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What are you reading at the moment?
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Jill Hickman



Joined: 15 Sep 2010
Posts: 31
Location: Oxfordshire

PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

About half way through Stephen King's The Dome - the jury's out on that one for me. I await impatiently the next Ian McEwan novel!!
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FleetingEileenM



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've just finished a good page-turner i.e. A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore. It's set in Norfolk and is about a recently widowed young auctioneer who is asked to value a collection of astronomical manuscripts and instruments from the 18th century.

There are disturbing links between past and present which centre around an old folly in the woods which was used for star-gazing by the astronomer and his adopted daughter. Rather a lot of coincidences but it was a good intriguing story.
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aviddiva



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:34 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I've started on Michael Palin's second volume of diaries. In the context of working on Time Bandits he reckons the film ought to be called Terry Gilliam's Greed - substitute the name of a boss I know and you'll have an opinion on where I stand at the moment re:payment.
Evil or Very Mad
On the other hand, I'm singing that title to 'she's got Bette Davis eyes' in my head...
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:15 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I have also had a look at Ken Bruce's Tracks Of My Years book in Headingley library - I laughed out loud at the anecdote about Jimmy Logan being interviewed about his late father!

'Jack, You're Dead' off Joe Jackson's 'Jumping Jive' album followed the interview and the producers hadn't realised Logan's father was named Jack!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:38 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Still wading through Halfway To Hollywood - Denis O' Brien seemed to be like a dog with a bone regarding the Yellowbeard film, in that he wouldn't stop hassling Palin to work on it!

Palin wasn't impressed with the music George Harrison submitted for Time Bandits - I longed for him to say 'and so I got Tony Banks from Genesis to do the score instead', but that would never happen.
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gutsygub



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 11:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have just finished reading one of my son's books by Michael Morpurgo called Private Peaceful, wonder if any of you have read it.I'm not sure what age group it is aimed at, probably for 10 plus, but as with any good children's book it is ageless. A very moving read particularly just after Remembrance Sunday.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:48 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Kirk Lake's 'There Will Be Rainbows' - promoted as a biog of Rufus Wainwright though it also takes in the lives and careers of Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle. They should have included a Pete Frame-style family tree!

It was genuine news to me that Jasper Carrott never spoke to Loudon Wainwright behind the scenes when he was the regular guest on his show - I guessed it could be professional jealousy! He seemed to bum up Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis around the same time.

Kate McGarrigle wasn't the saint that subsequent obituaries painted her as - she is shown to have screamed at a teenage Martha Wainwright to turn her choice of music off (Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' in Martha's case). She also wasn't keen on young Rufus's opera records - when she played him the sort of music he 'should' listen to, he snootily dismissed it as 'poor people's music'.

As my sister once described Wakefield as being 'full of poor people', I'd like to know how Kate McGarrigle came to be a fan of Bill Nelson (boom-tish!) Laughing
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:47 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I've started on Michael Freedland's 'The Other Side Of The Rainbow', about the people who knew Judy Garland. In the Kirk Lake book previously mentioned, he describes one of Garland's monologues on the 'Live At Carnegie Hall' album (a setlist later reworked by Rufus Wainwright live) as being like a prototype for Eddie Izzard's as it's all over the place!

Freedland tells again the story about how young Frances Gumm joined her sisters' singing act at two years old - she gets onstage and sings Jingle Bells over and over.

It sounds like my elder niece's daughter repeating the chorus of From Me To You over and over at my younger niece's birthday party!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:44 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I am reading The Place of Secrets for my book group at an arts centre in Headingley - some coincidence!

At home I've finished Charlie Brooker's TV GoHome - too many poo and wee jokes. I've started on Phill Jupitus's Good Morning Nantwich.
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undiscovered



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PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just finished Book 2 of Harry Sidebottom's Soldier of Rome King of Kings the first one Fire in the East was my favourite book I read last year by some way, book 3 Lion of the Sun out in April, they are based during the end of the Roman empire in the eastern region (modern day turkey, Iraq) and Romes battles with itself, the rise of Christianity and the Sassanid of Persia

The author used to write factual books about Rome and Greece of that time so is very descriptive and acurate in his storytelling. I could not recommend this higher.
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FLYBYNIGHT



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PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am reading Barack Obama's "Dreams from my Father". Really well written. I didn't realise he was a writer before he became a politician.
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undiscovered



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PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follet

I liked the Tv show got this and the sequel for Christmas, rather large book so could be here a while
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 4:53 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Still on Good Morning Nantwich - Phill Jupitus has been researching breakfast radio at the point where 6 Music are about to broadcast proper after several dry runs.

