KJ's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:13:45 -0700 60 KJ's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Hard Times 6370519 284 Charles Dickens 0099518929 KJ 0 to-read 3.47 1854 Hard Times
author: Charles Dickens
name: KJ
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1854
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Would Be Jack: The Hunt for the Real Ripper]]> 19363061 320 David Bullock KJ 0 to-read 3.71 2012 The Man Who Would Be Jack: The Hunt for the Real Ripper
author: David Bullock
name: KJ
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Some Hope (Patrick Melrose, #3)]]> 19533902 224 Edward St. Aubyn 1447224825 KJ 0 to-read 3.94 1994 Some Hope (Patrick Melrose, #3)
author: Edward St. Aubyn
name: KJ
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Small Wars 9805218 Girl with the Pearl Earring

Fresh off her triumphantly assured debut novel The Outcast, award-winning author Sadie Jones has again delivered a quiet masterpiece in Small Wars. Set on the colonial, war-torn island of Cyprus in 1956, Jones tells the story of a young solider, Hal Treherne, and the effects of this “small war� on him, his wife Clara, and their family. Reminiscent of classic tales of love and war such as The English Patient and Atonement, Jones’s gripping novel also calls to mind the master works of Virginia Woolf and their portrayal of the quiet desperation of a marriage in crisis. Small Wars is at once a deeply emotional, meticulously researched work of historical fiction and a profound meditation on war-time atrocities committed both on and off the battlefield.]]> 388 Sadie Jones 0061966320 KJ 0 to-read 3.76 2009 Small Wars
author: Sadie Jones
name: KJ
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Disappearing in Plain Sight 17553911 328 Francis Guenette 1460210905 KJ 0 to-read 3.95 2013 Disappearing in Plain Sight
author: Francis Guenette
name: KJ
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Comedians 11137215 290 Graham Greene 1409017494 KJ 0 to-read 4.24 1966 The Comedians
author: Graham Greene
name: KJ
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1966
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Under the Volcano 8518928 400 Malcolm Lowry 0141190671 KJ 0 to-read 3.63 1947 Under the Volcano
author: Malcolm Lowry
name: KJ
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Further (Distance Series, Book 2)]]> 23015301 312 Nene Davies 131185830X KJ 4
Merged review:

In the second novel of the "Distance" trilogy, Nene Davies carries on the story of the Richardson family's emigration to Australia that began in Volume One. The trials of having to cope with an elderly parent are painstakingly described and the scene is now set for Surfacing, the final part that I will most definitely be buying once it's available.]]> 4.47 2014 Further (Distance Series, Book 2)
author: Nene Davies
name: KJ
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2015/09/20
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
In the second novel of the "Distance" trilogy, Nene Davies carries on the story of the Richardson family's emigration to Australia that began in Volume One. The trials of having to cope with an elderly parent are painstakingly described and the scene is now set for Surfacing, the final part that I will most definitely be buying once it's available.

Merged review:

In the second novel of the "Distance" trilogy, Nene Davies carries on the story of the Richardson family's emigration to Australia that began in Volume One. The trials of having to cope with an elderly parent are painstakingly described and the scene is now set for Surfacing, the final part that I will most definitely be buying once it's available.
]]> <![CDATA[The Damage Done (Inspector McLean, #6)]]> 26222270 No good deed goes unpunished ...

When a police raid in Edinburgh goes horribly wrong, the only silver lining for Inspector Tony McLean is a discovery that could lead to a long-lost girl from his early days on the beat.

Haunted by the mystery of what happened to her, McLean begins to dig into a case he thought long buried.

But the shadows of the past are soon eclipsed by crimes in the present as a series of strange and gruesome deaths shock the city.

As McLean's investigation draws him ever deeper into the upper echelons of Edinburgh society, it will not only be his career on the line - but his life as well ...

Inspector Tony McLean returns in the latest dark and grisly chapter in the bestselling series.]]> 422 James Oswald 1405917148 KJ 0 to-read 4.31 2016 The Damage Done (Inspector McLean, #6)
author: James Oswald
name: KJ
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year]]> 28959373
They started off as hysteria-inducing pop stars playing to audiences of screaming teenage fans and ended up as musical sages considered responsible for ushering in a new era.

The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966—the year of their last concert and their first album, Revolver, that was created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. It was the year their records were burned in America after John’s explosive claim that the group was "more popular than Jesus," the year they were hounded out of the Philippines for "snubbing" its First Lady, the year John met Yoko Ono, and the year Paul conceived the idea for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

On the fiftieth anniversary of this seminal year, music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner slows down the action to investigate in detail the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles� lives and work during 1966. He looks at the historical events that had an impact on the group, the music they made that in turn profoundly affected the culture around them, and the vision that allowed four young men from Liverpool to transform popular music and serve as pioneers for artists from Coldplay to David Bowie, Jay-Z to U2.

By talking to those close to the group and by drawing on his past interviews with key figures such as George Martin, Timothy Leary, and Ravi Shankar—and the Beatles themselves—Turner gives us the compelling, definitive account of the twelve months that contained everything the Beatles had been and anticipated everything they would still become.]]> 0 Steve Turner 0062475592 KJ 0 to-read 4.25 2016 Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year
author: Steve Turner
name: KJ
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst]]> 36362421 Sunday Times would be sponsoring the Golden Globe Race, the first ever solo, round-the-world sailing competition. An avid amateur sailor, Crowhurst sensed a marketing opportunity and shocked the world by entering the competition using an untested trimaran of his own design. Shock soon turned to amazement when he quickly took the lead, checking in by radio message from locations far ahead of his seasoned competitors.

But on July 10, 1969, roughly eight months after he had sailed from England--and less than two weeks from his expected triumphant return--his wife was informed that his boat, the Teignmouth Electron, had been discovered drifting quietly, abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Crowhurst was missing, assumed drowned. How did he come to such an end when his race had begun with such incredible promise?

In this masterpiece of investigative journalism, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall reconstruct one of the greatest modern stories of one man's descent into self-delusion, public deception, and madness. Based on in-depth interviews with Crowhurst's family and friends, combined with gripping excerpts from his logbooks that revealed (among other things) he had been falsifying his locations all along, Tomalin and Hall paint an unforgettable, haunting portrait of a complex, deeply troubled man and his final fateful journey.]]> 304 Nicholas Tomalin 1681441810 KJ 0 to-read 3.90 1970 The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst
author: Nicholas Tomalin
name: KJ
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 11.22.63 12858593
WHAT IF you could go back in time and change the course of history? WHAT IF the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless . . .

King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life - a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

With extraordinary imaginative power, King weaves the social, political and popular culture of his baby-boom American generation into a devastating exercise in escalating suspense.]]> 866 Stephen King 1444741233 KJ 0 to-read 4.37 2011 11.22.63
author: Stephen King
name: KJ
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts]]> 25020731 'People begin to see that something more goes to the composition of a fine murder than two blockheads to kill and be killed - a knife - a purse - and a dark lane...'



In this provocative and blackly funny essay, Thomas de Quincey considers murder in a purely aesthetic light and explains how practically every philosopher over the past two hundred years has been murdered - 'insomuch, that if a man calls himself a philosopher, and never had his life attempted, rest assured there is nothing in him'.



Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.



Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859). Thomas de Quincey's Confessions and an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings is available in Penguin Classics.

]]> 62 Thomas de Quincey 0141397896 KJ 0 to-read 3.12 1827 On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
author: Thomas de Quincey
name: KJ
average rating: 3.12
book published: 1827
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cloning of Joanna May / Affliction]]> 3185596 0 Fay Weldon 0261672258 KJ 4 3.57 1989 The Cloning of Joanna May / Affliction
author: Fay Weldon
name: KJ
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2011/05/10
date added: 2024/08/28
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]]> <![CDATA[206 Bones (Temperance Brennan, #12)]]> 6744415 The gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones.

When Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling the autopsy of a missing heiress, a routine case swiftly turns sinister. But before Tempe can get to the one man with the information she needs, he turns up dead.

In Montreal, three elderly women are found murdered, their bodies brutally discarded. Even though the clues don’t add up, Tempe is certain of a link between their deaths and that of the heiress.

Has Tempe made grave errors, or is she being sabotaged by an unseen enemy? What is frighteningly clear is that more than just Tempe's career is at stake. Her life is also at risk.]]> 379 Kathy Reichs 0099492385 KJ 2 3.68 2009 206 Bones (Temperance Brennan, #12)
author: Kathy Reichs
name: KJ
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Blue Lightning (Shetland Island, #4)]]> 19198737 WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION DIAMOND DAGGER AWARD 2017Blue Lightning is the fourth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series featuring Detective Jimmy Perez.NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMAWith the autumn storms raging, Fair Isle feels cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped, tension is high and tempers become frayed. Enough to drive someone to murder . . .A woman's body is discovered at the renowned Fair Isles bird observatory, with feathers threaded through her hair. The islanders react with fear and anger. Detective Jimmy Perez has no support from the mainland and must investigate the old-fashioned way. He soon realizes that this is no crime of passion - but a murder of cold and calculated intention.There's no way off the island until the storms abate - and so the killer is also trapped, just waiting for the opportunity to strike again.]]> 356 Ann Cleeves 1743030495 KJ 0 to-read 4.28 2010 Blue Lightning (Shetland Island, #4)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: KJ
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Trouble with Goats and Sheep]]> 26198498
Mrs Creasy is missing and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands.

And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined…]]> 400 Joanna Cannon 0008132194 KJ 0 to-read 3.71 2016 The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
author: Joanna Cannon
name: KJ
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-5)]]> 10118164
The Sword in the Stone
The Witch in the Wood
The Ill-Made Knight
The Candle in the Wind
The Book of Merlyn

Exquisite comedy offsets the tradegy of Arthur’s personal doom as White brings to life the major British epic of all time with brilliance, grandeur, warmth and charm.]]> 738 T.H. White KJ 0 to-read 3.83 The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-5)
author: T.H. White
name: KJ
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: to-read
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]]> Olive Kitteridge 6980287 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout binds together thirteen rich, luminous narratives into a book with the heft of a novel, through the presence of one larger-than-life, unforgettable Olive Kitteridge.

