The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

I'm rarely completely in two minds about a book but I am about The Christmas Mystery

On the positive side, it introduces the true meanings of Christmas, of familial love, bringing people together, and a sense of the history of Christianity since the birth of Christ in an intelligent way.

40 years ago a little girl called Elisabet runs away from her mother in Norway in pursuit of a lamb. 40 years later a yong boy named Joachim is given an old looking advent calender by a bookseller, the calendar was left in his shop by an iterant flower seller called John. As Joachim opens the first door a piece of paper falls out. On it, written in tiny writing, is a story of what happened to Elisabet as she finds herself running with the lamb backwards through time and across the northern hemisphere from Norway to Bethlehem with an entourage that increases each day of the advent calendar and includes the wise men, shepherd, sheep, angels and historial figures. As Joachim's parents find out about the calendar it draws them together and they are able to help John solve the mystery of Elisabet's disappearance.

On the negative side, I found it repetitive and obvious, the homilies of what the story of the nativity teaches us were rather bluntly put with little finesse or subtlety. It is charming but could have been better written.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale

Summerscale relates the true story of the murder on the night of 30 June 1860 of the youngest son of the family at Road Hill House, throat cut wide open and dumped down the servant's toilet in the grounds of the house. The murder exposes the internal workings of the upper middle class family, jealousy, adultery, guilt, grief and hatred. The Road Hill House case is significant in that it was one of the very first detective investigations undertaken by the fledgling Scotland yard and the story of the murder and the character of the detectives, in particular the lead detective Mr Whicher, directly inspired the early victorian melodramas and penny dreadfuls from Wilike Collins' The Moonstone to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Informed by contemporary developments in psychology, in particular the emerging theories of Freud, this is the classic murder mystery: the germ of the detective and crime novel which traces its routes through Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie to the present day.

I found the book interesting, but not compelling. It is perhaps the point of the book that because of our thorough grounding the present day with regard to forensic psychology which had its origins in the alienists and detectives of this time, that I knew pretty quickly who the murderer was and why. I did finish the book but there was no mystery to it and I found it rather dry and in the end unfulfilling.

Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nichols (AUDIO)

Sam is dying from leukaemia. But Sam is also a typical 11 year old boy. He loves facts and warhammer, wants to be a teenager, fly in an airship, go into outer space, try smoking and kissing a girl. Sam wants answers to the questions nobody ever asks: what does it feel like to die? does it hurt? Why do people make such a fuss about dying when it's as natural as falling asleep? There is no self pity or fear in Sam, this wonderful book is instead full of the joy of a life lived to the full, a very normal family living with a heart breaking reality of time running out fast, I was in floods of tears at the end.

The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson (AUDIO)

Deeply moving and inspirational. Isaacson's son Rowan is diagnosed with autism and as his rages, difficult behaviours and inability to toilet train bring Isaacson and his wife to the edge of their coping abilities at age 5 he is walking one day with his father in the woods and throws himself at the feet of a neighbour's horse, Bessie. She spontaneously submits to him, some kind of non-verbal communication takes place. Isaacson begins to ride with Rowan in front of him on Bessie and then gets the crazy idea of taking Rowan to meet with the horse shamans of Mongolia to see if they are able to heal him. What follows is the tale of an amazing journey from the States (a meeting with Temple Grandin) via the UK to the dirty urban sprawl of Ulan Bataar, a healing ceremony performed by 9 shamans from all over Mongolia and an epic journey north by jolting van and horseback to seek the reindeer shaman Ghost in the great Siberian Taiga forests. Isaacson explores faith, desperation and describes the journey he, his wife and Rowan take with a healthy cynicism. An unmissable book, and the proceeds from the book go to help the family in their project to help more autistic children by giving them the chance to work with horses.

Corbenic by Catherine Fisher

Beautifully written, tender and heartbreaking this is a reworking of the Grail myth through the life of a lost boy running from the hell of his life caring for his alcoholic schizophrenic mother. Cal leaves his mother to live with and work for his uncle but he gets off the train at the wrong stop, a station called Corbenic. In the rain and oncoming storm he stumbles upon a beautiful luxurious country hotel and is treated like a king, but when he denies the evidence of his own senses he sets in motion events which take him on a painful journey of self discovery and atonement. A book I hated to finish and that had me wanting to read the source texts.