He is not impressed with the station he has on (not credited) but I am guessing it's Heart because he slags them off a few times!

And during one of the dry runs they do a practice obituary in case a musician died - they had Lou Reed as an example, and Jupitus imagines how Reed could have died...at the hands of Noam Chomsky?
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:10 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Finished Good Morning Nantwich, started on Graeme Thomson's 'Under The Ivy', his Kate Bush biog.

It killed me when she was quoted as denying her brother Jay wasn't a 'dark evil Svengali' (as several EMI personnel saw him), as it was such a perfect description of Johnson (Paterson Joseph) in Peep Show, manipulating Mark for personal gain!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:48 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

It's Only A Movie by Mark Kermode - he lays into Mamma Mia further on in the book and deservedly too!

He talks about his beloved Exorcist in the first chapter.
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:53 am    Post subject: Re: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

aviddiva wrote:
It's Only A Movie by Mark Kermode - he lays into Mamma Mia further on in the book and deservedly too!


I've always found Kermode to be a big too smug for my liking, but if he lays into Mamma Mia then he's a dick. It's not the kind of film I would normally go out of my way to see (too "girly", let's be honest) but I'm glad my wife and family dragged me to see it at Cineworld, CMK.

It's been many a year since I've witnessed a cinema audience up in the aisles singing and dancing.

And, of course, the music is great.

Kermode needs to get a reality check if he slags it off because there must be millions of people who would vehemently disagree with him. What do "critics" know, eh?
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undiscovered



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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:49 pm    Post subject: Re: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

ColinB wrote:
f he lays into Mamma Mia then he's a dick. It's not the kind of film I would normally go out of my way to see (too "girly", let's be honest) but I'm glad my wife and family dragged me to see it at Cineworld, CMK.

It's been many a year since I've witnessed a cinema audience up in the aisles singing and dancing.


do you know what I think pretty much the same, I would never have gone to see it at the flicks but OH borrowed it so I duly sat and watched it. She didn't get it but I found myself humming along. No I don't ever want to see it again but I kind of liked it.

I remember going to see Rocky 4 for my 14 birthday in the old tiered seated cinema, I remember seeing poeple stand up and shouting "hit him" etc during the final fight scene. I have never been to a cinema where the audience were so into the film like that, and no it's not the best film in the world either but I will always have soft spot for it for that reason
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:03 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

For my book group, I've just evaluated A Place Of Secrets and started on The Death & Life Of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood. So far I've got to how Charlie's brother died after both of them were involved in a car crash coming back from a baseball game, and Charlie's eventual discovery that he can talk to his dead brother every night when he goes to a forest where they played catch together.

Very Field of Dreams!

At home I am reading The News Where You Are by Catherine O'Flynn (recommended on the TV Book Club). It's about a local news presenter who finds he's getting too affected by deaths of people in the regional news, and concerned about the legacy of his late architect father - the buildings he designed - being knocked down.

The story's based in the Midlands, but reading it I just thought the presenter could be Harry Gration from Look North! When his mum in the nursing home describes his female co-presenter as 'evil', she could be describing Christa Ackroyd.
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FleetingEileenM



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aviddiva, what did you think of A Place of Secrets? I read it last year as my holiday reading in Norfolk and was quite gripped by it. On one of my walks in the woodlands at a National Trust property I actually came across a folly!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:58 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Eileen, I was interested in the petty jealousies between Jude (career girl at the auction house) and Claire (kept the Star Bureau)!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:48 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

In 'Charlie St. Cloud' at the moment I'm interested in how Tink (Tess's friend helping her with the sailing) managed to get thrown off a local news programme for calling the hostess 'Skeletor'!

