Tony's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:20:18 -0700 60 Tony's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg How Soon Is Now? 211423352
Troubled ex-journalist Luke Seymour discovers an incredible untapped talent after being recruited by The Nostalgia Club � an eccentric group of time travellers who meet in the back room of an Edinburgh pub.

Honing his newly discovered � and dangerously addictive � time travel skills, Luke learns the secrets of the club's members, battles to solve the mystery of their missing leader, and plunges ever deeper into his own history � where the terrible mistake that scarred his life is waiting ...

Set in Glasgow and Edinburgh in the 1980s, 1990s and near-present, 'How Soon Is Now?' is packed with unforgettable characters, intricate storytelling, dark humour and a uniquely human twist on the mechanics of time travel � all moving towards a powerful and emotional climax.

Balancing the epic and the intimate, 'How Soon Is Now?' is a gripping page-turner with soul � a meditative, thoughtful exploration of grief, loss and love.

'I love time travel novels, and I loved the twist in this one. The pace was perfect, the characters distinct and memorable ... I highly recommend this book.' � Donna Spencer, Reedsy Discovery

What readers are saying:

'Part time-travel tale and part emotional rollercoaster, this is a beautiful read.' ✭✭✭✭�
'Touching, thoughtful, well-written � do yourself a favour and read this uplifting story.� ✭✭✭✭�
‘Beautifully written � takes you to places you won’t expect.� ✭✭✭✭�
'Insanely good for a debut ... poignant and empathetic.' ✭✭✭✭�
‘Exceptional. A fantastic read.' ✭✭✭✭�
'Thoughtful, fiendishly clever and utterly addictive ... a Netflix binge of a book.' ✭✭✭✭�
'Entertaining, funny and wise.' ✭✭✭✭�
'Builds to a complex and satisfying finish'. ✭✭✭✭�
'Full of laughs, love and heartache.' ✭✭✭✭�
'Well constructed, absorbing, satisfying conclusion.' ✭✭✭✭�
'This is a great book.' ✭✭✭✭�
'A beautiful and heartwarming story. It broke my heart when I reached the last page and discovered my journey here was over.' ✭✭✭✭✭]]> 440 Paul Carnahan Tony 0 currently-reading 4.43 How Soon Is Now?
author: Paul Carnahan
name: Tony
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fourth Clause (Echo Lane Book 2)]]> 230312337 The Fourth Clause is the much-anticipated sequel to No Easy Deeds � selected by Amazon as one of the top Kindle releases of 2024.

1990 has not been a vintage year for Danny Monk � a cheating fiancée, redundancy, and then a harsh lesson in the downsides of home ownership.

However, Danny’s life took a turn for the better after he secured a job as an estate agent. It was during his first week of employment that he visited a house on Echo Lane and met its owner, Mrs Weller. The mysterious Mrs Weller then made a too-good-to-be-true proposal.

That proposal proved to be the very tip of a miraculous iceberg, as the house on Echo Lane offered more than scenic views and ample parking � seemingly, it also featured a time portal to the year 2024.

Or did it?

Despite his best efforts, Danny doesn’t achieve the happy ending he hoped for. Instead, he’s left with a head full of questions and a warning from Mrs Weller that their story is far from over. Ignoring that warning, Danny decides to put the insanity of Echo Lane behind him and move on with his life..

However, Danny is about to discover that the future doesn’t appreciate being messed with. Nor, as it transpires, do certain figures in the present.]]> 368 Keith A Pearson Tony 3
I hold my breath whilst waiting for new books and I hate to admit it, I wish I’d been made to hold it longer.

Some great laugh-out-loud bits but a little forced in places. ]]> 4.62 The Fourth Clause (Echo Lane Book 2)
author: Keith A Pearson
name: Tony
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves:
review:
Damn. And I lost my dad too. Thoughts with you and yours Keith.

I hold my breath whilst waiting for new books and I hate to admit it, I wish I’d been made to hold it longer.

