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Book Reviews
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karen worton22 April 2009
Marriages And Other Games By Veronica Henry
This book follows four very different people whose marriages have failed, or are failing. The foursome is brought together in friendship, in a little village where we learn of the ups and downs in each of their lives.
I enjoyed this book very much - one to curl up with! I look forward to Veronica Henry's next book! -
Pony Club Secrets (4) - Stardust and the Daredevil Ponies
Chloe21 April 2009
I really loved reading this book. The story is about Issie's aunt, Hester, who asks Issie and her friends to be stunt riders for a film called The Palomino Princess, which is based on books. Hester has a stunt farm, which has loads of stunt horses. Issie and her friends, Stella and Kate, come along and they have to invite Natasha "Stuck-Up" Tucker as they have to have four stunt riders. Stardust, plays the main horse of the film, he is very talented but naughty due to being treated nastily by other trainers. Issie must gain Stardust's trust to succeed. The film's star also has a big secret which she wants no one to know about - but how long can she keep it from the rest of the cast?
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Erin Britton21 April 2009
Published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne and an excellent companion piece to the documentary series currently being screened on Channel 4, David Starkey's "Henry: Virtuous Prince" is a captivating biography that provides a long overdue radical reappraisal of the life of Henry VIII, arguably the most enduring icon of the British monarchy. Certainly larger than life in every sense, history has remembered Henry VIII as England's most absolute monarch but, as Starkey is keen to point out, Henry was not born to rule. Prior to the death of his elder brother Arthur, Henry enjoyed a cosseted, loving upbringing in the household of his mother Elizabeth Beaufort. Henry grew up to be a charming Renaissance man with exception musical, intellectual and athletic talent whose coronation seemed to offer England a far more glorious reign than that they had endured under Henry VII. However, Henry VIII's early promise was soon transformed into a quest for fame as obsessive of that of any modern reality TV wannabe. His search for glory and yearning for a male heir drove Henry into dangerous territory and England as whole into tremendous upheaval, culminating in the most influential reign in the history of the monarchy. David Starkey's "Henry: Virtuous Prince" is a fascinating and accessible biography of Henry VIII as well as an excellent study of the wider political and social picture that existed in England during Henry's reign. Henry: Virtuous Prince is the riveting story of an idealistic prince who sought glory and a return to the age of chivalry but whose quest for immortality would ultimately turn him into a tyrant.
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Erin Britton21 April 2009
Ray Bradbury's "Now and Forever" is a bewitching book collecting together two hugely contrasting tales of the fantastic " Somewhere a Band is Playing" and "Leviathan '99". In "Somewhere a Band is Playing", journalist James Cardiff is enticed through poetry and his fascination with a mysterious and enigmatic young woman to the town of Summerton, a town where there are no children to be seen out playing and where the residents seem never to age. Intrigued by the secrets of Summerton, Cardiff sets out to undercover the town's mysteries before the seemingly inevitable arrival of destruction masked as progress to the community. While "Somewhere a Band is Playing" is a relatively low-key novella, Bradbury switches the action up a notch with "Leviathan '99", a reimagining of Herman Melville's Moby Dick as an interstellar adventure where the menace of the great whale is embodied into a world destroying comet. When astronaut Ishmael Jones joins the crew of the starship Cetus 7 he finds that he has placed his fate in the hands of a relentless madman. In the merciless void of space the crew face an enemy wielding the most impossibly fearsome weapon of all - time! Both of the stories that make up "Now and Forever" are truly enchanting works of imagination and positively shine with Bradbury's signature blend of humanity, fantasy, realism and speculation as to what the future may hold.
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Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody Murder Mystery): An Amelia Peabody Murder Mystery
Elaine White18 April 2009
This first book is by far the best. Not only do we have the best display of manhood from Radcliffe Emerson that I've ever seen in a crime book but he still manages to have that hidden side of concern for those he cares about that stops him from being another overbearing bully, like so many hard-up leading men are in crime books.
Being a fan of Archaeology, I was ecstatically surprised to find that this is the first book, and set of books, I've ever found that accurately describe the work of an Archaeologist and that actually covers this topic sympathetically.
