Well it's almost the end of the month so here's a thread for you to list and rate your July reads......

A quieter month for me,but some excellent reads.

Here are my July reads :

Darkness and Light ~ John Harvey...9/10
A Spot of Bother ~ Mark Haddon...9/10
The Spaniard's Daughter ~ Melanie Gifford...9/10
The Journal of Dora Damage ~Belinda Starling..9/10
The Night Watch ~ Sarah Waters..10/10
The Outcast ~ Sadie Jones....current read

My read of the month is The Night Watch....

 

The Second Husband - Louise Candlish 8/10

Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris - could not get into this, think maybe I didn't want to read about work when I wasn't at work.

My Best Friends Life - Shari Low 8/10

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Rebecca Miller 8/10

Blood, Sweat and Tea - Tom Reynolds 6/10

The Godmother - Carrie Adams 8/10

The Bride Stripped Bare - Anonymous 8/10

Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella 8/10

Johnny Be Good - Paige Toon 8/10

The Secret Friend - Chris Mooney 7/10

Sleeping in Sand - Crysse Morrison - could not get into this which is a shame as I loved Frozen Summer.

Currently reading - The Delilah Complex by M.J. Rose

 

frangipani:

The Second Husband - Louise Candlish 8/10

Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris - could not get into this, think maybe I didn't want to read about work when I wasn't at work.

My Best Friends Life - Shari Low 8/10

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Rebecca Miller 8/10

Blood, Sweat and Tea - Tom Reynolds 6/10

The Godmother - Carrie Adams 8/10

The Bride Stripped Bare - Anonymous 8/10

Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella 8/10

Johnny Be Good - Paige Toon 8/10

Currently reading - The Delilah Complex by M.J. Rose

 

Shona, didn't you read "The Secret Friend" by Chris Mooney too?

UKDana:

frangipani:

The Second Husband - Louise Candlish 8/10

Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris - could not get into this, think maybe I didn't want to read about work when I wasn't at work.

My Best Friends Life - Shari Low 8/10

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Rebecca Miller 8/10

Blood, Sweat and Tea - Tom Reynolds 6/10

The Godmother - Carrie Adams 8/10

The Bride Stripped Bare - Anonymous 8/10

Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella 8/10

Johnny Be Good - Paige Toon 8/10

Currently reading - The Delilah Complex by M.J. Rose

 

Shona, didn't you read "The Secret Friend" by Chris Mooney too?

Oooops yes!!

frangipani:

Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris - could not get into this, think maybe I didn't want to read about work when I wasn't at work.

Interesting to see your comment about this book Shona as I also have this on my tbr and keep putting it off as I too was not sure if I would enjoy reading about work whilst not at work!

The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett   7/10
The Naming of the Dead - Ian Rankin   7/10
Glyph - Percival Everett   5/10
The Big Blowdown - George P Pelecanos  8/10
Post Office - Charles Bukowski  8/10
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb  8/10
Hideous Kinky - Esther Freud  6/10
Film Club - David Gilmour   7/10
The Graduate - Charles Webb  8/10

Still reading
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch - only 100 pages left and I'm not sure if I've enjoyed it or not!  Possibly a 7/10
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor - half way through but probably a 8/10

My favourite book this month was probably Flowers for Algernon which I would give 9/10

 