Alice Cooper referred to Tom Petty as 'Skeletor' on Planet Rock one week! Laughing
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:07 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Still on with 'Charlie St. Cloud' - I don't get all of the baseball references in the book, apart from names such as Babe Ruth (the player, not the rock band). Him and Tess are getting very close now as I read. However, Tink seems to be a father figure to her in the story - she lost her dad early on and she looks to him for guidance.
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Ian Robinson
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PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm currently reading "Shepperton Babylon" by Matthew Sweet. I would have finished it but managed to leave it on the bus on the way back from my holiday Embarassed

It's a gossipy history of British cinema, skipping over the big names like Carry On and Bond in favour of the more colourful and lesser-known figures in the story. Many of the stories are tragic, some just quite sad, but it's all fascinating. The author makes great effort to meet as many people as possible, with the Norman Wisdom encounter being a highlight. Clearly not taken in, he describes the meeting as a "hostage situation!"
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:24 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Will Birch's biography of Ian Dury. I knew he wasn't a saint after I'd seen Andy Serkis portraying him in the movie 'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll', but Birch goes into his background further.

His first wife Betty (mother of Baxter and Jemima) was right to let him go, and he kept his American friend Roberta Bayley hanging on while he was dating Denise Roudette.

The band members fare badly with him too - he needed Chaz Jankel as his musical director even though he slagged him off, and the other members needed to tour to earn money even though he wasn't keen.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:58 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I liked a working title for one of his songs - 'I Used To Be In The Rag Trade, but Now I'm In the Drag Trade!' It was about a clothes designer who went on to be a drag queen, but it could equally apply to Sheila Hancock having been in the 'Rag Trade' series and now being more famous for going on chat shows to talk about her life with John Thaw!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:24 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I just finished reading Mark Radcliffe's 'Reelin' In The Years' while I was on holiday. He devotes a chapter each to a particular year in his life and a song or album that was out at the time that he liked.

It gets sad when he talks of school friends who passed on later, but when he talks about his family he makes me smile.

The chapter about 'Tar Barrel In Dale' (the Unthanks) is an insight into the bother between him and Stuart Maconie and the Smooth Operations team re:the walk over Hadrian's Wall!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 7:45 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Radcliffe won't be popular with fans of the Stylistics - he always resented them being on Top Of The Pops when he was waiting for, say, Status Quo.

When 'Na Na Is The Saddest Word' came out, he said that there were much sadder words than Na Na - 'and now here's the Stylistics' being an example in his case!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 8:58 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

For the book group, we've started on Deric Longden's 'I'm A Stranger Here Myself', about him and his wife coming to live in Huddersfield.

Very whimsical, very ITV Sunday afternoon series. He talks to his cats a lot!They should adapt it as a replacement for 'The Royal'.

At home I've started on Marian Keyes's 'Angels'. It is about Maggie, who's just split with her husband Garv, and who leaves Ireland to stay with her friend Emily in Los Angeles.

It's not as sad as you might think. Her family are doubtful about her moving out.
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preraphaeliteangel



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PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've just finished The Misogynist by Piers Paul Read - I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it. A great plot twist at the end.

I'm now going to start on Mark Radcliffe's new book, very much looking forward to that.
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:42 pm    Post subject: Nick mason (pink Floyd) Reply with quote

I am a massive floyd fan but i have to say this book is a bit slow as biographies go im halfway through it.It's a bit to technical for me regarding instruments and cars(Nick's other great love) Saying that i am coming up to the dark side of the moon chapter so hoping that will liven things up
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 10:13 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

Just For One Day: Adventures In Britpop by Louise Wener (previously available as Different For Girls). It tells of her time as lead singer of Sleeper and what led up to it.

I'm at the point where she is getting really jaded with promotional work and gigging. She hates being in the tour bus with the rest of the (male) band and craves female companionship, but not in the sexual sense.

They have a female member of the sound crew called Bob - when I saw the name I thought of Rowan Atkinson's pronunciation of it in Blackadder 2!
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have just finished reading...

Keeping Mum by Brian Thompson

Autobiographies don't come much better than this one ..

Don't just take my word for it...

Michael Frayn says "A wonderful book, that brings to life one of the oddest childhoods I've ever read about"

Francis Wheen says "Wildly funny....a knee high view of the strange adult world"

Reading it I laughed and cried along with Brian as he recounted his bizarre childhood ...and bizarre is the word,believe me.

