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If I want to tell people what I believe, or give my opinion as opposed to convey facts, then I think it's perfectly legitimate to say 'I think' and it doesn't cloud clear expression at all. Having said that, reviewing this thread, I haven't used the phrase 'I think' in any postings (until this...

Again, Chris, can you clarify where I've been unable to express myself very well? And again, can you please explain or justify the 'plums in their mouths' comment? I'd like to get this resolved.

(Actually it's Milorad Pavić, but if I call him that then this thread won't show up if anyone types Pavic. I said if.) Milorad Pavic is a Serbian writer who is undoubtedly one of the most ... um, original and idiosyncratic voices I've ever experienced. I must like it though, as I've now...

Yes, good work SFG. There should be more encouragement of joint reads like this (outside the Book Group, I mean). Now: the Fitzgerald I've never been able to finish is Tender is the Night. You wouldn't mind reading that one for me next?

Chris, can you clarify where I've been unable to express myself very well? Otherwise that might look like your second personal attack on me in this thread. Can you explain this too please? Have I stumbled unwittingly into a class war? I'll second Gem's response to this. Why else would I...

Now what you've done there, marxlaws, is confuse popular with good. They have no automatic correlation. For all we know people buy TG novels because they're cheaper per sheet than Andrex. And you've also fallen into the trap - so easy! - of believing that criticism is not valid unless the...

I take it when you guys talk about 'romance' here you mean formula romance, like Mills & Boon (or whatever the modern equivalent is)? How about some literary fiction that has a love story at its core instead? Love in the Time of Cholera? Captain Corelli's Mandolin? Written on the Body? You...

Ah! So they're not any more, then. I admit I'm not old enough to have read them in their day so I can't comment further on that. Why thank you! True. I was only talking about the subsequent non-Fleming books anyway. What chance is there of a book being any good when it's a...

From The Guardian News show feud boils over into open warfare Responding well to criticism has never been among Bill O'Reilly's strong points. The star of America's most-watched cable news show, shown daily on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel, has a habit of yelling at guests who disagree...

Lee Childs? Didn't they say "highly respected"? Having said that, I have no idea if the original Fleming novels were any good (despite the fact that they're available as Penguin Modern Classics, Stewart!). Anyone know? Are we talking the Chandler of spy thrillers? This Amazon review of...

I had a look at his latest paperback (Beach Road? Or was that last month's latest James Patterson paperback?) in the airport a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't believe it - there were about 15 lines of text per page, huge spacing, huge margins. That way, it ran to around 400 pages. Presumably...

Great! I can't wait to not finish this one, just as I haven't finished Vineland and Mason & Dixon. If it's really good I might even not start it, as I did(n't) with The Crying of Lot 49. Of course there's always an outside chance of me not buying it in the first place, as with Gravity's...

Hm, I studied German to GCSE which means the only phrases I know are 'getting by on holiday' style ones. Entschuldigen Sie bitte - haben Sie noch Zimmer frei, für Heute abend?

teadude, you have to use the 'Suggestions' threads to nominate books. On 1 August there will be a new thread for suggestions for books for October 2006. In the meantime if you look at the existing Suggestions threads in this forum you can see how the process works.

abc, all the news from Beirut at the minute brought to mind a great book I read a few years ago by a Lebanese author (writing in English and now living in the US). I, the Divine ( < link)by Rabih Alameddine is a terrifically playful and enjoyable read by a woman who wants to write her...

I'm a fan of St Aubyn and loved Mother's Milk. For me the quality of the writing alone was enough to lift it near greatness. Gem: in the name of all that's holy, don't judge St Aubyn by A Clue to the Exit. It's by far his worst - or certainly least representative - work, followed closely by...

It might be best to keep discussion of the extract in one place with the rest of the stuff about the book, here. For my part, my criticism would come not in the subject matter itself but in the author's apparent sentimentalising of his subject. Anyway sirmyk, we've read The Trial Chair: you...

Reflecting on the back cover extract further, I have to admit that part of my brain read it in a blackly comic light. If written by a satirist, in fiction, it would be hilarious. Which brings to mind the editorial review by Publisher's Weekly, which comes down pretty harshly on the book...

My copy is a 1997 translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, who seem to have a fair amount of credibility in Russian lit these days.

I have posted the back cover text in a separate 18-certificate thread here, so only those who want to read it can. The content clearly, in my view, supports Peder's notion that whoever called 'The Ice Man' a "devoted husband" was using the term extremely generously. Having said that the...