I was expecting great things in this book from a thinker I deeply admire. Unfortunately it has nothing new to say and has no chance of convincing anyone on either side of the fence. I'm not a big reader, I rarely read anything approaching philosophy...

So Wimbledon was in progress, I was in my local bookshop and this novel caught my eye. Its the story of Willy, a low ranking tennis professional on the way up when we first encounter her. She's been playing tennis since aged four and is now...

Easy to read, page turner of a novel whose main character is Peter, a bullied teenager, who heads into high school one morning armed and kills ten people. I found many of the characters to be cliched and a bit one dimensional. But despite that the...

A completely by-the-numbers thriller which leaves you not guessing at all. How many "psycho kidnaps someone and forces people to do things to save them" movies can be made? Awful rubbish which wastes the talent of good actors. I won't waste too much...

Having read and enjoyed “Man and Boy” and “One for my baby”, I was looking forward to reading this latest novel from Tony Parsons. Alas it was a major disappointment. Having just finished it, I am left with a sense of...

I noticed that Twenty Major's book got some bad reviews in the newspapers which didn't put me off buying it. As a regular reader of the blog I know what to expect and I wasn't disappointed at all. The same style of writing runs through the book as the...

My mother in law lent me this book a few weeks ago and it was a good read up to a point. My main gripe is its very disappointing ending which then tarred the whole novel as I wondered “why the hell did I bother reading that?” Its set in...

This is an unusual book made up of a collection of 18 discourses on individual ingredients which were originally distributed as a newsletter. It was first published in 1992 and I was given this 2004 edition by my sister. Initial impressions of the...

This is an unusual book made up of a collection of 18 discourses on individual ingredients which were originally distributed as a newsletter. It was first published in 1992 and I was given this 2004 edition by my sister. Initial impressions of the...

Lovely writing in this collection of short stories based on her ancestors' lives. But unfortunately too worthy for me, and with ne'er a laugh. #book