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.Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics)
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by: Winifred Watson

April 24, 2008
Like almost everyone, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a great admirer of the actress Frances McDormand and I think she may excel as Miss Pettigrew if the screen adaptation lives up to the speed and panache of the original story. Yes, ... the original story ... It is definitely of the Cindrella variety and none the worse for that. Some have seen the influence of others in its origins - but none has yet pointed out the faint echoes of a memorable short story by W.S. Maugham about the unexpected London triumph, both social and sartorial, of a mature widow called "Jane". Now I don't exactly remember the date of Somerset Maugham's story (it may have been written before Miss Watson's or afterwards) and so one may have influenced the other to ... Read More:
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.The Golden Notebook (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
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by: Doris May Lessing

June 18, 2007
Call me a philistine, but I cannot understand why this monumental and self-indulgent book, first published in 1962, is said to be one the great classics of the 20th century.

It charts the life of Anna Wulf, a writer. Although every page is very well written and the many characters are well individualized, I have found this quite a difficult read. The chapters in this massive tome are enormously long, with few natural breaks: at times there are whole pages between paragraphs.

And the structure of the book is, I think, excessively complex. Anna is a divorcee with a little daughter; her friend Molly is a divorcee with a grown-up son. Their story is told in five instalments. Both women are ex-communists; both believe themselves ... Read More:
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.Acheron (Dark Hunter) (Dark Hunter)
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by: Sherrilyn Kenyon

August 07, 2008
This is definetely Sherrilyn Kenyon's best book yet. Some people have said that the 2nd part wasn't that good. I have to disagree. I thought the first and second part where brilliant. Its a book that you just won't be able to put down I was up until 2.30 am to finish it. All the characters where fantastic and the plot was good (some people don't agree) but I thought it was very good. Its a book I will def read again and again. Excellent.
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.An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)
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by: John O'Farrell

May 05, 2008
Never before have I opened a history book, and I've opened a few, and laughed out loud as I've read.
Page after page of well known history with dashes of uncommon knowledge are laced with the author's humorous takes on what our ancestors did.
If you are unfamiliar with our past, then this will easily give you all the kind of stuff in memorable fashion that will leave you feeling like a true history buff. If you are familiar with what has gone before I would still encourage you to venture into this offbeat and wonderful examination of the highlights and lowlights of our history.
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.The Final Reckoning
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by: Sam Bourne

August 04, 2008
I loved the book the Righteous men and after finishing it went and bought the Last Testament. Although I loved the first book, the second did nothing for me. This book had blown me away. I just cant put it down.

Well worth a read.
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.Devil May Care (James Bond)
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by: Sebastian Faulks

May 28, 2008
Ian Fleming's last James Bond adventure - a collection of short stories including Octopussy and The Living Daylights - was published posthumously in 1967.

That wasn't the end of 007's adventures in print. Kingsley Amis wrote a well received sequel in 1967 - `Colonel Sun' - and in 1981, Glidrose Publications hired thriller-writer John Gardner to reinvent Bond for the modern era.

What followed were 14 increasingly dreary and unbelievable books which saw an aging Bond gamely struggle through a litany of dumb adventures (the highlight being the rescue of Margaret Thatcher from a hijacked aircraft carrier in 1989's Win, Lose or Die.)

American thriller author Raymond Bensen was hired in 1996 to continue Gardner's legacy and the resultant products were even worse ... Read More:
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.Down River
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by: John Hart

June 16, 2008
Often I read reviews on Amazon, where people have generally liked a novel, and there is one where the reviewer writes 'I must be missing something', or words to that effect. Well in the case of this novel, I must be that person, because I don't understand all the hype about it at all.

I just about forced myself to finish it as I was (just) interested enough to read the end, but only just. I kept thinking there must be some amazing twists in the plot to come, but they never arrived, and I had already realised what some of the outcomes were going to be earlier on in the book. This isn't a problem if the writing itself is stylish and the tale enthralling enough to keep one reading whether you have worked out the plot in advance or not, but in this case I don't think it is.

The ... Read More:
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.The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
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by: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

February 28, 2008
This is one of the most enjoyable and interesting books I have ever read. I have now read it about 20 times but keep finding something new every time I read it. I have also noticed that now after the credit crunch everything he says has additional meaning though the book itself was written before the credit crunch. I have even noticed politicians and central bankers start talking a bit like he does. We don't know what we don't know and we can only be as prepared as possible or pick up the pieces as well as we can after the fallout. A good book to pair with this is The Wisdom of the Crowd. It covers the stuff not covered in this book and this book covers the stuff not covered in that book.
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.The Time Traveler's Wife
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by: Audrey Niffenegger

May 29, 2004
I selected this book from the reviews on Amazon so was really looking forward to it. I found it took a long time to get into it, then suddenly I was hooked. I have never really read anything so near to science fiction and it really made me think about the future and the past and if we can alter it and what would we do if we had our time again or the chance to see those who have already departed. The story was very deep with 2 characters; Clare and Henry as the main focus. Some parts I had to really concentrate on and recheck the dates to understand what was happening. Very clever story telling and I became so involved in the story I did not want it to end.
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.Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
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by: Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

May 13, 2008
In this lovely, useful book, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein examine choices, biases and the limits of human reasoning from a variety of perspectives. They often amuse by disclosing how they have fallen victim to the limitations of thought that they are describing. The fact that these educated, articulate professionals can fool themselves so often demonstrates how tough it is to think clearly, a point the authors emphasize and even repeat. Humans fall prey to systematic errors of judgment, but you can harness this problematic tendency productively, including by helping others make better decisions. Some of the authors' suggestions may not be practical, but many are and all are interesting. getAbstract recommends this book to anyone who wants to know how to shape responsible decisions.
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