reading list

Here is a rundown of what I've been reading. I'm always looking for a good book to read so if you've got any suggestions, then just let me know.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Mitch Albom, 2003
blurb: On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart at the fairground where he's spent many years working. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his – and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path for ever.

my thoughts: A rather small book running in at about 200 pages with large margins and large line spacing but an interesting idea and nice enough read.

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The Amber Spyglass
Philip Pullman, 2000
blurb: Will is the bearer of the knife. Now, accompanied by angels, his task is to deliver that powerful, dangerous weapon to Lord Asriel – by the command of his dying father. But how can he go looking for Lord Asriel, when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can he fathom the myriad plots an intrigues that beset him. The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, for together they are on their way to battle, an inevitable journey that will even take them to the world of the dead...

my thoughts: The final book in Pullman's His Dark Materials triology. After reading the previous two books I couldn't wait to read this and I wasn't disappointed. At over 500 pages this is the largest of the three books but still manged to grip me from beginning to end. This trilogy is the most amazing thing I've read and as soon as I'd finished reading this book, I picked up Northern Lights and started all over again. There is so much going on in these books that during your second read you'll discover plenty of new stuff you missed first time round.

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my thoughts: The second book in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. This book is just as thrilling as the previous.

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Northern Lights
Philip Pullman, 1995
blurb: When Lyra's friend Roger disappears, she and her daemon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him. The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies – and where a team of scientists is conducting experiements too horrible to be spoken about. Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her – something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights....

my thoughts: The first book in His Dark Materials trilogy, this is a truly gripping read which I just couldn't put down. Where has this book been hiding for the past 10 years? Think Harry Potter crossed with Lord of the Rings. This is an epic piece of fantasy. Utterly fantastic.

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my thoughts: A very interesting and revealing insight into the appalling practices of the multinationals behind fast food. It certainly put me of a Big Mac.

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Brick Lane
Monica Ali, 2004
blurb: Nazneen's inauspicious entry into the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu, a man old enough to be her father. Nazneen moves to London and, for years, keeps house, cares for her husband, and bears children, just as a girl from the village is supposed to do. But gradually she is transformed by her experience, and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny.

Motherhood is a catalyst -- Nazneen's daughters chafe against their father's traditions and pride -- and to her own amazement, Nazneen falls in love with a young man in the community. While Nazneen journeys along her path of self-realization, her sister, Hasina, rushes headlong at her life, first making a "love marriage," then fleeing her violent husband. Woven through the novel, Hasina's letters from Dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity. Shaped, yet not bound, by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream -- and live -- beyond the rules prescribed for them.

my thoughts: Interesting insights into the Bangladeshi immigrant community living in the east end of London. The main character may lead such a boring existence but the book is quite a good read.

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my thoughts: I got about half way through this book and decided to put it down. I'd been hoping for a bit more of the humour and character, that had made Mo stand out as a politician, to be in the book but it was unfortunately lacking.

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Pyramids
Terry Pratchett, 1989
blurb: Being trained by the Assassin's Guild in Ankh-Morpork did not fit Teppic for the task assigned to him by fate. He inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi rather earlier than he expected (his father wasn't too happy about it either), but that was only the beginning of his problems...

my thoughts: This is the seventh discworld novel and it's typical Pratchett – witty, intelligent and entertaining.

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A Devil's Chaplain - Selected Essays
Richard Dawkins, 2003
blurb: a collection of pieces selected from the many articles, lectures, book reviews, polemics, forewords, essays and tributes written over a 25-year period. The book is divided into seven sections containing a mixture of pieces of varying lengths covering several themes – including Darwinism, morality, education, justice, history of science and, of course, religion. Dawkins provides a brief preamble to each of the seven sections while the pieces themselves, selected by Editor Latha Menon, show Dawkins at his captivating best and sometimes his angry, self-righteous side.

my thoughts: An intelligent and thought provoking collection of writings promoting rational and intelligent thought and attacking phallacious logic and non-scientific beliefs without mercy.

