"The Woman in the Fifth" by Douglas Kennedy.
This was a book I found hard to put down and those who are fans of
Douglas Kennedy will not be disappointed.

"Escape" by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer
This is a true story by a lady born into a radical polygamist cult.
At 18 she was told she had to marry a 50 year old man.becoming his 4th
wife.    In fifteen years she had 8 children.   The way of life, way
wives and children were treated is shocking and Carolyn's final escape
and bringing down of Warren Jeffs, is something we have witnessed on
our tv and media news August 2006.
"This riveting book reminds us that truth can indeed be much, much
stranger than fiction."

Lyn Tod, Banora Pt, NSW, 2486.

PS Now to make really happy...all I need is a job in a book store and a chocolate shop...

Bev Phillips <bevp@...> wrote:

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Di Morrissey's latest 'Monsoon'.
Set in Vietnam and dealing with the 40th anniversary of Long Tan and
other issues that came out of the Vietnam war, I'm finding it a very
interesting read.

Also out now (or soon) is Judy Nunn's newest - Floodtide. Off to
Border's this week to see if it's out yet. And isn't that the best
place to lose an hour (or four) in????

Cheers

Bev in North Richmond NSW

PS Other recent reads include Monica McInerney's ' Those Farraday
Girls' and 'Black Diamond' by Kim Kelly. Both Australian authors and
stories with Australian settings.

PPS Why do all the good books come out at once and impatient people
like me have to go and buy them???

God sends no stress that prayer and chocolate cannot handle.




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I'm about 3/4 of the way through Di Morrissey's latest 'Monsoon'.
Set in Vietnam and dealing with the 40th anniversary of Long Tan and
other issues that came out of the Vietnam war, I'm finding it a very
interesting read.

Also out now (or soon) is Judy Nunn's newest - Floodtide.  Off to
Border's this week to see if it's out yet.  And isn't that the best
place to lose an hour (or four)  in????

Cheers

Bev in North Richmond NSW

PS  Other recent reads include Monica McInerney's ' Those Farraday
Girls' and 'Black Diamond' by Kim Kelly.  Both Australian authors and
stories with Australian settings.

PPS  Why do all the good books come out at once and impatient people
like me have to go and buy them???

God sends no stress that prayer and chocolate cannot handle.

Following recommendations I read "Meeting Point" by Rosin McAuley
and "The Dressmaker"by Rosalie Ham.   I thought they were both ok
but do think it sometimes makes a difference how our life is going
and/or family concerns, whether we enjoy books or not.    I then
read "Frantic" by Katherine Howell -first book for local Tweed Heads'
lady. Front of the book says "Her husband has been shot...her baby
is missing...there are worse things than death."   That describes the
book well.  Katherine is a former ambulance officer and her experience
in the job is well used in this her first novel.

I have just finished "What Happened to Freda Heyes" by Robin Bowles
who you will remember has written several books about crimes in
Australia.   This book takes the reader to the heart of the
euthanasia debate and is, IMHO, a very well written book.   Would
enjoy a discussion about same in a reading group.    Maybe the fact
that years ago I was secretary to a QC and also worked for many years
setting up a hospice in the days when few knew what they were, ties
together my background and special interest.

Lyn Tod, Banora Pt, NSW 2486

Hi all,

My latest two have been Chocolate & Five Quarters of the Orange by
Joanna Harris. This is the second listen of both of them, but as I have
recently been learning french and been to France they have made more
sense. I can even see the buildings and countryside. Very well read
books, that I had tried reading and couldn't come to terms with.

I am loving reading The Picture She Took by Fiona Shaw. Western front,
nurse, war. Beautifully written.

Lesley
Hamilton NZ

Yes, I felt much the same, Judy. And her revenge was so very comprehensive.
I felt it was a bit hard on the policeman, who had supported her a lot while
she was in the town, and yet her lost everything he cared about too. I
suppose he was being punished for taking her away as a child in the first
place, instead of getting to the truth?

Yvonne, I wondered as I read it, before I understood what was happening,
whether releasing all the animals was an act of petty malice. But then I saw
she was ensuring the innocent weren't injured. If the wind is the right way,
and no-one is there to fight it, I suppose you could burn down a whole town.
But my feeling was that she simply didn't care. If some houses survived (as
the homestead out of town did), that was just luck. I think I found that
aspect as shocking as the whole revenge thing! Everyone lost everything
equally, regardless of their part in her life.

Cheers
Nola

I read it years ago but enjoyed it, particularly the black humour.
Have just finished Last Summer and Mount Hope.  Very different but
just as satisdying.  her characters and their travails really came to
life for me.  These were real people,

Norma

On 10/19/07, J & T <tjman@...> wrote:
> I remember finding it quite strange too, Judy, but in a good way.
> It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride - but the humour of it won
> me over.
> I enjoyed it enough to go and buy a copy Last Summer and Mt. Hope .
>
> :-)
> Tania - in Bathurst
>

I have just finished reading “The Dressmaker” – i

Ellen Sheerin
Computer Coordinator
Asquith Girls High School
Stokes Ave, Asquith NSW 2077
Ph: 9477 6411
Fax: 9482 2524

I'm glad it wasn't just me, Judy!

>Now have started on the Ian Rankin "Rebus" novels.
I read a lot of them but after a while I got bored. They seemed to be
getting very similar to one another. Maybe I should try them again, now I've
had a break away from them?  But perhaps interspersing them with other
things, rather than reading them as a series, would be a good approach!

