A wonderful book on the 2008 edition of the 1001 list and also voted "Best of the Best" Winner of The Orange Prize Winners.

Told through the eyes of four interlinked people, with humour and humanity. Travels from Jamaica to England, India, Burma and back to England again. A very interesting look at race relations during WWII and just after. Takes an unexpected turn at the end. I just cant fault this book and I've given it 10 stars.

The BC-ID is just above the photo of the Author.

To be offered as a bookring this book is one I think I really will enjoy sharing and I'll enjoy reading others comments.

Paperback, 530 pages.

Book is with Mum at the moment, I'll start the bookring once she has finished it.

I list my bookrings at The Bookring Directory!


Starting a Bookring for this one.
Order of Participants is not set and subject to change without notice.

Bookring rules

The Usual Rules Apply

1. When you receive the book make a journal entry so that we all know that it has arrived safely.
2. After you have read the book, journal what you thought of it.
3. Contact the next person after you in the list for their address. Remembering to check who is after you, this may change as new people are added to try to keep the postage costs down.
4. Send the book on.
5. If you are going to keep the book for more than a month contact FreePages or make a journal entry, so I know the ring is not stalled. If you are contacted for your address and you have thousands of bookrings in your TBR pile, instead of holding up the ring or skipping the book, the order may be able to be changed so that you don't miss out. PM Freepages. Keep postage in mind though.
6. Any questions or problems PM Freepages, anytime.
7. Enjoy the ring :-) and please consider leaving a tiny footprint to show it was in your hands mine is a :-) on page 176 or on the last page whichever comes first :-)



Participants

Jean-Sol (Australia) INT SHIP
Sidney1 (Germany)
Miss Owl (Thailand/Australia)
Dancesports (Australia, Aus ship)
bekoh (Australia, Aus ship)
Livrecache (Australia, Aus ship)
D-face (Canberra, Aus)
Nice-Find-Books (Canberra, Aus)

........and back to Freepages (Canberra, AUS)
FINISHED
I'll share this at a BC meet-up and with non-BC friends when it gets home. :-)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:


"Small Island" is in the post tonight to Jean-Sol, to start it's travels on a rather larger Island ;-)

Enjoy!

Thanks Freepages, the book arrived today. I've heard so much about it and have been meaning to read it for ages.I've got 3-4 books on top of my TBR at this stage so I'll get to it around mid-Feb, I think. Watch this space...

Updated 24/2/10: This book did not disappoint me. It's a wonderful observation of society and although it is set around WWII it definitely still rings true. There were plenty of interesting facts, such as the situation with the US soldiers stationed in the UK, which I was not aware of and proved to be very thought-provoking. Brilliantly written, funny and sad in turns, great characters. A great read - thanks freepages!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

On its way to Europe!

Book arrived safely today. Have already started it! Thank you so much Jean-Sol for sending all the way from Australia. Very much appreciated!

Apologies for interupting, however, just needed to share this new, just in case anyone enjoys a dramatization!

PBS Masterpiece Theatre will be running a dramatization of the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction winner, Small Island by Andrea Levy, starting on Sunday. It will also be available for online viewing here from April 19-May 25. There is more info about the production there.
Bugger! Just realised that the production is only available online for US viewers.
Looks like a great production!

Just to let you know I've finished this a while ago but Miss-Owl hasn't been answering my pms. Mind you, what with the cloud of ash and our closed airports in Europe, this book isn't going anywhere at the moment, anyhow :-(

I loved the book. Will put a proper review of it here shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

Thank you, Sidney1, for persisting in trying to contact me. PMs weren't getting to me because of the email account attached to my BX account, but it took me a while to realise it.

Anyway, perfect timing, as I'm headed back to Oz soon, so can send the book onward from there. Thank you, Freepages!

Andrea Levy is a great storyteller. Interweaving four very different voices through her narrative, this novel made compelling reading. There's a lightness of touch in her writing that often made me reread a line I'd just passed through. The ugly face of racism - and the awkward social cosmetics used to disguise it - was the most powerful aspect of the book for me.

Thanks for sharing, freepages. This book will travel onwards when I have the next reader's address.

Edited to add: Dancesports asked to be skipped. Contacting bekoh now. (20/6)

Received the book today. Thanks Miss Owl.

An enjoyable read.

Posted to D-face in sunny Canberra today.

Received today, thanks bekoh and FreePages. I look forward to reading it, but like others have a couple ahead of it on the TBR pile.

Canberra Book Crossing meet up

I picked this up at the Canberra Christmas BookCrossing meet held at the National Library of Australia. (Although it doesn't appear so in the photograph, there were about twelve people at the meet.)





Happy Christmas

Needle-n-Thread asked me if I had any spare available books, so I sent a couple scurrying to her place. I’ll fetch them back when they have been read.

Hope you enjoy the book "Needle-n-thread" and "goldenwattle" -just return to me when finished :-)

By the way- the TV series is available on abc.net.au on iview in Australia at the moment. Some great English actors in it. Very enjoyable. Highly recommended :-)

I read the first few pages of this book but I couldn't get into it. So I am returning it to Goldenwattle.

Needle-n-Thread returned the book to me.

My Review:
Initially, like Needle-n-Thread, I had trouble getting into this book. I didn’t particularly like the prologue or the first chapter, but I gave it one more chapter and then I was hooked. But even though I enjoyed this story I had difficulty thinking what to write about this book.
In many ways this is a negative story. So many bigots. During the war the Americans were the racists, with the British not so much, but when the Americans go home the British take their place and become the racists. It seemed a little contrived to me, or perhaps the bigotry was condensed and then presented. And Bernard suffers another kind of prejudice during the war. This prejudice in many forms was unrelenting.
I thought the ending a cop out. But still a worthwhile read.

I'll return the book to FreePages at the next Canberra BookCrossing meet.

Thanks for the return of the book goldenwattle and many thanks to everyone involved in a very successful bookring :)
Now I'll pass this onto to non-bookcrossing family and friends for a read, then to be returned to my permanent collection.