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Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks, 1993
blurb: Sebastian Faulks' drama set during the first world war. The book's hero, a 20-year-old Englishman named Stephen Wraysford, finds his true love on a trip to Amiens in 1910. Unfortunately, she's already married, the wife of a wealthy textile baron. Wrayford convinces her to leave a life of passionless comfort to be at his side, but things do not turn out according to plan. Wraysford is haunted by this doomed affair and carries it with him into the trenches of the war. Birdsong derives most of its power from its descriptions of mud and blood, and Wraysford's attempt to retain a scrap of humanity while surrounded by it. There is a simultaneous description of his present-day granddaughter's quest to read his diaries, which is designed to give some sense of perspective.

my thoughts: A very powerful and moving account of the harsh realities of war told through the eyes of a 20 year old officer. Birdsong has really opened my eyes to the extreme suffering and emotional trauma suffered by those sent into battle and has certainly instilled an interest in the traumas of war.

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Blackberry Wine
Joanne Harris, 2001
blurb: Jay Mackintosh is trapped by memory in the old familiar landscape of his childhood, more enticing than the present, and to which he longs to return. A bottle of home-brewed wine left to him by a long-vanished friend seems to provide both the key to an old mystery and a doorway into another world. As the unusual properties of the strange brew takes effect, Jay escapes to a derelict farmhouse in the French village of Lansquenet, where a ghost from the past waits to confront him, and the reclusive Marise – haunted, lovely and dangerous – hides a terrible secret behind her closed shutters. Between them, a mysterious chemistry. Or could it be magic?

my thoughts: A charming little book of rustic imagery that conjures up the past using tastes, smells and everyday magic. Harris delights in the sensual world of food, wine, scents and plants. And she creates a lovely sense of mystery as this story unfolds.

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Sourcery
Terry Pratchett, 1988
blurb: There was an eighth son of an eighth son. He was, quite naturally, a wizard. And there it should have ended. However (for reasons we'd better not go into), he had seven sons. And then he had an eighth son...a wizard squared...a source of magic...a Sourcerer.

my thoughts: Sourcery sees the return of the wizard Rincewind (who is useless at magic) and the Luggage (which is rather partial to a bag of crisps and the odd human being). Not one of the best discworld novels but a decent enough read nonetheless.

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Nineteen Eighty Four
George Orwell, 1948
blurb: Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers a nightmare world where love is hate, war is peace and the true price of freedom is betrayal.

my thoughts: Wow, what a bloody amazing book. This had me totally engaged from the start. I'd been meaning to read this classic for years and am so glad that I did. Orwell has created a world where human nature is suppressed to the extreme. Not only do the Party control human behaviour but they aim to control human thought too. It's a bleak world, a grey and cold world, a world devoid of all human emotion and desire, except passion and fanatacism for Big Brother and the Party. A world of control and domination of body, mind and spirit. A world where the past is rewritten to suit the present. And a world where there is no hope. This book will knock your intellectual and philosophical machinery into first gear. A complete must read.

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Lord of the Flies
William Golding, 1954
blurb: A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, asemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades, so their childish fears are transformed into something more primitive, and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.

my thoughts: A great book to follow on from The Blank Slate. Golding seems to be from the same shool of thought as Pinker and clearly doesn't hold with the notion of the Blank Slate or the Noble Savage, ideas discussed in Pinker's book. Ralph and Piggy desperately cling to the values of the civilised society they left behind, as Jack leads the group of shoolboys into murderous savagery. Like so many other people, I read this book in English classes at high school but I didn't appreciate it fully back then. This is a rather dark story, looking at the essence of human nature.

