General Chat

Thanks Ann

Thanks Anne, well and truly noted.

Tess

Suggestion thread will be up on Thursday 15th, also the review thread.

Helen, yes she has written more, can't remember offhand as I don't have my own laptop with me, am on OH's but I read another one by her a month or so back.

Now I'm off to look up Anna Jacobs, another name to add to my ever growing list of "Look out for" authors!

Now that I am back from my travels, I wanted to add to my review of "Travels with my Aunt" especially as I had previously only written about the people in the story.

I thought that the book was well written, perhaps the fact that some of the characters got under my skin so much goes to prove this.
Will I read another Graham Greene Novel? Well, not for a while, maybe I wasn't in the mood for unsympathetic people when I read "Travels"
If (or when ) I read another ine, I shall have to do so with a more open mind.

My version of the book has an Introduction by the author, I rather skipped over it before reading the story.
Will now read it in it's entirety to see what his influences were.

Tess

It was good, wasn't it, Ann? I wonder if Anna Jacobs has written more? Think I will look her up at the library.

I too read Freedoms Land and enjoyed it, I hadn't known that they gave the opportunity to ex soldiers after the first world war to go to Australia and start farms. Couldn't believe (given that the research I am sure was accurate) that they had so many deprivations to put up with. I thought it was a great story.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This took me ages to get into but after the first couple of chapters I was suddenly gripped and couldn't put the book down. Parts of it were a bit too violent for me and the character of Salander was a little unbelievable in places but generally it was a fascinating mystery with a real twist at the end. I'm glad I finished it and have just started reading Stieg Larsson's second book in this series, "The Girl who played with Fire".

"The Widow Ginger"

This was easy reading and fun and gave an interesting insight into the East End of London of the time. The wonderful mix of characters make the small world of the cafe a place I would like to visit! (As long as the Widow stays away!)

"Freedoms Land" by Anna Jacobs

I managed to get hold of this and really enjoyed reading about the experiences of English settlers - and their Australian helpers - as they struggled to make a home and a community in a new country and on untamed land. The experiences seemed very real and I feel I learned something I didn't know before.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I only received this a week ago as was waiting for a friend to finish and pass on. I carried the book around to read as much of it as possible :)
It took me awhile to get into it and at first I thought it was not my cup of tea, but I persevered. I guessed early on about Harriet , I was also glad there was a family tree to be able to refer to . Salander, she was an interesting person and I will try some of the other books as she seems to be in them all judging by the book covers. I still have half of the book to read properly and I will finish it.

Travels with my Aunt
I enjoyed the first few chapters then it started getting very odd and I was skipping through it. It seemed to go very astray towards the end.

The Widow Ginger
I have read this one a few years back and it was still a lovely read with lots of interesting characters . I will be looking out for the one before " Not all Apples are Tarts" as want to find out more about Rosie's earlier life.

x Jill

I was still typing Ann -- well retyping seeing as half my first effort disappeared when I hit the submit button. :-)

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This had been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years awaiting me to read it when I had spare time (ha). It's the kind of story I like, things aren't always what they seem and not to predictable, though something early on had me guessing correctly what happened to Harriet. The only problem I did have was keeping track of all the Vangers, and had to refer to the family tree in the front of the book a couple of times. And I do agree with Ann the translation was not always done correctly. I found the characters likeable and realistic, even Lisbeth (I have a couple of people in my acquiantices who could very easily be hackers if they were so inclined). There is a Swedish made DVD/movie of this book which I saw advertised at the local DVD shop recently which I was tempted to hire to see, before Hollywood make their usual hash of the story.

Could you not get the main book Michelle?

The Widow Ginger

I wouldn't normally have picked this one up myself but found I actually enjoyed it and liked Rosie immensley.

Travels with my Aunt

This was only available as a cassette auido book and as I don't have anything that plays these, these days had to pass on this one.

Steig Larsson -

I believe that there are negotiations underway with his partner re his fourth book.
I do hope it gets released as well. Apparently the fourth book is where it all comes to some sort of grand conclusion.

I am waiting for my copy of the second book to turn up at the library.

Persey

Travels with My Aunt (1969)

I had a Graham Greene period back in the seventies and had read this book before.
Probably not one I would go for nowadays, however, immersing myself into the book I found it very enjoyable, he is so easy to read. I had forgotten most of it and it jolted my memory as I went.
The copy I picked up was printed in 1999 and the publisher was Vintage Classic and thought afterward yes he is like a good vintage wine. I had my map of South America out traveling with Henry– his references to the cultural differences eg the red handkerchief episode could very easily have happened. If one was studying Anthropology or Sociology it would make a very good light accompaniment to one’s study books.
I just read the other reviews of this book – amazing how we see things differently – I saw this as a social commentary of the goings on in South America etc.


The Widow Ginger

I liked it – have not read anything by Pip Granger. Looking at the sequence of events and how it all unfolds from the point of view of a child, I can well imagine a child like her with ears flapping all the time, hearing things she shouldn’t and putting her own interpretation on it.
Probably every area has a nutter, pyromaniac or some sort of undesirable residing there. As Rosie would say I read it toot sweet.
The picture on the cover of my library book (the UK edition) has Rosie sitting under the table. The child looked like my god-daughter when she was little – copied the cover to send to her mother.

Persey

n

My reviews-I managed to read all 3 this time

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

It took a while to get into this book but once I did I was fascinated. Salander is such a complicated character, I guessed she might have some autistic traits and having taught children with this problem I felt very sympathetic towards her, she has her own sense of morality even though it is not always the same as ours. I shall have to read the next two books to find exactly what the ‘time of all the evil’ was. I was interested to read that the original title in Swedish was ‘Men Who Hate Women’.

Travels with my Aunt

I did not like this book, I agree that the idea of Henry marrying a 16 year old was a very uncomfortable thought. In this book, too, Aunt Augusta had a moral compass at odds with mine, but I was not persuaded by her reasoning!

Widow Ginger

I enjoyed reading Rosie’s story, even had a tear in my eye when Jenny died, and the picture of life after the war was full of interesting details.

n

Will be on a little later

x Jill