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Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:16 pm
by numberplease
Oh, might give it a go then.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 7:58 pm
by Govangirl
Sorry but I don't think you'll like it Numberplease knowing what you read. If you really want to read about drugs and violence then read Trainspotting because in my opinion this book is a very, very poor re-hash of the characters in the original. I thought it was so disappointing, sorry Roger :(

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 12:08 am
by numberplease
Thank you GG, in my ignorance, I`ve never even heard of Trainspotting! Maybe you`re right, and it wouldn`t be my cup of tea.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 6:08 am
by LANDROVER ROGER
I have not read Trainspotting or watched the film so I will keep an open mind.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 5:15 pm
by Govangirl
Very sad news about Iain Banks. His new book is being published this month I believe and will be very moving I'm sure. My favourite? The Crow Road.

RIP

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:07 pm
by numberplease
I`ve never actually read anything by Iain Banks, maybe I should rectify that.
I`ve just read a lovely book by Rosie Goodwin, called Home Front Girls. It`s about the lives of three very different girls, who meet up in 1939, when they all start work at a department Store in Coventry. It`s not my usual kind of reading matter, but I found it unputdownable (oops, grammar!), and absolutely loved it.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 10:13 am
by Martin
Recently read Matron Knows Best by Joan Woodcock.
This is what it says on the back cover....

"Joan Woodcock always dreamed of becoming a nurse. And in 1966 the dream came true. From her very first day as a naive sixteen-year-old cadet, standing nervously outside the matron's office, this is Joan's story of an eventful career spanning over forty years in NHS nursing. Working on hospital wards, casualty units and out in the community, as well as stints in a prison and a police unit dealing with sexual assault, Joan has seen it all. In this moving memoir she gives an honest, revealing account of a challenging, unpredictable and ultimately rewarding life in nursing. From an early encounter with a horrific axe injury, to the patient who swallowed their suppositories, to daily dealings with difficult patients and all kinds of bodily fluids, Joan shares memories of laughter and tragedy, and of the now defunct matron system that at one time instilled nurses with such high standards of professionalism and patient care. "


It's a decent read, I didn't think it would be my sort of thing but ended up enjoying it immensely.
She finishes the book with this ....

"Society itself has changed and people’s expectations have quite legitimately grown along with that change. Miracles are regularly performed by life saving operations and wonderful new machines are installed at enormous expense to us all, because it is mainly public money that pays for it. Somewhere among all these soaring costs patients still require good nursing.
At some point along the line, this seems to have been forgotten."

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:01 pm
by Govangirl
Numberplease, he's a great writer, I loved The Crow Road and the subsequent series on TV. The Wasp Factory I read years and years ago and I re-read it last year. Brilliant read but shocking and horrific - I will never forget the twist at the end, it really knocked me for six but it's not for the squeamish.

Martin wrote:nurses with such high standards of professionalism and patient care. "


Mmmm, fantasy isn't my preferred genre Martin :<>

I have just started the new Khaled Hosseini book 'And the Mountains Echoed' and I had to read the first chapter twice it was so profound and beautiful.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:15 pm
by Martin
GG, maybe you should've quoted the whole bit....

"that at one time instilled nurses with such high standards of professionalism and patient care."

I thought you are of an age to remember when nurses actually cared and nursed.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:35 pm
by Govangirl
Martin wrote:GG, maybe you should've quoted the whole bit....

"that at one time instilled nurses with such high standards of professionalism and patient care."

I thought you are of an age to remember when nurses actually cared and nursed.


Martin, THAT, in my clumsy way, was what I was trying to show!!!! I was saying that it is now a fantasy. I watched my mum suffer and die in a Glasgow hospital that ought to have known better and my friend who lives in America has come home this week to the same hospital ward to experience exactly the same with her mother. It is heartbreaking. I couldn't read a book that reflected on a 'system that at one time instilled nurses with such high standards of professionalism and patient care' because I would feel even MORE bloody cheated!!!!

Sorry but I was agreeing with you there as I usually do! But still, if you saw me, I do look 25!!!! :D

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:51 pm
by Martin
Of course you still look 25 my dear, and I still look like I did at seventeen.

Sorry Mrs. I forgot we both have the same thoughts on this subject.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:51 pm
by numberplease
GG, I only found out yesterday that Khalid Hosseini has a new book out, and as soon as it`s in paperback I`ll be buying it. I absolutely loved The Kite Runner, and A Thousand Splendid Sons, and if I`m to be truthful, I loved the second book more.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:04 pm
by bill
Jack Reacher's latest outing is titled "Never go Back", and I have decided never to go back to buy another .I really struggled to carry on to the end. Definitely the worst in the series. The plot is so implausible, and the ending is so lame.

Lee Child should kill Reacher off. He's had his day.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:55 pm
by numberplease
:shock: Bill, what on earth are you saying? Is the book really that bad? I hope not, because I`d hate to see the end of Jack Reacher.

Re: What are you reading just now?

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:21 pm
by WC1
I enjoyed the new Jack Reacher, and even found myself gripped enough by it to carry on reading well past my usual 'lights out' time. Having said that, I agree with Bill that the mainspring of the whole story, as revealed in the ending, was really quite disappointing. Was it really plausible that two powerful men would go to such lengths? Maybe, maybe not. But getting to the ending was as much fun as usual.

Since finishing it I've been getting into the first of Malcolm MacKay's Glasgow crime thrillers 'The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter'. Very well written, and a bit dark, but far from dreary. Enjoying it so far. And the second, 'How a Gunman says Goodbye', is already on the Nook for when I finish the first! I'll keep you posted.