Corbenic by Catherine Fisher

Beautifully written, tender and heartbreaking this is a reworking of the Grail myth through the life of a lost boy running from the hell of his life caring for his alcoholic schizophrenic mother. Cal leaves his mother to live with and work for his uncle but he gets off the train at the wrong stop, a station called Corbenic. In the rain and oncoming storm he stumbles upon a beautiful luxurious country hotel and is treated like a king, but when he denies the evidence of his own senses he sets in motion events which take him on a painful journey of self discovery and atonement. A book I hated to finish and that had me wanting to read the source texts.

kimmie66 by Aaron Alexovich (writer and illustrator)

kimmie66 is the virtual best friend of Telly Kade, an ordiary girl living in the 23rd century where people spend much of their lives and meanigful life experiences within the 'lairs', virtual experience worlds which are rigidly segmented from each other and based on lifestyle choices such as sci-fi futuristic / goth loner / moog warlord style / elves and dragons etc etc. When kimmie66 sends a message to Telly that she has committed suicide but her avatar continues to appear in the lairs Telly goes in search of the reality behind the vr of her world. Great art and ideas although a little thin on depth.

The Oracle and The Archon by Catherine Fisher

These are both well written and interesting, the first two of the Oracle trilogy (the third is The Scarab). They are set in an archaic society, the Two Lands which is kind of a combination of Egyptian and Greek and in which trade depends on the Lands' currency: prophecy from the Oracle. Mirany is the newly created Bearer, one of the elite group the Nine, girls who live on The Island and communicate directly with The Oracle through a crack in the Temple of the God. Just beyond the end of the causeway at the entrance to The Port lies the Palace of the Archon, the personification in human form of the God, and to the south of the Island lies the massive City of the Dead where a hive of workers and scribes work above the Tombs.

In The Oracle the Two Lands are trapped in drought and The Archon offers his life to appease the Rain Queen and return water to the land but as the Archon's body travels through the Nine Houses of Mourning on his journey to his tomb and the search begins for his successor, a 10 year old boy into whose body the God has transferred, Mirany realises that she is at the centre of a web of conspiracy, coercion and danger. With the scribe Seth, attempting to sell his knowledge of the tombs to the mysterious tomb robbers The Jackal and The Fox in return for water, the most precious commodity in the drought stricken Lands, and ex musician Oblek who should have been killed along with the rest of the Archon's retinue to accompany him to the underworld, a twisting turning tale of intrigue begins as the group are pursued by the nefarious general Argelin and treachery within the Nine.

In The Archon Oblek and Seth travel with the new Archon Alexos to the Mountains of the Moon in an attempt to find the Well of Songs and undo the wrong a previous Archon did which plunged the Two Lands into drought. The land they travel across is marked with great shapes of animals incised into the ground in the manner of the Nazca lines in Peru but these are more than just lines in the ground. Fisher blends history, imagination and mystery in a fascinating fast paced story.

The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway

How can you heart keep beating when the man you love is dead, a man who you're not even permitted to grieve for because although he had left his wife it is she who claims his body and is named at the funeral. This is the story of the ironically named Joy 'lasting' this ordeal after her lover drowns, her complete breakdown in the face of the shattering of her world consigning her to a psychiatric ward, and the men and women who love her and despite her continue to reach her. Reveals the true horror of grief and the dangers of wrapping a life around a single person. Deeply moving, Galloway traces a narrative through a blasted emotional landscape with skill and feeling.

The House of Djinn by Suzanne Fisher Staples

In this third book of the trilogy (Daughter of the Wind; Under the Same Stars; The House of Djinn) Fisher Staples continues to write beautifully about the lives of women in tribal Islamic society.

