The Magic Box - H G wells

It's coming to the end of the year so I was looking for a quick read to boost my book count and stumbled upon the audio version of this on You Tube.


It's a quick and imaginative tale. Like a stocking filler. A small treat that I enjoyed even though I am a forty something year old bloke and not the intended audience whatsoever.



A fun read.



4/5

Clinical skills For Student Nurses - Claire Boyd

This is a book I read a few months ago but forgot to add to my list. I was doing my return to practice at that point. Sadly that has all gone tits up but I found this book invaluable for anybody either returning to nursing practice or student nurses in general. In fact I wish I had had this book when I was a student nurse a whole lifetime ago. Simply, it's brilliant and very helpful. I took notes whilst reading it and I am sure it will yet again prove helpful if I go back into nursing when the time and finances are right at my end.


5/5

The Swimming Pool By Louise Candlish

Location Edge Hill, London.



A new outside swimming pool opens in Edge Hill and Natalie is curious. But her curiosity ends up taking her down a path of no return. A path of excitement but also danger.


Looking at the blurb on the back cover of this book this sounded like it was going to be a cleverly written piece of literary fiction and a dark psychological thriller. It is a bit misleading as the majority of the book reads like a typical chic-lit book. It is full of rich people and their husbands and pool parties and cocktail parties. It is only towards the last 100 pages or so that the book escalates into thriller mode.

I am not really a fan of chic-lit but the book kept my interest because of the slowly burning plot that was ever so slowly being revealed. You do need a dictionary for the first 300 pages and that's not a bad thing as I like to learn new words. In the latter part of the book the long words disappear quite cleverly and the pace quickens and the book comes to a dramatic climax with quite a few twists and turns. One thing I also found was that this is probably one of the only books I have ever read in my life where none of the characters were actually very nice!



Overall it was a good read but I could have done without a few of the cocktail parties and more of the drama. 




4/5

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix - J K Rowling

Location

Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry



The 4th instalment of the Harry Potter series.


This is a pavement slab of a book but it is easy to read. It's pretty much as entertaining as the others but I found this one to be a lot more darker. It seems nothing seems to go right for poor Harry from the first page onwards. By the time I came to reading this one I had mostly forgotten the plot of any of the previous books although the locations and characters were still familiar. I don't know what that says about the books. Maybe it suggests that the magic of the Harry Potter series lies more in the Hogwarts fantasy world and it's characters than the plots. But I still enjoyed it even though I am by no means the intended reader, not by a long chalk. 

But that just goes to show that these books can be read and enjoyed by the whole family.

Two more to go.




4/5

Stephen King - Insomnia

This book has been gathering dust on my bookcase for longer than I can remember. I don't even remember buying it. I can only guess that I purchased it from some charity shop or book sale at some point. Probably one of the reasons I never got to reading it is because like a lot of King books it is pretty much a brick at 760 pages.


What is worth it? Well I'd say absolutely. Is it my favourite Stephen King book? Nope. It has a long way to go to reach the likes of The Stand, Bag Of bones, Misery, The Long Walk and maybe The Shining. But I'd say it is a typical run of the mill King book all the same. It had all the elements I'd expect. I liked the main characters and I enjoyed the slow build up to the climactic ending which was pretty much a Stephen King ending. When all is said and done big books can take over your life more than a smaller book as long as they are not boring. This wasn't boring. It kept my interest all the way and it has to sit alongside most other books that I have read by Stephen King. I liked the unique twist and hook of this book and the story and it's characters will stay with me for a while and that says a lot.



4/5

K-ON! by Kakifly

Location = Kyoto region of Japan



Well I did say I wanted to travel to lots of places with my reading and I don't think books have taken me to Japan for a good while if ever.

So I've read a Manga! Another first! A Manga is a Japanese comic book and apparently this is a Seinen Manga. Which means it is aimed at young men. And I can see why as it's main characters are tarty looking schoolgirls. In fact there is an argument to be had that all Manga books are aimed at young men with a liking for young girls but that argument is for another time and another place. So what did I think?

It was quite fun to try something different and you can't get much different than Manga. It was a bit of a headache trying to work out how to read it because not only are Manga books read backwards but you also have to work out in which order to read the comic strips. The story is about a group of school friends who form their own rock band to stop the local school music group from closing down. There isn't much more to it than that. It is funny in parts and it kept my interest and I'd just say the story was okay. Or maybe I am a bit old and the story isn't exactly aimed at an old bugger like me. This is volume 1 of the K-ON! story and I'm not sure if I will ever want to read the other volumes but it was cool to read something different and I'd like to read more manga in future just to get to know the genre a bit better. So I don't really know if this is one of the better ones or one of the worst yet.




3/5

Key To Living The Law Of Attraction by Jack Canfield

Location - No location but listened to this as an Audio Book on You Tube.



I probably wouldn't say that I learned anything new from this audio book but I did find it very helpful and inspiring.I really love the idea of the law of attraction and I would say I am a believer and this book includes every you need to know about it. If you are a believer then this would probably make a good read maybe once every few months. If you are new to the subject I wold be surprised if it didn't spark your interest.


It was narrated well (which isn't always the case with audio books) and the background music was soothing and helped. It did get a bit promotional towards the end but I will forgive that because on the whole this is a great listen or read, whatever way you look at it.





4/5

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Location - Syracuse, a City in New York State. North East USA.



I picked this up at Preston's uclan library as a way to take my mind off my studies. It was just hanging on a shelf as some kind of library promotion and I felt drawn to it. And I must say it's pretty good too.

It is the story of a young girl with a secret that has to cope with the pressures of growing up and surviving life as a 9th grade student. She is awkward. She has no friends and she feels very different. This book is funny in the right places and dark and thought provoking in others. It is easy to read and quite compelling. It keeps the interest right up to the explosive ending.



It has to be a 5/5 for me.

Skellig - David Almond

Borrowed this from work and so pleased I did. It's probably the perfect book for young teenagers. It has everything. Imagination, sadness, mystery but more than anything it is a damn good story.


Enjoyed


10/10



First person.

Storylines

Boy finds strange creature in attic and helps to make it better.
Baby sister is ill, will she get better?

Educational bits - Persephone underground during winter. Owl regurgitating pellets. Blackbird leaving the nest. Bits about human anatomy.

Final climax? Baby gets better after op. Skellig meets Michael and Mina in the attic for the last time and lifts them up and later leaves them a message.

Overall theme of book - Not sure really about that. Love and protection? Looking after people when they are vulnerable? Care of others?