The Children's Hour by Marcia Willett:

The story centres around two elderly sisters living in a large house on the Cornwall coast. They have four siblings, three sisters and a brother. One of the sisters, who is going senile, comes to stay. She has secrets she is dying to reveal about the family. The author uses flashbacks, written in the present tense, to gradually reveal these secrets and leads the reader down a few garden paths in the process. The secret is not what you think! There is a strong sub-plot about the younger generation but it's easy to guess what's going on. I would strongly recommend this book.

Brenda Hance

Acid Row by Minette Walters

Acid Row is a I thriller I just couldn't put down. A child and doctor go missing during riots in a local community and the circumstances bring out the best in those you would least expect. I borrowed this from the Wheatsheaf Library.

Janice

Island Race by John McCarthy and Sandy Toksvig

John and Sandy set off sailing round the coast of Britain They stopped at various places on route including Rick Stein's restaurant in Padstow very mouth watering.There are some lovely pictures in the book which makes it more interesting. I borrowed this from Spotland Library.

Margaret Taylor

Don't Drop the Coffin by Barry Albin-Dyer

I borrowed this from Darnhill Library. It's not quite what you think it's going to be. Don't be put off by the title, a really good dry read!

k

The Good Women of China

Xinran was a presenter of a radio program in China in which she invited women to call in and write about themselves. This collection of their stories is deeply moving, an unforgettable insight into the lives of Chinese women. I borrowed this from Wardle Library.

Janice

Children's book choices

Our old library web site included an online form that let borrowers send us book reviews. We got quite a lot of response from children, here are some of them:

Matilda by Roald Dahl
Yes I loved it it was so amazing I could not take my eyes away from it.
Rebecca Heapy

Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson
I think it is really funny and Jacqueline uses very descriptive words.
Abbi Woods

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
I liked it because it is funny and I liked all the actors in the choclate factory and I loved the Oompa Loompas
Aimee Louise Ball

The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson
It was upsetting at times and then when one of the characters was happy you feel happy too. You can feel what the book feels.
Lois Brady

Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes
I liked the book very much. It was very good and disgusting and I made the wormy spaghetti and the illustrator was good. It is one of the best books I have ever had.
Jamie Paul Radcliffe

Bumface by Morris Gleitzman is good because it is very, very funny and humourous.
Elizabeth Gough

The Girlfriend By R.L.Stine

It was about a 17 year old boy called Scotty and he has been going out with the same girl, Lora, for 7 years. But one week she goes away on holiday. He meets a girl called Shannon and goes out with her twice. When his girlfriend returns home he wants to carry on as normal. Shannon doesn't. She wants him all to herself. Scotty tells her it's over but she doesn't take any notice. She loves him and she follows him everywhere. Everytime he says no she hurts him. But the more times he says no the worse it gets. He finally has enough. He gets angry and annoyed and shakes her and hits her. Does he get away with murder? Literally. You didn't know what was going to happen next!


Philippa

Galapagos Diary by Hermann Heinzel

"An astonishingly nice book to look at and read. It's sort of two books in one: there's a nice travelogue with lots of splendid photographs that make the islands and their wildlife look interesting, intriguing and attractive. Then there's the author's sketches: quick, unfussy lines capturing the wildlife - especially the birds! - as lively, active creatures and not static or stuffed specimens.

"Wonderful."

Jim

The House on Lonely Street by Lyn Andrews

More reviews from the Home Library Reading Circle.

"This book is worth reading. Very sad but with a happy ending."
M.P.

"Very good insight into life before the First World War. Such poverty is unthinkable, but a good story. Well worth reading."
V.T.

"Enjoyed the story. A good tale."
D.H.

"A very good read. I enjoyed it immensely. So different to modern tales. The poverty made it seem more interesting, and the determination to get away from it played a part. I loved it."
I.J.

Popular poetry

For National Poetry Day we asked customers in all our libraries to vote for their favourite poem. The results were:

1. "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth
2. "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear
3. "Cargoes" by John Masefield
4. "Macavity the Mystery Cat" by T.S.Eliot
5. "The Lake of Inisfree" by W.B.Yeats
6. "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by W.B. Yeats
7. "Home Thoughts From Abroad" by Robert Browning
8. "Warning" by Jenny Joseph
9. "Please Mrs. Butler" by Allan Alberg
10. "If" by Rudyard Kipling

We'd be interested to know your favourites.

The Prayer of the Night Shepherd by Phil Rickman

More reviews from the Home Library Reading Circle.

"A mystery with intermingling stories and complex characters. Once you sort the characters out you really want to know what happens to them."
Mrs. T.

"After working through the religion and one country to another, I did stop to wonder how the author got away with so much coincidental claptrap. Merrily Watkins seems to have a smoking problem and has lost her sense of humour."
Mrs. J.

"Didn't hold my interest as there were too many complicated characters. Wasn't what I call a 'good read.'"
Mrs. F.

"Good yarn but long drawn out. Far too many characters so it was difficult to really make anyone the main one. You need half a page of new chapter before discovering whose mind you were supposed to understand."
Eileen

Sports reading

I can take or leave most sports, save cricket, but there are times when you're channel-hopping in the wee small hours when you just can't sleep and don't have the concentration to read a book and, faced with the bleak, hard choice of whatever's on the cheap sports channel or some expensive tat teleshopping you've just got to go with the former. Giles Smith's "Midnight in the Garden of Evel Knievel" is just the book to reflect this level of engagement. This is a collection of articles about sport written for the Daily Telegraph and the Times from the point of view of the bloke watching it on the telly. Knowledgeable, irreverent and very readable!

Steven


p.s. While I'm at it, I'd also like to put in a plug for "Extreme Ironing." Derring-do, breathtaking scenery and knife-sharp creases. What more could you hope for?

Views from the Home Library Reading Circle

Sharon, who runs the Doorstep Library Service (formerly the Housebound Library Service) has set up the Home Library Reading Circle as a way for her customers to give her feedback on the books, tapes and CDs they've been borrowing. It's also an opportunity for them to share opinions with each other. We'll be including some of their reviews every so often in this blog.

---

The Road to Nab End by William Woodruff

"The story starts when the author was born in 1916 in Blackburn. It is about the cotton mills and is a very good read. As a local, you can relate to lots of the happenings. Very good."
Vera

"It was good to read a book about the North of England. It brought back a lot of happy memories. A good read."
Alan

"I agree with the other readers. 'Happy Memories' Easy to pick up and read."
B.

"A very interesting read. Difficult to put down. Full of memories, facts and family history. Well written, absorbing, easy to follow. A credit to the writer, truly gifted, who kept his eyes and ears open."
Sylvia

"Very realistic story of how things were. Reminded me of things my mother used to tell me when she was young."
Mrs. T.

Welcome!

For a long while we've wanted somewhere on the web for us to share reading ideas with our customers and for them to come back to us with ideas of their own. So we've started this Rochdale Library Blog o'Reading, which will include ideas from Library Service staff and our customers. We hope we'll be able to include links to local reading and writing groups' blogs as well as links to online resources from the wider world.