Loveless by Yun Kouga

This is the side of manga that exposes Japan's idiosyncratic obsessions, with homosexuality and in particular the love of younger boys, and with fantastical meetings of worlds. Challenging and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet! I love the way the people who haven't had sex have ears!

AZ: "Ritsuka Aoyagi is a sixth grader, transferring to a new school. Years ago his brother Seimei was murdered. Upon transferring in, he is branded as peculiar - he shows up without his parents, and is aloof toward the other students. Yuiko, an outcast in her own right, befriends him, much to his dismay. Soubi, a Fighter Unit, arrives to meet Aoyagi. Soubi knew Seimei, and Aoyagi lets his guard down momentarily. Midori and his Fighter Unit Ai come with orders to abduct Aoyagi, but are powerless against Soubi. Aoyagi, who seems to be suffering from memory loss as well as personality disorder, wants to reclaim his identity as "Ritsuka." Aoyagi discovers a mysterious last message left from Seimei in which he reveals the identity of his murderer(s) as The Seventh Moon, and that his true name is Loveless. Midori and Ai again try to abduct Aoyagi, but are thwarted once again by Soubi. Aoyagi is confused by Soubi's psychological tactics, who seduces him yet withholds the emotional connectivity which he craves. On the other hand, he slowly warms up to Yuiko, becoming a friend to her. Meanwhile, other rivals appear: Yayoi is jealous of Aoyagi's friendship with Yuiko; and Kio, a university colleague of Soubi, is distraught that a young boy such as Aoyagi could capture Soubi's attention. As a sign of their bond, Soubi asks that Aoyagi pierce his ears. On Parents' Day at school, neither Aoyagi nor Yuiko's parents are present, but Soubi shows up to greet Aoyagi at the entrance. Aoyagi is further entranced by Soubi."

The Originals by Dave Gibbons

A graphic novel version of Quadrophenia by the artist of Watchmen set in the future all in black and white, well written and illustrated but to my mind lacking a little in originality

AZ (DG): "I discovered Mod when I was about 15 and have a vivid memory of seeing my first scooters. They were fantastic, almost science-fiction machines, gleaming with chrome and accessories. They rolled up one night at my local dance-hall, the riders dismounting and undoing their military-surplus parkas to reveal smart shirts and jackets.

The opening scene of THE ORIGINALS tries to capture some of that feeling. I merged it with another real incident where I helped a bunch of scooter boys to find the local motorcycle gang and give them a good beating."

Buddha: Kapilvastu by Osamu Tezuka

Tezuka is supposed to be one of the best manga artists, so I thought I'd start reading his major work, his narration of the life of the Buddha. Kapilvastu is the first volume and, as with most manga, I'll need to read it again to get it properly!

AZ: ""Kapilavastu", Chapra, an ambitious slave, spurns the caste system into which he was born, and tries to become a nobleman. Tatta, the wild pariah child, communes with animals, and the monk, Naradatta, strives to uncover the meaning of strange portents surrounding the Buddha's birth. Originated in the 1970s, "Buddha" is Osamu Tezuka's unparalleled rendition of the life and times of Prince Siddhartha. Tezuka's storytelling genius and consummate skill at visual expression blossom fully as he contextualizes the Buddha's ideas; with an emphasis on action, emotion, humour and conflict as Prince Siddhartha runs away from home, travels across India and questions Hindu practices such as ascetic self-mutilation and caste oppression. Rather than recommend resignation and impassivity, Tezuka's "Buddha" predicates enlightenment upon recognizing the interconnectedness of life, having compassion for the suffering, and ordering one's life sensibly, his approach is slightly irreverent in that it incorporates something that Western commentators often eschew, namely, humour."

Bleach 3, 4 and 5 by Tite Kubo

AZ: "One rainy day, Ichigo, whose ability to see the undead is a blessing with a curse, tried to stop a young girl from drowning in a nearby river. His mother, Masaki, ran after them, frantically trying to rescue her son. Then everything went black, and Ichigo awoke only to discover his mother dead and the little girl gone. It's the anniversary of Masaki's death, and the entire Kurosaki clan, along with former Soul Reaper Rukia Kuchiki, head to the cemetary to pay their respects. Sleeping demons rarely ever stay still and pretty soon Ichigo confronts the Grand Fisher, the Hollow that may be resposible for his mother's demise"

Burnout by Rebecca Donner and Inaki Miranda

The Minx series of graphic novels are written specifically for teenage girls and like teenage fiction they vary a bit, some are very good coming of age stories, others a bit thin, but I loved this one. The graphics and story were powerful and good.