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The Blank Slate
Steven Pinker, 2002
blurb: In the past century many people have assumed that we are shaped by our environment: a blank slate waiting to be inscribed by upbringing and culture, with innate abilities playing little part. Steven Pinker's profound and essential book shows that this view denies the heart of our being: human nature. We are prepared for sex, aggression and jealousy - and also love, compassion and reason. Violence is not just a product of society; male and female minds are differnt; the genes we give our children shape them more than our parenting practices. To acknowledge our nature, Pinker shows, is not to condone inequality or callousness, but ultimately to understand the very foundations of humanity.

my thoughts: With my background in biology it came as a surprise to learn of the extent to which the academic community and the learned world believed that human nature was simply a product of society and culture with no biological and evolutionary basis. By presenting the scientific evidence Pinker sets out to dispel the myth that we are born as blank slates and infinitely maleable by society. It would seem that adversaries of biological determinism are often arguing from a moralistic point of view when it comes to human behaviour. The fallacious premise of their argument is that moral equality between different groups means biolgoical equality. But just because men and women are morally equal, it doesn't mean that in terms of human nature, they are born the same. This is an excellent thought provoking book and a fascinating insight into the human mind.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
JK Rowling
blurb: Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is desperate to get back to school and find out why his friends Ron and Hermione have been so secretive all summer. However, what Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down.

my thoughts: Another great book in the Potter series although a bit disappointing in it's ending. Harry is now 15 and in his fifth year at Hogwarts. Like any typical adolescent Harry is prone to mood swings, develops a slight rebellious side and of course, discovers girls. The ministry of magic is on a mission to discredit Harry and Dumbledore over their claims that Lord Voldemort has returned. A great new character is introduced in the shape of Umbridge, an evil old witch, sent by the ministry who makes Harry's year hell. This book is just as enjoyable, if not more so, than the previous ones, although it's let down by the anti-climax of the event that the whole book has been leading up to.

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Ladies' Man
John Ramster
blurb: Meet Simon, early thirties, a gay travel agent going nowhere, looking for love in all the wrong places. Simon says his big problem is that he only falls in love with his best friends - the rest of the world doesn't compare. Simon says his great gift is that he understands the workings of a woman's mind. Simon even says he knows what women want. Simon says a lot of things. When Simon finally does find love, it's where he least expects it. He's a stranger in a strange land with a lot to learn. But why does he have to practise gently licking the sugar off the top of a cappuccino? What's all that about?

my thoughts: I was quite enjoying this book until the twist kicked in. Oh please!! Simon is in his 30s and is gay, but then suddenly discovers that he fancies one of his best female friends. They then get it together but it doesn't work out so she finishes with him. Then he seeks solace from another best friend only to find out that she fancies him too, but not only that, she's been in love with him for ten years. They then end up dating and it all ends happily ever after. There's a very patronising and dismissive rant about the superiority of heterosexual relationships over homosexual ones which got me very worked up indeed. Writing about confused sexuality is one thing, but this book was just a joke.

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Mort
Terry Pratchett
blurb: Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job. After being assured that being dead was not compulsory, Mort accepted. However, he soon found that romantic longings did not mix easily with the responsibilities of being Death's apprentice.

my thoughts: Death pops in and out of many of Pratchett's novels but this novel is where I met him properly for the first time. After offering an apprentieship to the knock-kneed Mort, Death develops a taste for living and wanders off leaving Mort to do the job himself, where on his first mission he rips a whole in the fabric of time, by saving a princess from her predestined assassination. Death is a brilliant character with a fondness for cats and curries, and Mort is a very likeable chap with perhaps a bit too much conscience for the job. As per usual, Pratchett's characters are quirky and funny and the book is a great read.

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Immortality
Milan Kundera
blurb: Kundera offers brilliant meditations on 20th-century life as he contrasts a comic love triangle involving Goethe with a modern-day trio of fictional Parisians.

my thoughts: An analytical and philosophical examination of human nature. Kundera touches on many facets of human behaviour from the desire for immortality, sex, love, the origin of soundbites, the transformation of human desires into human rights, and the immortality of human gestures. A very thought provoking book.

