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  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I feel like I'm all alone on The Book Club :( , so if anyone is popping in just want to wish you a good weekend and good luck on your Grand National choices!! :cheers:
  • frogmella
    frogmella Member Posts: 1,111
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I'm enjoying The Versions of Us. Not one for you Bubba - there are three alternative versions of their tale!! Not as much time to read now back at school. Not that long until half term - 7 weeks to go. Then we are camping so will probably have plenty of time to read!
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hi, Glad your enjoying The Versions of Us frogmella, is anyone reading the BOTM yet? Well I'm still reading We are the cops which is very good in between having naps as I can hardly keep my eyes open sometimes and my OH has to give me a nudge or send me to bed! I will be glad when I'm not feeling half comatose!!
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hi Everyone, I want to give you all good notice but I need you all to put your thinking caps on ready for BOTM, so any suggestions for what you think would be a good book for May.

    Just to let you know my friend Dorren's book is about to be published and I thought that could be BOTM for June if you wouldn't mind?
  • frogmella
    frogmella Member Posts: 1,111
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I finished The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett at the weekend. It made me cry at the end so must have been good! Certainly not one for Bubba. As the title suggests it has three parallel strands. It tells the story of Jim and Eva, but the story depends on what happens one day when they are both at Cambridge uni. In all three cases Eva is riding her bike when a dog runs in front of her. In the first version she falls off, Jim picks her up and they go to the pub. In the second she misses the dog and goes off to her boyfriend's play. In the third she falls off, goes to the pub with Jim but then breaks it off. The same life events happen in each story - relatives die etc, but the circumstances change. It can be a bit difficult sometimes to remember which strand you are reading but I enjoyed the stories anyway. So I award ****

    I am now reading The Coincidence Authority by John Ironmonger. Another book with multiple time frames! On my to read pile are:
    Gone Again by Doug Johnstone
    The Ship by Antonia Honeywell
    The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
    Would any of them fit for BOTM??
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,463
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Wow I would love to read your friend's book Bubba!!

    I've read Harry August already.......mmmmm and Gone again....
    By the Way I enjoyed the Versions of us very much. It was a busy busy backwards and forwards turn-your-brain-inside -out kind of book wasn't it?

    BUT I have often thought how differently things could have turned out if something else in my life was different so a good read :)

    I am reading, rather late to the party, The Woman who went to bed for a Year

    Our house move is getting seriously imminent. I hope I will be able to do lots of reading in the window seat and lovely garden :)

    If either of you want to see the link let me know and I'll PM it to you.

    Love

    Toni xxx
  • frogmella
    frogmella Member Posts: 1,111
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I'm a bit worried about Harry August - I've seen mixed reviews and you don't sound keen, Toni!! I might have got the idea for Gone Again off here, it has been on my shortlist for a while! That seems like all my BOTM recommendations are no good! Never mind!

    Ooh I love looking at people's house online send me the link!!

    I've not read the woman who went to bed - I think I want to though.

    The versions of us really made me think too. What if I hadn't gone to the pub the day I met Mr F? I was engaged to someone else at that point so my life could have been very different. Glad I followed the path I took though. No regrets and all that!

    Off camping next weekend. The forecast looks cold. Glad I've got the electric blanket and heater sorted!!
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,463
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hi Frogmella

    I hope you will take your leccie blanket camping!! It's my birthday next Saturday and it rarely rains if that helps :wink:

    I'll have a look in my wish-list too see what's there.

    Honestly you'd think we could come up with something!!!

    I wasn't too convinced about Harry August no. Sorry :oops:

    Love

    Toni xxx
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    We will find something guys!! I would love to see your new home frogmorton, please send me a pic!!