Shabanu lives a half life in the summer pavillion on the roof of a haveli, ten years after staging her own death to save the life of her child Mumtaz. Mumtaz is now 15 and her only relief from life with her half sister Layla who treats her as a servant, insists on being called Auntie and tormets Mumtaz as Layla's mother Amina did Shabanu, is when her cousin Jameel returns from San Francisco to spend the summer in Lahore. But then secrets begin to unravel, Jameel's beloved grandfather Baba dies and Nazir, who killed his own brother Rahim, (the tribal leader, Shabanu's husband and Mumtaz's father) moves to take control of the tribe. There is a real strength in there not being a westernised conventional happy ever after, instead, the conclusions really make you think about what it means to act as an adult and about the quality of love. A good conclusion to the series but not as heartbreaking as the first two.

Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Beautifully written and packed with the sights and smells of Cholistani nomadic desert life, this is the story of Shabanu, whose name means Princess. Aged 12 she and her older sister Phulan and herself are both betrothed and this book is on one level about Shabanu growing up, but also an amazing depiction of a society and landscape completely alien to a reader in wet, cold, November Scotland, a society where women have to learn to obey and the rule is of father, brother and husband and how a girl can retain herself within those strictures.

After having fallen in love with 'Under The Same Stars', the second book in the three book series (Daughter of the Wind; Under the Same Stars; The House of Djinn) I was eager to read the prequel and I wasn't disappointed.

The Blindfold by Suri Hustvedt

The first time I read this book I really didn't like it, then I reread it and began to be enchanted. On one level it is the story of the coming of age of Iris Vegan, an intellectually intelligent but emotionally naive midwest girl come to New York to university. Like a little girl in a fairytale she meets a cast of characters on the streets and in the buildings of the urban jungle, the creepy obsessive Mr Morning, the too too cool Stephen and his artistic friends, Iris' professor lover and Iris' own transformation into a she/he wandering the seedier pits of the urban landscape and New York itself. Iris an literature student and she describes the world around her in first person narration through the filter of her heroines. Give it time and it will haunt you.

Roald Dahl: A Biography by Jeremy Treglown

Dahl was my hero as a child, I wanted to be a writer creating the amazing inventive imaginative intelligent child heroes I could want to be, not bullied for being intelligent but getting their own back on adults and evil contemporaries alike. Yes, he was notoriously misanthropic towards adults, didn't suffer fools and was bad tempered, but I had a father who was much the same, a mix of brilliant wit and unkindness, so genius coming with complete antipathy towards people was familiar to me.

Treglown takes us easily through the life of Dahl from his Welsh roots in a Norwegian community through service in the RAF and, after wounded, to a slightly shadowy life as a UK liaison officer in Washington, to the end of his life with his second wife and world wide fame as a major children's author. I learned many new things about Dahl's life and the tragedies that beset it, and came away with a sense of Dahl much as I had understood him and more, vain, self aggrandizing, social climber and in many ways not a very nice person, but deeply human.

Origami by Paulo Mulatinho

Well written, easy to follow projects for great fun items such as mice, pandas, pencils and boxes

The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters (AUDIO)

Tightly plotted and well written, keeping the reader guessing until the last moment. Lietenant Charles Acland is on patrol in Iraq when his Scimitar tank is ambushed by a roadside bomb. Only he survives with extensive damage to one side of his face. He fails in his attempt to rejoin his unit and frustration, migraine and alienation lead to acts of violence culminating in him assaulting a stockbroker in a bar whose only crime is to be of Pakistani origin. He is hauled off by bodybuilder doctor part owner butch dyke Jackson (a brilliant character) whose compassion sets him on a new path.

The War Against Cliche by Martin Amis

I'm sure this collection of essays are brilliant to some people, but I found it arrogant, judgemental and not terribly interesting. Pulling an author to pieces ranks with boys pulling the wings off daddy long legeses in terms of how interested I am, so I never read beyond the first few.

Some Reflections on Madness and Worlds / Words

It is curious how books that I have picked up have fitted together and made me reflect. These are arbitrary occurences but perhaps not so random as they may seem. The White Darkness and Timequake were both books that I had identified as ones I wanted to read and they happened to be available from the library at the same time, albeit from different libraries (we are a rural region and the library stock of books is spread over several small towns, storage and the mobile libraries, it is fun to visit unfamiliar ones). The Raw Shark Texts is my own, a book I bought a while ago and sits with the pile of other books set on their sides to accusingly remind me 'you meant to read me, well, come on'.

