my year starts tomorrow because its my birthday
reading Three Women by Marge Piercy
0 down - 50 to go

Happy Birthday!!

Alycia wrote: "Happy Birthday!!"

Thank you. I had alovely day.

Three Women read and reviewed. Enjoyed that.

Now on to The echo - by Minette Walters. easy reading cos work is tough right now

1 down 49 to go

The Echo is all done. Not sure what i think of it - will have to ponder it. On to Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. Wonder if this Atwood will have a girl on a bridge - so many of them do

2 down 48 to go

Been on holiday so have read heaps

3. - The Blind Assassin- Margaret Atwood. Very interesting books - three stories very entwined.

4. A forest of flowers - Ken Saro-Wiwa. a book of short stories set in Nigeria. Very interesting comments on poverty, ignorance and corruption. Liked this collection a lot.

5. AIDS Sutra - untold stories from india. a fascinating collection of HIV & AIDS related stories from India. often hallowing but always gripping. Tough going at times but worth reading.


6. The good women of China Hidden voices - Xinran. Wow! Xinran is a radio journalist who used to work on state run radio in China. In this book she tells the true stories of ordinary lives chinese women shared with her. It is a gripping collection which will shock, surprise and even upset the reader. very valuable and powerful book - i think all women everywhere should read it.

7. The Wizards of Odd - Comic tales of fantasy. Peter Haining (ed). A fun collection of fantasy stories by some of the stalwarts of sci-fi fantasy writers. From Pratchett to Adams via le Guin and Vonnegut jnr this really is a fun book. any fans of fantasy writing really would love it. I did.

8. Child Soldier - China Keitetsi. Sjoe! This book is the very simply written autibiography of a child soldier in Uganda. It tells of China's life both in the army and before. That we have a world in which an eight year old can be so badly treated at home that she leaves to find her biological mother - and is allowed to - is scary enough. That she lands up a child soldier instead is just, for me, unbelievable. This book is frightening because it is the story of so many children all over the world. This book is a must for anyone with any social conscience.

9. The girl with the Dragon Tatoo - Steig Larsson. Brilliant. this book deserves all the credit that has already been heaped upon it by the international reading world. It's great.

10. A little learning - Caro Fraser. chick lit. I read it because i ran out of books before i ran out of holiday. its the usual drivel - shallowpeople, stupid women and philandering men. yawn yawn.

so - thats 10 down 40 to go

11. Memories with photographs by Gemma Levine.
Lovely gentle book with some beautiful photographs accompanying photos of interesting and famous people.

12. Tell me why, Mummy. Harrowing account of sexual abuse by a mother on her young son.

I forgot one
13. The girl who played with fire.
I do love this Larsson trilogy. Am pacing myself though - will start the 3rd one soon

14. Man, interupted - James Bailey
a book about a man's OCD and treatment. a bit of a non-book for me. Bleh!

15. Hunger for Freedom- The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela

This book has changed who I am

16. The Angel of Grozny.
A book about what war does to ordinary people. How people come out of experiences like the Russian Chechnyian war and not be riddled with xenophobia, hatred and anger I do not know.
War is born of fear and breeds fear
War is born of hate and breeds hate
War breeds war

I despair of the species we are