At the edge of the continent, Crosby, Maine, may seem like nowhere, but seen through this brilliant writer’s eyes, it’s in essence the whole world, and the lives that are lived there are filled with all of the grand human drama–desire, despair, jealousy, hope, and love.

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around a lounge musician haunted by a past a former student who has lost the will to Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 284 Elizabeth Strout 158836688X KJ 0 to-read 3.69 2008 Olive Kitteridge
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: KJ
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Boys in the Boat: An Epic True-life Journey to the heart of Hitler's Berlin]]> 18813488 For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics

Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.

Drawing on the boys� own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.


]]> 320 Daniel James Brown 1447247949 KJ 0 to-read 4.48 2013 The Boys in the Boat: An Epic True-life Journey to the heart of Hitler's Berlin
author: Daniel James Brown
name: KJ
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> Excellent Women 6669354 288 Barbara Pym 1844084515 KJ 5 3.87 1952 Excellent Women
author: Barbara Pym
name: KJ
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at: 2015/02/03
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves:
review:
I have been told to read Barbara Pym for decades by various contacts and am so glad that I finally managed it. This was such a wry, brilliantly observed novel and I'm looking forward to reading the other two Pyms that I managed to buy for next to nothing via The Book People.
]]> <![CDATA[The Kindly Ones (A Dance to the Music of Time #6)]]> 12279861 'He is, as Proust was before him, the great literary chronicler of his culture in his time.' GUARDIAN'A Dance to the Music of Time' is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. Reissued now in this definitive edition, it stands ready to delight and entrance a new generation of readers.In this sixth volume, with Britain on the brink of war yet again, Nick Jenkins reflects back on his childhood growing up in the shadow of World War I. Wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, Nick sets his sights on becoming an officer in the Army, and asks his old school friend Widmerpool, who is gaining prominence in the business world, if he will help him. But reserves lists are quickly filling up with names, and it’s not long until the threat of war is the one thing on everyone’s mind.]]> 272 Anthony Powell KJ 0 to-read 4.35 1962 The Kindly Ones (A Dance to the Music of Time #6)
author: Anthony Powell
name: KJ
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Confession 9403862 An innocent man is days from execution. Only a guilty man can save him.



Travis Boyette is a murderer. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high-school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched and waited as police and prosecutors arrested Donte Drumm, a local football star with no connection to the crime. Tried, convicted and sentenced, Drumm was sent to death row: his fate had been decided.



Nine years later, Donte Drumm is four days from execution. Over 400 miles away in Kansas, Travis faces a fate of his own: an inoperable brain tumour will soon deliver the end. Reflecting on his miserable life, he decides to do what's right. After years of silence he is ready to confess.



But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges and politicians that they're about to execute an innocent man?

]]> 530 John Grisham KJ 0 to-read 4.24 2010 The Confession
author: John Grisham
name: KJ
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Year of Wonders: A haunting historical literary fiction novel of human resilience in 17th century England]]> 13013277
A young woman’s struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village.

In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection.

So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction.

Geraldine Brooks’s novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. ‘Year of Wonders� is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England’s last great plague.]]> 323 Geraldine Brooks KJ 0 to-read 4.31 2001 Year of Wonders: A haunting historical literary fiction novel of human resilience in 17th century England
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: KJ
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Journey's End 19062844 Set in the First World War, Journey's End concerns a group of British officers on the front line and opens in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed ...

Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope in the first performance of Journey's End in 1928; the play was an instant stage success and remains a remarkable anti-war classic.

]]> 100 R.C. Sherriff KJ 0 to-read 4.31 1928 Journey's End
author: R.C. Sherriff
name: KJ
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Jack the Ripper's Streets of Terror: Life During the Reign of Victorian London's Most Brutal Killer]]> 18928558 321 Rupert Matthews 1782129227 KJ 0 to-read 4.12 2013 Jack the Ripper's Streets of Terror: Life During the Reign of Victorian London's Most Brutal Killer
author: Rupert Matthews
name: KJ
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Gargoyle 6011275 A young man is fighting for his life.
Into his room walks a bewitching woman who believes she can save him.
Their journey will have you believing in the impossible.

The nameless and beautiful narrator of The Gargoyle is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned. His life is over - he is now a monster.

But in fact it is only just beginning. One day, Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles, enters his life and tells him that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly burned mercenary and she was a nun and a scribe who nursed him back to health in the famed monastery of Engelthal. As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising stories of deathless love in Japan, Greenland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life - and, finally, to love.]]> 499 Andrew Davidson 1847671691 KJ 4 3.90 2008 The Gargoyle
author: Andrew Davidson
name: KJ
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2011/04/05
date added: 2024/03/15
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]]> Bitch on Wheels 8271079
This title was previously published as Confessions of an American Black Widow.

From the New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen...

Sharon Nelson, a Colorado woman, had her lover Gary Adams murder two of her three husbands. But more interesting than the crime itself is Olsen's portrait of Nelson as a brash, trashy, manipulative sexpot who believed that she was entitled to (and got) everything and everyone she wanted: even her confession, given freely to police in a Pizza Hut in 1988, was anything but contrite. Moreover, Olsen records the recollections of many community members who saw Nelson for what she was, yet seemed oblivious to the adultery, theft and murder under their noses (Publisher's Weekly).

With all new foreword by —M. William Phelps, 2011, Investigative journalist, author of 20 books, creator and star of Investigation Discovery’s “Dark Minds�.]]> 300 Gregg Olsen KJ 0 to-read 3.79 1998 Bitch on Wheels
author: Gregg Olsen
name: KJ
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> Paris 18070486 The Novel, Edward Rutherfurd brings to life the most magical city in the world: Paris.
This breathtaking multigenerational saga takes readers on a journey through thousands of years of glorious Parisian history.]]> 830 Edward Rutherfurd 1444775898 KJ 0 to-read 4.35 2013 Paris
author: Edward Rutherfurd
name: KJ
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> Virals (Virals, #1) 9634065
As the friends discover their heightened senses and animal-quick reflexes, they must combine their scientific curiosity with their newfound physical gifts to solve a cold-case murder that has suddenly become very hot--if they can stay alive long enough to catch the killer's scent.

Fortunately, they are now more than friends--they're a pack. They are Virals.]]> 454 Kathy Reichs 009954394X KJ 2 3.94 2010 Virals (Virals, #1)
author: Kathy Reichs
name: KJ
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2012/01/08
date added: 2023/11/12
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem]]> 1067289
London, 1880. A series of gruesome murders attributed to the mysterious 'Limehouse Golem' strikes fear into the heart of the capital. Inspector John Kildare must track down this brutal serial killer in the damp, dark alleyways of riverside London. But how does Dan Leno, music hall star extraordinaire, find himself implicated in this crime spree, and what does Elizabeth Cree, on trial for the murder of her husband, have to hide?

Peter Ackroyd brings Victorian London to life in all its guts and glory, as we travel from the glamour of the music hall to the slums of the East End, meeting George Gissing and Karl Marx along the way.]]> 281 Peter Ackroyd 0749396598 KJ 4 3.73 1994 Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem
author: Peter Ackroyd
name: KJ
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 1995/12/25
date added: 2023/10/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Field Of Blood (Paddy Meehan, #1)]]> 11422048 544 Denise Mina 1409135284 KJ 0 to-read 3.71 2005 The Field Of Blood (Paddy Meehan, #1)
author: Denise Mina
name: KJ
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> Philomena 18866946
Philomena's son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved.

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee is the tale of a mother and a son whose lives were scarred by the forces of hypocrisy on both sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep. A compelling narrative of human love and loss, Martin Sixsmith's moving account is heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive.]]> 450 Martin Sixsmith 1447245334 KJ 0 to-read 4.07 2009 Philomena
author: Martin Sixsmith
name: KJ
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> Mothering Sunday 29216031
It is Mothering Sunday.

How will Jane Fairchild, orphan and housemaid, occupy her time when she has no mother to visit? How, shaped by the events of this never to be forgotten day, will her future unfold?

Beginning with an intimate assignation and opening to embrace decades, Mothering Sundayhas at its heart both the story of a life and the life that stories can magically contain. Constantly surprising, joyously sensual and deeply moving, it is Graham Swift at his thrilling best.]]> 194 Graham Swift KJ 4 3.82 2016 Mothering Sunday
author: Graham Swift
name: KJ
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2017/03/28
date added: 2023/07/30
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]]> The Kindness 25112456 BY THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A THEATRE FOR DREAMERSAn Observer Book of the Year'Brilliant, tender and beautiful' ANDREW O'HAGAN 'A dark, sexy little masterpiece' JOJO MOYES 'An addictive, cleverly structured and intriguing relationship story of lies and flawed communication' SUNDAY TIMES Book of the Week 'Entices you to revel in its languid, beautifully written prose while demanding that you turn the page to discover the secrets it holds ' OBSERVER Paperback of the week Julian's fall begins the moment he sets eyes on Julia. Julia is married and eight years Julian's senior. Ignoring warnings from family and friends they give up all they have to be together. Their new life offers immense happiness, especially after their daughter Mira is born. But when Mira becomes terrifyingly ill, it is impossible for Julia to conceal the explosive secret that she has been keeping at the heart of their lives.]]> 305 Polly Samson 1408861895 KJ 4 3.54 2015 The Kindness
author: Polly Samson
name: KJ
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/07/23
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith]]> 124860
'An exemplary biography of a tortured, difficult and outstandingly gifted human being' Sunday Times

'Everything Wilson has unearthed is remarkable' Mail on Sunday

Patricia Highsmith � author of Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley � had more than her fair share of secrets. During her life, she felt uncomfortable about discussing the source of her fiction and refused to answer questions about her private life. Yet after her death in February 1995, Highsmith left behind a vast archive of personal documents � diaries, notebooks and letters � which detail the links between her life and her work.