"When Danni - whose father has left the family years earlier - moves with her mother to her mother's new boyfriend's house in the Pacific-Northwest, Danni develops a crush on his son. But when she secretly follows him, she discovers he's involved in eco-terrorism. Now Danni has to choose between falling in love and getting involved in something that she knows is illegal - a choice that will change her life forever"

The Pyramid by Henning Mankell

I enjoyed watching Wallander a lot so have turned to the source, the books by Mankell. Obviously there were none of the Wallander books available in the library so I read what I can. The Pyramid is actually a kind of postscript to the Wallander books, filling in gaps in Wallander's story. Mankell writes so well, a swedish counterpart to Rankin, whenever I pick up a book of his I know I'm in for a good read, not just that but a window into a whole different world and society.

AZ: "When Kurt Wallander first appeared in Faceless Killers back in 1990, he was a senior police officer, just turned forty, with his life in a mess. His wife had left him, his father barely acknowledged him; he ate badly and drank alone at night. The Pyramid chronicles the events that led him to such a place. We see him in the early years, doing hours on the beat whilst trying to solve a murder off-duty; witness the beginnings of his fragile relationship with Mona, the woman he has his heart set on marrying; and learn the reason behind his difficulties with his father. These thrilling tales provide a fascinating insight into Wallander's character, and demand to be read in one sitting. From the stabbing of a neighbour in 1969 to a light aircraft accident in 1989, every story is a vital piece of the Wallander series, showing Mankell at the top of his game. Featuring an introduction from the author, The Pyramid is an essential read for all fans of Kurt Wallander."

Nation by Terry Prachett

A good story, quite funny and a little odd, but a good read: AZ: "Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird and gives him a stick which can make fire. Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She's certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship's parrot. As it happens, they are not alone for long.Other survivors start to arrive to take refuge on the island they all call the Nation and then raiders accompanied by murderous mutineers from the Sweet Judy. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things - including how to milk a pig and why spitting in beer is a good thing - and start to forge a new Nation. As can be expected from Terry Pratchett, the master story-teller, this new children's novel is both witty and wise, encompassing themes of death and nationhood, while being extremely funny. Mau's ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone's lives!"

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The extended edition of Gaiman's short story in M for Magic, Gaiman is always, to me, better when he's writing for children, brilliantly imaginative and gripping

AZ: "When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him - after all, he is the last remaining member of the family."

Death Note by Tsugami Ohba, volumes 1 & 2

AZ: "Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects - and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal...or his life? Light tests the boundaries of the Death Note's powers as L and the police begin to close in. Luckily Light's father is the head of the Japanese National Police Agency and leaves vital information about the case lying around the house. With access to his father's files, Light can keep one step ahead of the authorities. But who is the strange man following him, and how can Light guard against enemies whose names he doesn't know?"

It's funny, I only really warmed to this on second reading, and now I'm hooked and will have to wait until I can afford more issues. Humph! The interaction between the idiosyncratic slightly odd L and the charming hyperintelligent murderous Light is interesting in the extreme and the links with Japanese mythology are fascinating

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

AZ: "The iron wheel began to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster. The room grew darker. As the light lessened, so did the sound. Deeba and Zanna stared at each other in wonder. The noise of the cars and vans and motorbikes outside grew tinny ...The wheel turned off all the cars and turned off all the lamps. It was turning off London. Zanna and Deeba are two girls leading ordinary lives, until they stumble into the world of UnLondon, an urban Wonderland where all the lost and broken things of London end up ...and some of its lost and broken people too. Here discarded umbrellas stalk with spidery menace, carnivorous giraffes roam the streets, and a jungle sprawls beyond the door of an ordinary house. UnLondon is under siege by the sinister Smog and its stink-junkie slaves; it is a city awaiting its hero. Guided by a magic book that can't quite get its facts straight, and pursued by Hemi the half-ghost boy, the girls set out to stop the poisonous cloud before it burns everything in its path. They are joined in their quest by a motley band of UnLondon locals, including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas, Obaday Fing, a couturier whose head is an enormous pincushion, and an empty milk carton called Curdle. The world of UnLondon is populated by astonishing frights and delights that will thrill the imagination."

