Amazingly, this is the first Sherlock Holmes story I have read – I don’t know how I have gone through life without reading one of these books but somehow I have. I have a whole volume now though, so have plenty to work my way through and enjoy.

This particular story revolves around the discovery of a dead body in an abandoned house with a look of horror etched on his face and with a mysterious word written on the wall in blood! You couldn’t ask for a more fascinating and gripping beginning to a detective story, could you? The police are completely baffled as to the method of his death, where he has come from, or who has killed him. The story goes all the way to the Mormons in America, and seemed an extremely obscure solution – but, of course, Holmes has it all worked out.
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(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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I enjoyed this book. It feels like just a gentle read and quite charming on the surface, but it has quite sinister undertones. It is very cleverly written.

The story is told from the viewpoint of two young boys through their games of make-believe and pretend, one such game being tracking a supposed German spy. The boys are both quite ordinary boys living in an ordinary neighbourhood. The war doesn’t seem to have touched them much, there are no reports of rationing or bombing. They are just two normal boys, quite excited by the prospect of war and determined to have their own adventures. But they gradually come to realise that real life has its own dramas and secrets, most of which they end up wishing they had never discovered and become involved in.
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(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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I found this a very memorable and clever book. It is the story of Liesel, a German girl living through the Second World War. She has had a difficult start in life as she has been sent away to live with foster parents. Liesel struggles to cope with the awful events happening around her and finds comfort in words and books, and therefore takes the opportunity to steal books she finds.

However, the narrator of the story is Death itself (quite a kindly empathetic character, it seems!), and I found this aspect really interesting and very different and extremely clever.
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(2 votes, average: 2 out of 5)

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I found this a bit of a strange book from Bryson as I expected a funny book full of amusing stories, and this is more of a text book. But it is really, really good. I loved it. The book is all about the history, formation, meanings, and apparent inconsistencies (charmingly) of the English language.

I was lent the book by a friend and when I realised it wasn’t his usual thing, I thought I’d read the first couple of chapters out of politeness to my friend and return it to her, but I wasn’t able to stop reading it. He writes in such an interesting and absorbing way. Every single line and sentence is fascinating, there are no ‘fillers’ to pad it out. And he is obviously so passionate about the subject, which made the book very entertaining. Considering it is more of a text book, it is a great read.
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(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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I found this quite an odd book altogether. It is quite disturbing and unsettling, yet I felt I had to read to the end to find out what would happen to the main character, Grenouille, as I couldn’t imagine what his ending would be. (I have to say also, the ending fitted with the rest of the book, ie disturbing and unsettling, and I definitely did not see that ending coming!)
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(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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I picked up this book for a pound in a second hand bookshop purely as the title sounded so intriguing – there is just something about the thought of reading a diary, something almost forbidden and guilt inducing. Then I read the back and realised the inn in question was fairly local to me (The Castle Hotel in Taunton) so these two facts definitely sold the book to me.

I loved reading it, and wished it would have gone on for longer. I searched on Amazon to see if the author had written any more, but sadly not. The owner of The Castle Hotel, and the author of the book, is Kit Chapman and he seems an interesting man – very dedicated to The Castle and always aiming for the best, yet also quite a strict man who seems, to me, to be someone who doesn’t forgive or forget anyone that crosses him.
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(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Review supplied by Ekta

In today’s difficult times when mother nature is warming up, human relations are faltering and freedom is being misused, “Temple of Destiny” is a welcome reading. It takes us into a world of self-observation and self-realisation. The simple positive medium of connectivity with nature touches the soul. A must treasure.

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This is a children’s book so is not one I would normally read, and I therefore find it difficult to judge whether it was good or not as I’m obviously not the target reader, and the subject matter (spies) isn’t really one that interests me greatly. But having said that, I did find the book gripping and I raced through it. The book is the first in the series of 14 year old Alex Rider’s adventures as he is recruited into MI6 and sent on his first dangerous mission.
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(1 votes, average: 2 out of 5)

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I do absolutely adore Penny Vincenzi books, but, although I enjoyed this, I felt it wasn’t one of my favourites and I probably wouldn’t read it again and again as I do her others. Normally one of the main things I like about Vincenzi’s books are the details of her characters; you end up living their lives with them, often over several decades, and I love this detail. But the characters in this book I just didn’t particularly warm to so I found it hard to care about what happened to them.
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(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Review supplied by Jack Henry Collings

Close to the wind by Ben Ainslie is the best book of my life it has thrills and depressing times in this breathtaking autobiography

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