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.The Forgotten Garden
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by: Kate Morton

May 29, 2008
I enjoyed this book immensely. Usually by the time I get to the closing stages of a 500-plus book, I can't wait to get to the end, but not with this one. It's a fairly complex mystery, but nevertheless I found it quite straightforward to follow, and so I didn't end up 'losing the plot' as I do so frequently with other novels! I particularly liked the inclusion of Eliza's fairy tales, which were cleverly linked to the unfolding story. I have not yet read the House at Riverton, but if the Forgotten Garden is anything to go by, it should be a another great read!
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.No Time For Goodbye
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by: Linwood Barclay

June 12, 2008
I have never read anything by this autor before but can say I am much impressed after reading No Time For Goodbye. An excellent read, which leaves you constantly guessing and wanting to read on and on to satisfy your suspicians! I only get chance to read of an evening and I have to admit that I would look forward to my daily read to find out a bit more! A must read, I just hope his next is just as good!
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.The Outcast
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by: Sadie Jones

June 16, 2008
Sadie Jones's moving story of young Lewis's struggle with the emotional crippling delivered by family events and (quoting another review) "communal failure to take responsibility for a troubled child" is both absorbing and beautifully written, without any sentimentality. I was a child in the 1950s, it's hard to believe that Sadie Jones wasn't there as well! Her evocation of the period is admirable and inaccuracies of detail are minimal (eg British police cars had bells not sirens, and a girl would have worn stretch slacks not jeans) and certainly don't detract. The parallel and horrifying portrayal of the Carmichael family is entwined with that of Lewis to such an degree that the reader alternately hopes for and dreads the resolution of Lewis ... Read More:
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.The Road Home
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Rose Tremain

June 12, 2008
I enjoyed this novel so much that when I was three quarters of the way through I went back to the beginning and started again! Tremain is an excellent writer. Her prose is full of colourful images and she has an eye for the quirky, the absurd, which makes for an entertaining read. In this tale the line between tragedy and comedy is finely walked. Lev is a beguiling hero - in many ways brave and admirable, but also flawed. His story is sad, sometimes brutal, but always handled with compassion. This novel could easily be read as a treatise on the plight of the immigrant worker - but it is more complex than that. Ultimately it is about the irrepressiblity of the human spirit and I loved it.
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.East of the Sun
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Julia Gregson

June 12, 2008
I have very mixed feelings about this book.

For a start, there are a couple of obvious mistakes, including the reference (page 102) to someone being like a "villain in an Abbott and Costello film". This book is set in 1928/29 and yet Abbott and Costello didn't work together until 1935!

Another (page 106) talks about a parlour game "in which you wrote the name of somebody famous on a strip of paper and stuck it on your forehead. The others had to guess who you were".

Er, no - they could tell who you are by reading the paper stuck on your forehead! The game actually involves someone sticking a name on your head and you have to guess who you are!

The characters are stereotypically upper class and it is quite ... Read More:
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.The Book Thief
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Markus Zusak

January 01, 2008
So many five star reviews. So few that say: Wait a minute; What's all the fuss about? If it weren't for the hype surrounding this book and the overexposure given to it by every bookseller imaginable, then I might have enjoyed it better. Perhaps I was expecting too much. This book has the bones of a good story, but my overall impression was that style took precedence over substance. Having the book narrated by death, and sown with little headlines and lists and with unlikely similes and metaphors are not intrinsically bad ideas, but when they take the place of characterization and storytelling, then they become a distraction. I would rather have done without them in exchange for tangible, believable characters and places. I came to the end of the book with ... Read More:
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.A Thousand Splendid Suns
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by: Khaled Hosseini

May 22, 2007
After finding a book good enough to compare with Kite Runner I Got Khaled Hosseini new book and he has really exeled I never wanted to put it down and I never wanted it to end
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.Angel Uncovered
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Katie Price

July 17, 2008
I got this book about 5 days ago and I have just finished reading it. It is a good story but there were a couple of things that spolit it for me a bit and these were:

I noticed a couple of spelling errors as I was reading the book
I finished it last night and as I was coming to the end, It seemed to abruptly end and then there were quite a few blank pages which I thought was part of the story and thought the story continued for a bit longer.

All in all, a good book but it looks as though it has been rushed to print and released in a hurry as just when you think you have another chapter to go when you see how many pages are left, the story ends and you are left with so many blank pages that another chapter could have been written on ... Read More:
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.The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
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by: Rebecca Miller

June 12, 2008
Then I threw it away. Not a worthwhile read really, I felt, it seemed all too shallow. As another reviewer has said there wasn't much 'private life' about Pippa Lee! I wouldn't pass it on, the book felt messily written and formulaic. Sorry, I would have liked to have given it a good review as it was highly recommended. Perhaps it's just that I've never met anyone remotely like Pippa. Or her disappointing husband. You may love it though.
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.The Resurrectionist
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: James Bradley

June 19, 2008
I am an avid reader of gothic fiction, and did my English degree dissertation on Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein. I was bought The Resurrectionists as a gift and was very much looking forward to reading it. However, I found it to be really quite disappointing.

First of all, this is a dark story, and one where you would not expect to find likeable characters. Gabriel swift is an anatomist's assistant, who soon finds himself dragged into the murky world of body snatching where people kill for money. I have no problem with reading books where the protagonist is heavily flawed, but the main issue with this book is that all of the characters are very vague with little background to support them, so it's very hard to keep track of who is who. Also, I found myself feeling ... Read More:
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