LATEST REVIEWS

We welcome your reviews of stock borrowed from Somerset Libraries.
If you would like to submit one, please fill in a card or post it online at www.librarieswest.org.uk Just find the item you want to write the review about by using author or author/keyword search, click on "more details" and then the "write a review" button. Thank You!

The Essential Dave Allen by Dave Allen
"Absolutely hilarious"
Star rating: 5

Moonlight & Ashes by Rosie Goodwin
"Well written - evoked many memories of the war years without being too heartbreaking."
Star rating: 4

Remember me? by Sophie Kinsella
'Remember me?' is a lovely light, easy read about what happens when a young woman wakes up to find herself without 3 years of memories. Through the trauma of a car accident she has been 'transported' 3 years into the future from a struggling office worker into a departmental manager, with a handsome husband and glittering 'loft style' apartment. How did it all happen? Very relaxing and entertaining. I hadn't read one of Sophie Kinsella's books before, but I actually rather liked it.
Star rating: 4

Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
A remarkable crime novel and one of the best I read for many a long day. It is written with a perception of human behaviour rarely seen and if you haven't discovered this outstanding Japanese author do so soon!
Star rating: 5

Deaf sentence by David Lodge
Marvellously inventive, imaginative and sympathetic, well-informed etc. etc. and yet curiously incomplete. Interesting though it was, it had little pattern, various happenings to the deaf retired professor who is the narrator occur one after another (I thought of 'The Archers'' self-description, 'an everyday story of country folk') and then just stop. Also the author offended against that writers' group commandment 'show, not tell' in one important respect - the narrator visits the extermination camp at Auschwitz and is horrified and shaken, which one can well believe, but it is not made vividly real in a way comparable to his part-comic, part-moving difficulties, deaf himself, with a deaf father.
Star rating: 4

Cold cream: My early life and other mistakes by Ferdinand Mount
This is a marvellously readable gossipy book by a man born in the heart of the Establishment, cousin to both the Labour minister Lord Longford and to the present Conservative leader David Cameron, and for many years a policy adviser at No.10 to Margaret Thatcher. Despite Eton and Oxford, Mount is a truly modest man, indeed an almost dishonestly modest man, because he cannot have held this and other comparably high positions, whatever his background, without real ability; he makes it seem he got them by flukes.
Star rating: 5

Mad Dogs by Robert Muchamore
"It keeps you interested and really makes you feel empathy for the characters. I couldn't put it down!"
Star rating: 5

Borkmann's point by Hakan Nesser
I bought this because it was set in Sweden and I have enjoyed several others set in Scandinavia. I wasn't disappointed. It was easy to read, apart from the action changing- moving backwards and forwards in time, which was occasionally confusing. The lead character, Inspector Van Veeteren, spends much of the time recovering from a major operation. But he gets stuck into the case of the double murderer released from prison and whose headless body is discovered nearly a year later. But is he a double murderer? The ending is very unexpected!
Star rating: 4

Opening Skinner's Box by Lauren Slater
"Fantastic book looking at some of the great psychological experiments of all time. The narrator wrote very well and having had psychological problems I think he asks probing and interesting questions."
Star rating: 5

News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
"The News from Paraguay" won the US National Book Award for fiction in 2004. It is a fascinating story of 19th Century Paraguay (and Paris) as seen through the eyes of a young Irish woman and those around her. Ella Lynch moves from Paris to Paraguay as the 'companion' of the future dictator Francisco Solano. The novel opens the reader's eyes to the society of the day and the contrast between Ireland, Paris and Paraguay at that time. Encyclopaedia Britannica has the bare facts about the period (http://search.eb.com/?library_id=somersetlibs) but this novel really brings it to life.
Star rating: 4

Flying under bridges by Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig's reading brings the main character to life so well. I enjoyed the way the story of the character's life unfolded. It was a delight:sometimes funny, sometimes sad. I will certainly be looking out for more by this author.
Star rating: 4

Artist of Eikando by Linda Lee Welch
The "Artist of Eikando" is a short paperback combining a historical backdrop (WW2 US Army in Japan) with the modern day 'journey' of an daughter coming to terms with the death of her parents. An emotional, but not sentimental read, the novel opens up the world of Kyoto temples and Japanese life to the reader. An engrossing voyage of discovery which has inspired me to consider visiting Japan.
Star rating: 4

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winsper:
"1st in series of Maisie Dobbs mysteries set just after WWI. Strong impact of war; role of women; fascinating upstairs / downstairs life in country house; gruesome detail of injuries to men who survived battles. Maisie is a delight - diverse in character and well before her time."
Star rating: 5

Miss Chopsticks by Xinran
What a fascinating and insightful read! Explains why things are as they are in China today whilst telling a delightful story... really hoping there is a Chopsticks 2!
Star rating: 5

November 2008