Reading Pile

The books on my reading pile keep increasing, I can't read at a fast enough pace to keep up with them.

You may remember me reading A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen towards the back end of last year. I've recently read the follow on to this book, The World According To Bob. This book continues telling the tale of James and Bob's life together and the ways in which Bob has helped James through many hard times. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Bob's antics.

I've also read the third book in the Nightingale series by Donna Douglas, The Nightingale Nurses. This book is my favourite so far, perhaps because I've got to know the characters so well through the first two books. I couldn't resist buying the fourth book, Nightingales On Call, when it came out at the end of April and I'm reading that now. New characters have been introduced in this book so I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

While passing a bookshop in Leeds which sells discounted books, I saw Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth for just £1.99. I love the television series which is based on these books so I'm sure I'll enjoy reading these memoirs.

I buy many of my books from charity shops these days, though I'm careful about which ones I buy from as some want to charge nearly the same price as it would cost new. These two books cost me the princely sum of 99p for the pair, they were buy one get one free. Midwives by Chris Bohjalian sounds worlds away from the gentle pace of Call The Midwife. The blurb:-

Sibyl Danforth is a midwife, highly experienced and respected in her local community for delivering babies at home. Then the unthinkable happens. On a winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, in the middle of a lengthy and strenuous labour, tragedy strikes. With phone lines down and roads slick with ice, Sibyl is forced to perform an emergency caesarean on a mother she believes has died of a stroke.

But what if Sibyl's patient wasn't dead - and Sibyl inadvertently killed her?

Related through the eyes of Sibyl's 14-year-old daughter Connie, Midwives is powerful and gripping to the end. A courtroom battle ensues as Sibyl faces the antagonism of the law and the accusations of her own conscience, while trying desperately to keep her own family and reputation intact.

The other book, One Day by David Nicholls, has now been made in to a film and though I haven't seen it myself, Eleanor has watched it over and over again, she loves it. Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that the one day which the title relates to is the 15th of July, Eleanor's birthday. More often than not, I prefer a book to a film, so I thought I'd give this one a go. The blurb:-

You can live your whole life not realising that what you're looking for is right in front of you. 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?

We've recently started decorating Daniel's bedroom while he's away at university. Whilst packing the books on his bookshelves away, I came across the copy of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee which he used in secondary school whilst studying for his English Literature GCSE. It's a book which I also studied for my English Literature O Level and I'm now looking forward to rereading it. Flicking through the book, I can see that Daniel made notes in it and underlined various text. I've seen the film version of this book starring Gregory Peck many times and I never tire of it so I'm sure I'll be able to say the same for the book.

I'm not a fast reader, I only read a chapter or two when I go to bed so I think there's enough there to keep me going for a while.