Drawing on these intimate papers, together with material gleaned from her closest friends and lovers, Andrew Wilson has written the first biography of an author described by Graham Greene as the 'poet of apprehension'. Wilson illuminates the dark corners of Highsmith's life, casts light on mysteries of the creative process and reveals the secrets that the writer chose to keep hidden until after her death.

WINNER OF THE EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD
WINNER OF THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD BIOGRAPHY AWARD]]> 465 Andrew Wilson 1582344116 KJ 0 to-read 4.02 2003 Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith
author: Andrew Wilson
name: KJ
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Black Dahlia, Red Rose 36244167
***Shortlisted for the CWA Dagger for non-fiction***

'A magnificent, meticulous and startling re-examination of a crime that haunts the world's imagination' Geoffrey Wansell, author of An Evil The Life of Frederick West

'Eatwell writes brilliantly . . . [she] has finally offered [Elizabeth] Short a type of belated justice. Her book reads like a thriller' Sunday Times

'A compelling read, in both style and substance . . . A must-read for anyone with an interest in the Black Dahlia - or indeed any fan of the true-crime genre' Rod Reynolds, author of The Dark Inside

'Compulsively readable, impeccably researched and heart-rending at times . . . Superb' Sarah Lotz, author of The Three and The White Road

***

On 15th January 1947, the naked, dismembered body of a black-haired beauty, Elizabeth Short, was discovered lying next to a pavement in a Hollywood suburb. She was quickly nicknamed The Black Dahlia.

The homicide inquiry that followed consumed Los Angeles for years and the authorities blew millions of dollars of resources on an investigation that threw up dozens of suspects. But it never was solved.

Until now.

In this ground-breaking book, Piu Eatwell reveals compelling forensic and eye witness evidence for the first time, which finally points to the identity of the murderer. The case was immortalised in James Ellroy's famous novel based on the case, in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon and Brian de Palma's movie The Black Dahlia .

This is a dark tale of sex, manipulation, obsession, psychopathy and one of the biggest police cover ups in history.]]> 354 Piu Marie Eatwell KJ 0 to-read 3.75 2017 Black Dahlia, Red Rose
author: Piu Marie Eatwell
name: KJ
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> Exile (Gartnethill, #2) 11837468 424 Denise Mina 1409135314 KJ 4 3.67 2001 Exile (Gartnethill, #2)
author: Denise Mina
name: KJ
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2014/06/11
date added: 2023/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Virgin Earth (Tradescant, #2) 19219274 674 Philippa Gregory 0007383355 KJ 0 to-read 4.35 1999 Virgin Earth (Tradescant, #2)
author: Philippa Gregory
name: KJ
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Outsider 19210686
In The Outsider (1942), his classic existentialist novel, Camus explores the predicament of the individual who refuses to pretend and is prepared to face the indifference of the universe, courageously and alone.]]> 125 Albert Camus KJ 0 to-read 4.20 1942 The Outsider
author: Albert Camus
name: KJ
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Can't Believe You Just Said That: The truth about why people are SO rude]]> 35110748
In this incisive and very funny book, Danny Wallace investigates the new wave of rudeness that threatens to overwhelm us. He travels the world, visiting our rudest critics, interviewing psychologists, psychiatrists, bell boys, cab drivers, bin men, barristers, politicians, a limo driver called José and at least one expert in cooked meat production. In doing so he uncovers the hidden truths behind what makes us rude, whether it can be caught, and how one small moment of rudeness—like being declined a hotdog—can snowball into disaster.

From the jihadist who launched a blistering attack on the “bad manners� of his fellow ISIS militants, to the mayor in Bogota who recruited an army of mimes to highlight inconsiderate driving—this is a very funny and powerful exploration into the way humans work and why it is surely time for an anti-rudeness revolution.]]> 291 Danny Wallace KJ 0 to-read 3.90 2016 I Can't Believe You Just Said That: The truth about why people are SO rude
author: Danny Wallace
name: KJ
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Close to Home (DI Adam Fawley, #1)]]> 37791042 Librarian note: Alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780241283097

Someone took Daisy Mason. Someone YOU KNOW.

Last night, 8-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from her parents' summer party. No one in the quiet suburban street saw anything - or at least that's what they're saying. DI Adam Fawley is trying to keep an open mind. But he knows that nine times out of ten, it's someone the victim knew. That means someone is lying. And that Daisy's time is running out...

Introducing DI Fawley and his team of Oxford detectives, Close to Home is a pulse-pounding race against time and a penetrating examination of what happens to a community when a shocking crime is committed by one of its own.]]> 380 Cara Hunter KJ 0 to-read 4.07 2017 Close to Home (DI Adam Fawley, #1)
author: Cara Hunter
name: KJ
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Redeemer (Harry Hole, #6) 5973826 The Snowman.

Christmas shoppers stop to hear a Salvation Army concert on a crowded Oslo street. A gunshot cuts through the music and the bitter cold: one of the singers falls dead, shot in the head at point-blank range. Harry Hole—the Oslo Police Department’s best investigator and worst civil servant—has little to work with: no suspect, no weapon, and no motive. But Harry’s troubles will multiply. As the search closes in, the killer becomes increasingly desperate, and Harry’s chase takes him to the most forbidden corners of the former Yugoslavia.

Yet it’s when he returns to Oslo that he encounters true darkness: among the homeless junkies and Salvationists, eagerly awaiting a savior to deliver them from misery—whether he brings new life or immediate death.

With its shrewdly vertiginous narrative, acid-etched characters, and white-hot pace, The Redeemer is resounding proof of Jo Nesbø’s standing as one of the best crime writers of our time.]]> 562 Jo Nesbø 0099505967 KJ 0 to-read 4.00 2005 The Redeemer (Harry Hole, #6)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: KJ
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34331079
Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood—and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, ŷ, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more...

Perfect for book clubs! Visit celesteng.com for discussion guides and more. ]]> 348 Celeste Ng KJ 0 to-read 4.23 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: KJ
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Trouble With Europe: How to Make a Success of Brexit and Reform the EU]]> 35099612 FULLY REVISED EDITION FOR THE UK'S PATH TO BREXIT

The Trouble with Europe is the authoritative text on the EU and the Brexit debate. This major new edition lays out how the UK can best make a success of Brexit and the place of Europe in the new, Trumpian world.

In a major rewrite, award-winning economist Roger Bootle addresses the issues of trading relationships, hard vs soft Brexit, concerns of key industries, Scotland and the future of the EU and NATO.

Roger Bootle, the author who successfully predicted the financial crash and the outcome of the referendum, will also examines the possible future developments of Europe.



]]> 368 Roger Bootle 1473668476 KJ 0 to-read 3.72 2014 Trouble With Europe: How to Make a Success of Brexit and Reform the EU
author: Roger Bootle
name: KJ
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Apologist 23301453
As Marc begins to apologise for anything and everything he’s ever done, he discovers that saying sorry can be every bit as pleasurable as the Varlhona Manjari chocolate he devours nightly. And, after atoning to an ex-girlfriend with high-level political connections, he finds himself offered the role of Chief Apologist for the United Nations, which brings with it a private jet, a rent-free apartment, an enormous salary and a sizeable cut of any compensatory payments made between nations. All he has to do is say sorry for the world’s wrongs � and cook the dinners to prove it. He is adored, loved and admired; an entirely new sensation for the perennially loveless Bassett. But will all this attention go to his head?

The Apologist is a deliciously funny satire on the complexity and greed of international � and personal � politics, as well as a powerful paean to the diplomatic role of a well-made almond soufflé.]]> 340 Jay Rayner 1782924973 KJ 0 to-read 3.34 2004 The Apologist
author: Jay Rayner
name: KJ
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lucky Man 34023056
In 1970 Greg met fellow legend Keith Emerson during a North American tour; the two shared common bonds: European musical influences and a desire to reinterpret classical works while creating a new musical genre. After being introduced to drummer Carl Palmer, they formed the first progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

To date ELP has sold over 50 million records. Lake produced Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tarkus, Pictures at an Exhibition, Trilogy, Brain Salad Surgery, Works Vol. 1 and 2, and two different live albums. All went platinum and featured a series of hit singles, most written and all sung by Lake. The three created a unique live theatrical performance which featured Emerson attacking his keyboards with knives, Palmer playing a 2.5 ton stainless steel kit and Lake performing on a £6,000 Persian rug which had its own roadie. One of their very first performances was at the historic Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 and they went on to headline California Jam, one of the biggest concerts of the 1970s, attended by 350,000 people.

Probably the voice of his generation, Greg fronted the greatest rock supergroup of the 1970s but never held with the 'progressive' tag that attached itself to both the music and the excess. Lucky Man not only charts the highs and lows of a career in rock music but also reflects on the death of Keith Emerson last year, living with terminal cancer and the end of life. Greg can best be summed up by his now-famous line: 'Material wealth is a very fleeting pleasure ... when you can buy anything you want and do anything you want, you soon discover that you actually don't want any of it.']]> 304 Greg Lake 1472126483 KJ 0 to-read 3.84 2017 Lucky Man
author: Greg Lake
name: KJ
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> Us 25084113
The timing couldn’t be worse. Hoping to encourage her son’s artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best anyway. Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage and might even help him bond with Albie.

Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger.]]> 416 David Nicholls 0340897015 KJ 0 to-read 3.89 2014 Us
author: David Nicholls
name: KJ
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Lesson In Dying (Inspector Ramsay, #1)]]> 29138847 A Lesson in Dying is the first novel in the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series.

