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Richard and Judy's Summer Read - nikkinaz - 20-06-2005
Book 1: The Death & Life of Charlie St Cloud by Ben Sherwood
This is a magical and uplifting story of love, death and the unbreakable bond between brothers. It is a moving tale of what happens when people are taken from this world to the next and considers that death may not be the end. Its about finding your soul mate when you least expect.
Book 2: The Food of Love by Anthony Capella
Laura Patterson is studying art history in Rome. SheÂ’s dazzled by the warmth and vibrancy of the Eternal City, but not so overwhelmed by the men she meets. She wants sensuality and romance; she gets wolf whistles and drunken groping. Most of all she wants to experience Italian food at its best - so she decides she will only go out with a man who can cook. When Tommaso Massi overhears Laura saying this, he tells her just what she wants to hear. Laura falls for his charms and for the sumptuous feasts he prepares for her in his rooftop flat - not realising it is TommasoÂ’s friend, Bruno, who is the genius in the kitchen. But itÂ’s when Bruno falls for Laura, that the sparks begin to fly.
Book 3: Good News Bad News by David Wolstencroft
Good News, Bad News...a secret agent is trained to try to think of every possible outcome and eventuality. Who could have guessed, though, that a bureaucratic error would send two men to the same 'cover' job, working in a shabby photo-processing booth, where each must keep his real identity secret from the other, while awaiting orders. Or that those orders would be to assassinate...each other. Thrown together by this apparently ghastly mistake, Charlie and George decide to go on the run together. In the whole world, the only people they can trust are each other. Or can they? Slick, clever, teasing and suspenseful, full of tradecraft for the traditional espionage fan and a modern sensibility for a whole new generation of readers, who might well be more used to watching Spooks.
Book 4: The Laments by George Hagen
The World According To Garp meets American Beauty in this dazzling first novel, a tragi-comedy about family life, love and identity that spans several decades and three continents When Howard and Julia Lament adopt Will, a baby secretly switched at birth in a bizarre hospital debacle, the Laments begin a journey which takes them from Northern Rhodesia to the Persian Gulf, England and suburban America, as they search for their place in the world. Howard is an engineer and dreamer, who studies the conveyance of liquids through valves. Julia is woman of fiery spirit and a passion for Shakespeare, who is constantly called upon to reinvent her family's life and her own. Will's twin brothers, Marcus and Julius, force Will to question his place in the family, and Will struggles to find a sense of his own identity through the characters he meets en route - from Ruth, his first love in Africa, who carries around a biscuit tin lid to admire her reflection to Dawn Snedecker, the lisping intellectual who breaks his heart in America. Through the Laments' restlessness, their responses to adversity, and especially their unwieldy love for one another, George Hagen draws a picture of every family that is funny, tragic, hopeful and true.
Book 5: Eve Green by Susan Fletcher
Following the loss of her mother, eight-year-old Evie is sent to a new life in rural Wales - a dripping place, where flowers appear mysteriously on doorsteps and people look at her twice. With a sense of being lied to she sets out to discover her familyÂ’s dark secret - unaware that there is yet more darkness to come with the sinister disappearance of local girl Rosemary Hughes. Now many years later Eve Green is waiting for the birth of her own child, and when she revisits her past something clicks open in her mind and her own reckless role in the hunt for RosieÂ’s abductor is revealed
Book 6: The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn
When she loses her high-powered job, her husband and her plush Park Avenue apartment in one afternoon, Ivy Ames emerges broken but unbowed. The newly single mother-of-two picks herself up, dusts herself down and reinvents herself as a private school admissions adviser. But Ivy has no idea what sheÂ’s let herself in for. In a parent-eat-parent world where even four-year-olds have CVs, Ivy is driven to lengths sheÂ’d never dreamed of to satisfy those well-heeled clients whoÂ’ll do literally anything to get their little darlings into the A-list schools. Fast-paced, feel-good and very, very funny, this deliciously over-the-top tale of mid-life reinvention and unexpected romance will appeal to anyone who has ever lost all they hold dear and had to start over again. It will also strike a chord with desperate parents up and down the country, forced into ever-increasing lengths to ensure their children are accepted by the best schools.
(Taken from Richard and Judy Website).