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.