These three books are all in their own ways about worlds and words. The White Darkness deals in part with a man's belief in a hollow globe with spheres within spheres, accessed by holes at the north and south poles. It is a madness that drives him to kill and in his obsession drag the daughter of his dead partner to the south pole to access this hole. Her defence from the truth is in words, a litany of names for the different types of ice and the sculptures created by ice and wind that bewitch the eye and mind. I was listening to this on a PlayAway mp3 player, a device that allowed me to be listening to stories of the arctic whilst walking up rather less chilly roads but still cold November in Scotland. Both Sim and Victor are balanced on the edge of madness, Sim locked away in her mind with Titus, a madness that ultimately saves her, and Victor believing in something we're never quite sure isn't untrue, it is a darkness that makes us question our own sanity and ideas of obsession and truth

I had simultaneously been reading Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake, his quirky semiautobiographical musings on life, there's some really deep stuff in there but Vonnegut treads lightly, like Pratchett and Adams (Douglas) cloaking the intelligence in humour. Here there is no question, this is clearly science fiction and any kind of insanity is freely allowed. You can laugh at the madness.

In The Raw Shark Texts, which I devoured (no pun intended), the madness is unclear and we are constantly on quicksand. Hall brutally reminds us that as readers we are at the mercy of writers, especially when they are as compelling as this and I could not tear myself away from the unfolding terror. Who is to say that dementia is not the product of predators feeding on our memories, it can certainly feel like that when you touch on the horror, like a sore tooth, of the idea of losing your memories and therefore sense of what you are, what you did, what your values created and what you were responsible for. The idea of looking into a face of a beloved and all they are being gone, replaced by a blank minded stranger. The way Hall plays with text as well as the concepts of word/worlds is brilliant, and I thank Ballard that I'd read some of his stuff before reading this, I might not have coped with the swerves of unreality and Hall's demands that you hold two contradictory opinions of events (is it all in Eric's mind, or is it real) right up until the end.

With all three books the brink of madness is a subject, strange that I'd come to them together but I've learned not to question synchronicty too much, it comes because it does. Being reminded that our worlds are constructions of our perception can be terrifying until you realise that this is all we have and taking security in that, these worlds ARE our worlds and to live in them completely is all we can do in our limitations, Tralfalmadorians may pity us unable to see the great sweep of time but I like perception the way we have it...

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

According to Vonnegut this is Timequake #2 because he wasn't very happy with the first version and rewrote it. It is on one level an account of his life and the times he met Kilgore Trout, familiar to readers as Vonnegut's alter ego in Slaughterhouse 5, and the timequake, an event that takes place on 13 February 1991 and when the entire world is thrown back 10 years and lives those 10 years again without any free will. Chaos ensues when free will returns after the 10 years and airline pilots, drivers, and people in general do not realise that the plane / train / car / bike / feet will no longer continue without their direction. Vonnegut messes around with our concepts of time, free will and history but in the funniest, gentlest way.

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

Eric Sanderson regains consciousness and breathing upon the carpet of a room he does not recognise and, on further probing within himself, without any memories whatsoever. A letter instructs him how to get to a Dr Randall who informs him that since he was traumatised by the death of his girlfriend Clio four years earlier he has suffered complete loss of memory, and that this is his 11th occurence. A room in his house is locked. Dr Randall warns him not to read the post that arrives through his door but eventually the Bluebeard moment occurs and Eric gives into the urge. He and us are then pitched into a world where the boundaries shift and Eric is pursued by a Ludovician shark, a conceptual predator that feeds on his memories and is determined to swallow him whole. Deeply moving, confusing, and very very intelligent

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean (AUDIO)

An utterly strange and gripping book. Sym has a man in her life, a companion who loves and guides her all the way to the Antarctic with her uncle (not her actual uncle), only, this companion is Lawrence Oates, known as Titus. The Oates who walked out of Scott's tent on their doomed trek to the South Pole with the immortal words 'I may be gone some time'. The text is peppered with quote and illusions that reveal Sym's deep intelligence, humanity and naivite. From a first person perspective the horror of this tight plot and the closing net around Sym in the white desert is completely compelling.

