Aah, 'The Poisonwood Bible'. I haven't read it, but did read Kingsolver's 'Animal Dreams' as part of my American Literature subject at uni. It was strange - on the one hand, I was a bit disgusted that it was being placed on the same level as F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender Is The Night'; on the other, I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's not my sort of book (usually), but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dear Poirot,

After you read the "Poisonwood Bible," you might like
to give, "The Mosquito Coast," by Paul Theroux a go.
A good read.

Come to think of it, a couple of good ones, Three Men in a Boat, a fabulous tale of 3 men's holiday in a large rowing boat on the upper Thames river. I really enjoyed it & was utterly amazed when I looked in the front & discovered it was written in the 1920s, it could have been last month.

Then David Nivens The Moon's a Balloon was a bit of good fun.

Hasbeen,

Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" is a great humorous read, and there's something else about it which gives it extra verve. Another one is "Diary of a Nobody" - a hoot about lower middle-class pretension in the Victorian era.

Lexi, I saw the movie of "The Mosquito Coast" - and enjoyed it. I have it in book form here along with "The Great Railway Bazaar" and "The Pillars of Hercules". Paul Theroux is a very good writer.

I'll have to give Paul Theroux another go. I've had "Dark Star Safari" sitting in my bookcase for a couple of years now. I gave it a go when I bought it, but couldn't get into it. Perhaps it was a timing thing ... On another note, I've pulled out "The Odyssey" again, for the first time since I studied it at uni. Reading through it, I've come to the conclusion that I never actually read it when I was at university - it all seems so new and fresh to me. I remember the story, but am finding it very engaging. I was inspired after a friend lent me "The Eagle: A Crime Odyssey", the Danish TV series, on DVD. As I watched it, it suddenly occurred to me that it had a number of very clever parallels to Homer's text.

Dear Poirot,

I recently saw the Russian journalist/author Masha Gessen
interviewed on the ABC. She's here in Oz as a guest at the
Sydney Writers Festival. She was an interesting personality
and spoke of her book, "The Man Without A Face: The Unlikely
Rise of Vladimir Putin." Well I was so intrigued I went out
and bought a copy of it. ($29.99, paperback). I've only just
begun to read it - and I can't put it down. It's a real page
turner - and a must for anyone interested in this inflammatory
topic. As the New York Times writes:

"Gessen has written something rare: an accessible book
about an unreachable man."