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Charley Morris - 07/03/2010
This book is amazing for girls but boys dont get this book instead they have their own series. I would recommend this book to every single girl in the universe!
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mohamed ibrahim - 05/03/2010
This book shows the latest creative production in the digital architecture education.
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Greg Cameron - 03/03/2010
Sol Weinstein's "Loxfinger" is a very funny parody of the novels of Ian Fleming. Some, elsewhere on the Internet, suggest the book has dated. Of course it has. Everything does. But that lends it a certain period charm. Sol Weinstein was a prolific gag writer for various comics and this novel stands as tribute to the time he spent in the Catskill Mountains("the Hebrew Himalayas", as he puts it). There are good jokes, corny jokes, astute jokes and even some surreal jokes. And, by God, there's ethnic humour aplenty. It even gains a certain comic-apocalyptic tone towards the end. It is utter nonsense and fun and I recommend it unreservedly. For anyone interested in the culture of the Catskill Mountain resorts I might even go so far as to call it must-reading. Is it 'Literature?' Of course not. But if you need a laugh, this holds up pretty well over the years, nay, decades....Greg Cameron, Surrey, B.C., Canada
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Editor - 24/02/2010
This tale is told entirely through the eyes of the dead girl, Suzie. The behaviour of her family following her death is described through Suzie's understanding of the natural behaviour of her loved ones, explaining to the reader why the characters behave and react the way that they do. It is Suzie's extra-ordinary insight and graceousness that is the charm of this absolute gem of a story. It is a gripping and compelling read, which leaves you sad but uplifted by the fragility of life, ability to cope with loss, and the sense that our lost loved ones remain ever present. The perspective of the pain of the departed is an interesting slant on this aspect of death and subsequent grief.
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Robert Thomas - 23/02/2010
Thomas Pynchon's debut novel, 'V.', follows the deranged exploits of both former U.S. Navy sailor Benny Profane as he attempted to reconnect with the pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on that form New York's Whole Sick Crew and aging traveller Herbert Stencil as he attempts to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as 'V'. The novel alternates between episodes featuring Benny, his sidekick Pig Bodine and the Whole Sick Crew and the generation-spanning quest of Stencil as he attempts to unravel the clues relating to the existence of 'V'. Each of the Stencil chapters takes place during different periods of historical unrest with the narrative involving Stencil himself, his father's journals and 'V' weaving the fiction of the novel together with the real-world history. Towards the end of the novel, the two strands of story begin to come together so that their converging plotlines form a metaphorical V shape when Stencil hires Benny to travel with him to Malta.
The quest for 'V' sweeps the reader along on a mind-bending journey through sixty years and from Alexandria to Paris, New York to Africa, reality to fable. In a delightfully nonsensical way, 'V.'is a truly immense novel and a puzzling delight to read. While the action twists and turns in such unpredictable ways as to almost dare the reader to try and keep pace, the characters are well-developed and the situations convincing if improbable.
An interesting side note: there is a persistent rumour swirling around the interwebs that JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon were in fact one and the same person - effectively, that Thomas Pynchon was the pen name that Salinger used from 1963 onwards. Although both authors were/are noted for their reclusive natures and both exhibit similar style and themes in their works, the idea of them being the same person does seem rather outlandish. However, now that JD Salinger has died, it will be interesting to see when, and indeed if, Thomas Pynchon releases a new novel.
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Robert J. Thomas - 17/02/2010
It might seem redundant to have just written a review of a book which was first published in 1961 but, having heard of the death of JD Salinger just over a week ago, I felt compelled to reread 'Franny and Zooey', my favourite of the four Salinger books that are currently in print in England, and was struck once again by just how sublime a literary work it is. While 'The Catcher in the Rye' is rightly lauded and copies of it still sell in their tens of thousands each year, Salinger's collected works of stories and novellas featuring the Glass family are often overlooked despite being, in my opinion at least, Salinger's most accomplished works.
Franny and Zooey are the two youngest members of the Glass family and the two stories that comprise the book 'Franny and Zooey' chronicle their exploits over the course of a long weekend in November 1955. The first and shortest of the stories, 'Franny', takes place in an unnamed US college town and tells the tale of Franny's disenchantment with the selfishness and inauthenticity that she perceives in all those around her as they become obsessed with the significance of the big football game against Yale that is about to be played. The second story, 'Zooey', picks up Franny's story as she returns to her parent's home in New York while undergoing an existential breakdown. Zooey is Franny's older brother, an emotionally stunted former child protégé, who does his best to offer Franny brotherly love and sage advice.
