. I feel so far behind. LOL

Emilee, your are doing really well also. I'm impressed with you too!

I just finished The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop last night (#24) and it was very good. There was a lot of history about bookstores and publishing in it. There was also some interesting information about James Joyce.

Completed books '09:
11. Middlesex (Amazing book!)
12. The Audacity of Hope (interesting - especially to see the differences between US and Danish/European politics)
13. Chicago (about Egyptians muslims - a very different read from what I'm used to)
14. Hogfather (a nice Discworld novel)
15. Stolen Innocence (one of the girls from Warren Jeff's people tells her story)
16. Death and the Penguin (great novel about a man and his penguin - and the mafia)
17. Hotel New Hampshire (Never read this John Irving-novel before - loved it)
18. House in Paris (really great novel about two children happening to meet in a house in Paris and the story of why one of them was adopted)
19. Man Gone Down (amazing debut - not an easy or light read in any way but very rewarding and interesting - about a father struggling to get by in today's America)
20. Håndteringen af udøde (Handling the undead - the recently deceased wake up again and cause a lot of problems - liked this one a lot)
21. The Handmaid's Tale (for the group read)
22. Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (not my thing - rather repetitive - for the 1001-books you must read... list)
23. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (loved it!)
24. Wonder Boys (enjoyed this one a lot as well)
25. City of God (very impressive book)
26. After Dark (another good book by one of my favourite authors, Haruki Murakami)

So I've read 26 and I don't feel like I'm quite where I should be at this moment. I would like to be at at least 33 when April's over.

Currently I'm reading The Gravedigger's Daughter by another of my favourite authors, Joyce Carol Oates.

I need to get off my laptop! I'm a SAHM but you wouldn't know it by how little reading I've accomplished this year. I only read while waiting in the pick up line at school and right before bed! All the time I spend on FB needs to be spent reading.

You can do it Em, I have faith... You have a lot of good picks on your list!

That's awesome, Emilee. I think I need to go on vacation all by myself, without my laptop. Then maybe I'll get some reading done.

I finished #25 last night, Eat, Memory Great Writers at the Table A Collection of Essays from the New York Times

I'm going to try, really I am. But where are we now? On the computer! I am in the middle of a book now, so I should be able to finish it this weekend. I'm going to aim for another one after that.

1. Flower Confidential
2. Alex & Me
3. Otherwise Normal People
4. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
5. Within These Walls
6. Kabul Beauty School
7. The Family Tree
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
9. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
10 Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel.
11 My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
12 Annie May's Black Book
13 The Dressing Station
14 The Mistress's Daughter
15 Nowhere in Africa
16 Complications - Atul
17 Plato and the Platypus Walk Into a Bar
18 Great Big Beautiful Doll
19 If I Did It
20 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity.
21 Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
22 White Tiger.
23 Call the Midwife: a True Story of the East End in the 1950s.
24 Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
25 Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz
26 Seal Doctor
27 No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels
28 Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish
29 This Child is Mine

30 Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir
Diana Athill, a top British editor, wrote this short reflection on life and how it might end for her when she was 89. The writing is stunning, every sentence is perfectly-crafted and thoughful. Short as it is, however, its not short enough: the brilliance of the writing is not enough to overcome the tedium of the subject illuminated only occasionally by the witty recounting of stories and unusual characters. I don't often feel disappointed in myself if I didn't enjoy a book, but here I feel there is something in me that is lacking, that I should be able to appreciate this beautifully-written and poetic memoir. But I didn't.

I finished #26 (A homemade Life) last night.

1. Flower Confidential
2. Alex & Me
3. Otherwise Normal People
4. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
5. Within These Walls
6. Kabul Beauty School
7. The Family Tree
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
9. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
10 Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel.
11 My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
12 Annie May's Black Book
13 The Dressing Station
14 The Mistress's Daughter
15 Nowhere in Africa
16 Complications - Atul
17 Plato and the Platypus Walk Into a Bar
18 Great Big Beautiful Doll
19 If I Did It
20 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity.
21 Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
22 White Tiger.
23 Call the Midwife: a True Story of the East End in the 1950s.
24 Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
25 Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz
26 Seal Doctor
27 No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels
28 Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish
29 This Child is Mine
30 Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir

31 Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
I've read quite a lot of Picoult now. I started on a high note - My Sister's Keeper, which apart from the cop-out ending, was a really fantastic read. I mostly enjoyed her books with the exception of Salem Falls which failed to ring any bells for me at all, but this book, Nineteen Minutes was... tedious. It started off ok, but one major character turned out to be a red herring and just another woman in need of a f*** and her opposite number, who looked like she was going to be an uber-earth mother, was a mess. (Admittedly that was probably as true-to-life as one could get). The middle part of the book was just pure tedium and the twist of an ending was so unlikely that all I felt on completing it was relief. Sad really. Maybe its like film stars who know when to stop, maybe writers should know when they've hit their peak and retire too.

I finished #27, Veronika Decides to Die, last night.

Beth wrote: "I finished #27, Veronika Decides to Die, last night."

What was it like? I've never read any Coelho, but the title of this intrigues me.

