Well, I must confess to a surreptitious visit to WH Smith in town to make sure the abrupt ending on page 39 was not a printing error!

It is a strange and weird combination of tales but every now and then a common thread bobs up to the surface. I can highly recommend it.

Dee

I know!!! I didn't go to WH Smith, but I remember trying to find a contact number for the publisher before I thought to look on at the other sections and saw that they, also, were cut off mid-stride (if not mid-sentence).

We're reading Andrea Levy's Small Island for next month. My book group was very divided over Cloud Atlas, but I expected that.

I LOVED Small Island. Thought she really deserved that....um, was it Orange prize?

I'm pretty sure she won the Whitbread Prize for it; did she also win the Orange Prize last year? (I'm too lazy, aren't I - the answer is only a google away....)



<Added>

Yes, she won the Orange Prize for 2004 + Whitbread Novel Prize + Whitbread Book of the Year + Commonwealth Writer's Prize. A grand sweep.

Just finished The Time Traveller's Wife. Very good, but didn't it go on and on and on? I ended speed reading huge chunks and I hate doing that in case I miss something important. I think it could have been trimmed by at least 100 pages. In fact, I very nearly gave up in the chapter where Henry first meets Clare's family as it was so verbose. But... I'm glad I stuck with it. It left a rather sour taste in my mouth, but that's a sign that the book pulled me right in. For an idea so ridiculous, I think she pulled it off and made it quite believable.

There was a bit of a Scooby Doo moment - when he looks at the cage in the library and feels scared about the fact that there is no way out should he appear inside it. Cue inner voice "Bet he ends up in there"

Not bad though. Four stars!

Colin M

I read Time Traveler's Wife a few months ago, and really enjoyed it, though it had some chick lit flavours, although it was beautifully written.

I'm reading Small Island - I've got something like 60-70 pages left of 500+ but I left it in someone's handbag so I'll finish it a little later (although my reading group discusses it tomorrow evening!) Started Colin Thubron's In Siberia on Sunday.

Just started reading Cloud Atlas. Had to put it down because the first few pages sound like Derek off Big Brother.

Colin

The first few pages is the only part I had trouble with - had to let myself get into the period language. Stick with it - oh, and page 38 (or is it 39) is not a typographical error.