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Vita Brevis
Jostein Gaarder
blurb: 'Years have passed and much has changed since we two had our arms around each other. Thus what I write will perhaps be equally a letter to the whole Christian church, for today you are a man of great influence.'
In a second-hand bookshop in Buenos Aires, Jostein Gaarder makes an exciting find: a transcript of a letter to St Augustine, author of the famous Confessions, from Floria Aemilia, the woman he renounced for chastity.

my thoughts: The blurb makes this sound like a work of fiction so I was initially disappointed when I found out that it wasn't a novel written by Gaarder but a translation of a letter he'd found. However, once I read on a bit I found this to be a very interesting read. This is a very intense love letter, at times bitter, at times mocking but beautifully written and very articulate. It's both a personal attack on St Augustine and the institution of the Church that he discarded his lover for.

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Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee
Meera Syal
blurb: Tania, Sunita and Chila have been close and somewhat unlikely friends since their schooldays. Sunita, a former law student and activist, married her university sweetheart Akash, and is settled, unsatisfied, into a life of overweight, underappreciated motherhood. Tania, top girl fighter at school, is a raven-maned beauty, who has rejected marriage and anything traditionally Asian, for a high-flying TV career and a compliant Indophile boyfriend called Martin. And then there's Chila. Innocent, kind, funny qualification-less Chila, with her glass animal collection, considered backward by her family, has just, to everyone's amazement, snared Deepak--the richest, most eligible bachelor within a 50-mile radius.

my thoughts: Really easy to read and very enjoyable..

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The Making of Landscape Photographs
Charlie Waite
blurb: Charlie Waite explains the basis of his success as a landscape photographer. From the choice of camera and lens to the subtleties of lighting and composition, from manipulating the image to extracting the essential elements of a scene, he brings his years of practical experience to bear on the subject.

my thoughts: A great book as a practical introduction to landscape photography with 150 of his own stunning photographs. The book is written in language that even a novice photographer can understand. After reading it I felt that I was now armed with enough knowledge to have a good shot at landscape photography. He explains all about the use of filters, effective composition, and the importance of waiting for the right light. His analysis of why each photo works is very insightful but even more useful are the sections where he shows different images from the same scene and explains why certain ones worked better. He even criticises his own photos and makes suggestions on how they could be improved. Each image is stunning and something that us novices could only dream of. This book is a must for anyone interested in taking better landscape photographs.

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Wyrd Sisters
Terry Pratchett
blurb: Witches are not by nature gregarious, and they certainly don't have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn't have. But even she found that meddling in royal politics was a lot more difficult than certain playwrights would have you believe...

my thoughts: This is the sixth discworld novel in the series and it contains my favourtie characters, the witches. There's Granny Weatherwax, who is the stubborn, but very wise, ringleaer, Nanny Ogg, who likes a drink and a sing song and is a bit of a ditsy old woman, and Magrat, the junior witch who is a bit wet in comparison and still learning the ropes. The witches plot to overthrow the mad duke who has taken over the kingdom and caused upset over the land. The witches are brilliant characters whose antics just make you laugh.

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Colour of Magic!
Terry Pratchett
blurb: On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragon who only exist if you belive in them, and of course, THE EDGE of the planet...

my thoughts: This is Pratchett's first discworld novel, and like all the others I've read, it was very enjoyable. It charts the adventures of Rincewind, a failed wizard, Twoflower, a foreigner seeking adventure, and Twoflower's faithful wooden chest, which follows him around wherever he goes. The book also ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger.

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History of Madness
Roy Porter
blurb: The late Roy Porter, a British medical historian, summarises the whole history of madness in this small (just over 200 pages) but well written book. Going from the earliest times through to the current Prozac nation, this book provides an overview of the social attitudes toward mental illness and the radically different approaches taken by medicine, in an attempt to manage and cure it

my thoughts: Written in clear, concise language, this book avoids all jargon and is easily digestible for those who know nothing about the science behind mental illness. Porter doesn't attempt to address the causes of mental illness or even to define it, but concentrates on how society has perceived the mentally ill and how science and medicine have attempted to manage and cure it. The book takes you from the earliest times right up to the present day, and looks at the pill-popping attitude of the Prozac nation and the recent upsurge in newly classified mental disorders. This is a fascinating book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who has the slightest interest in the mind.

