Books To Recommend ?

Your recommendation's duly noted, Clive, thanks. That's what I'm saying - I don't want to read heavily-slanted (which means, of course, unobjective) works. I'd rather read novels in that case, since many present a fairer depiction of various situations as any amount of docu-soapboxes. The Kite Runner, as one of many examples.
 
Just finished Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott. Very clever idea. A modern romance and murder, historical research and murder, a book within a book and a plot within a plot. Wasn't sure I was going to like it at first, but it drew me in. Interesting rather than evocative. Written in the first person and addressed to the lover, you don't realise until towards the end that the lover is dead.
 
redhead said:
Just finished Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott. Very clever idea. A modern romance and murder, historical research and murder, a book within a book and a plot within a plot. Wasn't sure I was going to like it at first, but it drew me in. Interesting rather than evocative. Written in the first person and addressed to the lover, you don't realise until towards the end that the lover is dead.
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Well that's ruined it!
 
:D

I cant join in with this thread really at all - my newest books are "Elephants on Acid and other bizarre experiments", "Hippo Eats Dwarf" (both by Alex Boese), "For Crying Out Loud! The World According to Clarkson" and "The Essential Alan Coren"....

hardly deep and involved stuff like you lot !!
 
But they don't have to be deep and involved - shallow is fine! There's room for everything. I would only spend time on a book which had been well-reviewed, since there's not much point in spending one's hard-earned spare time on books which are badly-researched (in the case of non-fiction), or badly-written (in either the non-fiction or fiction code). There's a dearth, it seems, of good technical editors, going by the amount of reviews reviling the historical mistakes in many new non-fiction works, and an equal dearth of good profreaders, looking at som eof the most obvoius clangers droped under both cods!
 
:D ( i hope that was meant!!)

Actually, I could make a case for Elephants on Acid to be a clever book - the sub-text thingy is "from zombie kittens to tickling machines: the most outrageous experiments from the history of science"....

and the first thing on the back is "have you ever wondered if a severed head retains consciousness long enough to see what happened to it?"

:)

Im a simple book girl (with equally simple ideas) - I read for complete relaxation, Im fighting my way through Jinnyj's favourite book at the moment,but I have to think about it too much for my liking (thats The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon in case anyone wants to know!) Im a simple chick lit liker normally, dont have to think,and it takes me completely away from real life!!!!
 
If it's simple chick lit you're after Trudi you might like Showdown by Tilly Bagshawe which is very much in the mold of Jilly Cooper amd doesn't really involve much thinking about. I picked up a copy for £2 in ASDA a few weeks back, as it's got a bit of a racing theme running through it. Passed the time.

Also probably aimed at women a but maybe not quite chick lit are The Island and The Return both by Victoria Hislop (wife of Ian). Both books blend a bit of history with present time, the former relating to leprosy and the second to the Spanish Civil War. I'd highly recommend both. Along a similar line (mixing past and present) are The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes, focusing on Australian war brides and The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, both pretty good. Just started one of Morton's other books, The House at Riverton which seems quite good also.
 
cheers for those Imagine - will keep an eye out.

Have to confess, I enjoyed "The Other Boleyn Girl" - and Im sure I read another by Phillipa Gregory too (that is her name isnt it?) though I cant for the life of me think what that was called.... so maybe i do "do" history type books...!
 
So, does a severed head retain enough consciousness to realise its fate, Trudles? I've often wondered that, particularly as the brain is supposed to take some four minutes to die once its supply of oxygen is cut.

"Damn. There's an ant crawling towards my nose, and I can't work my arms to brush it away... "
 
trudij said:
:D ( i hope that was meant!!)

Actually, I could make a case for Elephants on Acid to be a clever book - the sub-text thingy is "from zombie kittens to tickling machines: the most outrageous experiments from the history of science"....

and the first thing on the back is "have you ever wondered if a severed head retains consciousness long enough to see what happened to it?"

:)

Im a simple book girl (with equally simple ideas) - I read for complete relaxation, Im fighting my way through Jinnyj's favourite book at the moment,but I have to think about it too much for my liking (thats The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon in case anyone wants to know!) Im a simple chick lit liker normally, dont have to think,and it takes me completely away from real life!!!!
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Trudi, try any of Elizabeth Chadwick's books if you want girly with a bit of history - full of dashing heros, mostly strong women and baddies.
 
krizon said:
So, does a severed head retain enough consciousness to realise its fate, Trudles? I've often wondered that, particularly as the brain is supposed to take some four minutes to die once its supply of oxygen is cut.

"Damn. There's an ant crawling towards my nose, and I can't work my arms to brush it away... "
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There's a scene along those lines in one of the Monty Python film. They were all university graduates so it's sure to be realistic.
 
lol

I havent got that far through the book yet Kri - will let you know !!! :)

Cheers for that G-G, will keep an eye out when ive got rid of this lot !!!
 
Yes, I remember that scene (as do all Pythonites): "Huh! A mere flesh wound!" as an arm is severed and blood gushes out in gallons. Wonderful - as were the Knights Who Say Neh!
 
If anyone was interested, Severed heads have been able to be made to respond to stimuli - but have only "lived" for about 10 minutes successfully grafted onto another body... (they did it with dogs!!)

I can go into how they did it if you really want to know....
 
Please don't! I may be tempted to try it out on our new Registrar. The dog's head would be a big improvement, especially in personality.
 
Ordered a 'good as new' book from a well known internet site recently about Anne Boleyn. At chapter 44 the left hand page was describing her last but one night in Tower, the next page started talking about Charles 1. Being very early in the morning on the train, initially I thought it was that I was still asleep or there was some point to the story suddenly jumping forward over a hundred years. It turned out to be neither and there had obviously been some error in the printing. The book was only £2.76 but might be worth checking if one orders anything similar just in case. The seller was very good about it, but doesn't have another copy of the book so now I will never know what happened next. :rolleyes:
 
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Of the mountains of books I've ploughed through recently, two were especially good - R J Ellory's A Simple Act of Violence (probably the best of his I've read to date, and I've read almost all of his books) and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which is a very good variation on the Dracula theme.
 
Shadow Leader said:
Of the mountains of books I've ploughed through recently, two were especially good - R J Ellory's A Simple Act of Violence (probably the best of his I've read to date, and I've read almost all of his books) and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which is a very good variation on the Dracula theme.
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I've been sitting on that Ellory book for a while (bought from Tesco in May in a deal including the Clough book, The Damned Utd, also unread as yet), waiting for a break in play from Gib in which to read it.

Recently read Matt Hoggard's bizarre bio... no page turner but a good toilet book.
 
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