Read any good books lately?

I'm saved! There was a book sale in our local town so I picked up another 5 books for £2 each. Struggling with the one at the moment though. Just read a couple of Harlan Coban 'The Woods' and 'Promise Me'. Quite enjoyed them.

Another one I enjoyed is 'The Road' by Cormack somebody or other.... can't tell you his other name cos I've lent it to a friend. Quite weird really about a lad and his dad on 'the road' where the whole world has been obliterated (we never learn by what).... quite moving and thought provoking.

I'm going to write down all these recommendations and see if I can get them from Amazon.

Just finished The Associate by John Grisham.  Good for about 2/3 of the book and then it went right off the boil!  The ending was useless!  he hasn't written anything good in years! 

Starting Too Close To Home by Linwood Barclay....not sure what it's like....these are all the books my mum bought for her holidays so I didn't buy them.  But any old port in a storm eh?

Pinkerbelle, I've read a few Jodi Picoult. One or two of them I didn't enjoy as much, but My Sister's Keeper and The Pact are particularly good.

Pinkerbelle, I've just crashed this thread too and I agree - Time Travellers Wife is the best book EVER!! I've lost count of how many times I've read it. 

Just finished Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother which is seriously funny.

I'll look out for that film, Pinkerbelle, although often it is a disappointment when a book you've really enjoyed is turned into a film and the characters don't match up to how you've pictured them!

If you haven't read the Susan Howatch series set in the Church of England, I can recommend them. First one is called Glittering Images - I read them for the first time quite a few years ago and recently re-read them and enjoyed them just as much. 

Also Before I Die by Jenny Downham - it's actually a book for teenagers, but beautifully written and suits adults as well as younger people.  

Finished 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' (R.J.Ellory)

Was not sure what to make of it, so I've read back to see what others have made of the book.  I don't really get the Steinbeck references... I'd have put it more in the Harper Lee camp.  EG Quiet Southern town disrupted by horrible events, childhood under siege etc...

I liked the descriptive meandering style and I was totally immersed in the atmosphere of sultry suspicion, childhood guilt and self-doubt.

Now the flaws... I couldn't really identify with the lead character and for the second half of the book I actually really disliked him... I guessed who was doing the bad deeds half way through and was very dissapointed to be proved right.  I hated the contrived ending... so lazy and lax by the author.

I'd recommend it though...for atmosphere alone... and the guy can write

6/10

I'd read a Steinbeck anthology three years ago so his style was still fresh in my mind - it was the style more than the setting and themes that seemd plaigiarised. And the references to Steinbeck in the text didn't dispel my thoughts.

He can write, but I wish he'd write with his own voice.

I can see the similarity in style to Steinbeck SVT... but the book screamed 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' at me from page one... he was also quite obviously very influenced by Trueman Capote's style... which is suggested by the dedication to Capote at the beginning.

Methinks he sees himself as a continuation of a school... perhaps?

if he was trying to emulate the style of tkamb he came up very short
that book has class on every page, so many different themes on the go at the same time
the feeling of a slow southern town during a hot summer - as you read it you could almost be there

this was a pale immitation if it was - and then he lost it in the second half

i have just started reading "in the belly of a whale" am only a few pages in and enjoying it already

squishy - cormac mcarthy - mr really likes him
i must try one of them - i just had the impression that althoguh really well written, they were really depressing, not that that's a bad thing, life is not all fun and laughter - but i thought it was like reading a hardy - all doom and gloom