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Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett
blurb: Terry Pratchett's eighth discworld novel. Alcoholic Vimes, corpulent coward Sergeant Colon and barely human runt Nobby are joined by the huge, innocent new Watch recruit Carrot (a dwarf by adoption), as Ankh-Morpork city enters a reign of terror. There's a ravaging dragon about, whose flame doesn't just toast people but vaporises them. Behind the dragon are its summoners, the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night. Behind the Brethren... but that would be telling.

my thoughts: Great characters, good story, very good read.

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Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord
Louis de Bernières
blurb: Dionisio Vivo, a young South American lecturer in philosophy, is puzzled by the hideously mutilated corpses that keep turning up outside his front door. To his friend, Ramon, one of the few honest policemen in town, the message all too clear: Dionisio's letters to the press, exposing the drug barons, must stop; and although Dionisio manages to escape the hit-men sent to get him, he soon realises that others are more vulnerable, and his love for them leads him to take a colossal revenge.

my thoughts: A gripping tale of love, integrity, power and corruption, and the battle between good and evil, set on the backdrop of the grim, tortuous reality of the South American drugs trade. I was sucked in from the start by the beauty of the love story, the wit of the writing, the mystery of the supernatural events playing out, the intrigue of the sub-plots and the gruesome accounts of torture suffered at the hands of the drugs barons. Although the subject matter is of a serious nature the book itself is a very easy read. Great for hoidays.

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Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
Peter Høeg
blurb: A little boy falls off a roof in Copenhagen and is killed. Smilla, his neighbour, suspects it is not an accident: she has seen his footsteps in the snow, and, having been brought up by her mother, a Greenlander, she has a feeling for snow.

my thoughts: Although this book has had great reviews and was Time magazine's Book of the Year, I couldn't really get into it. I kept getting lost, couldn't keep up with what was going on and wasn't convinced that Smilla's hunch that the boy's death wasn't an accident would have led her on such a perilous journey.

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Moving Pictures
Terry Pratchett
blurb: The ninth "Discworld" novel. The alchemists of the Discworld have discovered the magic of the silver screen, and the inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork achieve stardom as the cameras roll. But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood hill? It's up to Victor Tugelbend and Theda Withel to find out

my thoughts: A satirical look at the world of Hollywood told in typical Pratchett style. Although not as enjoyable as some of Pratchett's other books this is still a good read.

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Catcher in the Rye
JD Salinger
blurb: A 16-year old American boy relates in his own words the experiences he goes through at school and after, and reveals with unusual candour the workings of his own mind. What does a boy in his teens think and feel about his teachers, parents, friends and acquaintances?

my thoughts: Holden Caulfield can be summed up in two words, 'cynical adolescent'. Over the years, this book has struck a cord with many a teenager feeling a sense of alienation. The first time I read this book I thought it was brilliant, but this time I found myself getting a bit bored and irritated with his constant teenage disillusionment. Maybe it was just the mood I was in! So I've decided to score it on what I thought first time around.

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The Boy Next Door
Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees
blurb: It's the 1980s in the sleepy English village of Rushton, and Mickey and Fred are next-door neighbours and best friends. In and out of scrapes from the day they're born, they share everything, from their first cigarette to their first kiss. They're convinced that nothing will ever keep them apart. But they're wrong. Fifteen years later, in London, they are tentatively picking up the threads of their lost friendship. Fred and Mickey find themselves reliving their glory days growing up in rushton. But can they ever really overcome the devastating events that once tore them apart? And is it true what they say about first loves being forever?

my thoughts: I quite enjoyed this 'will they, won't they?' novel. The characters are really nice and you're kept in suspense as they both go through the emotional turmoil of past feelings and present realities.

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Maya
Jostein Gaarder
blurb: Thrown together for three days on the paradise island of Taveuni, a lonely Norwegian biologist, a bereaved English novelist and a strange and beautiful Spanish couple so much in love they seem to have evolved a private language fill the long Pacific nights by playing bridge, telling stories and discussing ideas.

my thoughts: I love Jostein Gaarder's other books, particularly Sophie's World, and this one didn't fail to deliver. As usual he manages to marry philosophical pondering with great story telling. The book deals with the nature of humanity and our place in the grand scheme of things. And as usual he gets you thinking, this time about life, death and the universe.

