General Chat

Two books please for Oct - Nov 09 put up early so Jill can add.

Actually, with being away for the weekend it is not early I am a day out in my brain ---- sorry!

Vote to be Wednesday PM if every one has added.

Dear Fatty by Dawn French

From Amazon: It's become a cliché in Britain to call somebody in the entertainment field a national institution -- but that's exactly what Dawn French is. As both comedienne and actress (the latter in both comedy and straight parts), she has become one of the best loved entertainers in the country. Her range is not wide (unlike her dimensions -- and that's the sort of joke she’d crack), but she is utterly winning in everything she does. And that quality continues in Dear Fatty, a truly entertaining memoir of an event-packed life.


The Monsters of Templeton by Laura Groff

On the very morning Willie Upton slinks home to Templeton, New York (after a calamitous affair with her archaeology professor), the 50-foot-long body of a monster floats from the depths of the town's lake. This unsettling coincidence sets the stage for one of the most original debut novels. With a clue to the mysterious identity of her father in hand, Willie turns her research skills to unearthing the secrets of the town in letters and pictures (which, "reproduced" in the book along with increasingly complete family trees, lend an air of historical authenticity).

Just One Look by Harlan Coben.

Grace Lawson is living a happy, straightforward life in the suburbs with her husband,Jack and two young children.But that security is about to come to a brutal end.For when Grace picks up a set of holiday snaps, among them is one shot that doesn't fit::a faded image that Grace doesn't recognise of her husband as she never knew him.
Within twelve hours, Jack has disappeared and a brutal hit man is stalking his family. All Grace can see is that the past is coming back to haunt the present- and the safe world she knows has been turned upside down..

My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson.
Kamryn Matika has no responsibilities - one birthday card will change all that for ever.

Best friends Kamryn Matika and Adele Brannon thought nothing could come between them - until Adele did the unthinkable and slept with Kanryn's fiance Nate. Worse still she got pregnant and had his child.When Kamryn discovered the truth about the betrayal she vowed never to see any of them again. Years later, she received the birthday card........

Deadly Intent – by Lynda La Plante.
DCI Carol Cunningham is the formidable boss of DI Anna Travis in the investigation of the murder of an ex policeman, found in a drug-dealer’s flat. A new personal relationship beckons to Anna, when into her life comes the last person she ever wanted to see again…..

Being Elizabeth – by Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Elizabeth Turner inherits the Deravenel family business and finds that the company is a bastion of male chauvinism.

THE JUDGES DAUGHTER by RUTH HAMILTON

Agnes Makepeace has always been courageous and strong minded, and on the surface she couldn't be more unlike the chilly, reserved Helen Spencer. Agnes knows her own background is a mystery and is determined to discover the truth about her past. she believes the key to unlock the secret is held by her husbands employer, Judge Zachary Spencer of Lambert House-a mean-spirited widower and a solitary man.



UNTIL IT'S OVER by NICCI FRENCH

Astrid Bell is bad luck - for other people. First, Astrid's neighbour Peggy Farrell accidently knocks her off her bike - and not long after is found bludgeoned to death in an alley. Then, a few days later, Astrid is asked to pick up a package - only to find the client slashed to pieces in the hallway.
For the police it's more than a coincidence. for Astrid and her six housemates, its the beginning of a nightmare: suspicious glances, bitter accusations, fallings out and a growing fear that the worst is yet to come.
because if it's true that bad luck comes in threes, who will be next to die?



I hope this is OK I have never added to this thread before.

My suggestions for Oct/Nov 2009

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Not sure if this has been suggested before but with the film coming out recently I thought it might be appropriate.
The Time Traveler's Wife tells the intruiging story of Clare and Henry, who meet when Claire is 6 and Henry is 36 but marry when Claire is 20 and Henry 28. It describes in dramatic detail, their unusual meeting, and their lives together and not. Their story is full of up and downs - Clare can never be sure when Henry will disappear next, where to, or when he will come back.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

The storyline of the book takes place in medieval Cambridge. A number of murders have been taking place including those of four children. The townsfolk immediately blame the Jewish community, believing that part of their barbaric religion is to sacrifice Christian children in their ceremonies.

Pam

Kissing Gates by Mackenzie Ford

When English soldier Hal strikes up a conversation with German Lieutenant Wilhelm during the ceasefire in no mans land on Christmas day 1914. He has no idea the impact this chance meeting will have. Wilhelm is in love with an English woman, Sam and presses a photograph into Hal's hand = if he survives the war Hal must promise to find Sam and give her this token of affection.

Invalided home while battle rages on, Hal goes in search of Sam - but the moment he sees her he is in trouble. With Wilhem's photo hidden in his pocket, Hal begins a life - and a love affair- meant for someone else.

Ann
Glos

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Roseanne McNulty is nearing her 100th birthday in the mental hospital where she was committed as a young woman. Finishing up his case notes before the hospital is closed, psychiatrist Dr Grene finds himself intrigued by the story of his elderly patient. While Dr Grene investigates, Roseanne looks back on the tragedies and passions she has locked away in her secret journal, from her turbulent rural childhood to the marriage she believed would bring her happiness. But, when Dr Grene finally uncovers the circumstances of her arrival at the hgospital it leads to a shocking secret.