The Relic Master by Catherine Fisher

The Relic Master is science fiction / fantasy at its best, tightly plotted and beautifully written. We are introduced to the world of Anara through the eyes of Raffi, an apprentice to Galen of the Old Order, outlaws that are intimately connected with the world around them, practice magic and follow the teachings of the Makers, shadowy god-like beings that came from beyond the stars. They are pursued by the Watch who belive the magic of the Old Order is illusion. The Old Order uses relics, odd pieces of debris of the Makers' culture that are tantalisingly recognisable to us, a CD, a watch. On their pilgramage to Tasceron, a post apocalypic city devastated by the war between the Order and the Watch, they are joined by the Watch spy Carys and a Sekoi, an indigenous Anaran half cat half human being. Fisher writing is so good everything is believable and well realised, an author I'm happy to have found.

Salem Falls by Jodie Picoult

I've read most of Picoult's books and like the rest of them Salm Falls is excellently written, tightly plotted and heartbreaking. It challenges the assumptions even I hold that men who work with and are able to connect with and inspire young girls are suspect, a sad indictment on how the predators that there are rob us of our innocence. Picoult's use of subtle clues meant I saw the final twist coming but it wasn't disappointing, more an affirmation that I had read something hidden correctly. I read it in a day and enjoyed it greatly.

Dead and Alive: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Book 3 by Dean R Koontz

Another great book, the third in Koontz's Frankenstein series rewriting Shelley's modern myth with hope and horror in equal measure. A return to familiar Koontz themes of what it means to be human, the creation of new races, the temptations and dangers of intelligence and love, oh, and the intelligence of canine friends. Unlike Odd Hours I didn't think any of it felt a little stale, there is a deep humanity in Frankenstein's monster Deucalion and many of Shelley's themes and fears are raised here in the same way she wrote about them, most of all about the fact that creation is monstrous if it is not the wonder of pregnany and birth through the female line.

Marvel Romance tpb by Stan Lee

A fantastic collection of the most un pc stories of romantic pulp, of women giving themselves to their men, of broken hearts and schmaltz so powerful it's kitsch. The graphics are wonderful and each story is so of its time, right through 60s flowerpower and 70s feminism. A hinky delight.

Angel: Strange Bedfellows tpb by Christopher Golden

I don't usually read spin offs but I thought I'd pick this up on a whim, I was right. There's none of the developement of character and depth that Joss Whedon brought to an episode of the show. Not my kind of thing, listen to the voices!

The Keep by F. Paul Wilson - graphic novel

This is quite interesting and the graphics are great, I love the use of a very limited palatte of black, white and red. However, the story is a little predictable and the oncoming horror not as acute as it could be because the people dying are Death's Head Nazis who it is clear deserve everything coming to them.

Modesty Blaise
Cry Wolf and The Gallows Bird

What great fun! Two collections of the wonderfully dated Modesty Blaise magazine comic strip, great adventures, a slick proto Lara Croft ass kicking mystery solving girl and her hunky rough diamond side kick.

The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes

Sykes traces all European's ancient ancestry using mitochondrial dna back to seven ancient clan mothers and eloquently explains the science behind his extraordinary conclusions. The best kind of science writing, accessible and fascinating without being patronising, over simplifying or 'dumbing down'. Highly recommended for making you think and expanding your knowlege without too much cranial meltdown!

Clockwork by Philip Pullman (AUDIO)

As the narrator of this scary fairy tale says, Pullman winds up his story and lets it play and it is dark and terrifying in the great tradition of Grimm and Andersen. The people of Glockenheim gather in the White Horse Tavern to hear the young storyteller Fritz tell a ghost story. Slumped at the bar is the clockmaker's apprentice, Karl, who is due to reveal his clockwork figure for the famous town clock the next day but hasn't made it yet. But Fritz has left his story unfinished and counted on being struck by inspiration when he comes to the end. Instead, the story begins to take on a life of its own and a terrible stranger enters the inn and offers Karl his heart's desire, and his choice between right and wrong sets the story ticking on.