Who hanged the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Hallowe'en Party?

Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster's enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence.

With the help of his restless enthusiastic daughter, Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit - of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness.

]]> 202 Ann Cleeves 1743546351 KJ 0 to-read 3.53 1990 A Lesson In Dying (Inspector Ramsay, #1)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: KJ
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Ends Of The Earth 733943 He left for dead four men. He had previously blithely lobbed a grenade into a crowded cafe, attempted to assassinate the President of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain, seized the French Embassy in Holland, and launched two rocket attacks on planes at Orly airport. His crimes were apparently endless. he went on to kidnap the OPEC ministers in Vienna.
He is known to the world as Carlos. The press dubbed him The Jackal. Security forces consider him the world's most wanted man.
David Yallop tracked Carlos down to a small village in the Bekaa Valley outside wartorn Beirut. Through two long nights he listened to part of Carlos's story. Then, under tragic circumstances the trail went dead.
For the next seven years, Yallop tried to rediscover Carols The Jackal, but what began as a manhunt became a journey into the frightening world of terrorism, espionage and Middle Eastern politics before he finally succeeded. Yallop found out that for years the American and French governments have both been penetrated by Arab intelligence, and that major international airlines paid millions of dollars in protection money to a Palestinian terror group. He uncovered information that could and should have averted the Lockerbie disaster, and - perhaps most terrifying of all - he learned the reason for the massacre of thousands of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila.]]> 769 David A. Yallop 0552127639 KJ 3 4.00 1993 Ends Of The Earth
author: David A. Yallop
name: KJ
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2010/06/21
date added: 2020/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder: The True Story]]> 25314176 For Viewers of the TNT Series I Am the Night and Fans of the Root of Evil Podcast, the Bestselling Book That Revealed the ShockingIdentity of the Black Dahlia Killer
and the Police Corruption That Concealed It for So Long

A New York Times Bestseller
A n International Bestseller
A New York Times Notable Book
An Edgar Award Finalist

In 1947, the brutal, sadistic murder of a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Short led to the largest manhunt in LA history. The killer teased and taunted the police and public for weeks, but his identity stayed a mystery, and the murder remained the most tantalizing unsolved case of the last century, until this book revealed the bizarre solution.

Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD detective who was a private investigator, took up the case, reviewing the original evidence and records as well as those of a separate grand jury investigation into a series of murders of single women in LA at the time. The prime suspect had in fact been identified, but never indicted. Why? And who was he? In an account that partakes both of LA Confidential and Zodiac, for the corruption it exposes and the insight it offers into a serial killer’s mind, Hodel demonstrates that there was a massive police cover-up. Even more shocking, he proves that the murderer, a true-life Jekyll and Hyde who was a highly respected member of society by day and a psychopathic killer by night, was his own father. This edition of the book includes new findings and photographs added after the original publication, together with a new postscript by the author.]]> 532 Steve Hodel KJ 4 3.87 2003 Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder: The True Story
author: Steve Hodel
name: KJ
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2018/04/26
date added: 2020/12/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Fade To Grey (Mike Croft, #3) 1702576 288 Jane A. Adams 0330374877 KJ 3 2.88 1999 Fade To Grey (Mike Croft, #3)
author: Jane A. Adams
name: KJ
average rating: 2.88
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2011/10/02
date added: 2020/12/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Thornyhold 11061455 260 Mary Stewart 1444715054 KJ 0 to-read 3.79 1988 Thornyhold
author: Mary Stewart
name: KJ
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Richard's Feet 27255741 In the bitter spring of 1948, an Englishman walks across Soviet Germany, against a tide of refugees, searching for the woman he fell in love with before the war�

He will become a lord of the underworld in a country rising from the ashes, where confidence is fast becoming a national trick, and where no one is who they claim to be.

For Richard Thurgo, a man eager to reinvent himself, it is heaven on earth.

Richard is presumed to be dead and buried.

But to be exact, a pair of feet are dead and buried - they alone remained intact, beneath the wreckage of a crashed and burnt-out jeep.

Richard is alive and ready to embrace a new identity.

Faking his own death, Richard adopts a new name and career on the Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s busy red-light district.

As Germany prospers in the fifties and sixties so does Richard, now an influential figure in the underworld, but two threats continue to hang over him � his own discarded identity and that of Germany’s.

Set in England and Germany around the time of the Second World War, Richard’s Feet is a magnificent story of intrigue and obsession. It follows the adventures of an unscrupulous Englishman whose formative experiences in the Germany of the thirties, both erotic and political, draw him back there after the war.

Winner of the 1990 UK Society of Writers� Encore Award and long-listed for the Booker Prize, Richard’s Feet is the first in the The Heart Beneath Quartet.The second and third books are Cley and Egon.]]> 725 Carey Harrison KJ 0 to-read 3.33 1990 Richard's Feet
author: Carey Harrison
name: KJ
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Nix 30128153 The Nix explores—with sharp humor and a fierce tenderness—the resilience of love and home, even in times of radical change.

It’s 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson—college professor, stalled writer—has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. He hasn’t seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy. Now she’s re-appeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the internet, and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as aradical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart. Which version of his mother is true? Two facts are certain: she’s facing some serious charges, and she needs Samuel’s help.

To save her, Samuel will have to embark on his own journey, uncovering long-buried secrets about the woman he thought he knew, secrets that stretch across generations and have their origin all the way back in Norway, home of the mysterious Nix. As he does so, Samuel will confront not only Faye’s losses but also his own lost love, and will relearn everything he thought he knew about his mother, and himself.]]> 620 Nathan Hill KJ 0 to-read 4.10 2016 The Nix
author: Nathan Hill
name: KJ
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Joy 36257537 0 Dalai Lama XIV 5304801474 KJ 0 to-read 4.40 2016 The Book of Joy
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: KJ
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race]]> 34527752 A powerful and provocative argument on the role that race and racism play in modern Britain, by award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge

 In February 2014, Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way discussions of race and racism in Britain were constantly being led by those who weren't affected by it. She posted the piece on her blog, and gave it the title: 'Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race'.

Her powerful, passionate words hit a nerve. The post went viral, and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own, similar experiences. Galvanised by this response, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings; this clear hunger for an open discussion. The result is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary exploration of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a new framework for how to see, acknowledge and counter racism.

Full of clear, bold and keenly felt argument, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race is a wake-up call to a nation in denial about the structural and institutional racism occurring at its heart. It is a timely, essential book by a vital new voice.]]> 273 Reni Eddo-Lodge KJ 0 to-read 4.47 2017 Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
author: Reni Eddo-Lodge
name: KJ
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Defence (Eddie Flynn, #1) 28447853
The only thing that matters is what the prosecution can prove.

Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different.

It's been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter Amy.

Eddie only has 48 hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial - and win - if wants to save his daughter.

Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI, Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to defend his 'client' and ensure Amy's safety. With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of the impossible?

Lose this case and he loses everything.

ACE for ASIN: B00O13O1TI]]> 331 Steve Cavanagh KJ 2 3.75 2015 The Defence (Eddie Flynn, #1)
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: KJ
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2017/08/27
date added: 2019/09/20
shelves:
review:
Fast-paced, high concept thriller. Don't think about the plot too much - just enjoy the ride while it lasts.
]]> <![CDATA[1864: The Forgotten War That Shaped Modern Europe]]> 26346629
Of little strategic importance, the struggle for Schleswig foreshadowed the same forces that, fifty years later, would tear Europe apart. Prussia's victory would not only rejuvenate its nascent militarism, but help it claim leadership of the new German Empire.

Told in rich detail through first-hand accounts, Tom Buk-Swienty's magisterial account of the Schleswig conflict tells the story of this pivotal war. 1864 shows how a minor regional conflict foreshadowed the course of diplomacy that led to the First World War and brutally presaged the industrialised future of warfare. But most of all, in its human detail, from touching letters between husbands and wives to heartbreaking individual stories of loss, 1864 is a gripping, epic human drama that shows the effect all wars have on the soldiers, on families and on the individual men and women who must live its realities."

