Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Kenzaburo Oe
|title=The Silent Cry
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Featuring rioting and looting of corporate supermarkets and anger against immigrants, this is a timely re-issue of Nobel Prize for Literature winner’s Kenzaburo Óe’s 1967 classic ''The Silent Cry'' which was cited by the Nobel committee as his key work.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846688078</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Luke Johnson
|summary=April doesn't want to move to Cleveland with her dad and his new wife. She doesn't want to move to Paris with her mum either. So April decides the best thing to do is to move in with her best friend Vi, and Vi's mum. But, Vi's mum has recently landed herself the role as Mary Poppins in a travelling theatre, so she's not going to be home. That's not going to stop April from staying in Westport, armed with a couple of fake emails addresses the plan is set.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408309793</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Gianrico Carofiglio
|title=Temporary Perfections
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=This is the fourth book in the popular Guido Guerrieri series. The front cover is eye-catching, as is the title. As early as p.9 I could see that Carofiglio has a nice line in wit and irony. Ergo - 'When you appear before the Court of Cassation, you feel you're in an orderly world, part of a justice system that works ... the world is not orderly and justice is not served.'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738729</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Hammond
|title=CRYPT: The Gallows Curse
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=A warning: do not begin to read this book while eating your lunch, as this unfortunate reviewer did. There's nothing quite like the description of people in an underground train being ripped apart, then having their faces chewed off by bugs, to put you off your egg and cress. In fact, you may develop a strong aversion to the whole of London Transport by the time you've finished this book, which will definitely not please Uncle Boris.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755378210</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Matthew Kelly
|title=Finding Poland
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=Looking at any historical map of Poland anyone may see how its borders have changed over the centuries. Where will you find the Polish home? One answer must be that it is founded deep in the hearts of the Polish people who fought for the liberty and the integrity of the Polish homeland. Now consider the promontory of land around Vilnius, or Wilno as it was then known, which was contained inside Poland in 1921. It was an area in which the small market town of Hruzdowa, comprising some 52 buildings and just large enough to warrant a town hall, was situated. These wild borderlands – known as the Kresy - were fought over for centuries by Austrians, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians. It was here that Matthew Kelly's great-grandfather, who had imbibed the values and élan of the dashing officer class, Rafal Ryzewscy, came to teach with his clever young wife, Hanna. They were deeply committed to progress through education and to peaceably raising their two little daughters. However, the dreadful and calamitous year of 1939, was approaching when Hitler and Stalin partitioned Poland in the most cynical pact.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515997</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=William Giraldi
|title=Busy Monsters
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=
Charles Homar loves his Gillian. He's proved it to us, if not to her, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper of an ex with the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat instead. But lo and behold, she's declared she's off to discover the real love of her life - the giant squid. Failing to stop this, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessive, then goes on a hunt of his own - for Bigfoot, all the while, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative of the same to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columns.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Nicholas Sparks
|title=The Best of Me
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Since watching the film of 'The Notebook' years ago I've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books but never quite got around to it until I saw this, his newest offering. Here we have the tale of two childhood sweethearts whose love was always threatened by the fact that they were from opposite sides of the tracks - he from the rough, poor family that is forever on the wrong side of the law, and she from one of the better, respected families in the town. After life forces them apart they go on to live very different lives, but it seems that neither one has ever forgotten that early passion. Drawn back together for the funeral of an old friend they are both forced to look at the choices they've made in their lives and where they go to from here.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443206</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=The Economist
|title=Pocket World in Figures 2012
|rating=4
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=There are some books which it's very difficult to review and ''Pocket World in Figures 2012'' is a perfect example. Each year The Economist completely updates all the figures and reissues them in a format which, even if it won't fit into every pocket, is certainly going to be no problem in a briefcase or readily available in a desk drawer. And it is the type of book which you're going to want to have readily available. It's not a reference book to have tucked away on a shelf – once you find that it is superbly easy to use you're going to want to have it to hand. The problem is that the book is a very similar format every year, just as essential as the year before and still the book which it's unwise to loan to anyone as there's a strong chance it won't return.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684730</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Sonia Faleiro
|title=Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars
|rating=4.5
|genre=Travel
|summary=In 2005, there were 1,500 dance bars in Bombay, so called because they employed women to dance to popular music. Bar dancers could earn a lot of money compared to women in other traditional female jobs outside the sex industry, such as cleaners. Many of them also slept with men for money, but because her job was dancing not sex, a bar dancer could also see herself as infinitely superior to sex workers, whether street prostitutes, those working in brothels or call girls.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857861697</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Marius Brill
|title=How to Forget
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you are a fan of the BBC's 'Hustle' series, you will absolutely love Marius Brill’s 'How to Forget'. It’s a funny, clever and twisted tale of grifters and con tricks with a bit of magic thrown in for good measure. Brill gives us a cast of strange characters: there's an ethically dubious brain scientist, a dodgy Derren Brown-type TV celebrity whose interests are guarded by two violent but somewhat hapless Hasidic Jewish thugs, an equally violent FBI agent and a female British copper. At the heart of the story though is an apparently naïve British magician, Peter, and a supreme grifter, Kate, in whose life Peter finds himself entangled.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520717</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Leo Lionni
|title=Frederick
|rating=3
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The story of Frederick starts by introducing a chatty family of field mice who live in a stone wall alongside a meadow not far from a barn and a granary. Unfortunately, the farmers have moved away meaning that there are not such rich pickings to collect for the winter. However, by working hard night and day the little family look like they could collect enough to see them through the long hard winter. Frederick is the only mouse who seems to see things slightly differently though. Instead of working as hard as his brothers and sisters, he spends his days staring at the meadow seemingly half asleep. Not surprisingly, the other hard working mice are none too pleased so they challenge Frederick. His answer amazes them when he claims that he is collecting supplies of a different sort – sun rays for the cold dark days ahead, colours for the grey winter and words for the long days when they might run out of things to say.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393095</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=S G Browne
|title=Fated
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Clever and very funny, this is the sort of book where you immediately feel in safe hands. S.G. Browne has gone to town (New York), satirising just about every aspect of modern life, and my reading was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly in recognition in my head.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>
}}