'Franny and Zooey' features two of the most exquisitely crafted short stories that I have ever had the pleasure to read. While the members of the Glass family might at first appear to be unashamedly, self-centredly eccentric, after a close reading of 'Frannie and Zooey' the undeniable warmth of their family relationships and their passionate quests for spiritual and intellectual enlightenment come to the fore in such a way as to highlight the bravery and tenaciousness in their desire to become "real". Rather than concentrate on the cynicism that hounded Holden Caulfield in 'The Catcher in the Rye', with 'Frannie and Zooey' Salinger chooses to examine the spectre of nervous breakdown and to emphasise the existence of a path to happiness through spiritual enlightenment and self-realisation. I'm so glad that I was inspired to read this book again, I certainly won't be waiting so long next time.
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Keya Brown - 09/02/2010
This book is pure GOLD!!!, it's all a girl ever needs to be FABULOUS!!!
It's technicly a guide to looking and feeling gorgeous!, it has loads and loads of fabulous ideas, eg. How to appear fabulously confident, how to make your hair work for you,how to give your face a work-out etc,etc.
It has loads of spectacular things to make a girl feel and look FABULOUS!!!
thank you,
By Keya Brown
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Gary Dicks - 03/02/2010
The fourth edition of 'A Short History of Linguistics' does what it says on the tin, so to speak. Concise would be a fair way to describe it but conciseness is relative and if you're expecting a short history of linguistics in three easy steps, this is not for you. However, if you want a balanced and in-depth account of the history of linguistic thought, this book is possibly the only one you'll find that can do it all seamlessly, meaning you won't necessarily have to scrabble through half a dozen other books too.
Robins writes as a linguist, an historian and an overall intellectual, which some will find off-putting, but, with reference to his field, it seems very apt to me.
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Ursula Blake - 03/02/2010
Before we discovered this book, my 7 year old boy would only read coloured picture books with limited words. I have been searching for over a year to find a substantial fiction book that captured his imagination. This is the book!! He has never read a book more than 10 pages long, yet this one has over 300 pages and he cannot put it down. His reading skills have improved overnight. He is even acting out the story in the playground at school with his friends (who he has also introduced to the book)!
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Chris Mawson - 28/01/2010
This is a superb book, well illustrated throughout, and very substantial at over 500 pages. Spalding has spent years researching this book, covering as it does the joint lives of the British artist John Piper (1903-92) and his wife Myfanwy, the latter perhaps best known as one of John Betjeman's many muses. The many facets of Piper's work (artist, potter, stained glass designer, author, editor etc, etc) are covered in clear chronological detail, drawing on interviews with the Piper's friends and relatives. This book offers excellent value for money and is thoroughly recommended.
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Edward Bowhill - 28/01/2010
This book might have been better titled 'Seaside Piers from the Air', as many of the piers covered are illustrated with black and white photos from the early 20s through to the 60s. The use of aerial shots is this book's innovation, as such photos haven't been used in pier books before, and it's fascinating to see images of piers that have long gone, such as Folkestone, Rhyl, Lytham and Brighton West. The book is arranged in a clear gazetteer format (A-Z) and each pier has a concise history and several illustrations. Sadly the book was rendered out of date soon after publication with the serious fires at Weston and Fleetwood, making the archive photos of them herein all the more poignant. A worthy addition to the small number of pier books available.
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Chris Mawson - 28/01/2010
Thomas Mawson (1861-1933) has long dwelt in the shadows of more popular garden designers such as Gertrude Jekyll and this book is an overdue assessment of his life and work. Extensively researched and illustrated, it deserves to be the standard work on Mawson alongside the books published during his lifetime i.e. 'The Art & Craft of Garden Making' and 'The Life and Work of an English Landscape Architect'.
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Matthew Hutchinson - 28/01/2010
A really good book, a must for all budding science technicians. Very helpful for making general science chemical solutions. Although at present it is out of print, it would be good if it were put back into print. I swear by this book as a biology technician myself. It has straight forward information involving safety, educational technology, care of animals, greenhouse management, chromatographic techniques, laboratory solutions, electronics, workshop processes, hand tools, drills and grinders, lathes, workshop tables, laboratory tables, sources of equipment materials and information.