This is an abridged translation of his two volumes, Slagtebænk Dybbøl and Dommedag Als.]]> 444 Tom Buk-Swienty 1782830774 KJ 0 to-read 3.85 2008 1864: The Forgotten War That Shaped Modern Europe
author: Tom Buk-Swienty
name: KJ
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Complete Works of Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics]]> 17288542 Features:
* illustrated with many images relating to Wharton’s life and works
* annotated with concise introductions to the novels, novellas and other works
* ALL 18 novels, each with contents tables
* INCLUDES the rare first novel FAST AND LOOSE, which Wharton wrote aged 14 � first time in digital print
* EVEN contains the Wharton’s unfinished novel THE BUCCANEERS, available nowhere else
* images of how the novels first appeared, giving your Kindle a taste of the original texts
* ALL 12 short story collections, with RARE uncollected tales available nowhere else
* separate chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories � find that special story easily!
* the war novella THE MARNE, first time in digital print
* EVEN includes Wharton’s rare non-fiction texts, including THE DECORATION OF HOUSES, her groundbreaking manual on interior design � fully illustrated
* ALSO includes Wharton’s European and African travel books, with numerous original illustrations
* includes Wharton’s play THE JOY OF LIVING, translated from German
* features the complete poetry with rare poems available for the first time in digital print
* also includes Wharton autobiography A BACKWARD GLANCE � explore her amazing literary life
* scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres, allowing easy navigation around Wharton’s immense oeuvre
* UPDATED with the rare war novel A SON AT THE FRONT - first time in digital print
* UPDATED with Wharton's three last story collections
* UPDATED with Wharton's treatise on THE WRITING OF FICTION, first time available on the Kindle!
CONTENTS:
The Novels
FAST AND LOOSE
THE VALLEY OF DECISION
SANCTUARY
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
THE FRUIT OF THE TREE
ETHAN FROME
THE REEF
THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY
SUMMER
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
THE GLIMPSES OF THE MOON
A SON AT THE FRONT
THE MOTHER'S RECOMPENSE
TWILIGHT SLEEP
THE CHILDREN
HUDSON RIVER BRACKETED
THE GODS ARRIVE
THE BUCCANEERS
The Novellas
THE TOUCHSTONE
MADAME DE TREYMES
THE MARNE
OLD NEW YORK
FALSE DAWN
THE OLD MAID
THE SPARK
NEW YEAR’S DAY
The Short Story Collections
THE GREATER INCLINATION
CRUCIAL INSTANCES
THE DESCENT OF MAN AND OTHER STORIES
THE HERMIT AND THE WILD WOMAN AND STORIES
TALES OF MEN AND GHOSTS
UNCOLLECTED EARLY SHORT STORIES
XINGU AND OTHER STORIES
HERE AND BEYOND
CERTAIN PEOPLE
HUMAN NATURE
THE WORLD OVER
GHOSTS
The Short Stories
LIST OF STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
LIST OF STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
The Play
THE JOY OF LIVING
The Poetry
ARTEMIS TO ACTAEON AND OTHER VERSES
UNCOLLECTED POETRY
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POEMS
The Non-Fiction
THE DECORATION OF HOUSES
ITALIAN VILLAS AND THEIR GARDENS
ITALIAN BACKGROUNDS
A MOTOR-FLIGHT THROUGH FRANCE
FRANCE, FROM DUNKERQUE TO BELFORT
FRENCH WAYS AND THEIR MEANING
IN MOROCCO
THE WRITING OF FICTION
The Biography
A BACKWARD GLANCE]]> Edith Wharton KJ 0 to-read 0.0 2011 Complete Works of Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics
author: Edith Wharton
name: KJ
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Missing, Presumed (DS Manon, #1)]]> 28385950 Edith Hind is gone, leaving just her coat, a smear of blood and a half-open door.

A DESPERATE FAMILY
Each of her friends and relatives has a version of the truth. But none quite adds up.

A DETECTIVE AT BREAKING POINT
The press grows hungrier by the day. Can DS Manon Bradshaw fend them off, before a missing persons case becomes a murder investigation?]]> 417 Susie Steiner KJ 0 to-read 3.97 2016 Missing, Presumed (DS Manon, #1)
author: Susie Steiner
name: KJ
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Horse Walks into a Bar 29869681
A Horse Walks into a Bar is a shocking and breathtaking read. Betrayals between lovers, the treachery of friends, guilt demanding redress. Flaying alive both himself and the people watching him, Dovale Gee provokes both revulsion and empathy from an audience that doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry � and all this in the presence of a former childhood friend who is trying to understand why he’s been summoned to this performance.]]> 210 David Grossman KJ 0 to-read 3.56 2014 A Horse Walks into a Bar
author: David Grossman
name: KJ
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Autobiography 18625064
Achieving eleven Top 10 albums (plus nine with the Smiths), his songs have been recorded by David Bowie, Nancy Sinatra, Marianne Faithfull, Chrissie Hynde, Thelma Houston, My Chemical Romance and Christy Moore, amongst others.

An animal protectionist, in 2006 Morrissey was voted the second greatest living British icon by viewers of the BBC, losing out to Sir David Attenborough. In 2007 Morrissey was voted the greatest northern male, past or present, in a nationwide newspaper poll. In 2012, Morrissey was awarded the Keys to the City of Tel-Aviv.

It has been said 'Most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status that Morrissey has reached in his lifetime.'

Autobiography covers Morrissey's life from his birth until the present day.]]> 457 Morrissey KJ 3
After negotiating my way round the 450 plus pages of his autobiography I can't help wondering why he chose to tell the story in such purple prose. Who was it who sat him down and said, “Your Mozship, if you want a master class in fine writing then it's not Iris Murdoch you should be consulting � it's Barbara Cartland!� Still, despite the fact that he occasionally sounds more like a dowager duchess being goosed by a gondolier than the former front man of one of the most successful and beloved post-punk bands in history, this was an enjoyable read. Morrissey's prose really catches fire when describing his childhood and his early musical passions and I was delighted to be reminded of Jobriath, whose albums I am enjoying again as a direct result of reading this autobiography.

Much has been made of the insane detail surrounding the Morrissey and Marr versus Mike Joyce case but I rather enjoyed this splenetic account and couldn't help feeling that, if even half of what Morrissey said about it was true and accurate, then he really was very ill served by Judge John Weeks who, he claims, passed down a character assassination rather than a logical judgement on the situation.

Mind you, going by by the accounts of Sandie Shaw and Julie Burchill among others, there's nothing that Morrissey enjoys more than a good character assassination � so long as he isn't the target, of course.

One thing that did surprise me, given his popularity among the outcast and the rejected, is what a body fascist he is. For Morrissey 'fat' is not merely a description of a body shape, but an invitation to unleash some Chaucerian beliefs about the fat person's moral character. I'm always up for a joke, but this did become quite tedious after a while, a catch-all word to assign people to the dustbin.

This trait was obviously shared by Johnny Marr because, in a paragraph that I found the most repellent in the whole 457 pages of the book, the two share a joke over a fan. “In Denver city center (sic) a plump girl bangs on the window of the car shouting: 'Ooh, I always wanted to meet you!' which strikes me as odd since we have only existed for three years � 'always' surely not amounting to that much time at all. Johnny sits back and shouts: 'Ta'ra fatty,' as the car pulls away. I am shocked, but then I fold into convulsive laughter. Some terrible moments are funny.�

Yes, Moz � hilarious. That's why this incident will stick in my mind for years after the opening bars of How Soon is Now? have become a faded memory.]]> 3.62 2013 Autobiography
author: Morrissey
name: KJ
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2015/09/08
date added: 2019/05/02
shelves:
review:
What do we know about Morrissey? Not so much a member of the Awkward Squad as its Field-Marshal, a self-appointed Christ-on-the-Cross du jour, radical vegetarian and animal rights supporter, anti-Royalist and poster boy of the disenfranchised social misfit.

After negotiating my way round the 450 plus pages of his autobiography I can't help wondering why he chose to tell the story in such purple prose. Who was it who sat him down and said, “Your Mozship, if you want a master class in fine writing then it's not Iris Murdoch you should be consulting � it's Barbara Cartland!� Still, despite the fact that he occasionally sounds more like a dowager duchess being goosed by a gondolier than the former front man of one of the most successful and beloved post-punk bands in history, this was an enjoyable read. Morrissey's prose really catches fire when describing his childhood and his early musical passions and I was delighted to be reminded of Jobriath, whose albums I am enjoying again as a direct result of reading this autobiography.

Much has been made of the insane detail surrounding the Morrissey and Marr versus Mike Joyce case but I rather enjoyed this splenetic account and couldn't help feeling that, if even half of what Morrissey said about it was true and accurate, then he really was very ill served by Judge John Weeks who, he claims, passed down a character assassination rather than a logical judgement on the situation.

Mind you, going by by the accounts of Sandie Shaw and Julie Burchill among others, there's nothing that Morrissey enjoys more than a good character assassination � so long as he isn't the target, of course.

One thing that did surprise me, given his popularity among the outcast and the rejected, is what a body fascist he is. For Morrissey 'fat' is not merely a description of a body shape, but an invitation to unleash some Chaucerian beliefs about the fat person's moral character. I'm always up for a joke, but this did become quite tedious after a while, a catch-all word to assign people to the dustbin.

This trait was obviously shared by Johnny Marr because, in a paragraph that I found the most repellent in the whole 457 pages of the book, the two share a joke over a fan. “In Denver city center (sic) a plump girl bangs on the window of the car shouting: 'Ooh, I always wanted to meet you!' which strikes me as odd since we have only existed for three years � 'always' surely not amounting to that much time at all. Johnny sits back and shouts: 'Ta'ra fatty,' as the car pulls away. I am shocked, but then I fold into convulsive laughter. Some terrible moments are funny.�

Yes, Moz � hilarious. That's why this incident will stick in my mind for years after the opening bars of How Soon is Now? have become a faded memory.
]]> <![CDATA[Hanging with the Elephant: A Story of Love, Loss and Meditation]]> 23299545
From the No.1 bestselling author of Staring at Lakes, Talking to S trangers and On Tuesdays I'm A Buddhist

'In public or on stage, it's different. I'm fine. I have no bother talking to three hundred people, and sharing my feelings. But when I'm in a room on a one-to-one basis, I get lost. I can never find the right word. Except for that phrase - hold me.'
Michael Harding's wife has departed for a six-week trip, and he has been left alone in their home in Leitrim. Faced with the realities of caring for himself for the first time since his illness two years before, Harding endeavours to tame the 'elephant' - an Asian metaphor for the unruly mind. As he does, he finds himself finally coming to terms with the death of his mother - a loss that has changed him more than he knows.
Funny, searingly honest and profound, Hanging with the Elephant pulls back the curtain and reveals what it is really like to be alive.]]> 304 Michael Harding KJ 0 to-read 3.50 2014 Hanging with the Elephant: A Story of Love, Loss and Meditation
author: Michael Harding
name: KJ
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Town Like Alice 11253729
Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle - an experience that leads to the deaths of many.

Due to her courageous spirit and ability to speak Malay, Jean takes on the role of leader of the sorry gaggle of prisoners and many end up owing their lives to her indomitable spirit. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result.

After the war, Jean tracks Joe down in Australia and together they begin to dream of surmounting the past and transforming his one-horse outback town into a thriving community like Alice Springs...]]> 230 Nevil Shute KJ 0 to-read 4.48 1950 A Town Like Alice
author: Nevil Shute
name: KJ
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/27
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review:

]]> The Liar (Eddie Flynn, #3) 36332726 A MISSING GIRL. A DESPERATE FATHER.
A CASE WHICH WILL TEAR THEM APART.

