wyres:

sam1978:

I only liked the sound of one book on my list which is The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. 

Will try to get hold of a copy.

Fab book Sam.  I've got a keeper copy of it somewhere I think, if you're struggling finding a copy and if I can find it you're very welcome to borrow it.

Oooh thanks, will bear that in mind

hippystick:

MandyJ:

STEPHANIA, by Ilona Karmel. 

 

This one sounds really good, you're right it was a good year.

Oh yes, it does sound good!

Only just seen this, what a fab idea! Just off to have a look for mine.

I've moved this to What Shall I Read Next and stickied it.

I'm going to read Stephania by Ilona Karmel - becasue Tracy said it looked interesting! Only 2 reviews on Amazon, but they are both 5*.

I'm afraid I gave up on Harold Robbins 10% in - I have fond memories (perhaps best not revisited) of books like The Carpetbaggers and The Lonely Lady, but this one was pretty awful. Really cardboard characters, an attempt at recreating dialogue in a New York accent... ah well, I tried! Hope yours is better Josette! 

Well I'm pleased to report that I loved The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier, so thanks for prompting me to read it. 

My second 'time travel' novel this month, this time the protagonist travels back to the 14th century by imbibing an hallucinogenic drug as part of an experiment set up by a scientist friend of his.  I think DDM is sometimes dismissed as a fluffy, romantic writer but she also wrote some pretty dark and disturbing stories, and this is one of them

windysisters:

I've moved this to What Shall I Read Next and stickied it.

Thanks Wendy I wondered where it'd gone. 

Well, I finished mine this weekend.

Stephania by Ilona Karmel.

Never heard of either book or author before, and I don't imagine many other people have either. Only 2 reviews on Amazon.com.

And it was great!! Definitely needs to be revived - I've been cheeky and nicked the resumé from the Amazon reviewer - who would have thought a book about 3 women on a hospital ward would be so rivetting??

Stephania, a Polish refugee, from WWII, is in a hospital in Sweden to have her humped back straightened. She is put in a ward room with two others: Thura, a young teenager who is paralyzed, but can breathe on her own, and Froken Nilsson, a spinster, whose broken leg won't heal because she is so overweight she can barely get out of bed. When Stephania enters the hospital, she is proud, wearing bright red lipstick, scorning those who are sick - she is not - and tries to hide her hump from all. Not one of them, she vows. A survivor of a concentration camp, she wants to ignore her past. The author, Ilona Karmel, herself a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, brings that flavor to this story, but not overt, as one would think. Rather, it is the story of how these three women interact with each other, all with competing interests of extreme medical concerns, which they try to use to get sympathy and attention. Thura and Fr. Nilsson have been in the hospital for some time and know the routine; Stephania is the outsider. Stuck together in a hospital room, 24 hours a day, after Stephania has her first operation for her back and is put in a full body cast, they must navigate their conflicting personalities, without any being able to leave the room for a "time-out." It is Stephania who finally moves outside herself to help the others; moves beyond her own selfish needs and helps her roommates.

I want to keep it, but if anyone would like to read it, I'll bring it along to any meet I go to, don't want to post as it's a heavy hardback, and as long as I get it back at some point I don't mind where it goes or for how long, I just want other people to read it!!! There are a few cheap copies on Amazon.

That was quick Mandy, glad you enjoyed your choice. I shall start mine tonight, Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann (and I think it was you that passed it to me at the Bristol meet?)

eightlegs:

That was quick Mandy, glad you enjoyed your choice. I shall start mine tonight, Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann (and I think it was you that passed it to me at the Bristol meet?)

Oh it was! Mea culpa - I didn't like it much!

 Mine has just arrived from the US* - Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis.  It is old, shabby and has yellowed (very) pages, but I think it might be an interesting read. 

*sounds posh - but I just found it on US Amazon and it only cost about £3 including postage.

I've only just seen this thread, so headed off to find mine.  I didn't fancy the one from the week so picked Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, from later on in the year.  It just happens to be sat in my TBR so hopefully I can lay my hands on it and join in!

(I did feel old reading all the posts where you've chosen books that I bought new as they came out!)

I've added you now Aileen. 

I've read my book - Bonjour Tristesse.  Only just over 100 pages so it didn't take long.  I enjoyed it and gave it 4/5.