Monthly Archives: May, 2013

The Nation’s Favourite Poems Book I (forward by Griff Rhys Jones)

The Nation’s Favourite Poems Book I was the surprise choice for our book group recently.  Some of the group were cross because they felt poetry was not a suitable choice for the group.  However, I enjoyed the book.  It contains an eclectic collection of poems.  It resulted from a nationwide poll to discover Britain’s favourite poem. If… …

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Wasted by Mark Johnson

Wasted was book of the month at my book club. It is the autobiography of Mark Johnson who suffered a poor and violent childhood.  He first took heroin at the age of 11.  His was a childhood of an abused, emotionally neglected, thieving street-running boy.  He grew into a man who turned his life into a drug …

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The Narcissist’s Daughter by Craig Holden

Craig Holden is the author of several novels including The River Sorrow, The Last Sanctuary, Four Corners of Night, The Jazz Bird and this book, The Narcissist’s Daughter.  He has also received Great Lakes Book Award in Fiction.  His books have been translated into a dozen languages.  He has taught at the Universities of Michigan, Toledo, and New …

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Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs

 Deja Dead was Kathy Reichs’s debut crime novel and inspired such widespread excitement. It won the 1998 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. I really enjoy Kathy Reichs books, but they do get a bit technical in parts.  She is an American author but has a tendency to drop into French dialogue.  That might be off putting …

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Looking Good Dead by Peter James

Peter James was born in Brighton, England. He is the son of a Jewish refugee who came to England in 1938. James was educated at Charterhouse School  and thereafter went on to Ravensbourne Film School.  Subsequently he spent several years in North America, where he worked as a  screen writer and film producer.  However, he is now …

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Fup by Jim Dodge

I have no idea what the attraction of Fup by Jim Dodge is.  It left me completely cold.  I read it as it was the book put forward by my book group. The story, such as it is, is about a twenty pound duck that won’t fly, thirty miles of barbed-wire fencing, and several batches of …

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Torment of Others by Val McDermid

Val McDermid is a Scottish author who read English at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, England.  She was accepted at 17, one of the youngest undergraduates they have ever taken on, and the first from a Scottish state school. It should therefore come as no surprise that she is an excellent writer.  This story was very well …

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