Some great laugh-out-loud bits but a little forced in places.
]]> <![CDATA[Emotional Ignorance: Lost and Found in the Science of Emotion]]> 62305607 What's the point of nightmares?
And why is it so impossible to forget embarrassing memories?

Emotions can be a pain. After losing his dad to Covid-19, Dean Burnett found himself wondering what it would be like to live a life without emotion. And so, he decided to put his feelings under the microscope � for science.

In Emotional Ignorance, Dean takes us on an incredible journey of discovery, stretching from the origins of life to the end of the universe. Along the way he reveals:

- why we would ever follow our gut;
- whether things really were better in the old days;
- why it's so hard to stop doomscrolling;
- and how sad music can make us happier.

Combining expert analysis, brilliant humour and powerful insights into our inner lives, Dean uncovers how, far from holding us back, our emotions make us who we are.]]> 445 Dean Burnett 1443470600 Tony 5
I was a little worried at the start that the personal aspect of this would detract. It doesn’t, it’s a rather convenient hook. And I must say, I lost my father around the same time as Mr Burnett. It helped me too.

Wonderful. Read it. ]]> 3.74 Emotional Ignorance: Lost and Found in the Science of Emotion
author: Dean Burnett
name: Tony
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:
I read Mr Burnett’s first two books whilst working in a situation where they had a direct and immediate impact on the work that I did. This time it was more for pure enjoyment (must say here that in terms of pure enjoyment, the audio book is so wonderfully narrated and produced that this enjoyment is greatly enhanced).

I was a little worried at the start that the personal aspect of this would detract. It doesn’t, it’s a rather convenient hook. And I must say, I lost my father around the same time as Mr Burnett. It helped me too.

Wonderful. Read it.
]]> Changing My Mind 214988425 Bestselling author Julian Barnes illuminates the process of how minds are changed—about politics, books, words, memories, and more—in this wise and fascinating new book.

“We always believe that changing our mind is an improvement, bringing a greater truthfulness to our dealings with the world and other people. It puts an end to vacillation, uncertainty, weak-mindedness. It seems to make us stronger and more mature. Well, we would think that, wouldn't we?�

In this engaging and erudite essay, critically acclaimed writer Julian Barnes explores what is involved when we change our about words, about politics, about books; about memories, age, and time.]]> 64 Julian Barnes 1912559692 Tony 0 to-read 3.86 Changing My Mind
author: Julian Barnes
name: Tony
average rating: 3.86
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Absurd Life of Barry White]]> 214282276 Barry White Jr. is a self-professed man-child, and he likes it that way. He’s also a content creator for a logistics firm. No one in the village really knows what that means � least of all Barry.

To add a little spice to his life, Barry gambles, on pretty much anything. Then, one day, he wins big. Such a mammoth sum of money is an unexpected burden. But the harder he tries to lose it, the more he seems to accumulate. It’s like a real-life game of Go For Broke!

Then it dawns on him. Perhaps there’s a way of turning this windfall to his advantage � and letting him live the same kind of life he always has.

Will this turn out to be the making of him? Can Barry White Jr. finally become Barry White In His Own Right?

This is the dazzling debut novel from established sports writer Rob Harris. It’s a charming, hilarious and heartwarming black comedy ]]> 254 Rob Harris 1504096223 Tony 5
Heartwarming. ]]> 4.10 2024 The Absurd Life of Barry White
author: Rob Harris
name: Tony
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
Such a pleasant little tale. Plants its roots in South Wales and stays there. Doesn’t travel far and doesn’t need to.

Heartwarming.
]]> The Variable Man 8734881
Approx. 3 hours]]> 100 Philip K. Dick Tony 5 3.73 1953 The Variable Man
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Tony
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
Each word here is worth a thousand anywhere else. Brilliant tale but far too short.
]]> The Vanishing Point: Stories 212364041 From the bestselling novelist, travel writer, and “master of the short story� (NPR) comes a brilliant new collection.

The stories in Paul Theroux’s fascinating new collection are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life’s vanishing points—a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety, and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status, once again, as a master of the form.


