BOOK: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

Salmon fishing in the Yemen

BOOK PLOT: What does it take to make us believe in the impossible?
For Dr. Alfred Jones, life is a quiet mixture of civil service at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence and marriage to Mary—an ambitious, no-nonsense financier. But a strange turn of fate from an unexpected direction forces Jones to upend his existence and spend all of his time in pursuit of another man’s ludicrous dream. Can there be salmon in the Yemen? Science says no. But if resources are limitless and the visionary is inspired, maybe salmon fishing in the Yemen isn’t impossible. Then again, maybe nothing is.

 
My Opinion: I had put this book off for so long but I don't know why because it was a great book easy read and not a complicated story.

BOOK: The Time Of My Life By Patrick Swayze

My opinion: I like everyone else had madly over the year fell head over heel's in love with Patrick Swayze and I was so excited when finding this book in a charity shop.....
Then I started reading it and it made me very angry, he made me very angry!
I don't know if I read it wrong but to me it sounded like he forced his wife to marry him. He was a very insecure man with a very pushy mother who made his insecurities worse.
I did finish the book and the ending was pretty sad how he was always talking about fighting the cancer and surviving.
I finished reading this book anyway, I felt very sad and sorry for Lisa her own career was over shadowed by him and his career the book left me wanting to know more about Lisa not Patrick.
My illusions about him are well and truly shattered he was a self obsessed, ignorant insecure man.
 
 
Patrick Swayze:
Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter.
He was best-known for his roles as romantic leading men in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries.
He was listed by People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991.

Diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in January 2008, Swayze told Barbara Walters a year later that he was "kicking it". However, he died from the disease on September 14, 2009. His last role was the lead in an A&E TV series, The Beast, which premiered on January 15, 2009. However, due to a prolonged decline in health, Swayze was unable to promote the series, and on June 15, 2009, Entertainment Tonight reported that the show had been cancelled.
 
 

BOOK: The Silk Factory by Judith Allnatt

 
My Opinion:
I really liked this book I only put it down to walk the dog for a hour and finished it in one sitting. The ending I didn't expect but it sounds just like me. I also like how the stories intertwine each other from modern day to old fashioned and still made sense.
I recommend this book to everyone.
 
Book Plot:
Rosie Milford inherits a house in an old silk factory after her mother’s death and moves there with her young children. The discovery of a shocking truth about her own childhood, when she is already reeling from the breakup of her marriage, fills her with distrust and fearfulness. Then she starts seeing a strange child, wandering in the garden, who seems as lost as she is.
In 1812, silk master Septimus Fowler has grand plans to keep his factory in step with the industrial revolution: he will plant mulberry trees, rear silkworms and import new mechanized looms. Orphan Beulah Fiddement works as a bobbin winder and has secrets that the master would go to any lengths to get. Caught up in a dark adult world of illicit love, rebellion and revenge, Beulah must put away her childhood and draw on all her spirit to protect those she loves.
Beulah’s story of guilt and bravery will echo down two centuries and change Rosie’s life as she struggles to overcome the hand of her own past and find redemption.

BOOK - Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley - Cartwright

Personal Opinion: I loved this book much more than I thought I would. I had put it on the shelf and forgot about it really but I totally recommend it to every one.
I read it in one night. It was fast paced, twisting character stories, backwards and forwards of who done it.
 
 
 
Film: I also like the film that was made in 2011 Link here
Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke all 3 are great actor in their own right and just make the film great. There are also a lot of changes which is what you always get from book to film like the ending is very different, the whole fighting scene in Granma's house never existed in the book.
 
Film Plot.
Valerie is a young woman who lives in the village of Daggerhorn, on the edge of a forest plagued by a werewolf, with her parents, Cesaire and Suzette, and older sister Lucie. She is in love with the town woodcutter Peter, but her parents have arranged for her to marry Henry Lazar, son of the wealthy blacksmith.
Valerie and Peter plan to run away together, only to learn that the Wolf has broken its truce not to prey on the townspeople in exchange for cattle stock sacrifices and has murdered Lucie, who is revealed to have had a crush on Henry Lazar.
Suzette learns of Peter and Valerie's love, telling Valerie she too did not love her husband at first, but learned to love him – that she had loved another.
Father August, the local preacher, calls for the famous witch hunter, Father Solomon, to help them but the townspeople decide to venture into the Wolf's lair to destroy it. They divide into groups, with one consisting of Peter, Henry, and Adrian. Peter separates from them moments before the Wolf attacks and murders Adrian. However, it is cornered by the men and killed.
Valerie finds Suzette mourning Adrian and figures out that he was her love. She also realizes that Lucie, being the older daughter, should've been the first to wed and should have been engaged to Henry, but could not as she was the illegitimate daughter of Adrian, making her Henry's half sister.
The following day, as the people celebrate, Father Solomon arrives and reveals that, had they killed the Wolf, it would have returned to its human form as it is a werewolf, but what they slew was a common grey wolf. He also reveals that they've entered the Blood Moon Week, an event that happens every thirteen years, in which whoever is bitten by the Wolf is cursed to become one as well.
Father Solomon's men, led by The Captain (Adrian Holmes), isolate Daggerhorn and begin to investigate its people in search of the Wolf. That night, the Wolf attacks and, while the townspeople rush to the Church (as the Wolf is unable to step onto holy ground), Valerie and her friend Roxanne venture into the village to search for Roxanne's autistic brother, Claude. They are cornered by the creature and Valerie discovers that she is able to understand the Wolf's sounds. It threatens to kill Roxanne and destroy the village if Valerie doesn't leave with it. The Wolf then escapes, vowing to return to learn Valerie's decision.
 

BOOK: Red Azelea by Anchee Min

Red Azalea is a memoir of Chinese American writer Anchee Min.
It was written during the first eight years she spent in the United States, from 1984 to 1992, and tells the story of her personal experience during the Cultural Revolution.


The memoir was written in English.
The names of the characters were translated into English instead of being spelled phonetically. For example, Min's first name, Anchee, means Jade of Peace, and her siblings' names are Blooming, Coral, and Space Conqueror.
The autobiography deals with themes of ideology and gender and sexual psychology.

Part one
In part one, Min tells the story of her childhood in Shanghai under the rule of Mao Zedong during the 1960s. She believes wholeheartedly in Mao's Communism, and is an outstanding student. Her first conflict with this system comes when a favourite teacher is put on trial for espionage and the young Anchee Min is expected to testify against her.

Part two
Part two tells of her life on a farm outside of Shanghai with other teenagers. She is moved to a place called Red Fire Farm a labour camp. She was assigned to work there and has little hope of escaping her life of manual labour. At this point, Min finds a role model to follow and stays on track with Maoism. She soon finds difficulty, however, when a friend is mentally broken by interrogation and humiliation after being discovered in a sexual situation with a man. Abuse of power by her superiors and a lesbian relationship with another farm-worker further erode Min's trust in Maoism. At the end of Part Two, she has been selected to move back to Shanghai and train to be an actress.

Part three
Part three is the story of her training at a film studio, in competition with other young trainees. More abuse of power and complex love relationships exacerbate her disillusion with Mao's system. She comes in and out of favour with her superiors in the film studio, depending on who is in charge. Eventually, her acting career falls through, and Min works as a clerk in the studio. At the end of part three, in 1976, Mao dies, and his wife Jiang Qing is arrested. The next few years are briefly mentioned, and the memoir ends with a short explanation of how Min came to live in the United States in 1984.