'Plotting that takes the breath away' Ian Rankin

'A fantastic thriller writer' Mark Billingham

* * * * *

WHO IS DEADLIER ...

Leonard Howell's worst nightmare has come true: his daughter Caroline has been kidnapped. He can't rely on the cops, so Howell calls the only man he trusts to get her back.

THE MAN WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH

Eddie Flynn knows what it's like to lose a daughter and vows to bring Caroline home safe. Once a con artist, now a hotshot criminal attorney, Flynn is no stranger to the shady New York underworld.

... OR THE ONE WHO BELIEVES A LIE?

However, as he steps back into his old life, Flynn realizes that the rules of the game have changed - and that he is being played. But who is pulling the strings? And is anyone in this twisted case telling the truth...?

* * * * *

An ingenious plot, gripping action and characters who leap off the page: discover why readers love Steve Cavanagh:

'Cavanagh stands head and shoulders above the competition, with his skilfully plotted, action-packed and big-hearted Eddie Flynn novels . . . highly intelligent, twist-laden and absolutely unputdownable' Eva Dolan, author of the critically acclaimed Tell No Tales

'What a thriller! Breathlessly brilliant and fiendishly clever' Miranda Dickinson

'A cleverly constructed legal thriller combined with a classic locked-room mystery. Eddie Flynn is fast becoming one of my favourite fictional heroes and Cavanagh one of my favourite thriller writers.' S.J.I. Holliday, author of Black Wood

'Raymond Chandler could have created Eddie Flynn. THE PLEA is Phillip Marlowe and Michael Connolly's Mickey Haller combined, with a bit of Jim Thompson's THE GRIFTERS thrown in. A superb read with a main character destined to be one of the most talked about in crime fiction.' Howard Linskey, author of The Search

*

If you like John Grisham, Lee Child and Michael Connelly, you will LOVE the gripping and twisty Eddie Flynn series:

1. The Defence
2. The Plea
3. The Liar
4. Thirteen

* Each Eddie Flynn thriller can be read as a standalone or in series order *

]]> 337 Steve Cavanagh KJ 0 to-read 4.30 2017 The Liar (Eddie Flynn, #3)
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: KJ
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Hero in France 28698945 From the undisputed master of historical espionage, a story of courage, love and treachery during the French Resistance.Spring, 1941. Britain is losing the war.

Paris is occupied by the Nazis, dark and silent at night. But when the clouds part, and moonlight floods the city, a Resistance leader called Mathieu steps out to begin his work. The fighters of the French Resistance are determined not to give up. These courageous men and women - young and old, aristocrats and nightclub owners, teachers and students - help downed British airmen reach the border with Spain. In farmhouses and rural churches, in secret hotels, and on the streets, they risk everything to open Europe's sealed doors and lead Allied fighters to freedom.

But as the military police heightens surveillance, Mathieu and his team face a new threat, dispatched from the Reich to destroy them all.]]> 257 Alan Furst 1474602932 KJ 0 to-read 3.91 2016 A Hero in France
author: Alan Furst
name: KJ
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Paradise Lodge 29105985 This is the story of Lizzie Vogel, a 15 year old girl who finds herself working in an old people's home in Leicestershire in the 1970s. The place is in chaos and it's not really a suitable job for a schoolgirl: she'd only gone for the job because she wanted a new phase and it seemed too exhausting to commit to being a full-time girlfriend or a punk. Lizzie has some knowledge of old people (they're not suited to granary bread, and you mustn't compare them to toddlers) but she doesn't know there's a right way to get someone out of the bath, or what to do when someone dies.

When a rival old people's home with better parking and daily chairobics threatens to take all their patients, Paradise Lodge's cast of staff and helpers, from the assertively shy Nurse who only communicates through little grunts to the son of the Chinese takeaway manager who's renowned for his erotic handholding techniques, have to come together to save the home before it's too late.

From the bestselling author of Love, Nina comes a story of being very young, and very old, and the laughter, and the tears, in between.

]]> 275 Nina Stibbe KJ 4 4.15 2016 Paradise Lodge
author: Nina Stibbe
name: KJ
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2017/06/03
date added: 2019/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad, #6)]]> 28509370 The Secret Place, is still on the Murder squad, but only just. She's partnered up with Stephen Moran now, and that's going well - but the rest of her working life isn't. Antoinette doesn't play well with others, and there's a vicious running campaign in the squad to get rid of her. She and Stephen pull a case that at first looks like a slam-dunk lovers' tiff, but gradually they realise there's more going on: someone on their own squad is trying to push them towards the obvious solution, away from nagging questions. They have to work out whether this is just an escalation in the drive to get rid of her - or whether there's something deeper and darker going on.]]> 480 Tana French 1444755641 KJ 0 to-read 4.08 2016 The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad, #6)
author: Tana French
name: KJ
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stalin in Power: The Russian Revolution from Above, 1928�1941 (Tucker's Biography of Stalin)]]> 36982595 “The most significant single scholarly contribution made to date, anywhere, to the history of Soviet power� —George F. Kennan, Institute for Advanced Study

This book forms the second volume of Tucker's biography of Stalin, the first volume of which is Stalin as Revolutionary. The author shows that Stalin was a Bolshevik of the radical right whose revolution cast the country deep into its imperial, autocratic past.

In 1929 Stalin plunged Soviet Russia into a coercive "revolution from above", a decade-long effort to amass military-industrial power for a new war. He forced 25 million peasant families into state-run collectives and transformed the Communist Party into a servile instrument. In 1939, he concluded the pact with Hitler that enabled him to grasp at Eastern Europe while Hitler made war in the West.

Tucker brings a fresh analysis to these events and to the Terror of the 1930s, revealing the motives and methods of what he calls the greatest murder mystery of this century.

“Tucker’s contribution is to document how Stalin became a ‘revolutionary of the radical right� by consciously turning to history, not to Communist ideology, for his model of the state as the agent of change. . . . This is history as it should be written: compelling narrative, intriguing detail, bold thesis.�
—Jane E. Good, Washington Post

“Anyone who does not read Stalin in Power from cover to cover will miss the opportunity of gaining real insight into the forces that shaped the Soviet Union. This is the best book about Stalin that has ever been written and one that is not likely to be superseded in the foreseeable future.�
—W. Bruce Lincoln, Chicago Tribune

“Tucker writes psychobiography with tact and common sense, never letting Freud get out of hand, while his narrative holds the reader in grim fascination.�
—Jane A. Taubman, Los Angeles Times

“Mr. Tucker’s portrait is persuasive, not least because it offers a psychological explanation for Stalin’s relentless persecution of his Bolshevik comrades as well as for the bizarre rituals of the Moscow show trials, in which he forced the revolution’s leaders to confess to absurd crimes.�
�The Economist

“Mr. Tucker has hunted out the sources, and he has discovered and developed a great deal more than has been generally known . . . An extremely valuable contribution to our knowledge.�
—Robert Conquest, Wall Street Journal

Robert C. Tucker was a professor of politics emeritus at Princeton University and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.
]]> 902 Robert C. Tucker KJ 0 to-read 4.38 1990 Stalin in Power: The Russian Revolution from Above, 1928–1941 (Tucker's Biography of Stalin)
author: Robert C. Tucker
name: KJ
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 20603758 A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.]]> 386 Ernest Cline KJ 0 to-read 4.38 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: KJ
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Whiteout (Dark Iceland, #5) 35006235
Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland's bestselling crime writers.]]> 268 Ragnar Jónasson 1910633909 KJ 0 to-read 3.91 2013 Whiteout (Dark Iceland, #5)
author: Ragnar Jónasson
name: KJ
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan]]> 23793199
Laura Thompson, acclaimed biographer of Agatha Christie, narrates the story that led up to that cataclysmic event, and draws on her considerable forensic skills to re-examine the possible truths behind one of postwar Britain's most notorious murders. A DIFFERENT CLASS OF MURDER is a portrait of an era, of an extraordinary cast of characters, of a mystery, of a modern myth. Part social history, part detective story, it tells in masterly style one of the great tales of our collective living memory.]]> 480 Laura Thompson KJ 2 3.38 2014 A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan
author: Laura Thompson
name: KJ
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2016/01/01
date added: 2018/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case]]> 36275655 The Sleep of Reason achieves a unique understanding of the James Bulger case, and comes as close as may ever be possible to explaining how two ten-year-olds could kill.]]> 266 David James Smith KJ 4 4.25 1994 The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case
author: David James Smith
name: KJ
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/29
date added: 2018/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Gray House 32703696 The Gray House is an astounding tale of how what others understand as liabilities can be leveraged into strengths.

Bound to wheelchairs and dependent on prosthetic limbs, the physically disabled students living in the House are overlooked by the Outsides. Not that it matters to anyone living in the House, a hulking old structure that its residents know is alive. From the corridors and crawl spaces to the classrooms and dorms, the House is full of tribes, tinctures, scared teachers, and laws—all seen and understood through a prismatic array of teenagers� eyes.

But student deaths and mounting pressure from the Outsides put the time-defying order of the House in danger. As the tribe leaders struggle to maintain power, they defer to the awesome power of the House, attempting to make it through days and nights that pass in ways that clocks and watches cannot record.]]> 736 Mariam Petrosyan 1503997812 KJ 0 to-read 3.84 2009 The Gray House
author: Mariam Petrosyan
name: KJ
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/08/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Music Shop 32614368 From the author of the world-wide bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry:

1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk � as long as it’s vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need.

Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.

Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...

]]> 370 Rachel Joyce KJ 0 to-read 4.22 2017 The Music Shop
author: Rachel Joyce
name: KJ
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection with Accompanying Facts]]> 22366526
Classed as one of the greatest American horror fiction writers of our time, you can now have H.P Lovecraft's work all in one kindle download (with easy navigation).

