He Wants - Alison Moore

'The front door is mostly glass, a pane as wide and tall as a man.'




From the first line you realize that you are about to read something completely different. The writing is crisp and fresh in this story about a man looking back and reflecting on his life. This book is pretty much like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces are put together as you read each page. Or maybe a better analogy would be to say it's like painting by numbers.



It's a quirky book just like her breakthrough novel 'The Lighthouse'. This is as good as that one but totally different. It may not have all the thrills and spills of some modern day novels but there is something uniquely beautiful about this that will keep you turning the pages.



Not the most exciting read but thoroughly captivating.




Enjoyed.




8/10

The Railway Children - E Nesbit

When their father disappears, three children move to the countryside and discover a railway track.






There are lots of children's books which can be read in adulthood and enjoyed but this isn't one of them. At least I didn't think so anyway. I was glad when it was over to be honest.


The story was littered with too many coincidences and it was  
quite preachy in parts as well. There was nothing to hook me as a reader and it was really predictable.


To be fair I am getting on a bit so maybe I would have enjoyed reading this when I was a kid. So maybe I am being unfair.





6/10

Holding Up The Universe ~ Jennifer Niven

We are all weird in different ways. Sometimes that weirdness is on the outside and sometimes it's on the inside, where nobody can see it.




Two things. I very rarely read young adult fiction and I tend to avoid audio books like the plague. So I started the audio version of this one with low expectations to say the least.


I was more than pleasantly surprised. This is really good. The writing is fresh and the story was cleverly woven with a good mixture of humour, drama and just good simple story telling. My only wish is that I'd read the actual paper version because I think the experience would have been even better. 



A good read.





10/10

The Children's Brer Rabbit by E H Pritchyard

I stumbled upon the book in a big pile of books that I recently inherited from a family friend. First published in 1933, this so old I couldn't even find a trace of it in a google search.



I've always heard of Brer Rabbit and I think I read the Enid Blyton version as a kid but it's too long ago to remember. It's a fun read and I'm sure even children these days would enjoy it. It's a collection of stories that originates from African/American Indian/African American folk tales. So nobody knows the original author. This book was a retelling by F H Pritchyard based on the books of Joel Chandler Harris. With great illustrations by Honor C Appleton.


A few things in the book would never see the light of day if it was published today including the main character smoking a cigar and a bizarre use of a word which is not acceptable today but was very commonplace back then.




This book is obviously not aimed at me but it was fun and I enjoyed reading about the history of the stories and characters when I wasn't reading it.






8/10

Book 4 - Cell By Stephen King

.Don't answer the phone, Don't even pick it up. If you do you'll go nuts. That's what's happened to the rest of the world. There are only a few survivors and they are running for their lives.




Cell is very much old school Stephen King, although it was only published just over ten years ago. It's like a cross between The Stand, The Long Walk and Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'.


It doesn't start off very well at all and for the first time in my life I was considering ditching it. Without any warning we are thrust into a scenario which would have been better with a slower build up. But then it settles down and it's actually a decent book.


It's a pity that it was let down by the ending. I don't mind open endings, King usually does them well, but this ending was too unrealistic in a needle in a haystack kind of way. But that's all I will say.



A decent book that needed a better beginning and a better ending.




7.5/10