Would you like a book?

  
      It's been ages since I took part in BAFAB, that is the quarterly 'buy a friend a book' week, so it's about time we had another draw and I'll give a Cornflower favourite to the winner.

    All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling us what you've read most recently and what you thought of it, and as I can send the prize* anywhere in the world everyone is welcome to enter.

   What the package will contain is as yet unknown; I always wait to see whose name comes out of the hat, and then I try to choose something which will suit the winner's taste, if I know anything about it - which failing, something I like very much!

    Please do have a go.

*(Just to be clear and in the spirit of the thing, it will be bought by me, not donated by a publisher).

Comments

[Ros]

I read Mary Balogh's The Gilded Web last night. Very sweet Regency romance of the old-fashioned kind. Perfect bedtime reading.

[Lin James]

Just finished Andrew Greig's Summit Fever, which was fascinating, conveyed the excitement and concentration of a completely different world (mountaineering; not my thing at all)- and has led me to Kathleen Jamie's Golden Peak / Among Muslims: worlds within worlds, plus books which lead you to other books - doubly blessed.

[catharina]

As my library didn't have The Poet's Wife I took Judith Allnatt's A Mile of River home with me. Unknown author but not anymore now: I really liked her.

[sakura]

I finished James Woods' How Fiction Works and liked it. Of course I now have to go and read all the classic texts he discussed.

[Harriet]

Caroline Miniscule by Andrew Taylor was my last read -- a great first novel by a hugely talented and versatile crime writer. I loved it.

[Susan Campbell]

I re-read Neil M Gunn's "The Drinking Well", and was again moved and delighted by his characters and his descriptions of Scottish landscape and history. The acute sense of place expressed in all Gunn's books is very special.

[Verity]

I am just finishing off Wedding cakes a cultural history - a fascinating anthropological insight into my current obsession!

[Jennifer]

I know it's just a cookbook, but i just read The River Cottage Bread Handbook. I really enjoyed it and have made crumpets already.

[Danielle]

I've *finally* read My Antonia by Willa Cather and enjoyed it immensely. This is a book I've always meant to read since I live in Nebraska (and we claim her as our own), but it took me forever to do so. What took me so long? Now I'll be working my way through the rest of her books.

[Lina]

I'm just finishing Michael Holroyd's one volume biography of George Bernard Shaw. It's been a long slow read that I've relished and savoured. I've picked it up and put it down over several months, been tempted away to read other books and have found myself irresistably drawn back to GBS. Holroyd brings him to life again and Holroyd's story and approach to the art and craft of biography has been very, very impressive -his style resonates in my head. A wonderful read, and I've been buying other books by Holroyd - bliss.

[Ivana]

I recently finished On Beauty by Zadie Smith and I was very proud of myself because I read it all through exam time, which means I was staying up each night for an extra hour after studying to read it. It was the perfect relaxation read. I always find Zadie Smith's books to be very anticlimactic in the sense that there isn't some big plot that gets resolved in the end, it's more like she just gives you a few glimpses into several people's lives. My favorite part of this was when, at one point, she says "This was X and Y's little sexual ritual, for ancient and private reasons..." as if to emphasize the fact that, just because you're peering into their lives as a reader, you are not necessarily privileged to know everything about them.

[Marina McIntire]

I just finished The Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss. This is a small book about a woman homesteading on her own in turn-of-the-last-century Oregon. Very much displays the power of what one doesn't say. I loved it!

[Linda C.]

I've just finished Days of Grace (Catherine Hall). A moving story of secret love. By the way, is there a way to search your site for a previous review of a particular book? Thanks for your blog; you have introduced me to so many wonderful books.

[Heather Bond]

Miss Buncle Married was my last read. Delightful sequel to Miss Buncle's Book and I enjoyed it every bit as much!

[margaret46]

I have just finished the second book in the Flavia[the sweetness at the bootom of the pie]series,It was as entertaining as the first and am eagerly awaiting the publication of the third book.

[Carol]

I have just finished The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest ... enjoyable and a very quick read. Just had to read the series to see what all the hype was about, and am glad I did. Makes me want to travel to Sweden if nothing else ...

