What are you reading - June 2002?

[Darren]

I thought I'd start another thread for June.

I've been sent a review copy of "Arena" by debut author Karen Hancock. I was quite surprised when the publisher emailed me asking to send me a review copy!

It's certainly not my usual genre of reading, but the publishers shipped it over to me so I thought I should give it a try.

It's published by the Christian Book Publisher Bethany House.

Here's the synopsis from the back of the book

Transported surreptitiously to a terrifying alien world, woth limited resources and only a few cryptic words to guide her, Callie Hayes finds herself engulfed in a perilous battle for freedom - and for her very life. She must unravel the mysteries that shroud her only route of excape, or risk succumbing to the dealy deception of the Arena.

I'll write my review when I've finished reading it.

 

[Dawn]

Sounds interesting. I look forward to your review.

 

[Ell]

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

This is the first book of The Deptford Trilogy.

 

[Holger]

Originally posted by Darren Lewis
I thought I'd start another thread for June.

I've been sent a review copy of "Arena" by debut author Karen Hancock. I was quite surprised when the publisher emailed me asking to send me a review copy!

It's certainly not my usual genre of reading, but the publishers shipped it over to me so I thought I should give it a try.

I also think it sounds interesting! Waiting for your review!

/Holger

 

[loci]

re-reading 'big sur and the oranges of hieronymus bosch' - henry miller...
great life affirming read...

tho its probably classed as non-fiction

 

[bebe]

I'm reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad...I can't say very much about it because I'm kind of on the first page -B

 

[Dawn]

I'm reading Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Tobytook]

I recently finished reading John Irving's The Fourth Hand (see this thread for details), and I'm getting through a novel by WG Sebald called The Emigrants.

Sebald is a German national, writing in his native language, currently teaching at the UEA (Norwich, UK). His style has been described as "annihilatingly melancholic" (Guardian Review, 15/06/02), but I found this book to be refreshingly optimistic and upbeat, despite its central preoccupation with isolationism and loss.

Told in four mini-biographies about Jewish emigrants to the UK from pre-WW2 Germany, its disparate threads come together eventually to speak of great human resilience - even if that resilience germinates over generations - and hope.

A good reminder to people that, whatever problems they have, there's always tomorrow.

Tobytook

 

[lies]

I started and finished Anne McCaffrey's The Crystal Singer yesterday, and the way it's going, I'm gonna have finished the second part of The Complete Chronicles of the Crystal Singers of Ballybran as well by tonight, when I should be studying for those wretched exams! I pity the fool who invented books, for s/he ruined my life.

Other June books past:

- Tprieel van Troyen (Segher Diengotgaf)
- Beatrijs
- Mariken van Nieumeghen
- Karel ende Elegast

Fascinating, I agree.

 

[LadyOnLine]

Ruth Rendell

I just started my first Ruth Rendell book - Adam and Eve and Pinch Me. It seems ok so far but I've only read a few chapters. I just finished reading Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes and I really recommend that. I couldn't put it down!!

 

[bebe]

the world according to garp (yes, and i know june is over, but i had nowhere else)

I've read about 3 chapters now of this throughly different but very interesting book, and I find that unlike many others, this novel is actually pretty okay to read at all times when you're bored, not like some others where you kind of feel sick of going back to the same old boring storyline. John Irving has such a way with phrasing his words....I can't describe it. I'm not a book critic, so I can't really use any of those "fancy phrases" they use, but here's what I say about it for people like me who want to know whether it's good or bad.

it's good. -B

 

[bookvenue]

I just finished a book called "Pope Joan" by Diana Woolfolk Cross. It is an historical fiction based on the story of a woman who lived as a man in the ninth century and rose in power to actually reign as Pope for two years. No one knows if the story is based on truth, but it was a commonly believed story for centuries.

Anyway, I found the basis of the story fascinating, and I really enjoyed the novel as a piece of fiction too.