Currently Browsing: Requested Reviews
Jul 17, 2009
A Full House – But Empty – Angus Munro
This is the first autobiography that I have been asked to review. I will confess, biographies don’t appear within my preferred genres although many of the ones I have read I have enjoyed very much. The beauty of the autobiography is that the life that is being recounted is very personal and infused with meaning that only the author could have known or deduced. I don’t always relate to... read more
May 26, 2009
The Genie in Your Genes – Dawson Church
This book was written to lay out a theory of Epigenetic medicine, a term I had never come across despite my fascination with science. A search on the internet for the term brings up quite a few references to this book, so I turned to it to find an explanation. The general thesis of the book is that humans have the ability to effectively ‘change their genes’ through their own thoughts,... read more
May 14, 2009
They Plotted Revenge Against America – Abe F. March
I started reading this book the day before the recent swine flu scare hit Europe. It was pretty ironic timing, as Abe F. March’s novel, They Plotted Revenge Against Amercia tells the story of a group of young Palestinians who, having cruelly lost their entire families in the continuing battle between US-supported Israel and Palestine, decide to join an organisation to seek revenge. That revenge was... read more
May 14, 2009
Making Light of Being Heavy – Kandy Siahaya
Obesity is so frequently hailed as a ‘problem’ and a ‘disaster for the country’ in the newspapers nowadays that it is no surprise that we assume that every overweight person is just one more statistic whose life will be cut short because their heart will give out by the time they are 20, and in the short years they are alive they will be so miserably unhappy that they will do... read more
Apr 29, 2009
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet – Reif Larsen
Uncorrected proof copies of a novel can be of varying quality. Some I have received have had paper covers (although the shabby appearance belied the quality of the writing within). Others I have received looked no different to what I imagine the finished product would look like, although the illustrations may have been blurred or left out altogether. When I received my copy of The Selected Works of... read more
Mar 25, 2009
Beat The Reaper – Josh Bazell
A single word came to my head when I finished this book. Wow. What a ride. This was a clever combination of graphic violence, black humour, thrills and empathy and it was a story which just kept you on the edge of your seat. For a first novel, it is an explosion from an author who has a fantastic way with words, the ability to craft strong characters and a knack for painting an image which is sometimes... read more
Jan 19, 2009
Kissing Games of the World – Sandi Kahn Shelton
In many cases, a good book isn’t compelling because of the plot. The quality of a book comes from far more than that. Of course, the plot is important, but Kissing Games of the World provides evidence that the plot can almost be incidental. When your characters are strong, and the journey from the beginning to the end of the book is undertaken with such care, you have the makings of a fantastic,... read more
Dec 19, 2008
Tough Love Tender Heart – Steven Verrier
When I began reading Tough Love Tender Heart, I immediately thought that this was going to be another version of the film Fools Rush In with Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek. It starts out in a similar fashion, although Don, the protagonist of the book, lacks the successful career and suave personality that Matthew Perry’s character has in the film. However, although the start of the book was similar,... read more