Sunday Telegraph critic: 'One of the most moving stories I'd stumbled across for many a year - full of passion without sentimentality and genuinely uplifting. He writes like an angel.'

Ann
Glos

Only Dad by Alan Titchmarsh

According to their friends, Tom and Pippa Drummond have the perfect existence - a great lifestyle, a lively marriage, and a great kid in Tally. In their late thirties, living in a converted barn on the edge of the Sussex Downs, Tom is a partner in 'The Pelican', a restaurant in Axbury Minster, and Pippa, after a short career as a cook, grows herbs for sale locally and brings up sixteen-year-old Tally - a lively blonde with her head screwed firmly on to her shoulders. A rare summer holiday is planned - an idyllic retreat in the Italian hills. Tom takes time off from the restaurant, Pippa leaves her herbs in the charge of a dotty neighbour, and Tally takes a break from the two men in her life - fast-living Alex and the plodding, persevering 'Blip'. Tuscany is everything they hoped it would be - cicadas in the trees, the scent of sage and citrus and suppers under the stars. But their joy is short lived. Overnight their lives, their circumstances, their very identities are suddenly altered, and life will never be the same again. From being the envy of their friends, the Drummonds are plunged into a world that nobody would wish upon them.





The House of Lanyon by Valerie Anand


Exmoor, 1458 - Richard Lanyon is a free man, but resents having to answer to the aristocratic Sweetwater family. But even noblemen do not have the power to contain Richard, a man who seizes any opportunity to become a landowner in his own right - and is prepared to forfeit the happiness of his family to do so.Aiming to create a dynasty, Richard arranges his son Peter to marry a clever and hardworking woman, one he hopes will bear sons. Though Peter and his bride Lisa settle into their marriage, each harbours a broken heart, lost dreams and unspoken secrets. Richard himself has a dark secret, and if it was ever revealed, all he has worked for will be destroyed. Surviving the betrayals of the past means keeping one foot in the present, and an eye to the future...

x Jill

My suggestions are-

December by Elizabeth M Winthrop


Eleven year old Isabelle hasn't spoken in nine months, and as December begins the situation is getting pretty desperate. \\her mother has stopped work to devote herself to her daughters care.
Four psychiarists have already given up on her, and her school will not take herback in the New Year. Her parents are frantically trying to understand what has happened so they can help their child, but they cannot escape the thought of darker possibilities.
What id Isabelle is damaged beyond their reach? Will she never speak again? Is it their fault?

As they spiral around Isabelle's impenetrable silence, she herself emerges as a a bright young girl in need of help but too terrified to ask for it.
T

Gawd, I haven't had time to think about suggestions for next month. Can I put forward books I suggested previously?



If so, The Shipping News, my favourite book ever, and The Bridges of Madison County.


If this isn't allowed then perhaps I could miss suggesting this month and am happy to read others' choices and choose from theirs!

Second suggestion -
"Past Imperfect" by Julian Fellowes

Damian Baxter is very, very rich - and he's dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, looked after be a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern: who should inherit his fortune?

Past Imperfect is the story of a quest. Damian wishes to know if he has a living heir. By the time he married in his late thirties, he was stirile (the resultof adult mumps), but what about before that unfortunate illness?
He wqas not a virgin. Had he sired a child? A letter from a girlfriend from thoses times suggests that he did. But the letter is anonymous. Damian contacts someone who knew him from their days at university. He gives him a list of the girls he slept with and sets him a task -

- find his heir!

Tess

Helen, that is fine. We could do with the synopsis for the books though, can you find them and C&P?



Just Angela and Jeniwren now I think.

The Time Travellers wife has been read before by the group so I have asked Pammy to change it.

Thank-you Ann.

As long as nobody minds, then, my old suggestions are:

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

"A man. A woman. The heat of an Iowa summer. And the brief encounter whose passion will last a lifetime." A really heart-warming story.

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

"Annie Proulx's highly acclaimed, international bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Quoyle is a hapless, hopeless hack journalist living and working in New York. When his no-good wife is killed in a spectacular road accident, Quoyle heads for the land of his forefathers -- the remotest corner of far-flung Newfoundland. With 'the aunt' and his delinquent daughters -- Bunny and Sunshine -- in tow, Quoyle finds himself part of an unfolding, exhilarating Atlantic drama. 'The Shipping News' is an irresistible comedy of human life and possibility."

Sorry Ann, that must have been before I joined. Hope this suggestion is OK

Airs above the Ground by Mary Stewart

Vanessa March never thought to look for her missing husband in Vienna — until she saw him in a newsreel shot there at the scene of a deadly fire. But her hunt for answers only leads to more sinister questions in a mysterious world of beautiful Lipizzaner horses.
And what waits for Vanessa in the shadows is more terrifying than anything she has ever encountered
Pam

Just Angela now. Jeniwren is probably going to miss out this next round.

18 good books there so far. Not sure if Angela is around again as she has not opened my PM but I will leave it until 4pm this afternoon.

Thanks Jean