If you've ever been to a small town, where everyone knows everyone and each house is full of old names and ancient history, this book should feel familiar. It's the story of a place, from its foundation to current day. Each chapter tells a different part of local history, and family names and traits flow …
Category: book reviews
Lily Dale: The Town That Talks To The Dead by Christine Wicker
This year, in November, I set myself the task of writing a book. It had been germinating in my mind for a while, and I needed to get it down on paper. The story itself has aspects of Victorian Englands obsession with death and greiving, and the phenomenon of Spiritualism that rose up in that …
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Book Review: No Rest For The Wicked, A Novella by Dane Cobain
I was sent this book for review by the author, and I was curious about it because he's a local London writer. It's always nice to read the words of someone who lives in your city. The book is a slim volume, and explores some interesting themes about right and wrong, Hadron colliders and religion. …
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The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Set in the last four years of the Jewish occupation of the Masada fortress in ancient Israel in the time of the Roman occupation, this book tells the events of the lives of four women there who work together in the Dovecotes. I suppose most of you who have an interest in the history of …
Pandora’s Star by Peter F Hamilton
This one was recommended to me by an old friend, and it ended up on my must-read list for the year. It's the first book in a huge epic sci-fi saga called The Commonwealth Saga, and oh my God, it's about a billion pages long, and has a huge list of characters. The book is …
The Book Of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The designs on the covers of this book (there are two, one for the character Bea and one for Peter) are very beautiful, and having read the authors incredible book The Crimson Petal And The White, I expected big things. When Peter is selected by the mysterious company USIC to be a minister on the colonised …
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Travels With My Father: An Autobiographical Novel By Karen Jennings
Don't judge a book by it's cover. Although, in most cases you normally can, it would be a real shame to go past this absolute gem because of it's dressing. The book is an exquisite examination of family, grief, dying and the father-daughter relationship, as well as an exploration of place and family anecdote in …
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The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
One of Hoffman's shorter novels, this fairytale-like story is of a girl whose impulsive wishes can curse those around her to die, and whose wrteched heart has turned to ice.Her first wish was as an eight year old girl, when she wanted her mother to stay home instead of go out to a birthday dinner, …
The Diabolic by SJ Kincaid
In this compelling and violent Young Adult novel, Kincaid has managed to create a world that imaginatively different, but in some ways scarily similar to our own. In a Dystopian future, technology has ground to a stand still, with a religious dark age enacted by the ruling elite who use religion to keep the massive …
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
This one may in fact become my favourite Alice Hoffman book, though they're all pretty awesome and unique. In this story, the Sparrow family, a long line of women, have all woken up on their 13th birthday with a gift. Elinor was able to tell if someone was lying, her daughter Jenny can dream other …
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