Although this book as been out of print since the 1980's and although there is some information that is out of date, a vast majority of it is still very useful. I would strongly recommend it. It is possible to get hold of a decent copy but be warned, shop around, some companies are asking for over £100 for it. I was able to get a copy for little over £20.
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Oscar Huckle - 25/01/2010
Cherub: The Recruit starts with James Choke, a typical Year 7 student getting in a fight with a girl in his class, Samantha Jennings. He returns home to find his Mum drunk and his horrible step dad is there, Ronald Onions. When his Mum dies, James is sent to an orphanage where he has his own room and he attends a new school. However, one day he wakes up in an unfamiliar place. He is in Cherub, a school where the kids are trained as spies and when ready, they are sent on secret missions. People never suspect kids are spying on them, watching their every move. The story is about James' life at Cherub, his training to become an agent and how he eventually takes part in his first secret mission. Interesting!!!!!!!
My friend nagged me for weeks to read this book telling me it was amazing. Eventually, I gave in and read. I felt the story started well, however the mission that James was sent on later on in the story wasn't that interesting. But I am not going to worry about that at the moment because I'm sure James will get tougher missions as he carries on his life at Cherub. I'll just have to carry on reading the series to prove this is the case. Apart from that, the book is good. Robert Muchamore tells the story well. The plot twists and turns at every moment; one big roller coaster ride. Enough said, I better not spoil the rest of the story. Overall, the book is worth one read. 7/10. I hear the second Cherub, 'Class A' is meant to be good. Better check it out........
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Sean Anderson - 25/01/2010
In Cold Blood is in the most part from a first-person perspective: that of Perry Smith as he describes the night of the Clutter murders. There is additionally evidence of an intrusive narrator with Capote describing Dewey's feelings in the third person.
Capote effectively highlights the killers' total lack of remorse; for example, when Perry remarks on Dick's comment, 'I'm gonna bust that little girl.' Dick is showing a very casual intention to rape Nancy and Capote has manipulated his idiolect to disgust the reader: the diminutive, pleasant-sounding 'little girl' is starkly contrasted by the malevolent-sounding word 'bust', achieving the same effect as Shelley, since Dick understands the concept of children's place in society, but does not care about raping her. 'What do you care? Hell, you can bust her, too.'
Dick is horrific because of his nonchalant attitude to the destruction he creates, but it could be argued that Perry is often the more horrific of the two. Dick is the traditional 'low-life', but Capote's apparent sympathy for Perry moulds him into a rational character: 'Now, that's something I despise. Anybody that can't control themselves sexually . I gave the gun to Dick. I told him I'd done all I could do.' However, his description of the events is remarkably clinical, paying attention to the mundane task of removing evidence, using an expletive to refer to the shell and simple emotionless sentences: 'The last shell was a bitch to locate. Dick wiggled under the bed to get it.' Furthermore, he later expresses a desire to kill Dick, not because of hatred, but to keep to the original plan and save himself: '. that's when I decided I'd better shoot Dick . And I thought, He's a witness.' The reader will struggle mentally here to compute Perry's conflicting personalities. How can a man with such concerns kill so easily? Is a question that demonstrates the impact of psychological horror.
Capote is a master of capturing moments of heightened emotion witnessed in Nancy, pleading helplessly with the intruders: 'Oh, no! Oh, please. No! No! No! Don't! Oh, please don't! Please!' Capote has used repetition, each word delivered like a blow to the reader who shares Nancy's dread and has used a female who represents the American Dream, being a highly desirable potential wife in America at the time of production (domestically talented, pretty and clever), as the victim of Dick's hubris. Shelley has used a male who was similarly a role model of the patriarchy at the time of production. In both cases, idealism has been shown to be fallible, thus creating an air of despair that horrifies the reader psychologically by removing hope for the redemption of society from their minds.
Nancy's struggle is conveyed to the reader by Capote's account of Dewey's imagination: 'Nancy's room, Nancy listening to boots on hardwood stairs, the creak of the steps as they climb towards her, Nancy's eyes, Nancy watching the flashlight's shine seek the target.' The techniques used to set the mood include the train-of-thought-like repetition of 'Nancy' and incomplete clauses separated by commas; the word 'boots' and 'hardwood', creating an impression of a heavy sound and the dehumanising words 'seek the target', suggesting Dick and Perry's lack of respect for life. The culmination of this is the sentence, 'He took aim, and she turned her face to the wall.' The result is left to the audience's imagination and so is more likely to trouble them than if it had been force-fed a description that does not engage the mind.