Completely bonkers, hugely imaginative, witty and entertaining. I love the idea of a world where MOILs (Mostly Obsolete in London) find a new life, broken umbrellas, old red routemaster buses and all manner of discarded items. The carnivorous giraffes were truly terrifying. On a brilliant par with Barker's Abarats

Puppet Master by Joanne Owen

AZ: "From riches to rags, Milena is growing up in the city of Prague at the turn of the twentieth century. Her parents' once prosperous theatre lies in disrepair and her life seems to be in ruins, and has been since that fateful night her father died in a tragic accident and Milena's beautiful, talented Mother went missing. No trace of her has been found. But Milena has never lost hope that she will come back. The day she meets the flamboyant Puppet Master and his menacing proteges, the twins Zdenko and Zdenka, under the shadow of Prague's famous Astronomical Clock in the Old Town square is, coincidentally, the date of her mother's birthday. And it's the day Milena's grandmother chooses to reveal to her the story of her ancestors... and of her legacy. Or perhaps it's not such a coincidence. Joanne Owen's debut novel skilfully mingles the legends of Bohemia in a story rich in the traditions of circus, theatre and magic, all set in a city waiting to lay bare a myriad of secrets."

Another wonderfully formatted book, illustrations and text interact. Plays on the instinctive fear I think is common of marionettes and anything which resembles a human but is not. The Prague setting is also fascinating

The Invention of Hugo Cabaret by Brian Selznick

AZ: "ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival dependson secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and her grandfather, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery."

This is just such a beautiful book, sparse text interspersed with pages of black and white illustrations, it's an experience as much as a book, full of the slightly alien atmosphere of Paris. I love the feeling of a child living parallel to normal life.

Change of Heart by Jodie Picoult

AZ: "June's first husband was killed in a car crash. Against all the odds, her daughter was uninjured and, in another miracle, June found love again with the policeman who rescued them. Six years on they are a happy family, June pregnant with their own child. But now June's second daughter is dying without the new heart she so urgently needs. And her first daughter, along with her husband, is dead, killed by Shay Bourne, an itinerant workman they welcomed into their home. The crime was so heinous that Shay has been given the death penalty for the first time in 69 years in New Hampshire. Shay is going to die, and he is looking for redemption. He wants to give June's daughter his heart . . ."

A man receives the death penalty for murdering a little girl and her stepfather. There is no question whether or not he did it so, knowing Picoult, the heart of the matter must be elsewhere. The murderer has no previous history of violence and after his death he wants his heart to be given to the surviving daughter, the murdered girl's half sister who was in utero when her father and sister were murdered. Stranger occurances begin taking place in the prison and the reader is as torn between faith and scepticism as the characters. When we are made aware of Shay's past of taking the blame for actions such as previous arson and murder it begins to dawn on the rader and other characters whey and how the murders took place.

The Mozart Question by Michael Morpugo

"When Lesley is sent to Venice to interview world-renowned violinist Paulo Levi on his fiftieth birthday, she cannot believe her luck. She is told that she can ask him anything at all - except the Mozart question. But it is Paulo himself who decides that it is time for the truth to be told. And so follows the story of his parents as Jewish prisoners of war, forced to play Mozart violin concertos for the enemy; how they watched fellow Jews being led off to their deaths and knew that they were playing for their lives. As the story unfolds, the journalist begins to understand the full horror of war, and how one group of musicians survived using the only weapon they had - music."

A beautifully written book equally beautifully illustrated, which uses the musical ability of a young boy as a window into the horrors of Auschwitz where a group of musicians were spared to play chamber music to the poor creatures going to the gas chambers to keep them calm. A short great introduction to a subject too painful to broach with children but a story that must be told to stop it happening again.

Harlequin Pink: The Batchelor Prince by Debbie Macomber and Misao Itoshiai

The kind of manga I don't like: wish fulfilment for 16 year old girls, completely edgeless and fuzzy, still read it all though!

One Missed Call by Yaushi Akimoto and Mayomi Shihou

Passable horror manga in the vein of The Ring: people get missed calls from their future selves at the moment of their deaths which take place within 48 hours of the call.