Pullman doesn't disappoint, a haunting short read.

Vienna Blood by Frank Tallis (AUDIO)

In 1902 a serial killer is stalking Vienna, pursued by Detective Inspector Oskar Reinhardt with the help of Freudian psychologist Dr Max Liebermann. On one level this is a great murder mystery and balancing of Reinhardt's old style detection and Libermann's radical theories, an early form of forensic profiling. Tallis has created an excellent story, with lots of clever twists that keep you guessing, secret societies, early fascism, nationalism and racial hatred.

What shone for me, however, was Tallis' evocation of turn of the century Vienna, a city poised between ancient traditions and the new world of Freud and Klimt. Liebermann's following of Freud and his treatment of a patient convinced he is having an affair with a member of the royal family bring to life the new wave of thinking breaking across Europe at the time. This is also brought to light by Tallis' backstory of Liebermann's sweet but shallow finacee, obsessed with social niceties, and Amelia Lydgate, a new kind of woman asserting her right to an education and equality with men. I particularly loved the descriptions of Vienna, especially their endless visits to tea houses for the kind of cakes Austria is still world first for today.

So a great read but enjoyably more than that, recommended

Ghosting by Keith Gray (AUDIO)

Sandy is a lovely fey looking medium assisted by her teenage brother Nate who narrates the story. But they are fakes, taking people's money for pretending to contact the other side and bring messages to the bereaved. But then when visiting one man's home Sandy comes across the real thing, ghosts of victims desperate to make contact. A story of terrifying retribution.

I heard this as an audio book and it is very short, it is a Barrington Stoke book, made for people with dyslexia who would have problems focussing on a longer text. As such it is really a short story, but the best kind of its kind, a ghost story that lingers in the mind and sends chills up the spine.

Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds

Utterly enchanting, I'd had Posy Simmonds' Gemma Bovery on my wishlist for some time and this is exactly the kind of graphic novel I like, no superheroes, no magic powers, no parallel worlds, just life, warts and all, but beautifully observed and drawn, gentle humour and observations, just like a classic novel.

Tamara Drewe is a small village girl writing a newspaper column, a kind of minor it girl, and this is in some ways about her but just as much about the cast of characters gathered around the writers' retreat she lives next door to, about unsuitable boyfriends, teenage obsession, philandering husbands, the misguided actions of bored village teenagers and a happy ending that has nothing to do with sterotypes and obsessions. Kind of midsomer murders comes of age, a real joy to read

Confessions of a book eater

Okay, I have a pusher, mine knows my weaknesses and exactly what to lay out in front of me that I will not be able to resist, pandering relentlessly to my soft spots. Mine is a librarian. There am I, being ever so good, returning all my and my daughter's books and determined not to get any more out as we're away on a bike ride and I want to minimise the weight. Then he presents me with a stack of comic books of which I managed to restrain myself and select only two. Some choices were easy, two Bleach volumes I've already bought (waah!) and a volume on historical British comics which I'm just not interested in. The two I chose have been a joy.

The Seventh Tide by Joan Lennon (http://www.joanlennon.co.uk/)

Joan Lennon talked about her books at my daughter's celebration ceremony for completing the summer holiday reading challenge and we instantly started working on her Wickit series, these are set in the Fens and much of it reminds me of my childhood home in and around Cambridge. We have completely fallen in love with Pip and Perfect.

The Seventh Tide is for slightly older reader and was written by Lennon when she first moved to Scotland from Canada and was living on the West Coast. It is full of terrifying stories of selkies and brimming with mythology and adventure, very well written although a little less fulfilling for me than the Wickit chronicles.