Over 2,000 kindle pages long! (2,195)

62 Short Stories and 5 Novellas.

This collection is unabridged, and appears as he first intended it. (And how the editors at the time first published it).

This kindle copy holds every published work of H. P. Lovecraft - all of his short stories and novellas. (Not including collaborations)

� At the start of each story it states when it was written and published - and which publication it was first published in.

� Also, after each story there are Interesting Facts - short informational details ascertaining to each piece.

Table of Contents

SHORT STORIES (62)

The Call of Cthulhu
The Alchemist
The Temple
In The Vault
The Book
Dagon
The Evil Clergyman
From Beyond
The Terrible Old Man
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Tomb
The Hound
The Beast in the Cave
Azathoth
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
The Colour Out of Space
The Cats of Ulthar
Celephais
The Other Gods
The Nameless City
Cool Air
The Descendant
The Haunter of the Dark
The Festival
The Doom that Came to Sarnath
Dreams in the Witch House
The Thing in the Moonlight
Ex Oblivione
The White Ship
The Street
The Tree
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Outsider
The Silver Key
The History of the Necronmicon
What the Moon Brings
The Dunwich Horror
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
He
Old Bugs
Herbert West: Reanimator
The Horror at Red Hook
Hypnos
Ibid
Imprisoned with the Pharaos
The Lurking Fear
Polaris
The Shunned House
The Very Old Folk
The Unnamable
The Transition of Juan Romero
The Rats in the Walls
The Strange high House in the Mist
The Statement of Randolph Carter
Memory
Pickman's Model
The Moon-Bog
The Quest of Iranon
The Picture in the House
The Music of Erich Zann
Nyarlathotep

NOVELLAS (5)

At the Mountains of Madness
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Shadow Out of Time]]> 1198 H.P. Lovecraft KJ 0 to-read 4.24 H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection with Accompanying Facts
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: KJ
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rather Be the Devil (Inspector Rebus #21)]]> 30298570 Detective Inspector John Rebus investigates a cold case that has turned red hot once again.

John Rebus, as incapable of settling into his retirement as he is of playing by the rules, investigates a cold case from the 1970s involving a gorgeous and wealthy female socialite who was found dead in a bedroom at one of Edinburgh's most luxurious hotels. No one was ever found guilty, but the scandalous circumstances of the murder have kept the town talking for over forty years. Now, Rebus has his own reasons to investigate, but his inquiries quickly make him some very dangerous and powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to ensure that the case remains unsolved and the gossip falls on deaf ears.
]]> 302 Ian Rankin 0316342556 KJ 0 currently-reading 4.22 2016 Rather Be the Devil (Inspector Rebus #21)
author: Ian Rankin
name: KJ
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What a Carve Up! (The Winshaw Legacy, #1)]]> 11474430 A wickedly funny take on life under the Thatcher government by the prize-winning author of Middle England. It is the 1980s and the Winshaw family are getting richer and crueller by the Newspaper-columnist Hilary gets thousands for telling it like it isn't. Henry's turning hospitals into car parks. Roddy's selling art in return for sex. Down on the farm Dorothy's squeezing every last pound from her livestock. Thomas is making a killing on the stock exchange; and Mark is selling arms to dictators. But once their hapless biographer Michael Owen starts investigating the family's trail of greed, corruption and immoral doings, the time growing ripe for the Winshaws to receive their comeuppance . . .__________ 'A sustained feat of humour, suspense and polemic, full of twists and ironies' Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times 'A riveting social satire on the chattering and all-powerful upper classes' Time Out'Big, hilarious, intricate, furious, moving' GuardianWritten with his signature wit, Jonathan Coe's unmissable new novel, Bournville, is available now!]]> 506 Jonathan Coe KJ 4 3.91 1994 What a Carve Up! (The Winshaw Legacy, #1)
author: Jonathan Coe
name: KJ
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2018/06/06
date added: 2018/06/06
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]]> The Master and Margarita 29605630
Source: rosettabooks.com]]> 432 Mikhail Bulgakov KJ 0 to-read 3.85 1967 The Master and Margarita
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: KJ
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Down Cemetery Road (The Oxford Investigations, #1)]]> 32594544 When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a young girl disappears in the aftermath, Sarah Tucker - a young married woman, bored and unhappy with domestic life - becomes obsessed with finding her. Accustomed to dull chores in a childless household and hosting her husband's wearisome business clients for dinner, Sarah suddenly finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew, as her investigation reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.

What begins in a peaceful neighbourhood reaches its climax on a remote, unwelcoming Scottish island as the search puts Sarah in league with a man who finds himself being hunted down by murderous official forces.

]]> 321 Mick Herron KJ 0 to-read 4.01 2003 Down Cemetery Road (The Oxford Investigations, #1)
author: Mick Herron
name: KJ
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Brazzaville Beach 19782248
'A brilliant storyteller . . . a book which stretches, tantalizes and delights' Financial Times

_____________________________________

On Brazzaville Beach, on the edge of Africa, Hope Clearwater ponders the strange circumstances that led her to leave her husband John, and his mathematical obsessions, in England and venture to Africa to help world-renowned scientist Eugene Mallabar with his studies of wild chimps.

But the more Hope studies Mallabar, the more she comes to believe that something isn't right. That behind Mallabar, and his obsessive work, there lies another, more sinister one that might also help explain Hope's reasons for leaving England . . .

_____________________________________

'A most extraordinary parable about mankind. Quite unlike anything else I have read' Sunday Express

'Brilliant, daring. A gripping and compulsive story' Herald

'Hilarious and edgy' Sunday Times]]> 402 William Boyd KJ 0 to-read 4.11 1990 Brazzaville Beach
author: William Boyd
name: KJ
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Painting The Darkness 11369499 610 Robert Goddard KJ 0 to-read 4.34 1989 Painting The Darkness
author: Robert Goddard
name: KJ
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> To Throw Away Unopened 37778201 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2018What was I fighting for? Even now I'm not sure. Something so old and so deep, it has no words, no shape, no logic.Every memoir is a battle between reality and invention - but in her follow up to Clothes, Music, Boys, Viv Albertine has reinvented the genre with her unflinching honesty. To Throw Away Unopened is a fearless dissection of one woman's obsession with the truth - the truth about family, power, and her identity as a rebel and outsider. It is a gaping wound of a book, both an exercise in blood-letting and psychological archaeology, excavating what lies the fear, the loneliness, the anger. It is a brutal expose of human dysfunctionality, the impossibility of true intimacy, and the damage wrought upon us by secrets and revelations, siblings and parents.Yet it is also a testament to how we can rebuild ourselves and come to face the world again. It is a portrait of the love stories that constitute a life, often bringing as much pain as joy. With the inimitable blend of humour, vulnerability, and intelligence that makes Viv Albertine one of our finest authors working today, To Throw Away Unopened smashes through layers of propriety and leads us into a new place of savage self-discovery.]]> 328 Viv Albertine KJ 0 to-read 4.44 2018 To Throw Away Unopened
author: Viv Albertine
name: KJ
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Liars' Gospel 15790915 An award-winning writer re-imagines the life of Jesus, from the points of view of four people closest to him before his death.

This is the story of Yehoshuah, who wandered Roman-occupied Judea giving sermons and healing the sick. Now, a year after his death, four people tell their stories. His mother grieves, his friend Iehuda loses his faith, the High Priest of the Temple tries to keep the peace, and a rebel named Bar-Avo strives to bring that peace tumbling down.

It was a time of political power-play and brutal tyranny. Men and women took to the streets to protest. Dictators put them down with iron force. In the midst of it all, one inconsequential preacher died. And either something miraculous happened, or someone lied.

Viscerally powerful in its depictions of the period - massacres and riots, animal sacrifice and human betrayal - The Liars' Gospel makes the oldest story entirely new.]]> 312 Naomi Alderman 0316232785 KJ 0 to-read 3.70 2012 The Liars' Gospel
author: Naomi Alderman
name: KJ
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> Home Fires 35663803
Max Weston, twenty-one, leaves for his first army posting in central Africa. What happens to him changes the lives of his family forever. At home, his parents struggle to cope. The overwhelming love Caroline has always felt for her only child is now matched by the intensity of Max's absence. The silence is broken by the arrival of Caroline's mother-in-law, Elsa, who at the age of ninety-eight can no longer look after herself. After years of living in fear of putting a foot wrong in front of this elegant, cuttingly courteous lady, finally, Caroline has the upper hand.]]> 257 Elizabeth Day 000822174X KJ 0 to-read 3.89 2013 Home Fires
author: Elizabeth Day
name: KJ
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Different Class (Malbry, #2) 28400006
'A magnificently plotted and twisty journey to the heart of a 24-year-old crime...darkly humorous...constantly wrongfoots and misdirects...up to a satisfyingly eccentric conclusion.' -- Observer
'Classy writing, sensitive and moving.' -- The Times
'Harris pulls off an impeccable thriller denouement...consistently entertaining.' -- Sunday Times
'Just fabulous' -- Reader review
'An absolute triumph of a book' -- Reader review
'Twists, turns and droll humour - a great read!' -- Reader review
'Absorbing' -- Reader review

After thirty years at St Oswald's Grammar in North Yorkshire , Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go - the clowns, the rebels, the underdogs, and those he calls his Brodie boys . But every so often there's a boy who doesn't fit the mould. A troublemaker. A boy capable of twisting everything around him. A boy with hidden shadows inside .

