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My favourite books

So I was writing my last blog, and I started wittering on about a book I love, and thought I would write about my favourite books and authors over her.

I am a big fan of chick lit. There seem to be a large proportion of Irish writers amongst my many books lining the bookshelves. I can't remember the names of all the authors of the books I love, but I'll do my best.

I enjoy Lesley Pearse books, and, to date, have read most of them. Her books are fantastically written; she knows what she is talking about and it is easy tom inagine the characters. Her lead characters are always strong, female characters. Her books, generally are set in the past, generally around the 1960s, but some much earlier and some in the present. Her books are very emotive, there is always something sinister happening in them, and I find because of this, they often take a bit longer than other books to read.

I have just finished Jennifer Worth's Call the Midwife. It is based on Jennifer's experience of life as a midwife living with nuns in the East End of London in the 1950s. I would not describe this book as a novel, more a collection of tales about a fantastic number of characters and the reaon she came to meet them in her time there. She discusses premature births to aged nuns, infidelity and prostitution. I thoroughly enjoyed her book.

Jane Green has written a collection of books, some of which I have read; all of these I have enjoyed. She writes about a variety of charcacters. Jemima J is about a woman, surprisingly called Jemima J, who loses a vast amount of weight in order to impress a man who lives half way around the world and whom she met on the internet, but he does not turn out to be what he hoped. Babyville follows three women, one of whom is obsessing with becoming pregnant, an unplanned pregnancy and a harassed mother. Mr Maybe is a story about a woman caught between two men; the man with the life she has always wanted and the man with the life she doesn't want, and her fight with herself between money and love.

Jenny Colgan has written books, and some of these I have read. There is the woman who makes a wish and is a teenager again (Do You Remember the First Time?) London women who move to the country; a village with the highest ratio of male inhabitants (Where Have All the Boys Gone?) and two women who travel across America in search of their childhood sweetheart (Looking for Andrew McCarthy). The novels are very funny.

Chris Manby also writes some funny books. A hen party in Turkey with scary shop keepers, a sexy tennis instructor and a sick woman (Seven Sunny Days) and a woman whose friend lives abroad. She tells him of the glamorous life she leads, the high powered job, the fantastic house, and then he comes to stay. Shared flats and sometime at the police station are just some of the things that happen during the visit (Lizzy Jordan's Secret Life).

Marian Keyes has written a collection of novels, mostly centring around one family of mum, dad and their five daughters, who live very exciting lives. Some times, funny, sometimes not, these are great books.

Sophie Kinsella is the author of the Shopaholic series. I have read only one of these books, the very first one, and am looking forward to reading the rest in the future. She has also written Undomestic Goodess, and Can You Keep a Secret? The funniest part of Can You Keep a Secret? has to be when the lead character is stuck on a plane (she hates flying) in turbulence, and, thinking she is going to die, confesses all to the man sat next to her, includng faked grades on her CV. And then she meets him again. He is her boss.

Helen Fielding's books are fantatstic. Bridget Jones has to be her most famous creation. Bridget, in Bridget Jones Diary and Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason, finds herrself in numerous funny situations (though not to her) including a pregnancy scare, talking about her hate of fox hnng and conservative voters to middle class lawyers, her time in a Thai prison and her mother's beaviour.

My all time favourite book, however, is Where Rainbow's End by Cecelia Ahern. The story begins with Alex and Rosie, aged about 7 years, passing notes in class. The story follows them through to in their fifties, with numerous significant life events happening; big birthdays, marriage, divorce, children, jobs, death of Rosie's parents. Alex moves to Boston and when Rosie visits, she almost kisses him. There is a silence, and through the whole book, Alex keeps coming back to this silence when chatting to his brother, Phil. Rosie discusses it withher sister, Steph, and her best friend, Ruby. The whole book is written as letters, emails, texts etc, with the exception of the epilogue. Cecelia's other books are fantastic too.