Girlfriend in a Coma is a novel by Canadian writer and conceptual artist Douglas Coupland. I've never been too sure about how to pronounce his name "Cope-land" or "Coop-land". Most times I just settle for Doug. I've had a long standing adoration for Coupland's work both written and constructed. I made a special visit to the Canadian High Commission in London to see some furniture Coupland had designed around notions of what it is to be Canadian. I also trekked to Stratford Upon Avon where I was shocked by Doug performing his play "September 10th, 2001." This sexy sounding Canadian had turned into Ernest Hemingway without anyone warning me.

How you'll respond to this review will probably depend on your previous encounters with Doug. People are generally divided into two categories: 1) those who think he's ultimate social commentator and 2) those who think he's just another pop culture junkie. I fall into a third category 1.5) those who are unsure whether Doug adores pop culture or if he's gently mocking it. I got to have the briefest of conversations with the Big Man Himself in Stratford after the show and I asked him directly. He smiled enigmatically and said "No one's asked me that before..." and drifted away humming. I was, like, totally bummed.

"Girlfriend in a coma" is a Smiths song title. The song contains the haunting lyric "let me whisper my last goodbye" which is a good way into the novel. The novel tells the story of a group of friends growing up in Vancouver, Canada in the late 1970's. On the night of a teenage house-wrecking party Karen, falls into a coma. More alarmingly, she seemed to expect it, having given her boyfriend, Richard, a letter detailing the vivid dreams of the future she had experienced and how she wanted to sleep for a thousand years to avoid that vision.

The opening of the novel is a vision of what happens after the end of the world relayed to us by Jared, a ghost. It's a shocking and despairing vision of a world without people, technology and concern. Jared tells us that most of us don't learn from second chances that we really learn from third chances- "after losing and wasting vast sums of time, money, youth and energy". The first part of the book covers the next 17 years in the lives of Jared's friends- the friends who "finally learned their lesson". The story, as Jared puts it, gets bigger than any individual and includes all of us and ultimately becomes Jared's story.

I don't want to flesh out the plot lines as the organic growth of the novel is something to savour. Meeting and getting to know about the characters, following their stories and ending up at one of the most chilling finales in fiction. Anyone who liked, loved or was moved by "it's a wonderful life" will enjoy GFIAC.

Which brings me to the "why" part of my post. Why should this book get a review over anything else? I can promise you this book won't make you a better manager, won't help you be a better lover, won't improve your social life, won't give you six/seven/eight handy hints on how to be more effective. This book will however draw you in, lull you into thinking you know how it will end and then chew you up, break you into small pieces and then spit you out. Then ending of the novel is a rallying cry for awareness, questioning and being totally present. It's the ultimate "plan b" for humanity. Plan A isn't doing us that well and Doug provides us with a way of creating a new paradigm. Buy this novel. It will change you.

I have just started reading this series again, with the first book in the series "Clan of the Cave Bear"

For anyone who hasn't read these books : Ayla, aged 5 (one of the Others) is orphaned in an earthquake. The Clan (Neanderthals) find and raise her, and she is trained to be a medicine woman. This is the story of Ayla trying to overcome the cultural and physical differences between the two types of human, and trying to fit in with the Clan.

I find the majority of the story to be riveting. One can really get involved in Ayla's confusion, but when Auel switches perspective from Ayla to one of the Clan, her writing becomes simplistic (which is obviously her trying to convey the naivety of the Neanderthals) which is slightly annoying.

I also find the long, rambling chapters about the local countryside and the animal habits very tedious and there is too much emphasis on these sections for the story to flow well. It doesn't detract from enjoyment though - I just skip these sections altogether.

This is a story that has been around for quite some time. I picked up the book at a second hand sale, but you can still get it. I like Marian Keyes. I found "Anybody out there" made me cry, but this book Rachel's holiday is a lot lighter than that, if you can call a book about being a drug addict light. However this book is a comedy, and is about a Irish girl in New York, who uses a few too many recreational drugs, and drinks a bit too much booze. She ends up in hospital having her stomach pumped, is whisked back to Ireland, and put into a treatment clinic, where she only agrees to go as she thinks there will be some famous people there.
Naturally there are not. The book moves between the clinic, and flashbacks to her life in New York with her non drug taking boyfriend Luke, who is now out of her life. There is a fair bit of analysis going on as to what makes an addict, why people do it etc, and the effect on their loved ones, which is done through the medium of group therapy.
Rachel seemed to have been spared withdrawal symptoms of any seriousness, as do all of the addicts, which I found unrealistic. However I liked the book, and read all 625 pages fairly rapidly as I was so into it
It helps the book that Marian Keyes herself went through this journey to recovery, on her website she admits to having been an abuser of alcohol, and this adds to the verisimilitude of the story. While you watch Rachel you feel for her and you laugh and sometimes cry with her.

Hello,

B.

"We have needed this book for twenty years. I wish I had been able to read it when I first became a carer." - Alison Ryan, Chief Executive, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers

Anybody who is a carer will tell you that it is one of the most difficult things in the world to do, particularly if you are caring for a close relative. So this book is invaluable and yet not many people know about it which is why I am blogging about it here.