With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new broom has arrived at the venerable school, bringing Powerpoint, sharp suits and even sixth form girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist this march to the future, a shadow from his past is stirring. A boy who even twenty years on haunts his teacher's dreams. A boy capable of bad things.]]> 514 Joanne Harris KJ 0 to-read 4.01 2016 Different Class (Malbry, #2)
author: Joanne Harris
name: KJ
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bringing in the Sheaves: Wheat and Chaff from My Years as a Priest]]> 32312640 After a life of sex, drugs and the Communards, recounted in his acclaimed memoir Fathomless Riches, the Reverend Richard Coles devoted himself to God and Christianity. So what is life like for the parson in Britain today? From his ordination, through Advent and Christmas to Lent and Easter, Reverend Coles gives us a unique insight into his daily experience in the ministry, with all the joy, hope, drama and difficulty that entails. Written with extraordinary charm and compassion, Bringing in the Sheaves will inspire and inform all who read it.'All the humour, quirky characters and incidents that life - and death- serve up' Mail on Sunday]]> 249 Richard Coles KJ 4 3.98 Bringing in the Sheaves: Wheat and Chaff from My Years as a Priest
author: Richard Coles
name: KJ
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2018/06/03
date added: 2018/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Spymaster: The Life of Britain's Most Decorated Cold War Spy and Head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield]]> 31727970 'I cannot think of a better biography of a spy chief'Richard Davenport-Hines, The SpectatorSir Maurice Oldfield was one of the most important British spies of the Cold War era. _________A farmer’s son from a provincial grammar school who found himself accidentally plunged into the world of espionage, Sir Maurice was the first Chief of MI6 who didn’t come to the role via the traditional public school and Oxbridge route. Oldfield was the voice of British Intelligence in Washington at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of JFK, and was largely responsible for keeping the UK out of the Vietnam War. Working his way to the top of the secret service, he took on the job of rebuilding confidence in the British Secret Service in the wake of the Philby, Burgess and Maclean spy scandals.This is the fascinating life story, told in detail for the first time, of a complex, likeable character as well as a formidable intelligence chief.]]> 464 Martin Pearce 1473525357 KJ 0 to-read 4.25 2016 Spymaster: The Life of Britain's Most Decorated Cold War Spy and Head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield
author: Martin Pearce
name: KJ
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Poppet 18971320 The Maude is outside.

It wants to come in.

It wants to sit on your chest.

The patients at Beechway High Secure Unit are terrified. Unexplained power cuts have lead to a series of horrifying incidents. And now fear has spread from the inmates to the staff.

DI Jack Caffery is called to investigate, whilst working the most impossible case of his life. Will he be able to stare pure evil in the eye, and survive?]]> 378 Mo Hayder KJ 0 to-read 4.37 2013 Poppet
author: Mo Hayder
name: KJ
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Game of Our Lives: The English Premier League and the Making of Modern Britain]]> 23533217 The Game of Our Lives is a masterly portrait of contemporary Britain through the lens of soccer. In the last two decades soccer in the United Kingdom has made the transition from a peripheral dying sport to the very centre of British popular culture, from an economic basket-case to a booming entertainment industry that has conquered the world. What does it mean when soccer becomes so central to the private and public lives of the British people? Has it enriched this island nation or impoverished it?
From the goals, to the players, to the managers, to the money, David Goldblatt describes how the English Premier League was forged by Margaret Thatcher's Britain and an alliance of the big clubs � Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur � the Football Association and Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV. He identifies the real winners and losers in this extraordinary period, and explains how soccer has closely mirrored the wider political and...

]]> 872 David Goldblatt 1568585071 KJ 0 to-read 3.74 2014 The Game of Our Lives: The English Premier League and the Making of Modern Britain
author: David Goldblatt
name: KJ
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Stars and Bars 19877067 ***William Boyd's new novel, The Romantic, is available to pre-order now***'One of the comic masterpieces' Daily Telegraph ______________________________________Henderson Dores is an Englishman in New York - and completely out of his depth.He should be concentrating on his job as an art assessor, but his complicated personal life keeps intruding. And that's before we even get to his sense of alienation, of being a fish out of water. For Henderson is a shy man lost in a country of extraverts and weirdos. Subway poets, loony millionaires, Bible-bashers and sharp-suited hoods stalk him wherever he goes. But it is only when he's sent to America's deep South to examine a rare collection of paintings that matters take a life-threatening turn. Still, if it doesn't kill you, they say it can only make you stronger . . .______________________________________'Boyd's humour, timed to a tee, always raps out the truth' Mail on Sunday'Extremely funny. Boyd does not pass up a single comic turn' Sunday Telegraph'Splittlingly shrewd and engaging' Guardian'The wry laughter never stops . . . the shrewdest pages yet from a master of witty manipulation' Observer]]> 347 William Boyd KJ 3 3.71 1984 Stars and Bars
author: William Boyd
name: KJ
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2018/06/02
date added: 2018/06/02
shelves:
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]]> Vile Bodies 19257441 338 Evelyn Waugh KJ 0 to-read 3.56 1930 Vile Bodies
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: KJ
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1930
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dirty Northern B*st*rds And Other Tales From The Terraces: The Story of Britain's Football Chants]]> 23387006 "This is a book about football and Britain, and Britain and football. You can't fully understand one without the other; and if you haven't got a sense of humour it's not worth even trying.

"My name's Tim Marshall and it's been a week since my last match. I support a football club. That's not just five words; it' s a life sentence."

Why do so many of us attend football grounds, rain or shine, week in week out, to bellow at our fellow countrymen?

Because we love it.

Football chants are the grassroots of the game, from the Premier League all the way down to the Conference and beyond. They're funny. And they're sharp. And in the UK they run very deep.

In this witty and insightful account, Tim Marshall tells the story of British football through the songs and chants that give it meaning.

This is a book about the fans, written for the fans, with all the flair and banter that bring the beautiful game to life. No other sport has a culture quite like it.

This is an enhanced ebook that contains many of the chants, so you can listen as you read!

]]> 220 Tim Marshall 1783960612 KJ 0 to-read 3.49 2014 Dirty Northern B*st*rds And Other Tales From The Terraces: The Story of Britain's Football Chants
author: Tim Marshall
name: KJ
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Birdcage Walk 36001512
Weaving a deeply personal and moving story with a historical moment of critical and complex importance, Birdcage Walk is an unsettling and brilliantly tense drama of public and private violence, resistance and terror from one of our greatest storytellers.]]> 358 Helen Dunmore KJ 0 to-read 3.79 2017 Birdcage Walk
author: Helen Dunmore
name: KJ
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> House of Orphans 19371538 'Outstanding, a sheer pleasure to read. Dunmore is a remarkable storyteller' Daily Mail***From the author of Inside the Wave, the Costa Book of the Year 2017***Finland, 1902, and the Russian Empire enforces a brutal policy to destroy Finland's freedom and force its people into submission.Eeva, orphaned daughter of a failed revolutionary, also battles to find her independence and identity. Destitute when her father dies, she is sent away to a country orphanage, and then employed as servant to a widowed doctor, Thomas Eklund. Slowly, Thomas falls in love with Eeva . . . but she has committed herself long ago to a boy from her childhood, Lauri, who is now caught up in Helsinki's turmoil of resistance to Russian rule.Set in dangerous, unfamiliar times which strangely echo our own, the story reveals how terrorism lies hidden within ordinary life, as rulers struggle to hold on to power. House of Orphans is a rich, brilliant story of love, history and change.'Part love story, part tragedy . . . Dunmore on dazzling form. Everyone should read her work' Independent on Sunday'Every character is richly drawn and makes for compelling reading ... top-quality fiction' Daily Express'Richly ambitious . . . there isn't a dull page. A remarkable achievement' Scotsman'Vivid and exciting' Observer]]> 397 Helen Dunmore 0141924373 KJ 0 to-read 3.82 2006 House of Orphans
author: Helen Dunmore
name: KJ
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed And The Souring of British Football]]> 33121182 448 Tom Bower 1471163822 KJ 0 to-read 3.42 2003 Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed And The Souring of British Football
author: Tom Bower
name: KJ
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunday Morning Coming Down (Frieda Klein #7)]]> 34855406 Psychotherapist Dr Frieda Klein once again finds herself in the midst of a criminal investigation when the rotting body of an ex-policeman is found beneath the floorboards of her house.
The corpse is only months old but the main suspect, murderer Dean Reeve, died over seven years ago.

As the killer picks off his next victims and her home is turned into a crime scene, Frieda's old life seems like a hazy dream.
With eyes of the world upon her and no answers from the police, Frieda realises that she will have to track this killer before he tracks down those she loves.

]]> 405 Nicci French KJ 0 to-read 4.20 2017 Sunday Morning Coming Down (Frieda Klein #7)
author: Nicci French
name: KJ
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> A God in Ruins 25132814 Life After Life Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy � would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father � as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.]]> 557 Kate Atkinson KJ 0 to-read 4.17 2015 A God in Ruins
author: Kate Atkinson
name: KJ
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Co-Op's Got Bananas: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Post-War North]]> 29979065 A poignantand very personal childhood memoir of growing up in Cumbria during the Second World War and into the 1950s, from columnist Hunter Davies Despite the struggle to make ends meet during the tough years of warfare in the 1940s and rationing persisting until the early 1950s, life could still be sweet. Especially if you were a young boy, playing football with your pals, saving up to go to the movies at the weekend, and being captivated by the latest escapade of Dick Barton on the radio. Chocolate might be scarce, and bananas would be a pipe dream, but you could still have fun. In an excellent social memoir from one of the UK's premier columnists over the past five decades, Hunter Davies captures this period beautifully. His memoir of growing up in post-war North of England from 1945 onwards, amid the immense damage wrought by the Second World War, and the dreariness of life on rationing, very little luxuries and an archaic educational system, should be one that will resonate with thousands of readers across Britain. In the same vein as Robert Douglas's Night Song of the Last Tramand Alan Johnson'sThis Boy, Hunter's memories of a hard life laced with glorious moments of colour and emotion will certainly strike a vein with his generation.]]> 327 Hunter Davies KJ 5 4.43 2016 The Co-Op's Got Bananas: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Post-War North
author: Hunter Davies
name: KJ
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2018/05/31
date added: 2018/05/31
shelves:
review:

]]>