1. Flower Confidential
2. Alex & Me
3. Otherwise Normal People
4. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
5. Within These Walls
6. Kabul Beauty School
7. The Family Tree
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
9. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
10 Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel.
11 My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
12 Annie May's Black Book
13 The Dressing Station
14 The Mistress's Daughter
15 Nowhere in Africa
16 Complications - Atul
17 Plato and the Platypus Walk Into a Bar
18 Great Big Beautiful Doll
19 If I Did It
20 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity.
21 Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
22 White Tiger.
23 Call the Midwife: a True Story of the East End in the 1950s.
24 Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
25 Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz
26 Seal Doctor
27 No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels
28 Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish
29 This Child is Mine
30 Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir
31 Nineteen Minutes

32 Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
I'd just read Jay Dobyn's extremely exciting and fully-involved No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels. Dobyn was an undercover cop whose total immersion in Angels' culture led to him substituting his real life for what was really a job. Because it was so involved, it took me a while to get into Hunter Thompson's cool, cynical, totally-detached own year-long involvement with the Angels, whose beer, drugs and addiction to speed he was happy to share, but the rest was left behind when he drove home to his wife and child. Although 40 years separate these books there is an enjoyable synchronicity between them - some of Thompson's characters turn up in Dobyn's book, and the philosophy or politics of rejection by society's rejects remains the same.

Stunning writing. No padding, every word of every sentence adds to each developing story. Oh to write like that, like an angel....

Damn' good read.

Petra - I read Veronika decides to die a couple of years ago and this is what I wrote about it back then:
Veronika finally suceeds in getting pills enough to comit suicide, take the pills because she doesn't feel happiness or sorrow and doesn't feel life is worth living, survives the suicide attempt only to end up in a mental hospital where she's told she has damaged her heart so severly she only has about a week left to live.
During this week Veronika realizes that she herself has been the reason her life hasn't been worth living and start taking chances, explores her sexuality, falls in love and starts living her dreams. She realizes that you can't live your life the way other wants it.
The story does have an unxpected - for me at least - twist and it did make me stop and wonder if I live the life I want to live. However, something left me missing something in the end - I'm sorry to be so vague, but I can't really put my finger on it. I think maybe the twist wasn't quite worked out enough or just seemed a bit unlikely.
Overall, I liked the book and would like to read other books by Coelho later on.

Your review of the two books about Hell's Angels sounds interesting! Actually, in Dennmark we have a man who is currently the official spokesperson for HA Denmark and he has written a couple of books (one about his escape from the police and Denmark after he shot the leader from another group). I had a teacher read them to us back in high school and I remember them being very interesting - maybe I should read them along with the two you've read ... could be a interesting project...

I will join ya ladies. Here is mine:

1. Married Lovers - Jackie Collins
2. The Family Bones - Kimberley Raiser
3. Skin & Bone - Kathryn Fox
4. The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K.Rowling
5. A Dog called Christmas - Greg Kincaid
6. Four Degrees More - Malcolm Rose
7. Animal Lab - Malcolm Rose
8. Falling Awake - Viv French
9. Walking with Rainbows - Isla Dewar
10. Harpies - David Belbin
11. The Cold Heart of Summer - Alan Gibbons
12. Christmas, Present - Jacquelyn Mitchard
13. I Am The Messenger - Markus Zusak
14. The Mentalist - Rod Duncan
15. Sleepover Club Makeover - Jana Hunter
16. Sleepover Girls Go Green - Angie Bates
17. Skin Privilege - Karin Slaughter
18. The Anatomy of Deception - Lawerence Goldstone
19. Martin Misunderstood - Karin Slaughter
20. The Bonanza Trail - John Dyson
21. Poems from The Lord Of The Rings - J.R.R.Tolkien
22. Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esqivel
23. Tim - Colleen McCullough (Audio)
24. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (Audio)
25. King Edward VIII: The Official Biography - Philip Ziegler
26. Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman (Audio)
27. Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier (Audio)
28. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (Audio)
29. The Rainmaker - John Grisham
30. The Lipstick Killers - Lee Martin
31A Dish Taken Cold - Anne Perry
32. Step on a Crack - James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
33. Judge & Jury - James Patterson & Andrew Gross
34The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold
35The Beacon - Susan Hill
36. An Eye for an Eye - Malorie Blackman
37. Cold Granite - Stuart MacBride
38. Endal: How One Extraordinary Dog Brought a Family Back from the Brink - Allen & Sandra Parton
39. The Attack - Yasmina Khadra
40. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (Audio)
41. 8th Confession - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
42. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (Audio)
43. Torn Apart: The Heartbreaking Story of a Childhood Lost - James Patterson & Hal Friedman (audio)
44. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid (ML)
45. The Boy in the Dress - David Walliams (ML)
46. The Calling - Inger Ash Wolfe (ML)
47. Spilling The Beans - Clarissa Dickson Wright (ML/Audio)
48. The Swallow and the Dark - Andrew Matthews
49. Respect - Michaela Morgan
50. The Night Bus - Anthony Horowitz
51. Scared - Anthony Horowitz