The crimes alone are addictively clever and Elizabeth Peters allows the reader enough clues to piece together the facts by themselves, rather than those authors who seem to have their characters keep all the information to themselves and suddenly know everything at the end of the book, hinting at clues that we, the reader, were never allowed to see.
This first book lays the crucial groundwork for the following books, which are equally excellent, each story never boring the reader or sounding too farfetched to be worth reading. It is for this reason that this is my favourite of the collection. The enigmatic settings only inspire and become more enchanting as the books continue but it where we first meet Amelia and the characters that are to reoccur in later books with that first glimpse of the Egyptian setting on the 1800's that really hits home.
By far, a group of books well worth owning, never mind reading. A set you'll read again and again. -
Black Snow: A Theatrical Novel (Vintage Classics)
Erin Britton13 April 2009
Although now best known for his excellent political satire, The Master and Margarita, during his own lifetime Mikhail Bulgakov enjoyed his greatest successes as a playwright for the Moscow theatre. Black Snow is Bulgakov's hilarious lampoon of the pre-war Russian theatre scene that both made his reputation and drove him to the brink of despair. Disappointed to find that his bid to take his own life has been unsuccessful, struggling writer Maxudov decides to dramatise the novel whose failure provoked the suicide attempt. To the great resentment of Moscow's literati, Maxudov's play is accepted by the prestigious Independent Theatre and Maxudov himself is thrust into an arty vortex of inflated egos. With each new rehearsal, more sparks fly amongst the cast and crew and the chances of the play ever being ready to perform recede. Black Snow is the ultimate backstage theatre novel and is a brilliant satire on Bulgakov's legendary love-hate relationship with theatre pioneer Stanislavsky, method-acting and the Moscow Arts Theatre where his own plays were performed.
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Adventures of Tinker, the Hole Eating Duck
justine gunn13 April 2009
Tinker, the hole eating duck...
This is a must own book for all ages that is full of adventure, colour and magic. It is a story about a Duck who goes about a magical world mending things with holes by eating them and lives in a magical tree in a beautiful wood. He encounters strange creatures on his travels like the beautiful butterfly who he helps by eating the hole in his wing. The illustrations are so fantastic that at my age of thirty eight I can remember them from when I owned this book as a young girl. They are as clear in my mind as when I was given it for my birthday. I have children of my own now and they know all about TINKER and his FRIENDS... -
Penguin Readers Level 4: "The Locked Room" and Other Stories
bushra05 April 2009
I liked this book it was very interesting!
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C Williams03 April 2009
To be honest I'm surprised I even finished this book, I need a medal! I found every character extremely annoying, the story was dull and there was far too many Clichés for my liking.
Many of my friends talked about how much this book made them laugh, but for me, not a peep! I recommend if you're going to spend your hard earned pennies, you're better off with Kathy Lette's Mad Cow, now that's a cracker! -
The Diary of a Nobody (Oxford World's Classics)
Erin Britton02 April 2009
Mr Charles Pooter is a man of modest ambition, quite content with his employment as a city clerk. He is also a man whose pomposity reaches higher than the average Victorian top hat, which could well be the reason he is always mysteriously in trouble with disagreeable tradesmen, impudent young clerks, wayward friends and uncontrollable family members bent on finding marriage partners in the most unsuitable of places. However hard Mr Pooter tries, life continues to heap trouble and strife on his head. Luckily for the reading public, Mr Pooter is not one to give up lightly. Realising that he has often seen the reminiscences of people he has never heard of lining the shelves of bookshops, Mr Pooter decides that he too shall keep a diary since, even if he is technically unknown, why shouldn't his life be as interesting as everyone else's. The resulting Diary of a Nobody proves to be a side-splitting collection of mundane mishaps and misunderstandings as the tragically deluded, self-important Mr Pooter struggles to compete with the more exciting friends, relatives and even complete strangers who come to dominate his journal. In the bumbling, absurd yet still strangely endearing Charles Pooter, George and Weedon Grossmith have brought to life one of the greatest comic creations in English literature. The Diary of a Nobody is a biting, hilarious satire of English suburban values that has lost none of its sparkle more than a hundred years after it was initially published. Those who enjoy The Diary of a Nobody should be sure to pick up a copy of another great satire of the same period, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.