The Good Guy by Dean Koontz - brilliant as ever and always

AZ: "After a day's work hefting brick and stone, Tim Carrier slakes his thirst at The Lamplighter Tavern. Nothing heavy happens there. It's a friendly workingman's bar run by his good friend Rooney, who enjoys gathering eccentric customers. Working his deadpan humour on strangers is, for Tim, all part of the entertainment. But how could Tim have imagined that the stranger who sits down next to him one evening is about to unmake his world and enmesh him in a web of murder and deceit? The man has come there to meet someone and he thinks it's Tim. Tim's wayward sense of humour lets the misconception stand for a moment and that's all it takes: the stranger hands Tim a fat manila envelope, saying, 'Half of it's there; the rest when she's gone,' and then he's out the door. In the envelope Tim finds the photograph of a woman, her name and address written on the back; and several thick packets of hundred-dollar bills. When an intense-looking man sits down where the first stranger sat and glances at the manila envelope, Tim knows he's the one who was supposed to get it.Shaken, thinking fast, Tim says he's had a change of heart. He removes the picture of the woman and then hands the envelope to the stranger. 'Half what we agreed,' he says. 'For doing nothing. Call it a no-kill fee.' Tim is left holding a photo of a pretty woman, but his sense of fun has led him into a very dangerous world from which there is no way back. The company of strangers has cost him his peace of mind, and possibly his life."

The Scold's Bridle by Minette Walters

"Dr. Sarah Blakeney, the physician who's attended caustic Mathilda Gillespie for the past year, is shaken when her patient is found dead in her bathtub, doped with liquor and barbiturates, wrists slit, and an elaborate cast-iron gag, the scold's bridle, carefully arrayed with flowers and clasped over her face. But Sarah, unhappy in her own domestic life with her husband, Jack, a brilliant, unsuccessful painter, has no idea how close to home this calamity will strike. When Sarah tells Jack she wants a divorce, genre-wise readers will settle back in anticipation of a running analogy between Mathilda's savagely miserable life - she was impregnated by her idiot uncle when she was 13 - and Sarah's present woes. They're in for as big a shock as Sarah when a videotaped last-minute will names her as sole legatee at the expense of Mathilda's beautiful, parasitical daughter, Joanna Lascelles, and her sulky, thieving granddaughter, Ruth. Suddenly the police are cordially interested in Sarah, the Lascelleses coolly enraged at her, charming Jack (who's gone to stay with Joanna while he paints her portrait) a mass of outrageous contradictions, and Mathilda desperately enigmatic. As all the principals begin sensitively, articulately, to torment themselves and each other with their guilty suspicions, Walters (The Sculptress, 1993, etc.) draws out the complications with a master's hand until the monstrous pattern is completed with a final sickening jolt"

The Sculptress by Minette Walters

AZ: "It was a slaughterhouse, the most horrific scene I have ever witnessed...Olive Martin is a dangerous woman. I advise you to be extremely wary in your dealings with her.' The facts of the case were simple: Olive Martin had pleaded guilty to killing and dismembering her sister and mother, earning herself the chilling nickname 'The Sculptress'. This much journalist Rosalind Leigh knew before her first meeting with Olive, currently serving a life sentence. How could Roz have foreseen that the encounter was destined to change her life - for ever?"

A Planet for the President by Alistair Beaton

Absolutely hilarious, I think this is the best satire I have ever read, AZ: "It is the near future and things are not going well for the President of the United States. He wants Americans to be adored by everyone but half the planet seems to be in a permanent state of insurrection against US power. What's more, there's a growing environmental crisis that even he can't ignore. It's one thing when there are floods in Bangladesh, quite another when almost 2,000 Americans die in flooding in Texas. His advisers warn him he could be remembered as the President who wrecked the planet. The President is persuaded of one simple fact: there are too many people in the world. Only radical action can deal with the problem. His advisors come up with a solution more ruthless than anything ever contemplated before. Appalled, the president refuses to go along with their plan. But it isn't long before he is committed to thinking the unthinkable ..."

The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson

I only knew Carson as the author of Silent Spring, which I still haven't got to. Carson has my sense of wonder about the world and here she speaks of the shoreline, the magical world between the tides. There is no shortage of factual information but it is couched in captivating prose.

Fluke by James Herbert AUDIO

I've never got on with Herbert apart from this one, the story of a man reincarntated as a dog and his journey to discover why he died.

AZ: "He was a stringy mongrel, wandering the streets of the city, driven by a ravenous hunger and hunting a quarry he could not define. But he was something more. Somewhere in the depths of his consciousness was a memory clawing its way to the surface, tormenting him, refusing to let him rest. The memory of what he had once been: A man"

The Pact by Jodie Picoult

AZ: "For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty. Parents and children alike are best friends - so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born. When the midnight calls come in from the hospital, no one is prepared for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head as part of an apparent suicide pact. The gun holds a single unspent bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself, but a local detective has doubts. And the Hartes and Golds, in a single terrifying moment, must face every parent's worst fear: do we ever really know our children at all?"