    Have a good weekend everyone! Will be doing more reading over the weekend!! :)
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I think I've found a good book for Book Of The Month-MAY it's called The girl in the ice By Robert Bryndza It has got loads of good reviews and looks like a really gripping page turner. Hope you all agree this will be a good BOTM
  • frogmella
    frogmella Member Posts: 1,111
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I finished The Coincidence Authority by John Ironmonger last night.
    I enjoyed this book, but it is not one for Bubba as it has the past interwoven with the present. It is about Azalea who was found at a fairground aged about 3 and the "coincidences" that have plagued her life. She goes to see Thomas who is an academic studying coincidences. Azalea's past is interesting and involved some time in Africa so I learnt a lot about some of the horrors that go on there. At its core it is a love story really a bit will they won't they re Thomas and Azalea.
    I award ****

    I now have to chose the book to take camping tomorrow. Can't believe the weather forecast. We left it until now to go because we thought it would be warmer!! Haha!! Never mind, there's always the pub! Hoping for dry around 1pm tomorrow while we put the tent up and then again on Tuesday morning while we out it back away!! :bouncing-ball: :bouncing-ball:

    That book looks OK, bubba. I'll see if it is in the library.
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,463
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I hope you have fair-enough weather Frogmella!!!

    Lots of sunshine too and not too many of those hail balls incase they rip the tent :?

    Amanda the girl in the ice is perfect for me - it turns out that I bought this book in march....need to locate it in my kindle :shock:

    Have a good weekend everyone

    Love

    Toni xxx
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,463
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Found it! and two more 'lost' books too :)

    So am reading Between you and me by Lisa Hall

    This will be a fast read...along the lines of Gone Girl...with diary entries so broken up into easy chunks!

    Love

    Toni xxx
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    We Are The Cops: The Real Lives Of American Police By Michael Matthews

    This book started very good, true life stories told by working and retired U.S cops. Some very funny some sad and shocking. But it started to loss it's shine by just over half way. The chapters where separated into different ranks of the cops so that was refreshing. Yes it was an interesting book as a change from thrillers or romance but by the end I was missing the thrillers and romances!!

    RATING:- ***/*****
  • frogmella
    frogmella Member Posts: 1,111
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Gone Again by Doug Johnstone
    In summary wife goes missing, she's done it once before while suffering from post natal depression, ends up washed up dead on beach. Husband has some minor previous so police more interested in him. He decided to investigate himself.
    To me it was all a bit far-fetched. I didn't believe the way the police or the husband behaved. It didn't really have a satisfactory ending either. A little bit too ITV drama!
    I award *** at best!!

    I am now reading The Ship by Antonia Honeywell. I am really liking it so far. It is about a post apocalyptic world and the ship is the means of escape. They have just got on it.....

    Hope everyone is well and you have been enjoying the sun.


    :sunny:
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hope everyone is reading lots! I'm a quarter of the way through 'The Beat of my own drum' By Sheila E who was Prince's drummer and percussionist through the 80's. And has also played drums and percussion for other musicians such as Ringo Starr, Gloria Estefan and Lionel Ritchie. Really enjoying this book, learning so much about her!
  • Kitty
    Kitty Member Posts: 3,583
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I don't pop in this thread often, as I tend to read e-books. But I couldn't resist mentioning "The Running Hare" by John Lewis Stempel.

    Written in exquisite prose, The Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird that eats the aphids that eat the crop. It recalls an era before open-roofed factories and silent, empty fields, recording the ongoing destruction of the unique, fragile, glorious ploughland that exists just down the village lane.
    But it is also the story of ploughland through the eyes of man who took on a field and husbanded it in a natural, traditional way, restoring its fertility and wildlife, bringing back the old farmland flowers and animals. John Lewis Stempel demonstrates that it is still possible to create a place where the hare can rest safe.

