The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson

Has anybody else read this book.
I have had it for a while on my list of books to read and the rain at the weekend meant I finished it quite quickly. Set in Canada and following the lives of two characters in the 1940's and then the late 50's and early 60's it give an insight into the lives of people in remote Northern Canada and their experience of the second world war with many young men going to war and not returning. It is beautifully written and the way the characters are gradually revealed is fery cleverly done. My favourite part was the atmosphere created and the descriptions of the landscape and lives of the people. The ending was a little disappointing but that seems to be quite common. All in all a lovely book escapist but not sentimental

readitswapit

I thought that it would be interesting to let you know about www.readitswapit.co.uk which is a website that is for swapping books. I have used it alot and swapped most of my paperbacks for ones on my wish list of books to read. I have posted on their forum our blog address so that other reading groups can share their lists and see ours. Anyone who has a reading group list to share please add a comment.

Books the group have read up to March 2008

Here is the list of books we have read so far. I am sure we have all missed at least one so it will be useful to check especially for those of us that like lists. Perhaps you would like to add lists of yourfavourite books or all the books you read in 2007!

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Brick Lane - Monica Ali
Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
Miss Garnet's Angel - Sally Vickers
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Jon McGregor - If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things
Hilary Mantel- Beyond Black
The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracey Chavalier
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Five Boys - Mick Jackson
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follet
A Short History Of Tractors In Ukranian - Marina Lewycka
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
The Map That Changed the World- Simon Winchester
The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
We have also had a poetry month and a favourite book swap month

List kindly provided by Clive

readysteadybook.com

Hello everyone
I heard about this website on radio 4 where there was a discussion about the controversy that is raging around books being reviewed on blogs. it would be interesting to haer what other people thinks about this.


Is there a role for bloggers in literary criticism?

The website is very interesting www.readysteadybook.com