]]> 336 Paul Theroux 035872225X Tony 0 to-read 3.65 2025 The Vanishing Point: Stories
author: Paul Theroux
name: Tony
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The October Country 21346518 A classic collection of nineteen macabre short stories from the modern master of the fantastic.

This classic collection features:

The Emissary: The faithful dog was the sick boy's only connection with the world outside � and beyond�
The Small Assassin: A fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother's dream come true � or her worst nightmare�
The Scythe: Just when his luck had run out, Drew Erickson inherited a farm from a stranger; and with the bequest came deadly responsibilities�
The Jar: A chilling story that combines love, death…and a matter of identity in a bottle of fear.
he Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone: A most remarkable case of murder � the deceased was delighted�

Plus fourteen more unforgettable tales!]]> 306 Ray Bradbury 0007541724 Tony 5
Except the one in here which must have been written on a bad acid trip.

I love the short stories, but also hate 'em. There’s not enough here to get your teeth into at times, but I suppose to leave us wanting more is part of the art.

Just sublime�.

EDIT: Christ, I really must stop writing reviews when I'm drunk!]]> 3.85 1955 The October Country
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Tony
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2017/06/13
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
review:
Sometimes I forget about Mr Bradbury and when I remember I curse myself for not reading more. Anyone is capable of producing a picture which paints a thousand words, Mr Bradbury is capable of giving birth to words which paint a thousand pictures. That’s some feat! The man is a true master who uses this art to deliver incredible tales which makes you blow your cheeks out, sit back and smile.

Except the one in here which must have been written on a bad acid trip.

I love the short stories, but also hate 'em. There’s not enough here to get your teeth into at times, but I suppose to leave us wanting more is part of the art.

Just sublime�.

EDIT: Christ, I really must stop writing reviews when I'm drunk!
]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old]]> 35960007 A #1 international bestseller in the vein of Fredrik Bachman's A Man Called Ove: an irresistible, funny, charming, and tender-hearted tale about friendship, love, and an old man who is young at heart.
Technically speaking, Hendrik Groen is....elderly. But at age 83 1/4, this feisty, indomitable curmudgeon has no plans to go out quietly. Bored of weak tea and potted geraniums, exasperated by the indignities of aging, Hendrik has decided to rebel--on his own terms. He begins writing an exposé: secretly recording the antics of day-to-day life in his retirement home, where he refuses to take himself, or his fellow "inmates," too seriously.
With an eccentric group of friends he founds the wickedly anarchic Old-But-Not-Dead Club--"Rule #3: No Whining Allowed"--and he and his best friend, Evert, gleefully stir up trouble, enraging the home's humorless director and turning themselves into unlikely heroes. And when a sweet and sassy widow moves in next door, he polishes his shoes, grooms what's left of his hair, and determines to savor every ounce of joy in the time he has left, with hilarious and tender consequences.


A bestselling phenomenon that has captured imaginations around the world, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen is inspiring, charming, and laugh-out-loud funny with a deep and poignant core: a page-turning delight for readers of any age.

*Includes reading group guide*]]> 384 Hendrik Groen 1455542156 Tony 3
More funnies please.]]> 3.82 2014 The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old
author: Hendrik Groen
name: Tony
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/15
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:
This is well enough put together but it’s bitter-sweet approach is a little over-bitter for the most part. At times I just felt witness to a crumbly’s slow descent into his final resting place.

More funnies please.
]]> <![CDATA[The Buenos Aires affair. A detective novel]]> 3500898 219 Manuel Puig 0394744748 Tony 0 to-read 3.54 1973 The Buenos Aires affair. A detective novel
author: Manuel Puig
name: Tony
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Worm Ouroboros 13624 The Lord of the Rings first appeared, the critics inevitably compared it to this 1922 landmark work. Tolkien himself frankly acknowledged its influence, with warm praise for its imaginative appeal. The story of a remote planet’s great war between two kingdoms, it ranks as the Iliad of heroic fantasy.