Written by Hugh Marriott, a journalist who gave up work to look after his wife after she was diagnosed with Huntingdon's disease, this book gives you a humerous look at what it is like to be a carer. It gives advice on how to get those essential benefits, the help you need and the feelings you will go through as you care for someone you love. It details everything he wished he had known when he first became a carer. The book covers topics such as sex, thoughts of murder, and how to deal with the responses of friends and officials who may fail to understand what you are going through or feeling. There is even a chapter for young carers giving advice on schooling, homework and social life (which is sometimes non existent).

A useful book for all carers whoever you may be, something that treats you as a human being, that will not lecture and isn't difficult to read, or full of jargon that you don't understand. Hugh treats the subject with compassion, making you laugh even though the subject matter is serious and there are some very good cartoons to make you smile when the going gets rough.

Definite an invaluable book, a must read for all carers out there.

My book "Born Naughty" is available from all leading book shops from the 7th April 2008. Feel free to take a look at my web sit http://www.born-naughty.com thanks. I hope you find it intersting.

Hi all just a note to say hi and look forward to participating , but if i aint had at least a pint of coffee beware

I have just got into the works of Harry Turtledove, a prolific writer who writes books on alternative reality/history.

Currently I am reading 'Ruled Britannia', which uses the premise that the Armada succeeded and Britain is under Spanish rule with Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tower.

Other books deal with an alien invasion during World War 2, requiring the allies to work with the axis powers to fight a common enemy. Also there is a series dealing with America where the civil war had a different outcome with the South winning.

Anybody else read his works?

I'm a sucker for adventure stories set in the Napoeonic Wars and I think real life sailor Richard Woodman's hero Captain Natahniel Drinkwater is every bit as good as Forrester's Hornblower or Cornwell's Sharpe.

This is the fourth of Richard Woodman's collected Drinkwater stories and sees our hero move on from commanding a frigate to the shady world of espionage. In the first of the three novels, Under False Colours, our hero disguised as a Merchant sea captain succeeds in breaking Napoleon's continental blockade of Europe, infiltrating a cargo of arms through Hamburg to drive a wedge between Napoleon and the Tsar, on the way there is an encounter with a glamourous spy and a prison break out and chase through an ice bound Germany and Holland.

The Flying Squadron sees Drinkwateer back in command of a small flotilla on a diplomatic mission to the USA, Little does he suspect that the Americans are about to ally with the French and threaten the East India convoys vital to paying for Britain's war effort. From an amourous encounter with a feisty American to the final sea battle against her brother, there are plenty of thrills to keep you going.

The final tale Beneath the Aurora see Drinkwater in charge of the Admiralty's Secret Department, where an encounter with an envoy of Murat looking to change sides, reveals a plot to ship arms to the Americans to aid their plan to invade Canada. Taking command of a frigate Drinkwater sails to the Fjords of Norway to scupper the deed and capture the Danish frigate Odin.

The books are full of period detail and Woodman has meticulously researched the history aroud the stories. The action is vivid and exciting, while the romance never overplayed after all this is a book for boys! One of the things I like about Richard's writing is that he is never afraid of killing important characters off, now while some may miss these folk I beleve it helps to freshen up the dialogue as Drinkwater gets to know different and sometimes quite unusual people.

Hi there

x

Hi friend!!I'm a new member of you. how do you do?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

This book is dedicated by the author to the women of Afghanistan.

If you enjoyed Hosseini's first book The Kite Runner, you should enjoy this. I loved it, although it has been variously reviewed as :

'A masterful narrative by a storyteller of dizzying power' Evening Standard

and (damning with faint praise):

'Worth reading, but do not expect a masterpiece' The Times

Alyson Rudd of Times Books group found that the book jarred because Hosseini was never a young girl in Mariam's (the main character's) situation. She also states that unnamed critics accuse the book of using a 'tourist guide standard ' of explanatory terms (as in A is for Afghanistan ; J is for Jihad etc).

I take exception to Rudds idea that the narrative somehow could not work because the author was writing of people removed from himself by age and gender.... that is surely what makes it a NOVEL ?

Accessibility can't be all bad because I found it completely engrossing. The writing is simple yet vivid and the characters have depth and are wholly credible. I was swept up in the evocative descriptions of Afghanistan.

The story is mainly about Mariam and Laila, how their lives become entwined and they become friends over the years, how they struggle at first to cope, then to survive in their homeland. It describes their hardship when treated as chattels in a place torn apart by the Soviets; Mujahideen and Taleban.

The title is from an old poem about Kabul :

'One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls '

(Hosseini has worked for UNCR the UN refugee agency, and uses his afterword to urge people to learn more of their work at www.UNrefugees.org ).

There is a free reading group guide. To download go to www.bloomsbury.com/khaledhosseini

This novel is about the discovery of a fifth gospel, written by Mary Magdalene herself. It is written in the first person, in the style of a gospel, it describes her meeting with Jesus and becoming his lover/wife and the child she bears. It challenges the belief that she was a whore and the fact that she is an important character in the life of Jesus, something which is often ignored by religion in general. It is a dramatic vision of Christianity where men and women's spirituality are equally celebrated. Less than 180 pages long, it is passionate, meaningful and a moving chronicle of human faith which endures suffering and loss.

Definitely well worth reading, I was hooked from the first page. Even if you don't believe in religion or are very religious (I am not) it is well worth reading just for the story alone.