1.Do you like to eat/drink anything in particular while you read?

2.What do you use as a bookmark?

3.How likely are you to lend your books willingly to your friends?

I have just finished reading "The King of Queen" by Laura Jackson
& thoroughally enjoyed reading all about Freddie Mercury.

Do you other readers enjoy autobiographies?

If so which ones have you enjoyed reading?

Did you hear about the three-year old who died from heart failure due to being overweight?
I listened to a program on the radio where a girl was talking about her struggle with weight, and my heart ached for her - she was dieting at the age of 7 already!

Does anyone remember the name of the South African shop near Salisbury please? They hosted a braai last year, if I remember correctly.


I've tried a Google search but haven't had any success!

I have a Cadac gas bottle that i cannot use in Australia - bang goes the skottle!!- apparently i was not allowed to even bring it in and it must be condemded. As it is brand new i don't want to do that. what i would like to do is take it "home" with me and give it to my sister.

But the question i have to ask all those frequent travellers is....
can i take a gas bottle (empty!! ) on an aircraft?
any ideas?

I've got my order in...

Seeing as this is the second gadget of it's sort from Apple (second to the iPod) apparently they have sorted out the teething problems they had with the first one.

Do any of you have one yet? Any comments, reviews, recommendations?

My passport expires on 22 June - has anyone Breitenbachs (sp...) address so that I can get them to renew it for me?

Or any other agency?

I do not have time to go to London myself

What is your favorite book that was made into a movie?

Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy (John Murray/Hodder & Stoughton)

Set in California, Liars and Saints follows four generations of the Catholic Santerre family from World War II to the present, as they navigate a succession of life-altering events -- through the submerged emotion of the fifties, the recklessness and excess of the sixties and seventies, and the reckonings of the eighties and nineties. In a family driven by jealousy and propriety as much as by love, an unspoken tradition of deceit is passed from generation to generation, and fiercely protected secrets gradually drive the Santerres apart. When tragedy shatters their precarious domestic lives, it takes astonishing courage and compassion to bring them back together. By turns funny and disturbing, irreverent and profound, Liars and Saints is a masterful display of Maile Meloy's prodigious gifts, and of her penetrating insight -- into an extraordinary American family and into the nature of human love.

The Mermaid and the Drunks by Ben Richards (Phoenix/Orion)

Fresia, the daughter of Chilean exiles leaves London following the suicide of her father to embark on a journey of self discovery in her mother country. She meets Joe, a Scottish academic on a research trip and Roberto, a wealthy local. The shadow of Pinochet and his legacy provide the backdrop to this novel which examines nationality, belonging and roots, friendship and loyalty, and of course, love.

Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen (Pan)

A witty, sophisticated romantic comedy which explores the universal themes of love, loyalty and family. American Maggie Monroe is a journalist for New York's hard-hitting current affairs show Newsline. Independent and fearless, the more cutting-edge the story, the happier she is. But when her next assignment turns out to be an in-depth documentary on the decline of England's ruling classes, she's furious at being sent to cover a bloody tea party. Meet the Earl and Countess of Bevan, eccentric, maddening and with family secrets to hide. Meet Daniel Bevan - their eldest son. Funny, attractive and hopelessly alcoholic. Meet Daniel's responsible brother Rory - angry, self-mocking and strictly teetotal. When Maggie discovers Rory to be an uninvited chaperone on the first stop of her journey the two look set to clash. Maggie finds herself torn between her journalist ideals and coming to terms with a greater understanding. This unlikely romantic comedy paints an endearing portrait of a family, which like so many others, holds itself together despite its evident frailties.

Once again they have announced several new books which might spark some interest for folks out their to read during the coming months.

------------------------------------------
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (Bloomsbury)

When Mattie is given the letters by a guest at the hotel in which she has a summer job she thinks that the giver is simply upset. But the next day when the woman is found drowned in Big Moose Lake Mattie has to decide if she will read the letters, or burn them as the woman requested. But Mattie has problems enough of her own as she is growing up and trying to decide on her future. Her desire to be a writer and her dreams of life outside the small rural community in which she has always lived are beginning to overwhelm her. Will Mattie make it away from home? Will she leave the family and boyfriend who both love and smother her? Will she be like her friend and settle to married life or like her other friend and mentor the poet Ms Wilcox. Slowly the two stories merge to one amazing conclusion as Mattie finds the courage to make very important decisions. Set in 1906 and built around the real life murder of a young woman in a popular holiday resort this novel is touching, surprising, moving and compelling.

Want To Play? by PJ Tracy (Penguin)

In this electrifying debut, the slaying of an old couple in small town America looks like one-off act of brutal retribution. But at the same time, in Minneapolis, teams of detectives scramble to stop a sickeningly inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear. When the two separate investigations converge on an isolated catholic boarding school, decades old secrets begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. Yet still the killer's real identity remains dangerously out of reach ...

PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern (HarperCollins)

Cecelia Ahern's debut novel, PS, I Love You, follows the engaging, witty and occasionally sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Ahern, the twentysomething daughter of Ireland's Prime Minister, has discovered a clever and original twist to the Moving On After Death concept made famous by novelists and screenwriters alike--Gerry has left Holly a series of letters designed to help her face the year ahead and carry on with her life. As the novel takes readers through the seasons (and through Gerry's monthly directives), we watch as Holly finds a new job, takes a holiday to Spain with her girlfriends, and sorts through her beloved husband's belongings. Accompanying Holly throughout the healing process is a cast of friends and family members who add as much to the novel's success as Holly's own tale of survival. In fact, it is these supporting characters' mini-dramas that make PS, I Love You more than just another superficial tearjerker with the obligatory episode at a karaoke bar. Ahern shows real talent for capturing the essence of an interaction between friends and foes alike; even if Holly's circle of friends does resemble the gang from Bridget Jones a bit too neatly to ignore (her best friend is even called Sharon).