In the best traditions of Homeric epics, Norse sagas, and Arthurian myths, author E. R. Eddison weaves a compelling adventure, with a majestic, Shakespearean narrative style. His sweeping tale recounts battles between warriors and witches on fog-shrouded mountaintops and in the ocean’s depths—along with romantic interludes, backroom intrigues, and episodes of direst treachery. Generations of readers have joyfully lost themselves in the timeless worlds of The Worm Ouroboros.

[This new edition is illustrated with the classic original images.]
]]> 446 E.R. Eddison 0486447405 Tony 0 to-read 3.66 1922 The Worm Ouroboros
author: E.R. Eddison
name: Tony
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Deadly Percheron 250057 The Deadly Percheron is a murder mystery, poignant love story, and an unsettling and hallucinatory voyage into memory, madness, and despair.]]> 223 John Franklin Bardin 1933618108 Tony 0 to-read 3.81 1946 The Deadly Percheron
author: John Franklin Bardin
name: Tony
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne, #1) 11250040 Sleepy Head is such a book. The blurb on the jacket warns that we are in for a disturbing experience and that is precisely what we get: "He doesn't want you alive. He doesn't want you dead. He wants you somewhere in between".

The killer who Billingham's protagonist Tom Thorne is up against is a particularly creepy specimen: he has savagely killed three victims but his fourth, although alive, is perhaps not so fortunate. She has undergone a deliberately induced stroke and although all her senses are intact, she is totally unable to move or communicate. This hideous condition, called Locked-in Syndrome is, however, quite possibly the killer's first miscalculation ... or is it? Soon the dogged Thorne (given to distrusting his own abilities) is playing a cat-and-mouse game with a psychopathic killer. And the brilliant and sadistic killer is just as interested in leading Thorne a merry dance as he is in fulfilling his degraded obsessions.

All characterisations here are spot-on, even the killer (although one wonders just how many more hyper-intelligent psychopaths readers will be prepared to take) while the British setting is handled with intelligence, the horrific set pieces with real élan:
His head moved up, through the hole and into bright white light. He blinked quickly to adjust and opened his eyes. Thorne's last thought, before his body turned ice cold and began to shake quietly, was that he'd been right to be afraid...
--Barry Forshaw]]> 433 Mark Billingham Tony 3
This is an ex-review. ]]> 3.82 2001 Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne, #1)
author: Mark Billingham
name: Tony
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
review:
Where has my review gone?

This is an ex-review.
]]> <![CDATA[The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme, #1)]]> 2373 528 Jeffery Deaver 0451188454 Tony 4
I’m not sure why! ]]> 4.20 1997 The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme, #1)
author: Jeffery Deaver
name: Tony
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
review:
I’m finding it difficult to know what to write for this. It was good, it was exactly what I expected it to be but I’m not rushing to read the sequel.

I’m not sure why!
]]> When the Moon Hits Your Eye 211004190
It's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.]]> 326 John Scalzi 0765389096 Tony 0 to-read 3.92 2025 When the Moon Hits Your Eye
author: John Scalzi
name: Tony
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Detective (Peter Diamond, #1)]]> 815595
In the first entry to the series and winner of the 1992 Anthony Boucher Award for Best Mystery Novel, Diamond must locate two missing letters attributed to Jane Austen to solve the murder of the "Lady in the Lake."

A woman’s body has been found floating in the weeds in a lake near Bath. There are no marks on her and no murder weapon. No one will identify her. It looks like Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond has his work cut out for him. Diamond is one of the last detectives of his kind, a gumshoe whose heroes solved crimes by question and answer, door stepping and deduction. To unravel this one, Diamond must locate two missing letters attributed to Jane Austen and defy his superiors in order to save a woman unjustly accused of murder.]]> 368 Peter Lovesey 1569472092 Tony 4
However, it improved as it went along and interestingly employs differing points of view for suspects in a murder enquiry. Enjoyable!]]> 3.74 1991 The Last Detective (Peter Diamond, #1)
author: Peter Lovesey
name: Tony
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:
I wasn’t sure of this to begin with, I only picked it up because it shares a title with some of my favourite books (those of Dangerous Davies, Leslie Thomas).

