What are you reading at the moment

You've just sent me to the Amazon reviews of Red Dog and I have put it on my wish list. Sounds irresistible!

Captain Corelli fan reporting for duty. Have got Birds Without Wings but ashamed to say I haven't read it; gave my daughter a copy so I'll see if she read it. I tended to hand out copies of Captain Corelli to passing strangers [I exaggerate, but only slightly] when I first read it, feeling that the whole world should enjoy it. Would gladly suffer amnesia so's I could read it again for the first time. I think someone said many years ago that when they met people they asked them if thet'd read/enjoyed CC and if the answer was yay they were instantly a lifelong friend and it it was nay that friendship wasn't worth pursuing.

I read it and enjoyed it many years ago. The film was absolutely dreadful, I think that could have put many people off the book. I went to Greece this year and kept trying to remember which island the book was based on?

I have just finished 'A visit from the Goon Squad' by Jennifer Egan and thoroughly enjoyed it, but a good friend thoroughly hated it. It is an usual book.
I am now starting 'Witness the Night' by Kishwar Desai.

Kefalonia; we went there..it rained a lot . the film was dire; I kept saying Pelagia wouldn't do that/say that. One of the most beautiful chapters in any book [where her fiance swims out to sea] was missed out completely, and don't get me started on the Cage [?]guy as CC.

Although I haven`t seen the film, I must admit to being put off the book by seeing clips of the film, all featuring Nicholas Cage, who I can`t STAND. I`ve been to Kefalonia, beautiful place, so maybe I`ll give the book a try.

Hi crimson glad to identify you as fellow CC fan. In mitigation of the film the scenery was glorious, and I think it was the first time I realised what a good actor David Morrissey was. Shall be interested to hear what your DD made of Birds Without Wings. Do you tend to have similar taste? For years my Make or Break book( s) were The Alexandria Quartet, so great thrill when DYD fell under their spell too.[ smile]

* Hattie 64* How did you get on with Bel Canto? I also had it recommended by a friend and absolutely loved it. Has anyone read any other Ann Patchett books?

I was disappointed with Penelope Cruz also, but perhaps no one would have been beautiful enough to play the part for me. Of course, she turned out to be an incredibly good actress but I think that, at that time her English wasn't good enough. I'm afraid I don't read as much as I used to. The book I loved after CCM was The Kite Runner but I'm very much on lightweight stuff these days. Trying to get back into books again, though [thanks to this thread].

Ganja, I really enjoyed Bel Canto,an unusual story, but then I enjoy books like these. This is the first book by Ann Patchett I have read.

With reference to Greek Islands, has anybody read 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop, yet again can't remember the island, but met somebody who had and said it was just like the book.

I think Nicholas Cage is the worst actor ever!!!

I enjoyed the story of The Island, but Hislop's style is unbearably cliché-ridden. All the Greek girls seem to be raven-haired! Same can be said about her next novel, The Return, though it's a much more improbable story.

Spinalonga was "The Island" - an island off the Crete coast that really was a leper colony. I visited it way back in the '70's and it was a strangely emotional place. Been a touch "tarted up" now I believe

I quite enjoyed The Return - it certainly taught me a lot about the Spanish Civil War which was a conflict that I had found hard to comprehend. It has prompted me to discover more about those times in Spain.

Just remembered - I read Anne Widdecombe's first book because it was being sold and signed by her at a charity function ( otherwise I'd have written it off.) She is a surprisingly good storyteller; her convictions and political views are not at all evident. So I read the rest. Not bad!
Annobel - totally agree with you about Hislop!

Didn't Laurie Lee [sp] write a book about his involvement with the Spanish Civil War 'As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning' [or something like that].

Yes; I think it was just as it was all starting. And there's always "Homage to Catalonia", another Orwell I had to teach and then liked!

Thanks to whoever recommended Lee Child's Jack Reacher thrillers. I have just read the first one and, although it's pretty gory, I couldn't put it down. I am trying to restrain myself from downloading the next one. I finished Room on Friday. I can't make up my mind about it. I do find it convincing but I feel guilty as if I'm behaving like one of the paparazzi that Ma and Jack have to keep avoiding. I wonder what our local book group will make of it.

I think that might have been me Annobel, I will be forever grateful to the lady on the Kintyre forum who recommended him to me a couple of years ago. I haven`t read them all, but most of them, like I`ve said before, I`m a little in love with Jack Reacher, which is why I won`t be watching the film. Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher?? Never in a million years !
I`ve just finished The Last Detective, by Robert Crais, enjoyable as all the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books are. Am now reading Or She Dies, by Greg Hurwitz, very OK so far.

Tom Cruise? He'd need to be on stilts!

Buy him a box. Or dig a ditch for everyone else to stand in.

Elegran, I have a feeling that's been done before!

With Alan Ladd and Sophia Loren, can`t remember the film though.

Gally, so Snowdrops was good, excellent should be reading it soon with anticipation. I watched the Book Review Show on BBC2 Friday at 11.15 and they reviewed all the Booker shortlist, they didn't seem to like any of them except for the Julian Barnes book. Thought Snowdrops was too 'dark'.

Have just finished Or She Dies, it was very, very good, can recommend it. Not sdtarted it yet, but my next book is going to be Breakneck, by Erica Spindler, another of my favourite authors.

Anything by Mary Stewart is worth reading, "Touch not the Cat", "The Gabriel Hounds", "Airs above the Ground" and several others, also the books in the Merlin series, "The Crystal Cave", "The Hollow Hills", and "The Last Enchantment"
She can do characterisations you believe in.

Was going to comment on Mary Stewart and then realised I was confusing her with Mary Renault! Good stuff on classical themes - my Latin teacher recommended her. So of course I ignored the books for ages.

Waffling on - gave DS "The Eagle of the North" (Rosemary Sutcliffe) of which there has recently been a film. (Don't really do films - can't remember what they called it!) He loved it. I enjoyed re - reading it before I gave it to him.