I have three published novels and might write/publish more someday. Now I'm more of a reader – welcome!
This is a nice happy little book. I really like Bill Bailey’s quirky observational humour and he seems like a likeable person who finds joy in the little things and this book brought me joy – in fact I laughed out loud several times while reading it. Nothing ground breaking, just a look at some of the theories about happiness and some anecdotes from his life to illustrate his experiences with them.
This was my bookgroup read for December, and to honest, I found it quite a slog to get through. I know that Jane Austen was quite radically feminist for her era, and yet the book does seem to be all about who is marrying whom, which I found a bit tedious. I’m aware that at the time, women’s lives were difficult whether they were married or not, and yet the social norm was definitely towards marriage as the fulfilment of a woman’s role and therefor to be unmarried was to be unfulfilled and a failure.
I did quite like how she pointed a finger at the snobbish classist ways of society in that era and showed their absurdity.
Obviously it’s a classic, and lots of people love it, but not for me.
The main arc of this audiobook is that the keys of hell have been given to Morpheus and he must decide what to do with them. Many interested parties descend on him to threaten, promise, cajole or bribe him to try to get the keys for themselves.
Also, the one love of Morpheus’s existence has been trapped in hell for millennia after he abandoned her there when she spurned his devotion, and he wants to rescue her and make amends.
There are many side stories of course, ranging through time and dreams and the cast is full of famous and fabulous actors bringing the stories to life.
I found it thoughtful, compelling, funny and at times frightening, but for reasons I can’t quite fathom, I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as The Sandman Act 1.
This is the fourth book set in the fictional town of Malbry and the third set at St Oswald’s, proceeded by Gentlemen and Players, Blueeyedboy and Different Class. I’ve read and enjoyed all the books in the series, in fact, it was the shocking denouement in Gentlemen and Players that inspired the plot of my second published novel, The Trap. Rebecca Buckfast, the ambitious teacher who as the hero (or anti-hero) of the previous books is now the head teacher of St Oswald’s (the first female in the post) and she is making changes.
When demolition begins on the old school building human remains are disturbed and Rebecca (or ‘The Buckfast’ as she is referred as by others) is forced to relive traumatic childhood memories about her brothers disappearance.
We learn of her backstory as she recounts it to her colleague Roy Straitley and I found myself getting increasingly more gripped by the ominous feel of the storytelling, like not being able to look away from the scene of a car crash.
I love Neil Gaiman’s books and this is one of my (many) favourites. I felt like reading something I love after a few duds and even though I’ve read this at least once before, my memory is so bad that I almost get the experience of reading it for the first time again! This is a beautiful story about memory and family and magic and love. It’s rich with layers of meaning and beautiful writing and characterisation, like all of Gaiman’s work. It’s one of those ‘young adult’ books that truly resonates with readers of any age (at least the right kind of reader – which I hope is not me being snobby or judgmental, I just mean that everyone has different tastes and different types of book that get to them). I look forward to it being long enough in the past that I can have the experience of reading it ‘for the first time’ again!
Each of the Invisible Library books seem to take on a different genre and this one was like a heist movie. The librarian and her dragon companion had to team up with a band of criminals to steal from a big bad guy. They all had their own motivations which aligned enough for them to work together for a while but the trick was to know who to trust, and how much, and for how long.. It was quite exciting and if you like that kind of thing then you would enjoy it, I guess. I’m not a fan of heist movies, and I’m getting a bit bored of the whole Invisible Library series if I’m honest. I think I have at least one more in my Kindle library, so I’ll read it some time, but I’m not in any great hurry to look at the next installment.
Wow – this is an EPIC book. I mean that in whatever way you want to take it. The book is based around a fictional novel from Ancient Greece, which is based on real characters and stories from actual ancient Greek writings. Each chapter begins with a reading from the cloud cuckoo land story and then follows a set of characters from different periods of history (and the future) for whom the book plays a meaningful part in their lives (it reminds me a bit of ‘The People of the Book’ by Geraldine Brooks). All the stories were gripping and I felt connections with all the characters – the historical fiction parts were really interesting, the modern day story lines had lots of contemporary relevance with climate change issues, and I was blown away by the futuristic story of a girl on an ‘ark’ space ship fleeing a destroyed Earth and seeking a new home.
I was stunned by the ending of the book, and full of unanswered questions (although kind of in a good way?). Anthony Doerr is such a great writer!
I think I was expecting a different kind of book when I started reading this – something more magical realismy but this book is much more grounded in reality than that. Following brother and sister characters and jumping through their chronology with life’s difficulties and challenges we get to know them and piece together their experiences. I also learned quite a lot about Ponzi schemes!
I found the book engaging and interesting but I don’t think I loved it as much as other books by the author.
This is an interesting, thought provoking and readable murder mystery novel. The story is told from three points of view. One character is a man in a coma in hospital who is aware of much of what is going on around him but not able to communicate, who sees someone in a bed near him being ‘helped out of life’ and lives in fear of the same thing happening to him. Another is a nurse on the ward (in my opinion the least interesting of the three characters, but I guess necessary to give some more bits of information), and the third and main character is an anatomy student called Patrick. Patrick is fascinated in the workings of the human body and has high functioning autism. He notices tiny discrepancies in the cadaver that he and his study group are dissecting in his university class which makes him convinced that the man did not die of the cause stated in his notes. Of course nobody takes him seriously, and he lacks the subtlety and social skills to put his point across in a way that doesn’t annoy his teachers and get him into lots of trouble. Patrick is tenacious though, and will not let it lie…..
I really enjoyed the book!
I loved the beginning of this book. Set in an America after there had been a big vampire explosion and when society was set up to deal with further threat – entire cities are kept as quarantine centres for people infected with vampirism (and others who were either trapped there or chose to live there for some reason). The main character wakes up at a party where most of her friends have been slaughtered by vampires and she was somehow overlooked. She goes on a journey with a vampire she saved from the others and a boy who had been bitten but not yet turned to take them both to the quarantine city (coldtown). As the book went on however I got a bit bored the American Teen stuff – all love and image and what-not, but then I’m a 52 year old Irish woman so probably not the target audience. An interesting and mostly fun and enjoyable and thought provoking take on the classic vampire novel.
Sarah Wray Writer