[Jordi]

Wolf Hall and I then re-read most of it I had enjoyed it so much. While I was not reading I found myself somehow wondering what Thomas was doing while I wasn't watching him. I know that sounds odd, but it is an amazing book.

[Liz Paulk]

Just finished some frothy bubbly light reading: One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushenll (she who wrote the Sex in the City series). It was ok, but was a nice palate cleanser after finishing Wuthering Heights and beginning Jane Eyre....

[Rebecca]

Fabulous picture Karen and BAFAB is a lovely idea. I am currently thoroughly entranced by a double volume, Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and In the Pursuit of Love. Next in line I have a treat great treat for myself, Carry On Jeeves which I picked up today and was delighted to discover I had not yet read.

I would like to add that over the last few years I have discovered a great many excellent books right here on the pages of Cornflower.

[Barbara MacLeod]

Just finished Cider With Rosie... a most pleasant ready during our long spell of summer weather!

[m]

I'm half way through The Go-Between, which I've read before, but so many years ago, and of course that was a choice inspired by your book group. Perfect reading for a heatwave, even if I can't make head nor tail of the famous cricket match. (Maybe I'd have grasped more from the film? I'll take it on trust that it's the best cricket match in English literature ... but breaking the back of the bowling? boundary hits? The past is a foreign country and cricket is a foreign language!)
I've also just finished EM Delafield's Thank Heaven Fasting and she is reinstated in my affections after I got very exasperated with the heroine of The Way Things Are. (A bulk purchase of EM Delafield which was possibly too much of a good thing.)

[Wigs on the Green]

Yesterday my partner and I had an 8-hour drive to do so to ease the journey we shared the driving and created our our own audio book by reading aloud Henrietta's War. It proved to be the perfect choice - short and amusing with real laugh out loud moments. Thanks to Henrietta and her war-time friends the journey was enjoyable and stress-free.

[jodi]

I just finished Six Months in Sudan by Dr. James Maskalyk. I've read so many good many books lately. Am now reading A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley.

[LoriAngela]

I just finished Virgil's Aeneid in an attempt to catch up on the Great Books.

[Simon T]

Oo, BAFAB, what fun!

The latest thing I finished was The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard, which left me mostly nonplussed...

[Kate/Massachusetts]

I have been reading several books that my sister gave to me but my most favorite of the lot is Gargoyle. I have really enjoyed this one! Thanks for the chance to enter your book giveaway!

[Jill]

I recently read, in tandem, Cold Comfort Farm and Debs at War by Anne de Courcy. Debs at War was a perfect read after having read Henrietta's War a few weeks back and Cold Comfort Farm...and a view of the delightful movie version...immersed me in the frothy world of society and Flora Poste's well-meaning do-goodying. I'm feeling very "pre-war" after all that and a dip into the TV adaption of Brideshead Revisited.
Thank you Cornflower for all the wonderful reading you have led me to and your suggestions. BAFAB is a cracking idea; I am going to suggest it to my book groups.

[Tabitha]

Doreen by Barbara Noble - lovely Persephone book and very interesting topic, cannnot imagine having to send children off to live with complete strangers! How hard that must have been.

[Oxslip]

The Hand that First Held Mine is Maggie O'Farrell's latest. It's for anyone who's ever had a heart (as Lou Reed would say)...or been a mother or had a mother and is beautiful, nostalgic and sad. It also manages some tricksy plotting and style, but doesn't trip up on itself. Worth a look - a definite move on and up from her earlier novels (though sadly no Scottish connection in this one)

[padma]

"Berlin poplars" by Anne Ragde, a Norwegian family saga, set in the north, in the area of snow-covered fiords. It was a big surprise since I bought it on an impulse, not knowing what to expect and it turned out to be a serious candidate to my Book of the Year award:)

[Barbara]

Yesterday I read Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh (in between watching Wimbledon)! This was a re-read and reminded me how good Ngaio Marsh can be at local colour.

[Jane]

I have just read 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ' by Philip Pullman. Interesting ideas about the nature of myth and historical record, but really just another rant about the concept of 'church'. Time for him to move on?

