Books

Karam Kazam!

Posted 4:57pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Josef Alton

Before we start, I have a question for you. Do you want a book review, or an opinion? I find it amazing how often people want a book that affirms their beliefs, rather than a book that challenges them. Joe Karam’s fourth book on the David Bain saga, Trial By Ambush, will no doubt challenge some Read more...

Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People - Bryce Galloway

Posted 5:08am Monday 10th October 2011 by Sarah Maessen

(4/5) I think the first port of call for this review is to point out that this book is not about sex (apart from the occasional reference) or hideous people (as far as the sparse photographs show). It is an abridged collection of the first 37 issues of Bryce Galloway’s fanzine. Generally Read more...

The Fat Years

Posted 4:02am Monday 3rd October 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Chan Koonchung; translated from Chinese by Michael S. Duke Publisher: Doubleday 1/5 Two years in the future, in China, things are afoot. A month has been forgotten. Luckily we are protagonised by Old Chen, one of those writers who doesn't write. And he ends up trying to solve Read more...

Nelson Mandela by Himself - Nelson Mandela

Posted 6:14am Monday 19th September 2011 by Sarah Maessen

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”   Under the apartheid government of South Africa, it was illegal to quote Nelson Mandela. He is now among the most quoted people in the world, Read more...

Bound, Vanda Symon

Posted 2:12am Monday 12th September 2011 by Feby Idrus

Bound is the fourth book in Vanda Symon’s crime novel series starring Detective Sam Shephard, and it opens with a hell of a bang (kind of literally; there’s a reason why the murder victim’s face is described as “just dripping meat, bone and brain”). In fact, the opening made me think “Wow, she’s Read more...

Lauren Kate

Posted 10:33pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Sarah Maessen

The New Stephanie Meyer? I met Lauren Kate with low expectations. A quick google and perusal of Wikipedia produced multiple parallels between her work and Twilight, the vampire series that has inexplicably reached demigod status in the world of teenage literature. Kate is from Texas, the Read more...

Wild Swans

Posted 2:45am Monday 15th August 2011 by Sylvia Avery

Author: Jung Chang. Publisher: Flamingo, (4.5/5). Wild Swans is Jung Chang’s autobiography and follows the lives of three generations of Chinese women. The book begins with Jung Chang’s concubine grandmother and follows her struggle for independence during the upheaval of her Read more...

Smokin’ Seventeen

Posted 11:37pm Monday 8th August 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Janet Evanovich Smokin’ Seventeen is the latest instalment in the long-running Stephanie Plum series, a series that is a classic example of when an author didn’t know to stop. Evanovich jumped the shark long ago, as each book is more ludicrous and less plausible than the Read more...

Our Tragic Universe

Posted 4:08am Monday 1st August 2011 by Liam Dakin

Author: Scarlett Thomas, Publisher: Canongate, (4/5). Inside this teen-fantasy-adventure-esque cover (complete with cool black edged pages) is a story about Meg, a freelance author struggling to survive by teaching writing classes and reviewing popular science books. All the while she is Read more...

Screwjack

Posted 3:53am Monday 25th July 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Hunter S Thompson, (4/5), Screwjack is a small collection of three short stories. Initially only 300 collector’s copies and 26 leather bound books were published, and one could expect to pay upwards of a thousand dollars for a copy.   The book is introduced by Read more...