Sara Gruen “Water for Elephants”

   In the beginning of Water for Elephants Jacob Jankowski tells us that he is ninety or ninety-three. He's not really sure anymore. His body betrayed him years ago and Jacob now fears that his mind isn’t far, he’s living out his final days in the nursing home and hating every minute of it.  When the circus comes to town, Jacob comes alive and begins to tell us his life’s story. Water for Elephants transported me to a time of the great depression. I learned a lot about the old traveling circuses and life with them. That was really interesting. Water for Elephants is a wonderfully entertaining and well-written story that I think everyone should read. This novel is a delightful with unexpected and wonderful ending.

Olga

L. Frank Baum "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

   Well, friends – it is time for the fairy-tale to come! Today it will be the bewitching tale of Dorothy’s adventures in the magical Land of Oz. The name of the book – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and for sure it’s one of the best loved of the modern fairy-tales. Made into a spectacular film in 1939 it continues to delight adult and child alike.

    The story begins when a cyclone suddenly propels Dorothy and her dog Toto skywards and she finds herself in an unknown land.  She is hailed as a powerful sorceress by the little Munchkins, but her one desire is to return to Kansas, where beloved Aunt Em and Uncle Henry await her. Dorothy’s quest to seek the ‘Great Wizard Oz’ – the only one who can help her – leads her on a perilous journey along the Yellow Brick Road towards the glittering City of Emeralds. On the way she encounters the brainless Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman in search of a heart and the Cowardly Lion, who all join her. At last they reach the castle of Oz – yet in this strange land nothing is ever as it seems…
    So… if you want to have a real rest with the book in the hand – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is your choice!!!
Yura  

Ernest Hemingway "The Old Man and the Sea"

When The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952, it was instantly hailed as a classic. The triumphant yet tragic story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal – a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream – it has the simplicity of a fable, the significance of a parable and the drama of an epic. Among the finest in English literature, Hemingway’s description of fishing and the teeming tropical life abounding in the Gulf Stream provide a setting of warmth and shimmering beauty for the struggle between man against sea and man against fate. A story of grace and courage, of heroism and pity, The old Man and the Sea received special recognition in the citation accompanying Hemingway’s Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 and remains one of his most popular works today.

Donald

Alan Titchmarsh "Rosie"

Nick Robertson thought he’d got used to his grandmother Rosie’s dotty behavior. At 87-years-old she is determined that before life passes her by she will live a little or preferably a lot. It wouldn’t be so bad if Nick had nothing else to do. But with a living to make on the Isle of Wight, two warring parents on the mainland to cope with and a love life in terminal decline, he would prefer his grandmother to get on with things a little more quietly.

But there is no time like the present, Rosie insists. Life is to be enjoyed to the full and to hell with the consequences. She will help Nick find the soul mate he clearly lacks and he can help her find out more about her past. It seems a simple task, but it turns out to involve rather more skullduggery than Nick had anticipated…
Alan Titchmarsh’s sparkling novel is a delicious blend of humor and romance – and a resounding affirmation that there is no such thing as the generation gap.
Max       

Chuck Palahniuk “Fight Club”

 “Fight Club” is one of the most original and provocative novels, was published in 1996.

There are so many wonderful quotable quotes:
“If you don't know what you want," the doorman said, "you end up with a lot you don't.”
“I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.”
“The lower you fall, the higher you'll fly.”
“It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.”
“This is your life and its ending one moment at a time.”
“You know how they say you only hurt the ones you love? Well, it works both ways.”
“I don't want to die without any scars.”
“The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.”
"We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression."

Story about a man searching for his life purpose. Looking for something to fulfill his life, his desire, someone he wanted to be. I enjoyed it from start to finish and i found it really memorable, dynamic and powerful.

 A must read.

Olga

Arabella Weir "Stupid Cupid"

Why do we always want something even more when we can’t have it? Hat Grant is getting married. She is having a proper, big wedding. That is until something goes wrong. Six weeks before the day her fiancé Jimmy Mack dumps her. Hat is devastated. It can’t be happening. This is her special day. She can’t cancel everything – what about the flowers, her dress, the photographer, the caterers, her ghastly mother? So, she doesn’t. She decides to go ahead with the wedding plans come what may. Can anything stop Hat from her descent into madness or is she spiraling towards the world’s first solo wedding ceremony? Stupid Cupid is a wicked , laugh-out-loud comedy about denial, blind hope and wanting something you can’t have.

Sara    

Louisa May Alcott "Little Women"

Grown-up Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth and precocious Amy – the four March sisters couldn’t be more different. But with their father away at war and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on each other. Whether they’re putting on a play, forming a secret society or celebrating Christmas, there’s one thing they can’t help wondering. Will father return home safely?

Ann  

Sally Spedding "Wringland"

Abbie Parker has just started her new job as sales negotiator for a prestige housing development in sinister and vaporous Black Fen – rumoured to be the most haunted corner of England. One morning she arrives to find her office door ajar and a strangely dressed woman waiting inside, intent on laying claim to just one particular plot.


As the days go by Abbie has further strange experiences both on the building site itself and in the surrounding wet-lands. Not only must she cope with the unwelcome attentions of a weird local clergyman and the erratic behaviour of her visiting boyfriend Simon but also with a hazy sense that she is now somehow in conflict with the vengeful spirit of a woman betrayed over a century earlier.

After the terror of risking her life by befriending the cleric’s disturbed little daughter, Abbie finally enjoys a brief period of happiness with Simon. But can their mere human love and courage prove sufficient – as both are drawn deeper into the profoundest evil?
Uncle Bens

Paul Brodeur "The Stunt Man"

To a seedy New England resort comes Robert Cameron, a fugitive soldier who is tricked into taking a job as a stunt man with a movie company on location. The movie, improvised from day to day, becomes a startling mirror of Cameron’s own situation. Pursued by the Army and local police, held spellbound by the enigmatic leading lady and the magic of the movies, Cameron is pushed by the flamboyant, autocratic director into death defying stunts, each more terrifying than the last. And as he is led further away from the real world and deeper into the unreality of the film, life itself becomes the most intricate stunt of all…

Eric

Gregory David Roberts “Shantaram”

 Absolutely marvelous! This is an incredible adventure story that takes the reader from the slums of Bombay to mafia life to the war in Afghanistan.  It was based on a real life situation.  David Roberts knows how to keep you interest by conducting a tour not only a picturesque corners of India, introduces its people, culture and life, but also carries on his experiences, feelings and his inner "I". The book is rich in philosophical sayings, speaks simple about the complex things. I'm sure that book will not leave anyone indifferent, everyone can find something new, interesting and incredible in it! I was completely captivated by this book. I have read hundreds of books, but few have held my attention as well as “Shantaram”.

Ann