Picoult is now an author I turn to with relief, becuase as with Francis, Koontz, Faulkner and Jasper Fforde, I know that what I'm about to read will be a pleasure. The Pact is the desperately sad story of two children who grow up next door to each other (Em and Chris) and as teenager begin going out together. Em is conflicted in two ways, one by loving Chris very deeply but there being incestuous elements of brotherly love, and by a moment of sexual assault that drives her to self-loathing and suicidal tendencies.

Kissing the Rain by Kevin Brooks

AZ: "In Moo Nelson's life it rains every day - a constant rain of spite and derision - and every day he walks through it all with his eyes down, wishing things were different. But knowing they're not. His only refuge is the bridge, where he spends his time thinking and dreaming and watching the world go by. Until the night he witnesses a car-chase - and a murder...Or does he? What is the truth, and who is it for? The police? The gangsters? The lawyers? The bullies at school? Moo must decide: between truth and lies, loneliness and loyalty, weakness and strength. And he must do it soon...Kissing the Rain is a story about the unique confusions of being a teenager: the turmoil of emotions, the complexity of relationships, the inner world of feelings, and how to express them. More than anything, though, the story is Moo Nelson - his mind, his body, his words, his truth"

"Kevin Brooks is a proper writer. He never lets you stop thinking. Caught in the brilliant dialogue and tense situations, his characters fumble and stumble with real-life dillemmas, just like us. But for them the threats are frightening and all too close. No easy endings, no bland half-truths - Kevin is the real thing" (Barry Cunningham, publisher)

The 'rain' is the verbal abuse that overweight Moo Nelson endures every day, keeping his head down like an umbrella. He witnesses an act of violence and, in his own awkward badly spelt speak, tells of his life where getting through each day is an achievement. I was there and no, adults had no idea.

Where Mermaids Sing by Brian Keaney

I had a real problem with teenage reading that week didn't I. Keaney's book is brilliant but it doesn't have a good ending, and that's my problem not his.

AZ: "Jasmine, Alice and Phoebe. As friends they were inseparable, but when friendship turns to rivalry and distrust, they begin to drift apart. Then tragedy strikes - and Alice knows life can never be the same again."

Teacher's Dead by Benjamin Zephaniah

I like Zephaniah's poetry but I found this a bit predictable and boring. The subject was interesting, but not the story or execution, disappointing

AZ: "A teacher is dead, murdered by two of his students in front of the school. He was a good man. People liked him. So how could this happen? Why? It just doesn't make sense to Jackson, and he is determined to investigate the case until he understands."

The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpugo

Written for young readers, short and utterly beautiful

AZ (MM): "The Butterfly Lion grew from several magical roots: The memories of a small boy who tried to run away from school a long time ago; a book about a pride of white lions discovered by Chris McBride; a chance meeting in a lift with Virginia McKenna, actress and champion of lions and all creatures born free; a true story of a soldier of the First World War who rescued some circus animals in France from certain death; and the sighting from a train of a white horse carved out on a chalky hillside near Westbury in Wiltshire."

Nerve by Dick Francis

This is one of my favourites, I return to it again and again. Up there with Flying Finish.

AZ: "Robert Finn, a steeplechase jockey, finds himself the focus of a malicious campaign and when it begins to affect his friends as well, he sets out to uncover its source and remove it. This is the author's second racing thriller and was first published in 1964."

On Hitler's Mountain: My Nazi Childhood by Irmgard Hunt

AZ: "Irmgard Hunt was born in Nazi Germany and brought up in the Bavarian village of Berchtesgaden, just outside the fence that surrounded Hitler's alpine retreat. At the age of three, she was photographed sitting on the Fuhrer's knee - one of her parents' proudest moments. Irmgard grew up innocently accepting the Nazi doctrine, believing the lies of her teachers and joyfully singing anthems to National Socialism. In simple, powerful prose Hunt reveals the creeping Nazification of Germany and shows how ordinary people were seduced - and cowed - by the campaigns set in train by their leaders."

