show 10th June

Well hello anybody out there who may be listening and welcome to all grannies around the world, isn’t it special to be a Gran. I loved my Gran, I used to go and stay over and be spoilt and stay up late. Do you have any fond memories of your Gran?

You’re listening to The Bookshow on Radio Scilly 107.9fm with myself Linda (Grandma) Thomas and my guests - this week we have a new guest – Nigel Young (airport Nigel) and Corinna Christopher.
Books being reviewed are:
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd
Nation by Terry Pratchet .

Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Strange Corinna, it has 2 completely different bookcovers. One with part of a man & womans face, the other is an abstract painting of a man…?? Wonder why they do that?
After reading some reviews it reminds me of Hotel by Arthur Hailey.

Terry Pratchet – Nation
I have to say Nigel that I have never read a book by this author, I don’t read sci/fi or fantasy (I love the films based on Lord of the Ring but I think I would have struggled to read them) but this is a deviation from his 'Discworld'. I would recommend Margaret Attwoods 'Oryx & Crake' as it has a similar theme to this book and also has humour.

William Boyd – Ordinary Thunderstorms
I’m intrigued to know what you thought of this book Corinna. When I first read the reviews I thought, wow, I really want to read this book but then the negative ones made me wonder if I really did.

show 17th dec 09

First of a christmas special. this week we had six guests (Maggie Perkovic, Corinna Christopher, Brian Lowen, Malcolm Martland, Ro Bennett & Babs Simpson)in the studio and looked back over the centurys fiction & non-fiction bestsellers in decades, so we had 1909. 1919, 1929 etc.right up until 2009. This was also interspersed with a sprinkling of christmas jokes.
A quick taste of the fiction books that were around, remember any?:
1909: The Trail of the Lonsesome Pine by John Fox Jnr. (well most of us know the song)
1919: The Four Horsement of the Apocalypse by V Blasco Ibanez
1929: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque ( recognised non-fiction was 'Believe it or Not' by Robert L Ripley)
1939: Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck & Rebeccas by Daphne Du Maurier (recognised non-fiction was Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler)
1949: Pride's Castle by Frank Yerby (couple of us had read his books), interestingly there were 3 non-fiction all about Canasta!
1959: Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, Hawaii by James Michener (very good author) & Lady Cahtterley's Lover by DH Lawrence. (Maggie had to swoon over the non-fiction Twixt Twelve and Twenty by Pat Boone).
1969: The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Inheritors Harold Robbins (NF: the Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr).
1979: We are getting into Robert Ludlum, Arthur Hailey, Stephen Kind, John Le Carre (NF: Steve Martin, Henry Kissinger, Lauren Bacall)
1989: Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth), Danielle Steel, Tom Clancy, Salman Rushdie,
(NF The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan)
1999: John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Maeve Binchy, (NF Guinness World Records)