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Anybody read this excellent book? I've just finished and put a review in the library - have a look and tell me whehter your experiences with this book were the same. I thought it was well written with a great storyline.

A strangely compelling, enigmatic yet subtly amusing novel by Jane Gardam winner of the Whitbread prize in 1991. It is a very strange story more of a mystery than a straight story. The main character is having what can only be described as a nervous breakdown; her manic delusions take us into...

Oh thrill us with your literary acumen - what can you recommend??

A disappointing book full of potentially interesting ideas but clogged with an impassable dialogue, uninteresting characters which elicit no sympathy with the reader and implausible abstract notions of physics linked with Freudian psychology. It isn’t that as a reader I can’t grasp the idea of...

I remember the ship who sang - very good indeed very strange it must be 20yrs since I read it. Come back and tell us what you think .

I'm reading Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosely and I'm finding it very turgid and hard going. I'll never put a book down but this is sorely tempting me.

I have just found her first Novel "The Edible Woman" in a charity shop - first published 1969. I'm trying to get all her books for a collection, I would have thought with all the charity shops I go to I would have found Oryx & Crake by now - must keep looking.

A Suitable Boy - group read Has anyone else read this ? the threads on it appear to have stalled? its a bit large so I wondered if anyone was still reading it?

Jeanette Wintersons "Oranges are not the only fruit" springs to mind - made into a BBc drama it highlighted the Lesbian theme yet the book dealt more with religious fundamentalism.

I started yesterday Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosely the Whitbread winner - its a little eccentric but its flows along I havent checked to see if its in the Library here - The Beach by Alex Garland wasn't.

The consensus appears that the book was much better than the film - it should have been a different actor in the lead role di caprio was weak . I shall have to find a copy of lord of the flies - I haven't read that since school.

Really Enjoyed it!! The Beach by Alex Garland Gripping and highly entertaining is how I would describe this thriller / adventure story by Alex Garland, his first novel. A fast moving mixture of Lord of the flies and all the eighties Vietnam War movies I found it worked for me on many...

I have to disagree Litany - the length was great as it gave all the great detail needed to really paint the picture for the reader. It gave a superb view of the "layers" in Indian society from the Politics right down in a spiral to the peasant tilling the soil. If anything had been left out it...

Suitable Boy by Vickram Seth How can one begin to describe a novel as vast almost as India itself? At nearly 1500 pages it enormous sweep attempts to take in the whole Indian subcontinent experience and in my view succeeds. A fantastic vivid picture is painted in the pages of people, food...

I started with Artist in.. then went to Remains of .. but if I were you I do it the other way around.

I have heard so many good things about Oryx and Crake I must try to get it - the thing is though I'm terminally mean and only get my books from Charity shops . there are loads all over Birmingham , nearly all the books I read are from them so if a book if fairly new it takes a few months for...

I would recommend Alias Grace it really is superb - better in my opinion than Assassin.

Margaret Atwood anyone?? I've just posted my review of the shatteringly good Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood in the library - I loved it , a real page turner . I first read Atwood when I came across The Blind Assassin as the 2000 Booker Prize winner. Many readers know Atwood because of "The...

Thanks for that - I've posted Alias Grace and I have many more . Should I put it here as well or do the discussion links point here? . The worry I have and I've said this elswhere - I lack the literature education to write really comprehensive critical reviews they are more like personal musings...

Thanks for the welcome everyone!!