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The Best a Man Can Get
John O'Farrell
blurb: Michael Adams shares a flat with three other men in their late twenties. Days are spent lying in bed, playing computer games and occasionally doing a bit of work. And then, when he feels like it, he crosses the river and goes back to his unsuspecting wife and children. For Michael is living a double life - he escapes from the exhausting misery of babies by telling his wife he has to work through the night or travel up north. And while she is valiantly coping on her own, he is just a few miles away in a secret flat, doing all the things that most men with small children can only dream about. He thinks he can have it all, until his deception is inevitably exposed...

my thoughts: A very light and enjoyable read. Very much in the vain of Nick Hornby, Tony Parsons and all those other 'sensitive lads'. The main character is unbelievably selfish, leaving his wife to bring up the kids whilst he lounges around living the easy life. But whilst the way he deals with his wife and family is appalling, I couldn't help but have a modicum of sympathy for him when the shit hit the fan. His behaviour isn't driven by malice but more a vail of delusion and lack of thought.

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Emotionally Weird
Kate Atkinson
blurb: On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as reas as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers). But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?

my thoughts: Quite an enjoyable book. Atkinson's portrayal of student life is spot on and really brought home a few memories for me. The whole range of personality types are portrayed convincingly from the naively idealistic activitsts and pretentious arts students to Alison's annoyingly dim and lazy boyfriend Bob and I could certainly think of a few people from my university days who fell into these categories. The whole book is based around Effie's quest for personal identitity but not so much where she is from, but who she is from. As her mother recounts the family history to her Effie discovers that the closet containing her family's skeletons is a lot bigger than average.

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How the Dead Live
Will Self
blurb: Scabrous, vicious and unpleasant in life, Lily Bloom has not been noticeably mellowed by death. She has changed addresses of course, and now inhabits a basement flat in Dulston - London's borough for those no longer troubled by breathing - but if anything her temperament has worsened. Finding it hard to deal with the (enforced) company of a calcified, pop-ossessed foetus, her dead, foul-mouthed son and three gruesome creatures made of her own unwanted fat, she must find something to do with her time. So how do the dead live? And what happens when they stop being dead?

my thoughts: I was really glad to reach the end of this book. After my usual 100 and odd pages I was swaying whether or not to continue but I made the decision to commit to the rest of the book. Some parts of it were really enjoyable but I found the book and the main character very annoying at times. I found it very disorientating, the way, the book jumps around a lot without enough pointers to keep you on track. So don't bother rushing out and buying this one, but if a friend has a copy then maybe give it a try.

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The Hobbit
JRR Tolkien
blurb: A tale of high adventure, undertaken by a company of dwarves in search of dragon-guarded gold. A reluctant partner in this perilous quest is Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving unambitious hobbit, who surprises even himself by his resourcefulness and skill as a burglar. Encounters with trolls, goblins, dwarves, elves and giant spiders, conversations with the dragon, Smaug, and a rather unwilling presence at the Battle of Five Armies are just some of the adventures that befall Bilbo.

my thoughts: I found this book a bit slow to begin with and it didn't really live up to my expectations. After reading all the Harry Potter books, I found it this book to be slightly lacking in magical qualities. But it was still worth the read.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
JK Rowling
blurb: Once returned to Hogwarts after his summer holiday with the dreadful Dursleys and an extraordinary outing to the Quidditch World Cup, the 14-year-old Harry and his fellow pupils are enraptured by the promise of the Triwizard Tournament: an ancient, ritualistic tournament that brings Hogwarts together with two other schools of wizardry in heated competition. But when Harry's name is unexpectedly pulled from the Goblet of Fire, and he is chosen to champion Hogwarts in the tournament, the trouble really begins. Still reeling from the effects of a terrifying nightmare that has left him shaken, and with the lightning-shaped scar on his head throbbing with pain (a sure sign that the evil Voldemort, Harry's sworn enemy, is close), Harry becomes at once the most popular boy in school. Yet, despite his fame, he is totally unprepared for the furore that follows.

my thoughts: Another fantastic book from JK Rowling. To echo so many others, this woman is a genius. This book is much larger than the others and even more gripping.