    I first came across it as Book of the Day on Radio 4. With delightful line drawings, I'm really enjoying this book and hope some of you do too.
    kitten.jpg

    "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." Robert A Heinlein

  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Wow, thank you kathleenT for introducing The Running Hare to The Book Club and I'm sure it will be add to many members read list. And thank you for thinking of our little club!! :D
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I know this time of year all The Book Club members are spread thin with Summer and holidays! But it's Book Of The Month time! And this month I'm a very proud friend as my best buddies book has been released and I did ask about it being BOTM when it came out. So June's Book Of The Month is The Gamekeepers Other Daughter By Doreen McEwan-Burrows I hope everyone will enjoy it as it's a true story of her life and has a bit of everything in it. I'll be reading my signed copy on my holiday so looking forward to it! I'm off on the 24th June to Cyprus.

    You all have a great weekend and I hope the sun will be shinning! :sunny:
  • Kitty
    Kitty Member Posts: 3,583
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Have a good holiday bubbadog. :cheers:

    I'll look out for your friends book, love the title. :splash:
    kitten.jpg

    "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." Robert A Heinlein

  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,463
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Yes thanks Kath very much :)

    you are clever too posting a piccie of the cover. Many of us read e-books on here as well as 'manual' so you are very welcome.

    I am well-jel' of you Amanda off on your hols with a signed copy of our BOTM.

    When you get back I will be living somewhere else!

    Love

    Toni xxx
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hey guys I've got another 3 weeks before I go!! Just starting to sort things ready, you know me lists and lists with lists! Super organised!

    When you moving Toni, You got a date now ?

    Hope everyone will enjoy Doreen's book and suggest it to others if you do. If you can do a review on Amazon as well so she can see what you thought she would be very grateful. She is heavily into writing her next book at the moment.
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hope everyone has a good weekend! Hubby is off to BRISCA tonight so me and the cats have a good horror movie to watch! I'm going to have a read this afternoon and carry on with the holiday preparations tomorrow. I'm getting down to Prince while typing this! The weather looks like it's going to get better over the weekend especially Sunday so enjoy! :cheers:
  • frogmella
    frogmella Member Posts: 1,111
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Sorry for being AWOL! I have been really busy recently. Went camping with Aunty for one weekend and then went away for May half term week. Had great weather and wore the dogs out.

    I finished The Ship by Antonia Honeywell a while ago. I really enjoyed the book. It is set in some sort of post disaster world where the land is ruined and there are awful "emergency" governments in charge. Lalla's Dad buys a ship (how is never really made clear) and arranges for it to be used to help them and 500 people "escape". On board it soon becomes obvious that something odd is happening.
    I award ****

    I am now struggling through Harry August. I will not be defeated but I am finding it hard to keep the timelines straight in my head!!

    I have a massive pile of books to read and I can't see me having the time to read them all. Roll on summer.

    To top off what has been a rubbish week one of my cats, George, has been to the vets today because I noticed he was skinny but had a big belly. Turns out he has some sort of heart condition. He is 15 this year so I think it is just caused by age. I had convinced myself that my cats and dogs would be immortal and so this has come as a bit of a blow. On the positive side though, his bloods have come back normal so it is "only" his heart that we need to worry about. What is more ironic is that he has always been the active one of the pair. His brother, Benny, is totally lazy. Doesn't get out of the bed all day.

    Enjoy the sun while it lasts. i will try and read more/write reviews more now the summer approaches!

    xxxx
    Helen
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,463
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Still no date Amanda the buyers are being super-huge pains in the rear!

    Just been busy with Lucy at the Royal orthopaedic. They can't fix her shoulder using conventional methods due to the socket being narrow and the ceramic/plastic bones wear it out :( She can barely use her arm and can't lift it level with her shoulder now :(

    He suggested we apply to Trust for funding for a donor ( :? ) bone. If we get funding that and locating (?) a bone the right size will take 6 months recovery 4. So that's no hairdressing for her next year :(

    Helen I struggled with Harry August too Helen. Sometimes that happens to me with 'acclaimed' books and I think it must be me so I am reassured.

    I am reading Disclaimer? Between bawling!

    I hope your dear Pusskin, George stays as well as possible. I had a Benny (Benjamin Blackthorn-Browne to be precise AKA The Black Avenger). too. ((())) form us and Daisycat.

    Love

    Toni xxx
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