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.Deadline
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by: Simon Kernick

July 14, 2008
The fourteen year old daughter has been kidnapped, the husband has disappeared, and the mother's got 48 hours to find half a million pounds.

An interesting kidnap story that never reaches great heights, but you want to know what happens.
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.Second Glance
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by: Jodi Picoult

August 21, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. Much like other reviews I agree that it did take some perserverance and concentration to identify characters and their places within the story but it all comes togther and I was very glad that I didnt give up. Also very informative on issues such as eugenics and racism. I felt I really understood the characters by the end and sympathized with their situations. I would definately recommend this book to anyone.
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.Being Elizabeth
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Barbara Taylor Bradford

October 01, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. Much like other reviews I agree that it did take some perserverance and concentration to identify characters and their places within the story but it all comes togther and I was very glad that I didnt give up. Also very informative on issues such as eugenics and racism. I felt I really understood the characters by the end and sympathized with their situations. I would definately recommend this book to anyone.
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.Mr Cavendish, I Presume
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by: Julia Quinn

October 02, 2008
I agree with the previous review, I'm a big fan of Julia Quinn and thought the idea of telling the same story from different perspectives a clever technique but felt a bit cheated by this book, whole chunks of the The Lost Duke of Wyndham were repeated almost verbatim and so I felt like this book wasn't offering much that was actually different. I read the Lost Duke first and this straight afterwards so maybe I would not have noticed so much if I'd read them with more time in between.


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.The Return
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Victoria Hislop

June 26, 2008
Like many others writing here, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed 'The Island' and incredibly disappointed by this offering.

I wasn't expecting great literature, but much of the writing is only a slight cut above Mills and Boon - the portrayal of the modern day heroine Sonia's marriage is very much of that genre. And the plot is so implausible, even down to the small details - I mean, the ever so thoughtful and sensitive Sonia goes on holiday with her best friend since childhood, and only remembers late during the day that it's her friend's birthday!!

It is interesting to learn some of the facts about the Spanish Civil War, for example that the great nationalist and fascist Franco used Arab troops to launch it. But there's ... Read More:
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.Brave New World
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Aldous Huxley

December 06, 2007
Brave New World and 1984 are considered to be the two great prophetic works of the 20th century. Yet whereas 1984 depicts a stereotypical dystopia, Brave New World depicts a world where everyone is happy, everyone is beautiful, everyone can have whatever they want. As a work of prophecy I think Brave New World is far wittier than people give it credit.
In Brave New World people are created in factories where they are designed and conditions to fit neatly in society. This eliminates families which eliminates any associated problems. People are happy and beautiful, there is no hunger, no disease and no war, and in the rare occassion when something does go wrong they have soma, the perfect drug. Recreational sex is encouraged at all levels of society (Wait ... Read More:
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.The Secret Scripture
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Sebastian Barry

May 01, 2008
I am aware of Sebastian Barry more as a playwright than novelist so it comes as no surprise that the main strength of this book is in its narrative voice. This for most part is Roseanne McNulty, a patient in Roscommon Mental Hospital since 1957.

'I am completely alone, there is no one in the world that knows me now outside of this place, all my own people, the few farthings of them that once were, my little wren of a mother I suppose in chief, they are all gone now. And my persecutors are gone in the main I believe, and the reason for all this is that I am an old, old woman now, I may be as much as a hundred, though I do not know, and no one knows. I am only a thing left over, a remnant woman, and I do not even look like a human being no more, but a scraggy ... Read More:
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.Revolutionary Road
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Richard Yates

December 13, 2007
There are few writers that can match Yates and this story, of the few I've read (I've resisted the desperate urge to devour them all too quickly) excels beyond so many other writer's work. The comparison drawn with Fitzgerald is right but I would say that Yates is better, more consistent. If you find Fitzgerald frustrating, Yates will show you why better than anyone; if you love Fitzgerald, you will worship this! If you like your books beautifully moving, exquisitely sad and sensual with sharp, dark humour that bites, then it doesn't get better than this. Yates' writing never puts a foot a wrong and from the outset you know you are in safe hands. It's one that shifts your perspective on life and left me fizzing for months, thankful that I found it and disappointed that I can't discover ... Read More:
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.The Comfort of Saturdays (Sunday Philosophy Club 5)
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Alexander McCall Smith

October 02, 2008
There are few writers that can match Yates and this story, of the few I've read (I've resisted the desperate urge to devour them all too quickly) excels beyond so many other writer's work. The comparison drawn with Fitzgerald is right but I would say that Yates is better, more consistent. If you find Fitzgerald frustrating, Yates will show you why better than anyone; if you love Fitzgerald, you will worship this! If you like your books beautifully moving, exquisitely sad and sensual with sharp, dark humour that bites, then it doesn't get better than this. Yates' writing never puts a foot a wrong and from the outset you know you are in safe hands. It's one that shifts your perspective on life and left me fizzing for months, thankful that I found it and disappointed that I can't discover ... Read More:
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.Exit Music
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Ian Rankin

August 07, 2008
A very good plot, and well up to the usual standard of Rankin's powers of perceptive and descriptive writing, but let down, I think, by a somewhat lame ending. Admittedly, it's difficult to know how he could think of a finale which would appeal to all readers, but having just finished reading it about an hour ago, I can't help feeling a bit "flat".
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