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Things Can Only Get Better
John O'Farrell
blurb: The personal account of a Labour supporter who survived 18 miserable years of Conservative government. It contains the heartbreaking and hilarious confessions of someone who has been actively involved in helping the Labour Party to lose elections at every level.

my thoughts: I had low expectations of this book and thought it was going to overly political and slightly stuffy but I was pleasantly surprised. An amusing and enlightening view of life in local politics.

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Don't Make Me Think
Steve Krug
Rather than sit and gripe about Web pages that suck, or boast about all the wonderful Web pages the author has designed, Don't Make Me Think provides useful insight into the mental process going on in a user's head. This book doesn't swamp you with silly examples. Instead, it explains the best way to display information. It points out what doesn't work, but more importantly how it doesn't work and what would work better. There is a definite psychology behind how we process information on the Web.

my thoughts: I found a lot of this book to be nothing more than common sense and was slightly disappointed at the lack of 'hard facts' about how people interact with websites. I would like to have seen some statistics from usability studies to back up the author's opinions. The book is definitely worth a read, especially if you haven't read much about usability, but I would have been sorely disappointed if I'd shelled out £18 of my own for this book.

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A Child Called 'It'
David Pelzer
blurb:As a child Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother, a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games. Games that left one of her three sons nearly dead. She considered Dave a slave; no longer a boy, but an "it". His bed was an old army cot in the basement, his clothes were torn and smelly, and when he was allowed the luxury of food it was scraps from the dogs bowl. The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors. But throughout Dave kept alive dreams of finding a family to love him. This work covers the early years of his life and the horrors of child abuse as well as acting as testament to the steadfast determination of one child to survive.

my thoughts: This is a truly disturbing book. The sense of horror I felt while reading this was counfounded by the fact that this is a true story. One very disturbing thing was the fact that his father knew this was going on and did nothing about, and then eventually left the family home leaving Dave completely alone in his nightmare.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
JK Rowling
blurb: The escape of Sirius Black--one-time friend of Harry's parents, implicated in their murder and follower of "You- Know-Who"--from Azkaban, has serious implications for Harry for it would appear that Black is bent on revenge against Harry for thwarting "You-Know-Who". Back at Hogwarts, Harry's movements are restricted by the presence of the Dementors--guards from Azkaban on the look out for Black--however, this doesn't stop him throwing himself into the new Quidditch season and going about his normal business, or at least attempting to. Despite warnings Harry is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Sirius Black--how could this one-time close friend of his parents become the cause of their deaths? And why does the presence of the Dementors have such a devastating effect on him, causing him to hear the last moments of his mother's life?

my thoughts: JK Rowling goes from strength to strength in yet another addictive addition to the series.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
JK Rowling
blurb: J K Rowling's sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone carries on where the original left off. Harry is returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after the summer holidays and, right from the start, things are not straightforward. Unable to board the Hogwarts express, Harry and his friends break all the rules and make their way to the school in a magical flying car. From this point on, incredible events happen to Harry and his friends--Harry hears evil voices and someone, or something is attacking the pupils. Can Harry get to the bottom of the mystery before it's too late?

my thoughts: JK Rowling proves that she's not a one-hit wonder and this book is just as wonderful as the first.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
JK Rowling
blurb: In the non-magical human world--the world of "Muggles"--Harry is a nobody, treated like dirt by the aunt and uncle who begrudgingly inherited him when his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort. But in the world of wizards, small, skinny Harry is renowned as a survivor of the wizard who tried to kill him. He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoilt, pig-like cousin Dudley.

my thoughts: It took me a while to get round to reading this but I am so glad that I did. What a fantastic magical book. No wonder the whole world is gripped. If you haven't read this yet, then rush out and buy it.

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