[Claire]

"The Glass Room" by Simon Mawer. Booker short listed in 2009. I loved the winner last year, Wolf Hall but this, too, would have been a worthy winner. A story that works wonderfully on many levels.

[Claire]

Can I just agree with Jordi. I lived with those characters in Wolf Hall. By the end I was sitting around tables with them listening to their conversations. I was there! A remarkable book.

[Dark Puss]

I'm still reading The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin. Its good, well written, and if you are interested in the history of the Bachs, recommended. However it doesn't quite live up to the very positive reviews that it has garnered in my opinion.

The music, of course, trumps all!

[Jennifer Dee]

The book I've just finished and absolutely adored was 'A Tree Growing in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith. The tree that is growing in Brooklyn is a metaphor for the narrator Francie's life. It is a book about growing up in slums at the beginning of the 20th Century; but most of all it’s about love of the family. And its this love that comes through on every page.

[Claire (Paperback Reader)]

Reading the [many] responses makes interesting reading!

I have Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel most recently and I am still making my mind up about it (I did like it for the most part but it is a contemplative book as opposed to an enjoyable one).

[Rosie H]

The last book I finished was Just the Girl for St Jude's, by Ethel Talbot. It started out as if it was going to be a school story, but it turned out to be a family story, with only the beginning and end were set at school. The token mysterious foreigner (wearing a fez and talking stereotypical Chinese!) grated rather, but apart from that I enjoyed it, especially the interaction between the family of sisters.

[Lynda]

I just finished
THE IMPERFECTIONISTS
by Tom Rachman.
I found it extraordinary!

[Mary McCartney]

I've just finished William Brodrick's A Whispered Name and found it fascinating, dealing with how deserters where treated during the Great War.

[Lucy M]

I've just finished "Elizabeth and her German Garden" by Elizabeth von Arnim. It perfectly matched my mood (cross about seeing the sun setting on beautiful summer days from behind my office window). Elizabeth is frustrated by the constraints of late-nineteenth century married life in Germany. She escapes into her garden in the remote countryside, and muses wryly, wittily and wisely about the bliss of solitude and nature. A beautiful and original book. Easy to read in brief lunchtime snatches. Perfect if you're feeling a little anti-social.

[bibliolathas]

I've just finished Linda Grant's The Clothes on their Backs. I absolutely loved it, especially for the new take on a very Brookner-like theme and for her attention to the details of time and place in its settings.

[sherry]

Monarch of the Glen by Compton Mackenzie followed by Nancy Mitford's Don't Tell Alfred. Happily, the two books are similar in tone and complement each other remarkably well, which enhanced my enjoyment of both.
Happy juxtapositions like this are such a joy when they occur.

[adele geras]

Have just finished 'The distance between us' by Maggie O' Farrell and enjoyed it very much. Now reading Rosy Thornton's latest, A Tapestry of Love, out in early August which promises to be lovely!

[Carol]

I just finished "Operation Mincemeat" which is history but read like a thriller with lots of eccentric characters. Last night I began Donna Leon's latest mystery set in Venice and it's starting well.

[Joan]

One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes. I was transported to the late 1940's by this wonderful book. This was enhanced by reading this on on a very hot day as in the novel.

[CATHERINE COOPER]

My favourite read this week has been 'Suite Francaise' by Irene Nemirovsky. She wrote this in France in 1941, it is a remarkable story,you are drawn into the lives of the characters and nothing is lost in translation. Wonderful!

[Frances]

Just read the new Yann Martel but am so conflicted that I am reserving my opinion until I have read a second time.

[Susan in TX]

I just finished Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys and loved it. I even read snippets of it aloud to my husband. :)

[Dancing Beastie]

Fascinating to read about the choices of others; I am salivating over several of these books. Need more time! I 'third' the praise for 'Wolf Hall', which took over my life when I read it earlier this year.

This is a lovely offer from you, thank you. I've just finished re-reading George Mackay Brown, 'Beside the Ocean of Time', to get me in the mood for a holiday in Orkney. His writing never fails to move me with its gentle lyricism and restrained but passionately felt reverence for the islands and their people. I am taking a book of his short stories on holiday with me, 'The Island of the Women', and also looking forward to starting Robert Macfarlane's 'The Wild Places'.