Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

A selection of short stories with connections to India (some set in India, some elsewhere). We've been reading this for book club. Enjoyable and generally very readable selection of stories. A couple of them I loved (especially the first and the last - the last is bizarrely uplifting, very emotional) but quite a few I didn't really get that much out of. It's a pulitzer prize winner so I'd be interested to hear about what else won that prize and try reading them. Overall, an enjoyable, sometimes thought provoking read, but not amazing.
7.5/10

Anybody out there? Marian Keyes

same series as rachels holiday etc the final sister.. little anna. REALLY sad but a very easy read. might try reading something a bit more high brow next!!

6/10

The Twenty-Seventh City

Jonathan Franzen seems to have a style. This book is very much in the style of The Corrections and almost as good a read. Definitely 8/10 stuff. Thank you for the loan, Sarah.

Shopaholic and baby

HAD to buy this.. read the rest of the series and they are all pure chick lit. Loved it though, read it in 4 days and got back in the flow of reading on the way to work.

Don't suggest any of you read it (esp as my copy has quite a line of people waiting to borrow it!)

8/10 for readability

The Watsons - Jane Austen and another

This was started by Jane Austen but then she stopped writting it after about 6 chapters. Apparently she told the story to her neice who passed the story on to her children and I think Jane's great great niece (or something) finished it off.

You can't really tell where jane's story ends and the next author begins but it defo isn't as strong a story as the others. Everthing gets fixed withint 2 pages of the end and there isn't even the over moralising there normally is.

glad I've read it though!

6/10

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Sheila and Paul gave me this for my birthday and once I got into it I enjoyed it very much. It tells the story of a girl living in China in the early nineteenth century. I'm not sure how much is authentic but I'm afraid that I think it gives a pretty accurate picture of life for girls then. The descriptions of foot binding made me feel pretty squeamish, but apart from that I enjoyed finding out about a life I knew little about. An easy style to read.
7/10

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

This is January's Book Club book. It is tells the story of one day in the lives of 3 women: Virginia Woolf in Richmond in 1920s, Laura Brown in Los Angeles in 1940s and Clarissa Vaughan in New York in 1990s. There is a strong tie between the 3 lives throughout the book. I found it very sad but the style is very beautiful and it helps if you know a bit about Virginia Woolf's life (and death) and also if you've read "Mrs Dalloway", which I read years ago but intend to read again soon. Not sure what they'll make of it at Book Club (will add a comment in February) because it seems very slow at the start.
9/10

Fatal Voyage by Cathy Reichs

A new author for me. A pathologist like Patricia Cornwell, writing murder/mystery books with a strong pathology thread, and where the pathologist and her family/friends are an integral part of the story. A good read if you want entertainment rather than quality literature. I'll read more of her books.

Mark? 7/10.

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Like an early version of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. The characters grab you but their actions frustrate you. Written in 1910 (the only book that Ford MadoxFord is famous for), a story about two moneyed couples who's lives collided and crashed. Hard to get into the style and rhythm of the writing at first, but well worth the read.

A Mark? 8/10.

The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble

This was a Book Club book and received mixed feeling at Book Club. I really enjoyed it although the style is quite slow in parts. The story is based on Margaret Drabble's life and talks about relationship through generations, mainly her relationship with her mother and her daughter. The author's mother escapes from her life in south Yorkshire, but her daughter is drawn back to the village when a scientist begins research into genetic inheritance. Some lovely reminiscences of life in south Yorkshire, probably more interesting to the oldies in our family.

7/10

Second Honeymoon - Joanna Trollope

I may have phased off a bit at the end of last year.. but FINALLY finished this.. was an easy read to get me back into the flow.
Normally a bit more scandalous stories but was just about a family where all the grown up kids move home!! scared M+D??

6/10

Freakonomics - Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

Ended 2006 and started 2007 with nonfiction for a change. An interesting read, frustrating in places and representing a particular style of american academia which I don't really like, but funny, and thought provoking.
(Actually this is a bit of a cheat because i've only read the first 4/5 of the book - and not yet the extra material in the 2nd edition)

7/10