> Lyn Tod as just lent me two books "The Dressmaker" and one she really
> enjoyed "The White Masai".
I remember reading about Sojourner Truth too (not a name one forgets!) but I
don't remember just when. There's an adult biography of her called
"Sojourner Truth: a life, a symbol" by Nell Irvin Painter in my local
library, which I might get out when I have a few less things to read. I'm up
to my library's limit at the moment (actually, just between us, I'm slightly
over it - naughty Nola!)

Chers
Nola

Hi everyone
We must be all busy reading!

I finally reached the top of the library list for "What Came Before He Shot
Her" and in the end I didn't finish it. Not finishing a book is really
unusual for me, though I'm better at than I used to be. It wasn't that it
was poorly written or anything. I just found it too uncomfortable. You could
see how this lad's life was going steadily downhill, although he wasn't a
troublemaker; rather the reverse, working so hard to keep everything going
for his family. I've known kids like him, who couldn't take a trick in life,
so I guess it was all too real for me.

Then I read "The Harper's Quine", the first of those Pat McIntosh mysteries
set in Glasgow, and really liked it. There is a third, which is on my shelf
now, called "The Merchant's Mark". I really like them, shame there's only
three so far! I started "The Bullet Trick" by Louise Welch, which was OK. I
can see why it won a prize for a first novel, it has a moody character who's
a magician, and the action moves between London, Berlin and Glasgow and back
and forth in time. But I actually found it a bit boring and threw it aside
before I found out if the baddies caught up with him or not. I assume not...

"Swords and Crowns and Rings" was vintage Ruth park. Either you like her or
you don't. I do, so I can overlook the odd slight contrivances in the plot!
Certainly a good read and a good impression of Australian life at various
social levels in the nineteen thirties.

Did I talk here about "The Dressmaker"? I read that a while ago, and it's an
odd book, to be sure. Certainly it sustains your interest, although I found
the ending a bit over the top (well, it does call itself a Gothic tale!). It
gets you in because it's so plausible, and you find yourself sympathising
with Tilly, the dressmaker of the title who gets blamed by the town for
everything life throws at her. Her revenge on the small-minded townspeople
is magnificently appropriate without being brutal, but it did leave me
wondering how I could cheer on such wholesale destruction!

Cheers
Nola

Ellen Sheerin
Computer Coordinator
Asquith Girls High School
Stokes Ave, Asquith NSW 2077
Ph: 9477 6411
Fax: 9482 2524

Oh and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy. Well, it was a trilogy in the dark
ages of 1968-1972 - she's up to six now, I think? But maybe you don't like
fantasy?

Of course there's the obvious ones like Seven Little Australians by Ethel
Turner.

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Carrie's War by Nina Bawden

Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome (how could I have forgotten
these! I have them all.)

The Little Prince, by Antoine de St Exupery

The Railway Children by E E Nesbit

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

OK I'm stopping now!
Cheers
Nola

> A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle
> Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
> Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
> Stig of the Dump by Clive King
> and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

All but Stig are favourites here too! But they are from the generation of my
children (Pullman is even later) and I assumed Judy meant the ones from our
generation that she'd somehow missed out on?

>At present I am greatly enjoying The Eyre Affair by Jasper
> Fforde - what an imagination  that man has!
They are a lot of fun, aren't they? I've read all he's done so far, plus the
spin off series, Nursery Rhyme Crimes. Just not writing them fast enough...

Cheers
Nola

Other kids' classics?
The Green Knowe stories, and others, by Lucy M Boston. Must read.

The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier

The Snow Goose, by Paul Gallico, also The Small Miracle (this is often
printed with The Snow Goose and others of his shorter stories) - did you
know he also wrote The Poseidon Adventure?

Geoffrey Trease (historical novels)

I'm sure there are others - these just leapt to mind.
Cheers
Nola

Being an SF fan from way back - if you like that try sone of the Andre
Norton books - I find some a bit dark but enjoy most of them still.  Have
bought the "Beastmaster" books recently - had read the first two but new
ones have come out recently.

The Wizard series by Diane Duane is relatively new but worth reading - just
reprinted the first few I think.
The first one is called "So you want to be a wizard"


Not sure if I put a message through but thoroughly enjoyed Orbit by John J
Nance recently - the effect of a blog on the world.

Ellen

Ellen Sheerin
Computer Coordinator
Asquith Girls High School
Stokes Ave, Asquith NSW 2077
Ph: 9477 6411
Fax: 9482 2524

Can't resist the opportunity to pass on some of my favourite children's
books :-

A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle
Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
Stig of the Dump by Clive King
and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

I can heartily recommend all of these which I have read and/or re read
recently.  At present I am greatly enjoying The Eyre Affair by Jasper
Fforde - what an imagination  that man has!

Regards from June in Petone NZ

Oh brilliant Jill, than you!  I didn't know there was a new one of the
Greenwood's out. I've been waiting....

I read The Memory Keeper's Daughter a while back and it was fascinating. I'm
not sure I entirely bought the resolution - how could you pick up the
threads at all, under those circumstances? (I have some personal experience
of this, having met my father's other children just a few years ago. We're
trying to build relationships but really these people are strangers to me,
except for this strange tie of blood.) But it was interesting in the way it
explored the consequences of a split second decision, made under extreme
pressure - how these things ripple down the years.

Cheers
Nola