Capote's radical style of reportage (one of the first New Journalism texts) known as 'faction' has inspired many books since and is still relevant today; thus, a modern audience will likely be just as horrified today by In Cold Blood as at the time of publication.
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Oscar Huckle - 25/01/2010
J.K Rowling has made each of the Harry Potter books special in their own way. Now that we reach the end of this spectacular saga, J.K Rowling must impress the public with her final book. Will it live up to its predecessors?
Of course it does. J.K. Rowling reveals all the answers to unanswered questions from the earlier books in spectacular fashion and glorious detail. The story unfolds slowly, but steadily and is full of detail. It keeps the reader on the edge of his seat at all times and I never wanted to put it down even for a second. Will Harry Potter finally accomplish the task that Dumbledore left him - to destroy all the horcruxes and send Voldemort to hell once and for all ? Find out in this final epic book. Enjoy! I highly recommend this book. 10/10 - no questions asked.
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sharren fitzpatrick - 22/01/2010
What a great book. Plenty of fabulous tasty recipes that are easy to follow and good diet tips...most recipes could be enjoyed by all the family.
Just imagine how much better it would be if everytime you opened the book you heard Gino's voice too!!
Heaven on a plate!!
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Liam Cromar - 19/01/2010
The second volume of Bantam's Complete Sherlock Holmes collection is a little bit of a mixed bag, but still worth the modest outlay.
The starting point couldn't be better: the quintessential Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, represents the high-water mark of Conan Doyle's chronicles of Holmes. The desolate bleak moors of Devon provides Holmes with the opportunity to shine - and he does so in dramatic style. If you only read one Holmes novel, do make it 'Hound'. (Trivia: the legend Conan Doyle drew from comes not from Devon, but from near Kington, on the Herefordshire/Wales border)
The Valley of Fear gets off to a promising start, and for all of Part I we observe Holmes in his element, dealing with a more-than-meets-the-eye case of murder. Unfortunately, in Part II, Conan Doyle indulges his tendency to break off into long non-Holmes explanatory story-telling, as previously exhibited in A Study in Scarlet. It explains the build-up to Part I, but frankly he's not at his best in this vein, and while the story is mildly intriguing, it suffers from the absence of Holmes.
The rest of the volume is made up of two short-story collections: His Last Bow and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. The quality of these are rather variable: there are certainly low points, such as when Conan Doyle experiments with doing away with his narrator in the form of Watson ('Mazarin Stone', 'Last Bow'), and when he seems to forget to include a mystery for Holmes to solve ('Veiled Lodger'). It's not all bad, though, with humour combined with danger on display ('Lady Frances Carfax') and old-fashioned Holmes-thinking ('Thor Bridge').
In summary, then: despite the occasional dull moment, this is an essential addition to Volume 1, and should on no account be overlooked. Pass quickly over the weak points and enjoy watching the master of induction at work.
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Darby - 19/01/2010
This book was the best book that I have ever read. I would recommend this to anyone that is mature - I can't stop reading it! I love how the author makes this book so relatable.
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Dawn Edwards - 16/01/2010
I am 45 years old and the first "heavy metal" record I bought was Paranoid, nuff said!
Although if you read the book Ozzy doesn't really like the term "heavy metal". After reading Sharon's 2 books which gives you plenty of insight on Ozzy's world from her perspective I couldn't wait to see what Ozzy had to say about it all. I read the whole book in just over a day, I just couldn't put it down. Unlike other autobiographies by people I love and admire there are always those few pages that bore you just a little bit. Not this one! I was spellbound, catapulted into Ozzie's world and what a world it was! The book flowed effortlessly from one drama to another which in Ozzie's world was one day to the next. His candid tales of events were funny, sad , thought provoking, honest and oh did I say sometimes really funny! I was left wanting more, his writing so descriptive of events (even though he may have had help here!)You are left feeling like you have lived those days with him and you want them to carry on. Overall a brilliant read even for someone who isn't a fan of the "prince of darkness! I saw him in Birmingham at his book signing but didn't get a chance to meet him, shame that. One last point - how is this guy still alive? Beats me!