Penguin Readers Forum » General Chat » What are you reading at the moment?

6 posts in this topic

1. penguin
   Administrator

   I have just finished The Help which I resisted for a long time. The cover of the book didn't tempt, I snobbishly thought it would be concerned with domestic issues which are of no interest to me. Having so many friends tell me 'you're mad (and a book snob too), read it', I opened the first page and... like so many others could not put it down. The author's ability to give life to the three main characters (and a large support cast too) was so skillfully and truthfully done. The sense of place, of that era when so many important things happened and black people began to find a voice was mesmerising and shocking. Most importantly, there is no neatly tied up happy ending. The ending is one of the saddest I've read (I found it hard not to howl out) but there is so much hope for better things to come and a real sense of how things were changing.
   
   A friend of mine told me it read like a thriller and she was right. I stayed up late, I missed trains, I refused dazzling party invitations till I'd read the last page. Then I looked greedily for more of this author's books. It's her first so it will be a while - but I can't wait.

   Posted 3 months ago #

2. onevoltperoctave
   Member

   As ever I'm reading my favourite classics - all the little penguins from back in the day. outside penguin I've picked up a thriller called No Mercy by John Gilstrap which kept me up until 02:00 this morning.
   Then there are all the old Desmond Bagleys which I'm revisiting this summer - McLean last year, Gavin Lyall next summer and so on.
   Best of all is The Russian Job by Graham Swinton which is for those folk who got annoyed when Michael Caine, Noel Coward and three minis left a bus hanging over a mountain pass in the ultimate cliffhanger ending. When Troy Kennedy Martin didn't write the sequel Swinton did in time for the Millennium with a 30 year older Charlie Croker getting out of gaol to do the next of Beckerman's jobs. Shakespeare it aint but if you're after a way to fill a few summer hours

   Posted 1 month ago #

3. OperaNut1972
   Member

   I am currently reading Crocodile tears to audit my 9 year olds reading material, I also reading for pleasure Stieg Larrsson's The Girl who played with Fire. I have been slow on the up take for this trilogy, however, after reading the first book in 12 and half hours, whilst soaking up some much needed vitamin D over the Wimbledon fortnight, I have purchased the other two. I tend to read more than one book at a time so it was good to concentrate on just "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". I think it was pretty obvious what had occurred but the material had me hitting the next page button till the end.

   Posted 1 month ago #

4. litchickuk
   Member

   I'm reading Sebastian Faulks' 'Human Traces'. Its very good. Enjoying it alot

   Posted 2 weeks ago #

5. nabokoff01
   Member

   Im reading 'letter from an unknow woman' by Stefan Zweig. Very good read and a story that will long live in the memory. I've read 'Human Traces' and while I am appreciative of its Proustian scale and the artful way the story is woven together, I must confess I found it slightly hard going. 'Engleby' was much better!

   Posted 2 weeks ago #

6. Ango
   Member

   Kathryn Stockett took a real risk in writing 'The Help' - writing in the first person as both white and black members of the Mississipi population during the 1960s could have sounded unconvincing.

   Incredibly, she pulls this off, and reading each character's account of the story is a fascinating insight into the turmoil of the civil right movement's belated arrival in the deep south. The real genius of the writing is the way in which the at times horrific racism and abuse and the courage of those working for change is interlaced with the everyday - the recipes, the family bonds, both black and white, allowing the reader to experience life just as it was in this now vanished world.

   The reader is pulled into the situation in which the rich cast of characters find themselves and will be thinking about this book long after they have read it.

   For some, the escape from domestic violence of one of the main characters may seem a little like too neat an ending, but overall, the author avoids an ending at all, allowing the characters to continue living their lives in our imagination.

   I found this unputdownable and was sad to say goodbye to Aibleen, Minny and Miss Skeeter. Looking forward to the next offering from this author.

   Posted 14 hours ago #

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