My Thoughts: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Shaffer and Annie Barrows

My second audiobook finished this week (can you tell its the holidays and I've had lots of spare time!), this one was as great as Sabriel although very different.
You've probably read and seen hundreds of posts for this book so I'll keep it short and sweet.
I loved it. I fell in love with the characters and place. I would happinly go live in that book.

A quick synopsis: Juliette, a war-time writer starts a correspondence with a reader in Guernsey, a small island. The correspondence develops and she form a friendship with many of the members of the reading society. It doesn't sound exciting but it is.

The audiobook was read by a single woman who gave each character a different voice which enhanced their personality.

Read it if: Your looking for something quaint and English

Challenges:
999 (New Fiction)
War through the Generations: WWII
Notable Books

Sunday Salon

I've found that I haven't read much this week - the first week back to school has been pretty hectic. I'm also reading a book (The Sea of Poppies) which I seem to be struggling with - struggling because its an awkward hardback, struggling because it's full of Indian slang and words, struggling because there are 4 different storylines happening. Having said that I am enjoying it, I just seem to be reading very slowly.
Despite not having read much i had 6 books arrive in the house this week, 4 of them are bookrings which need to be finished in the next 4 weeks

My 4 bookrings

Free from Bookcrossing meeting

A free copy from Cannongate publishers

The Notable challenge, is now going to be a perpetual challenge. Challengers challenge themselves to a set number of books for the year - I want to read at least 6.

My list of possibilities:
My Revolutions, by Hari Kunzru (from 2008 Publishers Weekly Best Books)
The Calling, by Inger Ash Wolfe (from 2008 Publishers Weekly Best Books)
The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, by Asne Seierstad (from 2008 Publishers Weekly Best Books)
Bog Child, by Siobhan Dowd (from 2008 Publishers Weekly Best Books)
A Long way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (International Reading Association 2008)
The Yiddish Policeman's Union, by Michael Chabon (ALA Notable Book List 2008)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver (ALA Notable Book List 2008)
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, by Diane Ackerman (ALA Notable Book List 2008)
My South Seas Sleeping Beauty by Guixing Zhang (Kiriyama Prize Notable Book List 2008)

My Thoughts: The Space Between Us, Thirty Umrigar

The Space Between Us is a novel about the relationship between a servant and her employer in Bombay. One lives in the slums, the other in a nice apartment, one has to work long hours everyday the other complains if she has to make breakfast. Despite this their is a bond between the two women, they would not class themselves as friends for the social divide between them is just to great a step to bridge, but they rely on each other for support. And despite the social divide their lives frequently parallel each others. Until an event occurs which puts this bond to the test.

This book falls into that area of books about Eastern communities which we seem to be swamped with at the moment. Communities which have huge social and gender divides and which seem a million miles away from the concerns of the Western world. I certainly wouldn't say this is one of the best examples but it is a good read, some thing perhaps that fits in as an easy read between harder/heavier books. The relationships are well constructed, believable but I could see the conclusion coming from miles away, there were no surprises with this novel. I also felt that I would like to have spent more time seeing what life was like in the slums of Bombay. As seems to be a regular thing with these books, they were centred around the women giving us their views on the absent men in their lives.

I read this for the Notable Book Challenge Book 2 of 8

Other Bloggers thoughts:

Musings, Wendy's thoughts

My Thoughts: A Pure Swift Cry, Siobhan Dowd

I have meant to read this book for a few years now, but never quite got around to it (like many other books) so when I saw it on the Notable Books challenge I added it to my list of challenge books, and I'm really glad I did.

This book is categorised as young adult fiction but is definately part of the cross over genre.

The book is set in Ireland, in a small rural village. The Talent family are busy coming to terms with their mother's recent death and the relative abandonment of their father. Shell may be only 15 but she is the one left responsibe for running the house, feeding her father and acting like a mother to her younger brother and sister. The occupants in the village mey feel sorry foe Shell and her family but they offer little to help, usually just sympathetic glances. When Father Rose arrives in the village Shell thinks she has found a friend and Jesus, but this relationship is not to last long. Shell then retreats into finding comfort with the local choir boy, Declan Ronan, a child who doesn't quite follow with the rules of Catholicism. A scandal occurs with Shell lft smack bang in the middle of it.

As an adult reading this your able to look on and see the mistake she is making, and see the reality of situation that she is too naive to be able to read herself. A great story about growing up and dealing with what life throws at you.

5/5

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Challenge: Notable Books

This challenge is held over at Notable Books, participants need to read a selection of books from the Notable Books list.
I'm going to try and read 8 books, one for each month of the year left:
1. THE GATHERING, by Anne Enright.
2. AFTER DARK, by Haruki Murakami.
3. THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, by Mohsin Hamid
4. A Swift Pure Cry, by Siobhan Dowd *****
5. The People's Act of Love, by James Meek (Canongate)
6. Night of Sorrows by Frances Sherwood
7. The New Policeman, by Kate Thompson
8. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

This is my proposed list although this may change. I'm abandoning this challenge as I'm very unlikely to finish it this year, I'll have a try next year I'm sure