Breathe: A Ghost Story by Cliff McNeish

Enthralling story, on the one hand a supernatural thriller about ghosts unnaturally trapped in the new home of a young boy who has just lost his father, but also about recovery from grief and parallels between the suffocation of loss, paranormal experience and asthma. Skilfully written and moving

Laika by Nick Abadzis

Laika was the first dog to go into space, lauched in Sputnik II by the Russians, and this is her story. Abadzis' writing and illustrations are beautiful, it is excellently researched and the framing within the story of the man running the Soviet space programme brings into sharp relief the oppressive context within which the launch took place. Highly recommended, my favourite kind of graphic novel, in the vein of Maus and One Bad Rat.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Daisy is fifteen and has stopped eating as a form of protest against her father turning from her to his new wife and unborn child, so despite rising international tensions he sends her to Brtian to stay with her cousins just as they become seperated from their mother as the UK is invaded and occupied while their troops are elsewhere fighting other people's wars. Trapped in the cousins' farmhouse Daisy's new family are the sweet loving Piper who has always wanted a sister, the older bossy brother Osbert and the 15 year old twins Isaac and Edmond who differ only in the colour of their eyes, that Edmond smokes and he seems to know exactly what Daisy is thinking. A sad lovely story of occupied life, young love and desperation

Under The Same Stars by Suzanne Fisher Staples (published in the United States as Haveli)

Although this is in theory written for older teenagers, I would recommend this well written tale to anyone.

Shabanu was born in the Cholistan area of Pakistan and raised in the desert, Staples' prequel Daughter of the Wind tells this part of the story and of her marriage to wealthy powerful landowner Rahim as repayment by Shabanu's father for his protection.

In Under the Same Stars Shabanu and her daughter Mumtaz are living in constant fear of the cruelty inflicted on them by Rahim's three older wives in their jealously and rage at Shabanu's inability to conform to their social standards. Brief respites are Shabanu's visits to her parents and moving to the family havela in Lahore where she can live in peace away from Rahim's other wives, but it is not long before the strictures of duty to family, where deviation is punished by death, rear up and tragedy returns.

A wonderful story that really educated me about the life of women in a society where they are chattels, have little rights and are effectively bought and sold and falling in love is a hopeless destrutive thing but without stereotyping the men or the women, rather, Staples creates wonderfully rendered characters that you fall in love with. I can't wait to read the sequel, The House of Djinn

The Cold Moon by Jeffrey Deaver (audio) (Lincoln Rhyme)

I always think of Lincoln Rhyme as Morgan Freeman, the paraplegic criminalist in Deaver's Kiss the Girls (I think!) and it works for me. I nearly gave up on this when I started listening to it as it seemed very formulaic, serial killer is leaving clocks with moon phase dials at the scene of his crimes and Rhyme is trying to figure it out, the killer is smart but can Rhyme outwit him. Dot dot dot blah blah blah. But then it starts to get really interestesting as the plot twists and turns and Deaver does a brilliant job of getting inside the heads of the characters, from a violent rapist via a florist to a female soldier home but enlisting to return to the desert front, the 'land of bitter fog'. Tightly plotted and well written, a pleasure to listen to while sewing away, really interesting meditations on the nature of truth telling and what we do to avoid it.

Deeper Than Blue by Jill Hucklesby

Amy is thirteen and a swimmer, the book opens with a vivid breakthtaking passage of her taking the county record from another swimmer she has admired and tried to live up to. A spectator drops their glasses and the shattered pieces fall into the pool, meaning the pool has to be drained and Amy, for the first time in years, doesn't have to go to training so she goes shopping with her best friend Sophie but a tragic set of events leaves Amy grieving and damaged. Coming back from deeper than blue is a long road for Amy, accompanied by the adorably quioxitc Harry, her family's move to a new life in Brighton and her dog. Beautifully written and plotted, deeply moving and intelligent, a real pleasure to read.

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac

A fascinating fictionalised account of the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr, with literary license, written in alternating chapters by Burroughs and Kerouac from their point of view. There is a lot of naivite and not very good writing, but this previously unpublished book written by the pair before they became the Beat Generation with Junky and On The Road is interesting in terms of seeing their literary development.

Time: A User's Guide - Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity by Stefan Klein

Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson

An amazing book, both edition and content. It is worth getting the hardback for the tactile feel of the heavyweight pages and beautifully set typeface, and Winterson's belending of the sad myth of a titan and reflections on eternity are breathtaking. Can't wait to read the rest in the series.