I got this for S as we visited the Eagle's Nest and Berchtesgarten I was interested in this book. An amazing story about growing up in Nazi Bavaria, a traditional life which differs not that greatly from alpine Austrian life today, and the indocrinations, food shortages and final defeats of WWII. To me, as important a chronicle as Carrie's War and The Diary of Anne Frank, and I felt brought an understanding of why Nazism flourished better than The Reader

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

AZ: "Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: what should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"

A book group read, and a good fascinating one, although it only really came alive in the second half. Makes us ask ourselves hard questions about what we would have done in Hanna's situation. About it part the effects of the Holocaust on the next generation and in part about the sexual awakening of a 15 year old boy, about levels of responsibility and absolution. And, in a way, about the power of reading and redemptive power of words.

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman

A collection of short stories for children, some of which I've encounterd before. Gaiman's imagination never fails to entertain, and here where he's writing for children he writes less self consciously, children don't need to be asked to suspend disbelief! In this collection of short stories I most loved the short story about the boy born in a graveyard but wanted more of it, luckily Gaiman also felt the same and expanded it into his The Graveyard Book. I particularly liked reading again 'The Price' which is about a family who are adopted by a mysterious black cat who sustains terrible injuries night after night.

Alone on a Wide Wide Sea by Michael Morpugo

AZ: "Orphaned in WWII, Arthur is separated from his sister and sent to the other side of the world. There his extraordinary journey continues as he and his friend Marty survive brutal captivity on a working farm, find a new family with the eccentric Aunty Meg and her animals, and discover their talent for designing yachts. Sixty years later, Arthur's daughter Allie sets sail single-handed in a yacht designed by her father, determined to find his long-lost sister in England. Can family love stretch across time and the vastness of the oceans? And will the threads of Arthur's life finally come together?"

This book is split into two parts, the memoir of Arthur Hobhouse as a boy who is shipped to Australia in 1947 and his daughter Allie's account of her single handed yacht journey from Australia to the UK in 2005. It is hard to believe that the memoirs are not genuine, Arthur's experience of being ripped from his family (his sister Kitty), his home and his country and sent without any consultation to an alien country is heart rending and made me so angry, but Morpugo also captures 18-year-old Allie's voices, those of her emails and those of her own thoughts, utterly convincingly.

Save Cash and Save the Planet by Friends of the Earth

A briliant little book that does what it says on the tin! Well designed and easy to find your way around, from the easy to the more complex ways of saving the planet and living more light footedly

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

Another one I took too long to read, and back to his normal fare of unstinting depiction of people making mistakes for who he gives no chance of redemption, didn't feel to me as if it had the heart of his, to me, better works. A bit unsatisfying for the idealist in me. I think I started this but was disappointed and didn't finish it. Hmm, haven't got Saturday or Atonement, or Rose Blanche, must fix that!

AZ: "When good-time, fortysomething Molly Lane dies of an unspecified degenerative illness, her many friends and numerous lovers are led to think about their own mortality. Vernon Halliday, editor of the up-market newspaper The Judge, persuades his old friend Clive Linley, a self-indulgent composer of some reputation, to enter into a euthanasia pact with him. Should either of them succumb to such an illness, the other will effect his death. From this point onwards we are in little doubt as to the novel's outcome--it's only a matter of who will kill whom. In the meantime, compromising photographs of Molly's most distinguished lover, foreign secretary Julian Garmony, have found their way into the hands of the press, and as rumours circulate he teeters on the edge of disgrace. However, this is McEwan, so it is no surprise to find that the rather unsavoury Garmony comes out on top. McEwan is master of the writer's craft, and while this is the sort of novel that wins prizes, his characters remain curiously soulless amidst the twists and turns of plot"

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

I was first introduced to McEwan by my sixth form English teacher, through a slim little book called The Child in Time, a small book with a massive impact, and he's been my companion ever since, shining a light on the unspoken areas of our world, lost children, incest, grief and despair, and writing about them with heartbreaking sparse beauty. Few other authors could write about the marriage night of a newly married couple and extend it into a book length heart wrenching tale of misunderstanding, social life in 1962, hierarchies of life coming from academia and money (her) and squalor and madness (him) and hinted at incest and its devastating consequences for both. A book that makes me hope that I can be less judgemental and more forgiving in my relationships. This is more tender than his usual, a beautiful elegy to lost opportunity that made me more determined to live and speak without restraint, McEwan always has something to teach me.

AZ: "It is June, 1962. In a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come ..."On Chesil Beach" is another masterwork from Ian McEwan - a story about how the entire course of a life can be changed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken."

