In April 2008 a stunning new look for Oxford World’s Classics was launched. New cover images and an eye-catching spine design lend a fresh, contemporary feel to this well-loved series.

Encompassing classic fiction, ancient philosophy, and some surprising gems, Oxford World’s Classics brings the latest standards of critical attention to bear upon a breathtaking range of world literature. Read the rest of this entry »

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Review supplied by Cindy Hiday, Author and Writing Instructor

Set in Depression Era Portland, Oregon, A Father’s Heart is rich in period language and details. Three generations of women rely on their love for each other and a steadfast faith in God to get them through hard times. Though smoothly told from several viewpoints, this is really Maddie’s story. As one man breaks her heart and another steps in to mend it, little Maddie Miller learns the real meaning of a father’s love.

Told with warmth, honesty and wonderful touches of humor, Maddie wraps herself around the reader’s heart and doesn’t let go until the last word. It is a timeless story that rings true for anyone who has struggled to make sense of growing up fatherless.

Watching this story develop over the years has been an exciting journey. As a fellow student and friend of Alice Mitchell, I’m thrilled to see her hard work and professionalism come to fruition. It’s the berries!

(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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This is an interesting book, with very strong characters for whom you develop strong feelings. It is the story of schoolchild Tom Curdie, living in the grim slums of Glasgow in the 1950s, and his teacher Charlie Forbes who genuinely wants to help Tom and improve his life, but is ignorant of the best way to go about this. Charlie decides to invite Tom on his annual family holiday, much to the disappointment of his wife and children, and to the doubt of Tom and his family.

Forbes thinks, by offering Tom this holiday, he is providing him with strength to see him through his difficult life when he returns to the slums. Tragically, he does not anticipate the difficulties Tom would face when it is time to return to the slums after experiencing the different life with the Forbes. Tom is then, tragically, caught between two lives, fitting into neither. Forbes is naive in wanting to help, but he doesn’t consider the possible harm that his help may cause.
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(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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I found this book, at the same time, gripping and yet difficult to get into! It tells the story from two people’s viewpoints, and from two different times, plus we (the readers) aren’t given the name or identity of one of the people! Therefore it is quite hard work to follow, and I found I kept flicking back through the chapters to see if I’d missed something, and kept feeling that there were sure to be important clues that I wasn’t benefitting from as I didn’t have all the information. But, the book has a fantastic sense of foreboding – the bitterness felt by the un-named character is very powerful, and you are aware quite early on that there will be a dramatic act of revenge. You are just kept constantly guessing at what this act will be, who it will involve, and when it will occur! A very ingenious way to write a book.

I do admire the author, I have read several of her books and like the fact that each one is completely different from others she has written. Usually an author sticks to a particular theme (like a thriller or a romance), or time (eg, the 1920s for Penny Vincenzi), or a particular setting (eg, a courtroom for John Grisham), or the same location (eg, Cornwall for Daphne De Maurier), yet every book I have read by Joanne Harris seems to be drastically different from the last.
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(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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This is the first book in the trilogy of the ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ series.

I have to admit, this was quite a different book from what I had imagined after watching the TV dramatisation of the story. The book doesn’t really read like a story unfolding, it is more a historical record of the author’s life in a small village, for example the first chapter details the types of houses that people of that age and class lived in, then the types of work open to them, then their traditions, etc, rather than a group of characters and the telling of their lives and relationships. Therefore I found I didn’t pick the book up each day with the same degree of enthusiasm as I do with other books, but after persevering with it I found it had a charm of its own as the detailed descriptions do allow you to experience, to a degree, life at that time – and this focus may not have been there if I was busy concentrating on different characters and different storylines.
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(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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This is a beautifully written story, that grabs you by the heartstrings. It is quite emotional, and I was often in tears reading it, which sometimes made it quite hard-going, but it is a very uplifting and hopeful tale.

It is the story of Kamryn, and how her life dramatically changes when her former best friend dies and leaves her daughter, Tegan, in her care. Kamryn has to learn to adapt her life to the little girl’s needs, which are sometimes quite demanding as Tegan has to come to terms with the loss of her mother, so Kamryn is dealing with another’s grief as well as her own. Kamryn is also struggling with feelings of guilt, as she didn’t have time to make things up with her friend before she died.
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(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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Book review supplied by Helenmarie Colquhoun.

I read Jodi Picoult’s, Keeping Faith. I found this book to be fantastic and very moving.

The book starts off with mum and dad splitting up and their little girl Faith starts to have visions of god. Things like this nearly always give me the heeby jeebies, but I loved this book. The story is told so naturally it’s believable and not at all far fetched.

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This competition has now ended.

What is The Assassin’s Cloak? It’s an anthology of diary entries from 170 contributors, ranging from Queen Victoria to Andy Warhol. Canongate Books and The Classic Book Club want you (yes, you) to send us a (fictional) diary entry of your own - and our three favourite entries will win a copy of The Assassin’s Cloak. Read the rest of this entry »

(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Daphne Du Maurier is such an incredible writer – there is no-one else that manages to create such a feeling of dread and foreboding and ill-ease in books as she! I find myself turning a page and then involuntarily scanning to the end before I read it, just to find out in advance if anything nasty happens! And yet there is nothing particularly gruesome or overtly violent in her novels – it is just the skillful language that she uses and the beautiful way she creates the mood just by describing the scene.

In this novel Mary Yellan finds herself moving to a new home after her mother dies, and her only other living relatives are the Merlyns who own an Inn in desolate moorland countryside in Cornwall. She is understandably reluctant to leave the farm and home she loves, yet things get worse when she meets her Uncle Joss. He is a threatening bully who terrorises his wife and expects to rule over everybody and everything. Mary is intimidated by Joss, and by the mood and sense of threat and unhappiness that pervades the Inn. She then gradually discovers that her Uncle is involved in criminal activity, which greatly shocks and scares her, and adds to the menace and sense of danger surrounding the place.
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(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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You can’t help but want to read this book just because it is one of the Penguin Classic Series and the cover is printed in the lovely dark green ‘crime’ colour! I have an urge to collect all of them, they just look so serious and traditional yet so attractive!

The novel is a really good quality detective story - without any dead bodies, yet all the more admirable for that because it is only a quite simple story but is really gripping. A young girl, Betty Kane, has gone missing for a month and when she is found she states she has been kept prisoner in an old house by two elderly ladies (the Sharpes) who have beaten and starved her and forced her to be their maid. She describes the house, the ladies, and the room she was imprisoned in, in minute detail and the ‘guilty’ are soon identified as the owners of a large house called ‘The Franchise’. The case seems absolute against the elderly ladies, as the girl’s descriptions are so very accurate, but their lawyer Robert Blair believes they are innocent. He then sets out to discover where Betty Kane actually was for a month and why she would accuse these ladies.
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(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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