The Dead Of Penderghast Manor - Julianne Snow

A young man working in his father's mortuary business is able to talk to the bodies.


This short book is a case of great idea but not so great execution.


On a positive note it is short and original but sadly is is just too silly and over the top. Reads like something a 12 year old schoolboy would come up with.



1/5

Cold Case by Faye Kellerman

Location - Los Angeles


An LAPD detective is charged with investigating a 15 year old murder.



I don't really do police crime novels. They are not my kind of thing but this was a change and sometimes you need a change. It was strange because I haven't read any other books by the same author featuring this detective and I think this is something like book 17. But it didn't really matter, it was written in a way that was accessible for new readers. Although I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the other books.

As for the book itself it was quite complex and there were more suspects than soft Mick. It kept my interest right to the end but the ending was a bit of a let down as I was hoping for a surprise or a twist but it never came. Without spoiling the ending, the ending wasn't a surprise whatsoever. Quite the opposite and there were too many loose ends to feel vindicated for reading the previous 505 pages.



It's a slow one that kept my interest just about but not the most exciting and satisfying ending.




3/5

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?

I'm A Stranger Here Myself - Deric Longden

This is the second book I've read by Deric and it is just as good as the other.


He had a knack of writing about everyday things and making them hilarious. I really want to read everything he wrote. This is an easy to read, lighthearted and overall entertaining book. I don't always find funny books funny but this is!

Black Sheep by Susan Hill

'Brother and sister, Ted and Rose Howker, grew up in Mount Of zeal. a mining village blackened by coal. They knew nothing of the outside world. though both of them yearn for escape.'




Things I liked about this book -


I really liked the historical detail. It's like I was actually there. In a coal town in our distant past. I could almost smell the coal dust on my clothes. I also like the characters and how drew me in and helped to make me feel like we I was there.


Things I didn't like -


There was just too much going on for a short novella like this. It's almost as if Susan Hill decided to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into the story line. What with a missing person, a mining disaster, a murder and a failed marriage, not too mention the ending, it was too much and became a little bit comical and unrealistic. I was almost waiting for a landslide or a plague of locusts to appear.


It started off well and I loved the historical details but as a story I felt like it was trying to cram too much into too few pages.



6/10

Ostrich by Matt Greene

'Alex has a story to tell. He just doesn't know what kind of story it is yet. He's got a lot of the concerns every 12-year-old has but lately, ever since his brain surgery, everyone in his life is behaving more than a little mysteriously. He's certain there's something rotten at the heart of his parents' marriage, and when his beloved hamster Jaws 2 starts acting up as well he decides it's time to investigate.'





With it's unusual name and striking front cover I didn't know what to expect with this one. I was prepared for every eventuality.



What I got was a great read. It is witty and sad and cleverly written. We are taken into the mind of a 12 year old boy who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. He wakes from surgery to find that things are a little bit different but he doesn't know why.


You will have a laugh with this one and maybe shed a tear. It's ending is as original and clever as every single page. It will make you think and it may take you a while to work it out. But when you do you will realize what a great book this is.




10/10

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly ~ Sun Mi-Hwang

Meet sprout. A hen who only has one dream and that is to lay an egg. But she also wants her freedom.



I got this in a pile of books from my local library but I saved it until last because I didn't really fancy it. In fact I thought it was just going to be another run of the mill children's book. But how wrong was I. It is brilliant! Written by Korean Author Sun Mi-Hwang and translated by Chi-Young kim and with lovely illustrations by Nomoco, this really is a special little book from beginning to end.

At its simplest it's a lovely little story with wonderful characters but it is also full of deeper meanings and it will make you think and feel a mixture of emotions from joy to sadness in equal measure. This is a book that can be enjoyed by all ages. It's only a short book but it will stay with you.

Recently my son has more or less flown the nest and has gone living away from home and so I could connect with this book.



10/10

The Sunshine Years - Afsaneh Knight

Do You Ever Wonder Where Your Life Is Going?

You are not alone.





This book should not work. In fact it should be incredibly boring.


It is genre less and plot less and it is basically the literary equivalent of a fly in the wall documentary about a group of life long thirty something friends. There is not really a story at all even though ironically the main character is a guy named Story.



But it isn't boring and the pages turn easily for one very important reason. The writing is incredible. The prose is fresh, clever, crisp, witty and compelling. The writing itself is worth eight out of ten stars by itself. I'm sure if Afsaneh Knight had given us a decent plot to cling on to this would have been a clear ten out of ten. But I enjoyed it. Even though I'm sure a lot of people will hate it. I didn't because I appreciate good writing. It didn't really need a better plot. The writing is wonderful.




8/10

A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

The lives of the Barretts, a suburban New England family, are torn apart when their fourteen- year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.




On the cover there is a quote by Stephen King that says this book scared the living hell out of him.


I'm not sure what book he was reading but apart from one semi creepy scene half way through it didn't scare me at all. Maybe he was reading it alone in a scary old building at night.

As for the book it's okay. It's an average run around of a novel. Not the most exciting thing I've ever read but certainly not boring in any way, It kept me turning the pages and had a good twist at the end. Worth a read but it didn't blow me away.




7/10

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

I picked this book up as part of a bundle from my local library because the cover and the blurb jumped out at me. Sadly the only lasting impression that I got was a stinging headache and a lot of frustration.



There isn't really a plot, just a collection of bizarre and confusing stories that are linked together tediously and tenuously in equal numbers. I always make a point of finishing whatever I start but I have never wanted to throw a book out of a window more than this. It is just a confused mess of a book.

The first chapter ( if you can call it a chapter) was actually clever and imaginative and maybe the book should have stopped there. Then the book just dissolves into a chaotic and nausea inducing stream of nonsensical stories that don't actually go anywhere. I am sure some people will applaud this book for being clever and thought provoking and artistic. They can think what they like. This book belongs on a bonfire.






2/10 for the cover artwork and the first chapter.

He Wants - Alison Moore

'The front door is mostly glass, a pane as wide and tall as a man.'




From the first line you realize that you are about to read something completely different. The writing is crisp and fresh in this story about a man looking back and reflecting on his life. This book is pretty much like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces are put together as you read each page. Or maybe a better analogy would be to say it's like painting by numbers.



It's a quirky book just like her breakthrough novel 'The Lighthouse'. This is as good as that one but totally different. It may not have all the thrills and spills of some modern day novels but there is something uniquely beautiful about this that will keep you turning the pages.



Not the most exciting read but thoroughly captivating.




Enjoyed.




8/10

The Railway Children - E Nesbit

When their father disappears, three children move to the countryside and discover a railway track.






There are lots of children's books which can be read in adulthood and enjoyed but this isn't one of them. At least I didn't think so anyway. I was glad when it was over to be honest.


The story was littered with too many coincidences and it was  
quite preachy in parts as well. There was nothing to hook me as a reader and it was really predictable.


To be fair I am getting on a bit so maybe I would have enjoyed reading this when I was a kid. So maybe I am being unfair.





6/10