Exit Music by Ian Rankin

AZ:"It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, keen to bring business to Scotland. The politicians and bankers who run Edinburgh are determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically. But the further they dig, the more Rebus and his colleague DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack - especially after a particularly nasty second killing. Meantime, a brutal and premeditated assault on local gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty sees Rebus in the frame. Has the Inspector taken a step too far in tying up those loose ends? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, inglorious career, will Rebus even make it that far?"

Rebus' last days before retirement dealing with 3 cases that may or may not be connected, a grisly murder of a Russian dissident poet linked timewise with the murder of Litvenenko, the murder by fire of a sound recordist and one time session player, and the attempted murder of Rebus' nemesis Cafferty. Read it in one sitting, absorbing in its fast pace and dreamy in the depths of Rankin's writing and memories of Fife.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling AUDIO

Again, another assay with the wonderful voice of Fry, this time with strong memories of flying back from Birmingham to Dundee in a tiny little plane, seeing the endless expanse of the Border Hills and the relative briefness of Fife spread out below me, MP3 turned right up to hear over the noise and rattle of the engine. Bliss. Oh, and great story, the better for being slowed down, there was so much I missed when reading it.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling AUDIO

I read very fast, epecially when a book is as gripping as Rowling's Harry Potter books, and as a result I do miss a lot. So this is where the audio books come in, I have to slow down as I am listening to someone else, and the someone is the wonderful Stephen Fry. Listening to his voice is enough of a joy in itself, but listening to him and really getting Rowling's wonderfully entertaining story is a real pleasure.

The Road Home by Rose Tremain AUDIO

AZ:"In The Road Home, Tremain tells the story of Lev, an Eastern European migrant worker who has left his village and travelled to England so that he can finance a better life for his mother and daugther. He takes with him his grief for his dead wife. There is an almost fairytale-like quality to Lev's chance encounters and where they lead him, although, that said, they also feel natural and possible; Tremain has always been good on the essential randomness of experience."

An amazing story of economic migrant life in the UK, utterly believable characters caught up in the narrative of a widower trying to make a life for his mother and daughter he had to leave behind. Both the depiction of under-class work in the kitchens and fields of the UK and the bleakness of life in an ex-Soviet state were stunning in the effect of making me really think

Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman

AZ: "When Lyra is studying at Oxford University, she comes across the story of Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnisson's first meeting, many years ago, along with much evidence of the adventure that brought them together. When a young Texan balloonist, Lee Scoresby, comes down to earth in the harbour of an Arctic town in the North, little does he realise that he is about to be embroiled in an out-and-out political brawl. Lee and his daemon, Hester, find themselves the target of political factions trying to take over the running (and oil) of the town. And also resident in the town are huge arctic bears, ignored and patronised by the people and treated like second-class citizens. When Lee and Iorek first meet, they cement a friendship that will continue throughout their lives, as the tensions and pressure in town lead to a deadly conclusion..."

Another beautiful little book, this time bound in navy blue with silver embossed writing. Includes a fantasic little game: Peril of the Pole, tantalising maps and 'ephemera', left me watering at the mouth and wanting more!

Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman

AZ: "A small bundle of material that has somehow slipped between Lyra's universe and our own. The book includes a wonderful new story by Philip Pullman, fully illustrated intricate maps and other ephemera from Lyra's universe. The text is illustrated throughout in beautiful black and white wood-blocks by the highly acclaimed engraver, John Lawrence, together with specially printed three-colour pull out maps of "Lyra's Oxford". This publication could have come from a parallel universe. The short story contained within "Lyra's Oxford" finds Lyra with her daemon Pantalaimon a couple of years after the end of "The Amber Spyglass". Sitting on the roofs of Oxford she sees a bird, the daemon of a witch, a storm petrel flying towards her pursued by a huge and angry flock of starlings. Birds play a big part in this story. And gradually a mystery unfolds.."

Set after the end of the Dark Materials trilogy, this is a short story about Lyra encountering the mystery that is the universe, in this case that her Oxford and its birds are protecting her couched within a visitation from a witch's daemon. Beautifully presented in a little hardback book with tantalising 'extracts' from newspapers and other ephemera a small story perfectly crafted.