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis

I've always loved Francis, I return to his early works as a homecoming. Silks was really good, the title being a reference both to the brightly coloured outfits jockeys wear on the course to identify themselves, and to the promotion of barristers to Queen's Council judges. Silks goes between both worlds, defence barrister Geoffrey Mason is a part time amateur jockey who ends up defending a jockey accused of murdering another jockey.

Francis' collaboration with his son is a welcome return to form, utterly compelling and brilliantly written and researched. This isn't the first team work, Shattered is one of my favourites and is written by the pair, but this is only the second time it has been a full on partnership.

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by GW Dahlquist

Convoluted, long but worthwhile victorian melodrama. Celeste Temple is newly arrived to Victorian or Edwardian London from an unnamed island nation, she attaches herself to the first eligable bachelor of suitable social standing that she meets, but when her fiance Roger breaks off their engagement she is interested to know why. Her curiosity leads her into a world of secrets and mystery, of high end prostitutes with strange marks around their eyes, of sex and sensuality and the mysterious glass books. As dreamy as Kubla Khan with arousing eroticism.

Power of Art by Simon Schama

A great introduction to looking at paintings, this book is a companion to a BBC tv series (which I haven't seen) but stands on its own as an introduction to monumental works of art by Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko.

I'd always shied away from Caravaggio but was able to admit to myself my fear of his sheer power and sensuality and to enjoy it. I learned about the beauty of Bernini's sculpture and renewed my acquaintance with Van Gogh's delicious and disturbing viscerality and Picasso's timeless denunciation: Guernica.

My only concern is that Schama does at times appear to equate extremity of personality with extremity of vision, as if you cannot be an amazing painter without having a disturbing personal life, and I don't think this is necessarily correct

One City by Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin & Irvine Welsh, introduction by JK Rowling

A great little slim volume containing short stories by each of the authors on the subject of social inclusion. McCall Smith's gentle romance is about an Indian man experiencing the culture shock of Edinburgh, Rankin weaves a clever story about a homeless illusionist, and Welsh comes through in his usual unrelenting style with a story about an escaped tiger, hilarious. Can't wait to read the next One City Trust book: Crimespotting

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

A story about a young girl Meggie who is devoted to books and her father, who she calls Mo, who hides a secret about the disappearance of her mother 9 years earlier. They live in a remote farmhouse surrounded by books until the arrival of the mysterious Dustfinger and his oddly horned marten Gwin which hurls her into a world where fantasy and reality begin to bleed into each other. I loved the internal references to other classic and modern children's fiction but found the plot a bit repetitive and dry.

Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain by Roger Deakin
Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean R Koontz
Handle With Care by Jodie Picoult
The Declaration by Gemma Malley
The Resistance by Gemma Malley
The Dark Horse by Marcus Sedgwick
Persepolis 1 & 2 by Marjane Satrapi
Marvels by Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek

Breaking Dawn by Stepanie Meyer

The last of the Twilight quartet and certainly no disappointment, read over two days of unstoppable reading, good plotting and great twists.

Comic, Comix and Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art by Roger Sabin

Definitive work of research by Sabin in large format chronicling the history of British comics from their conception up to about the turn of the century, interesting and through though a bit thin on comic art for girls and very little about manga, but there are other books for that

Godchild 1 and 2 by Kaori Yuki

Godchild is the story of a Victorian aristocrat named Cain, his 10 year old half sister Mary Weather, insane homicidal half brother Dr Jizabel Disraeli, their sadistic absent father and Cain's young butler Riff. Cain is a collector of poisons and detective and Godchild 1 and 2 cover a couple of his cases investigating murders, suicides and hauntings.

Yuki is the creator of Angel Sanctuary (which I've just started reading) and Cain and is female. Godchild is from the Shojo Beat house (shojo - young women) and is a far cry from the kind of shojo I don't like - high school romance and girlish crushes on older more powerful men. There is the usual mobile sexuality of manga that is both odd and entralling to my westernised mind, the androgny of Cain and Dr Disraeli, the overt exercising of Cain's power over society girls and the tensions in the relationships between Cain and Mary and Cain and Riff. After reading twice I may be hooked

It would have been really interesting to see these stories written and drawn in a westernised style along the lines of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, this is definately a fantasy of Victorian London although there are elements of what it would have been like