Monthly Archives: February, 2015
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly is an American writer of young-adult fiction best known for the historical novel, A Gathering Light and originally published by Harcourt in 2003 in the USA under the title A Northern Light. Bloomsbury published an edition in the UK within the calendar year, entitled A Gathering Light. Donnelly won the 2003 Carnegie Medal for the year’s outstanding book …
The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
The Impossible Dead is a novel written by the Scottish crime author, Ian Rankin. He is a leading exponent of the Scottish Tartan Noir genre. His most famous character is John Rebus but this book is the sequel to a previous novel, The Complaints which follows Rankin’s more recent protagonist, Malcolm Fox. The Complaints is reviewed here: https://bookreviewstoday.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/complaints-by-ian-rankin-2/. Like …
Mortal Remains by Kathy Reichs
I really enjoy Kathy Reichs books and I enjoyed meeting her at Bloody Scotland in Stirling, Scotland. She is a New York Times bestselling author, although I admit that I do not enjoy the young adult books she co-writes with her son, Brendan Reichs. However, of course, I am not their target audience for those! …
Writing the poem Ripening by guest author Sheila Templeton
Thank you Val, for inviting me to write for your blog. In our discussion about what might be interesting for your readers, we came up with the idea that I might go through the steps of working on a poem. I’ve chosen my poem Ripening, because it won first prize in the McLellan Poetry Competition …
The Masada Scroll by Paul Block and Robert Vaughn.
It is many years since I visited Masada, Israel and longer yet since I saw the Dead Sea Scrolls when they were exhibited in Edinburgh, Scotland. Nevertheless, The Masada Scroll was a title that appealed to me when the book was being sold in my local library. The staff have a habit of selling books …
The Six Degrees of Mort Laitner (Apologies To Kevin Bacon) by guest author Mort Laitner
While reading through Valerie Penny’s Book Reviews (She reviewed A Hebraic Obsession and wrote “A unique and important book…” And…”The story needs to be read.”)I recognized a number of my favorite authors had also been reviewed on her blog: Andrew Neiderman (my ninth grade English teacher) ghost writer for V.C. Andrews and author of The Devil’s Advocate.Mitch …
The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffery Archer
I do not rate Jeffery Archer as a great author, but he is a great story teller. His book The Eleventh Commandment had been taking up shelf space for years, so I decided to read it and then give it away to the local charity shop. That way it would no longer take up room …
The Confession by John Grisham
John Ray Grisham, Jr. was born on 8 February, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States of America. He is an American lawyer, politician, and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into forty-two languages. John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University where he attained a degree in accountancy before …
Val Penny's Book Reviews 
Recent Comments