April's book

This evening we had a lovely meal to say ta-ra and all the best to Juliana. Have a great life in Denmark!!

Lorraine picked this month's shortlist...

1. Dear Tom by Tom Coutenay
2. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka

And the winner is..... A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka!!

Independent Heart was enjoyed by those who read it - apart from Nancy, but she'll have to post her own rant! Housekeeping also comes highly recommended by Julian and Lorraine, and so far I'm up to chapter 3. Good so far.

See ya next month...

Divided Kingdom

Just finished reading Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson, a few of whose novels I've previously read and enjoyed. This one's about a possible future where the government separates people into 4 personality types: sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic. The idea is that it will stabilise society, by placing these 4 types of people in 4 separate parts of what used to be the United Kingdom. It's through the eyes of one person who was separated from his parents at the age of 8, and what happens to him from then on. It was fascinating and creepy, as his other books have often been.

To find out more, check out www.dividedkingdom.co.uk and you can find out which personality type you are.

Graham Greene's The End of the Affair waits beside the bed for me to finish Housekeeping (the book not the hoovering).

Hi Everyone - Have a look at my latest blog

Have joined an extra bookgroup called The London Gay Reading Group. We will be meeting at Halfway to Heaven this weekend. This month we were reading - Parrallel Lies by Stella Duffy. With any luck Ms Duffy should be at the meeting which should make it interesting. The book is quite clever - a satire on Hollywood and its celebrity culture. Like all satires it simplifies and exaggerates to achieve its purpose and its all rather heartless. There is a big problem with satire - I can see it has an importance but the real world is always grey rather than black and white. Life and people are infinitely complex and unpredictable.

I have been thoroughly enjoying John Irving's The Cider House Rules - this is a book with real heart. As Henry V says " a good heart... is the sun and the moon".