What's it like to be the man of the house when you're still a boy?

Mum and Dad - Squibs and Bert- were a complete mystery to Brian Thompson as he grew up in Cambridge and London during the forties.His mother danced with the Yanks all night and slept under a fake fur coat all day and when his father bothered to come home he resolutely discouraged Brian in everything. Whilst other children were evacuated out of the big cities, Brian found himself travelling into London and spent much of the Blitz with an eccentric swarm of indolent,ribald relations.


In one part of the book Brian describes how coats were put on his bed, on top of the bedding, when the house was freezing when the coal for the week had run out ...he also says how a Tizer bottle was filled with hot water and used as a hot water bottle.

I truly thought things like that were a thing of the past but just recently whilst switching channels I saw Paul O'Grady in an advert for Save The Children and he talked of children having to put coats on beds nowadays because their parents couldn't afford to put the heating on.Crying or Very sad


London is quite a big place so I was quite surprised reading this to see that a street where a friend of mine lives now is the one where Brian's grandparents lived back then.

Clever Girl the follow on from Keeping Mum has arrived from Amazon. Very Happy
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FleetingEileenM



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have recently read:

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolf - strangely compelling and the first book of hers I have ever read.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - never knew a thing about it and found it very entertaining.

Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillippa Pearce - yes I know it is a children's book but I love the story and have read it twice before. The house which was the inspiration for the story and in which the author had lived for a time is on the market and there was a photo of it in the Telegraph a couple of months ago.

The Adrian Mole Diaries - The First Ten Years by Sue Townsend (second time of reading) - because the author died recently and Adrian is a wonderful comic creation. I love one of his New Year Resolutions: "I will try to be more tolerant towards the thick and disadvantaged in our society, especially my parents" Laughing

I am currently reading:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark - I can hear Maggie Smith's voice in her every utterance.
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essexlady



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm currently reading the third in Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. While I don't think the books are great literature I find them enjoyable.
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Helen May



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not exactly great literature either but I'm reading Erica James' Summer At The Lake. A nice easy read.

H
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am nearly at the end of one book but am dipping into another at the same time...

The first one is the slimmest of volumes but is perfect in every way ... it is Children On Their Birthdays by Truman Capote.

"Truman Capote's bewitching short stories, many of which were set in the Deep South of his youth, are among his finest works. Perceptive, sensitive and eloquent, filled with brooding atmosphere and gorgeous description, these three stories tell of genteel eccentrics, evocative childhood memories and a malevolent nocturnal meeting."


I heard it dramatised on Radio 4 last year and was so captivated with it I just had to buy the book.

And the second one,which I have just started, is Letters To My Grandchildren by Tony Benn which my daughter bought for me.

"One of the shortest publications to come from the pen of Tony Benn is the book "Letters to my Grandchildren". It's not nearly as long as the volumes of his diaries, having a bare 164 pages. Each section is very short, as if it was in fact, a letter. And over the course of this book, he covers many issues.

The tone of the book is very different from the diaries, however. It's like a grandfather gently reclining in a chair, with slippers on his feet, puffing away on his pipe; it is a warm and chatty style."
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 2:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

FleetingEileenM wrote:
I have recently read:

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolf - strangely compelling and the first book of hers I have ever read.


You might be interested in this week's 15 Minute Drama on Radio 4,Eileen.

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04d1kvb
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FleetingEileenM



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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 4:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Becky. I noticed it this morning and iPlayered it. I think I would rather read the book (or hear it read) as I found it a bit confusing as to who was who - and I could have done without the background music.

I've always heard that the book was inspired by Godrevy Lighthouse in St Ives Bay which I have often seen and photographed.
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

FleetingEileenM wrote:
Thanks Becky. I noticed it this morning and iPlayered it. I think I would rather read the book (or hear it read) as I found it a bit confusing as to who was who - and I could have done without the background music.

I've always heard that the book was inspired by Godrevy Lighthouse in St Ives Bay which I have often seen and photographed.

Yes, it was a bit all over the place,Eileen.

Talking about lighthouses I seem to remember hearing/reading somewhere that there are none left that have keepers anymore.
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Meant to say before Maggie Smith will always be Miss Jean Brodie. :)If my memory serves she received an Oscar for her performance in it.
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