Molecules of Emotion: Why you feel the way you feel by Candace B Pert

AZ: "As a graduate student in 1972, the author was part of the team that discovered the brain's opiate receptors. In this text, she provides an in-depth look at the science that led to this and other findings, such as the fact that similar receptors exist in the glands, spleen, bone marrow and other organs, which convey information in both directions via "neuropeptides" to all parts of the body. The author argues that this complex communications network invalidates the distinctions between mind and body"

Brilliant, I understood a little about neurotransmitters and thought I understood that SSRIs inhibit retaike because that is where most bodily communicatin takes place, but Pert's discovery that neurotransmitters and other bodily drugs dock bodywide affecting vastly separated organs and systems was a revelation. It helped me make sense of the need for a holistic approach to bodily health and makes me more determined than ever to find a balance.

Beat Stress and Fatigue by Patrick Holford (Optimum Nutrition Handbook)

Confirms and intersects with Pert's much newer book, helps me understand going gluten-free is only part of the equation and how to control my blood sugar by ensuring I eat low GI food. Have tended to rely on baked potatoes but are high GI so will cause blood sugar to ricochet.

Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies

AZ: "A novel involving the narrator, who has been murdered by his wife's lover, observing the follies of mankind and wreaking his revenge."

I bought this a long time ago (about '93) and finally got round to reading it. I didn't get very far the first time, found it uninteresting, but this time I was captivated and charmed. The quality of the writing is brilliant and the exploration of the family history which has been only names ot the main character Connor Gilmartin is brilliant, bringing Wales, the fledgling US and Canada together through one family tree. Reminds me of Poliakoff's Perfect Strangers in its evocation of the lives of people we know only as elderly grandparents or only in the roles of father and mother. Makes us ask uncomfortable questions about our own voyeurism.

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

A fascinating book about the history of the fabled Silk Road, not a single path but a network of routes stretching from China through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Iran to Turkey. Thubron travelled 7000 miles in 8 months through the Taklamakan desert and conflict ridden mountains. Beautifully written and absorbing. A window on an alien world

The Afghan Amulet: Travels from the Hindu Kush to Razgrad by Shelia Paine

An extraordinary travelogue as Paine travels through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey in search of the origins of a triangular amulet. She somehow communicates with people with whom she has no language in common and writes of people so without possessions that a local British calendar is a real gift. Makes me more determined to make my tread lighter on the earth. And unlike Thubron Paine is female and there is one episode where she has to jump over muddy streams from the roadside in a burkha, she is regularly asked where her husband is and has to be constantly on her guard against assualt. So many situations where she appears fine and I would have been scared witless!

Under Orders by Dick Francis

Francis is, like Koontz, the author I turn to time and time again for a good read, a relief from the world in intrigue and love and violence that all turns out okay in the end. Under Orders sees the return of ex jockey and person who can't help getting in trouble Sid Halley, it's not Francis' best, but it's good enough for me.

The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos

AZ: "Spanning the two decades from the 1930s to the 1950s, this is the story of a groups of friends struggling to find work after the war. The friends' lives interact to form a complex pattern that rocks the Italian and Greek communities of Washington DC with violent repercussions."

The magazine Psychologies advised me to step outside my comfort zone and do something spontaneous or differently from the way I usually would, so instead of browsing in the library I reached out and picked a book at random. It was a book I wold never have picked, the blurb about 1950s gangsters in Washington and the Greek community disinterested me even when I read it after reading the book, but I would have missed something amazing. Well plotted and beautifully written, I just could have drowned in his descriptive passages about the shocking reality of immigrant life in 50s DC. The deep joy of being touched by an unknown writer as happened with Shreve. And it's the first of a quadrology!

Day by AL Kennedy

AZ: "Alfred Day wanted his war. In its turmoil he found his proper purpose as the tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber; he found the wild, dark fellowship of his crew, and – most extraordinary of all – he found Joyce, a woman to love. But that’s all gone now – the war took it away. Maybe it took him, too.
Now in 1949, employed as an extra in a war film that echoes his real experience, Day begins to recall what he would rather forget..."

As usual Kennedy finds an extraordinary angle and writes with devastatingly painful accuracy

Being by Kevin Brooks

"Sixteen-year-old Robert lies anaesthetized. A routine operation has just gone wrong. 'What the hell is that?' 'That, Mr Ryan, is the inside of this boy.' 'Christ . . . It looks like some kind of plastic.' As Robert slowly wakes, he can hear, he can feel, but he can't scream. The operation isn't over. But life, as Robert knows it, is. Robert goes on the run, terrified and desperate for answers. But what if the answers are too terrifying to face?"