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson 6/10 Interesting look at colonial India, but the storyline was a bit fluffy.
The Other Hand by Chris Cleave 8/10 Really enjoyed this story of an African asylum seeker and the effect she has on a British family.
Addition by Toni Jordan 8/10 Very entertaining but sad, I really warmed to the heroine.
Fault Lines by Nancy Huston 6/10 Disturbing first section but it got better. Shocking true backgound story from WW2.
Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult 6/10 Not my favourite Picoult by a long way, prefer her courtroom/issue-based novels.
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker 8/10 A great ending to the trilogy.
Down River by John Hart 6/10 Corny writing style but I stuck with it to find out whodunnit.
The Clothes On Their Backs by Linda Grant 8/10 Interesting look at life in 70s London.
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan 6/10 Started off well but then got a bit weird!
The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson 7/10 Slow start then I loved the middle section but lost interest towards the end.
Wish Her Safe At Home by Stephen Benatar 9/10 Brilliant, loved this sad but humerous story about a woman's descent into madness.
All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills 9/10 Wonderfully surreal - 'an Alan Bennett play directed by the Cohen Brothers' (from the blurb)
Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood 5/10 Disappointingly dull.
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min 7/10 Interesting but a little intense at times.
The Resurrectionist by James Bradley 7/10 Enjoyed the first half but the second dragged a little.
One Morning Like A Bird by Andrew Miller Another from the Waterstones book group. Currently reading and finding it really boring - may well give up. Have given up!

Had a really busy month so another rather pathetic selection from me: 

Ask The Dust - John Fante (re-read - always love this one) 

Naive. Super - Erland Loe (see review)

Intimacy - Jean Paul Sartre (got through the first third and enjoyed vaguely, but had no impetus to get any further. On the plus side it smells lovely - very old and yellow)

The Outgoing Man (started this because I read on Amazon that it was like Magnus Mills but didn't get properly into it before I was distracted by something else)

The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker (very interesting - basically suggesting language is as much of an instinct to us as spinning a web is to a spider, and not a learned activity at all) 

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop from Mob Lib

The Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar

Denise4891:

One Morning Like A Bird by Andrew Miller Another from the Waterstones book group. Currently reading and finding it really boring - may well give up.

 

I've already given up Denise!  I just hated it, I cant put my finger on why - but I was bored to tears.  I think I'm going to email Greg to let him know I wont be taking part in the discussion this month.  The author is due to take part and I just wouldnt know what to say without offending him.  I dont have anything constructive to say about it.

frangipani:

Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris - could not get into this, think maybe I didn't want to read about work when I wasn't at work.

I know what you mean - although I had no problem reading this and loved every minute of it, I'm trying to write about my job at the moment and hate it so much I really don't want to spend all evening thinking about it!

Glad it's not just me Anne!  I think I'll put it down for a while and then see what the others say about it - I might just be inspired to pick it up again but I doubt it.  It is a bit awkward with the author joining in the discussion and Greg asking us to keep our comments positive.

Only 4 books for me this month, but I liked them all.

Random Acts of Heroic Love                      D. Scheinmann         9/10

Gentlemen and Players                             J. Harris                    9/10

Archangel                                                R. Harris                    8/10

Extremely loud and incredibly close            J. Safran Foer           10/10

The possibility of an island                        M. Houellebecq           8/10 
Still reading, I don't like it but it is interesting. May post a review for the first time!

                                                                   

annecater:

Denise4891:

One Morning Like A Bird by Andrew Miller Another from the Waterstones book group. Currently reading and finding it really boring - may well give up.

 

I've already given up Denise!  I just hated it, I cant put my finger on why - but I was bored to tears.  I think I'm going to email Greg to let him know I wont be taking part in the discussion this month.  The author is due to take part and I just wouldnt know what to say without offending him.  I dont have anything constructive to say about it.

Thank goodness it's not just me, I have also given up on this - I actually can't wait to hear what everybody else thought of this one.

I thought I'd had a really busy month, reading-wise, but just looked back and only finished four! I think maybe Snow took me quite a while...

 The Lovers' Room, by Stephen Carroll 7/10

The Hours, by Michael Cunningham 8/10

Snow, by Orhan Pamuk 8/10

The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon 7/10

Currently reading A Widow for One Year, by John Irving. No books stood out for me particularly this month; I enjoyed Snow but it was quite hard-going in places. I think I'm actually enjoying A Widow for One Year more than I've enjoyed anything else this month -  so far so good!