However, it improved as it went along and interestingly employs differing points of view for suspects in a murder enquiry. Enjoyable!
]]> <![CDATA[Diamond Solitaire (Peter Diamond, #2)]]> 214617 The second Peter Diamond investigation

Fired from the police force for insubordination, Peter Diamond is reduced to working as a security guard at Harrod’s. Turns out he can’t even hold that job—he gets fired after finding an abandoned Japanese girl in the store after closing. “Naomi,� as he calls her, exhibits strong signs of autism, and he devotes himself to communicating with her in order to glean her identity and return her to her rightful home. Weeks later, a Japanese woman appears out of the blue to claim the little girl, and it appears as though Diamond’s job is done. If only that were true. Armed only with only Naomi’s drawings as clues, Diamond races to track down her kidnappers and save her life.]]> 327 Peter Lovesey 1569472920 Tony 0 to-read 3.78 1992 Diamond Solitaire (Peter Diamond, #2)
author: Peter Lovesey
name: Tony
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Third Policeman 27208 The last of O'Brien's novels to be published, The Third Policeman joins O'Brien's other fiction (At Swim-Two-Birds, The Poor Mouth, The Hard Life, The Best of Myles, The Dalkey Archive) to ensure his place, along with James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, as one of Ireland's great comic geniuses.]]> 200 Flann O'Brien 156478214X Tony 0 to-read 4.00 1967 The Third Policeman
author: Flann O'Brien
name: Tony
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)]]> 212078448 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]> 432 Robert Jackson Bennett 1399725424 Tony 0 to-read 4.62 2025 A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Tony
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Meeting Mungo Thunk 40733822 A laugh-out-loud tale of love, life lessons, and an odd little man named Mungo Thunk.

Bathroom scales were not an appropriate gift for his fiancée’s birthday � apparently.

Adam Maxwell isn’t a bad man—he’s just a man who doesn’t stop and think. Ever since he ate seven pickled gherkins for lunch at school, and subsequently shat himself during a maths lesson, Adam has been cursed by a lack of common sense.

Now in his early thirties, that lack of common sense is about to throw Adam’s life into turmoil after one particularly ill-judged decision backfires � with disastrous consequences.

After a rapid descent towards rock bottom, a strange little man by the name of Mungo Thunk then enters Adam’s life. However, not everything about Mungo Thunk is as it first seems. After insisting Adam can rediscover his common sense by agreeing to an unorthodox brand of therapy, the two set about dealing with the raft of challenges Adam has to face.

Can Adam trust the mysterious stranger to fix his thinking and get his life back on track? Or will he come to rue the day he invited Mungo Thunk into his life?]]> 398 Keith A. Pearson Tony 5
A message for anyone out there that is finding it difficult raising a smile and who might need their spirits lifted� pick up this (or any of Mr Pearson’s books really), it will lead you away for a while. We all need that sometimes.]]> 4.50 2018 Meeting Mungo Thunk
author: Keith A. Pearson
name: Tony
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
Think I must now have read everything Mr Pearson has produced (with the exception of this one’s sequel). I save them for times when work-related literature has bored and frustrated me and for when I need a wonderfully light, old fashioned feel-good tale. And this is certainly that.

A message for anyone out there that is finding it difficult raising a smile and who might need their spirits lifted� pick up this (or any of Mr Pearson’s books really), it will lead you away for a while. We all need that sometimes.
]]> <![CDATA[The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (Inspector Morse #3)]]> 76916 288 Colin Dexter 0804114870 Tony 5 3.83 1977 The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (Inspector Morse #3)
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
The series just gets better and better!
]]> <![CDATA[The Quasimodo Killings (Vance and Shepherd Mysteries, Book 1)]]> 61291598
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has provoked a psychopath with her inaugural speech. Soon later, the commissioner receives a letter threatening a series of nine killings, culminating in "the big one", unless the police chief retracts her speech with a public apology.

To disprove her statements, the killer adds colour and poetry to the murders, all committed in the name of the mysterious Lord Robert. As the death toll mounts, Vance and Shepherd struggle to identify the victims in advance, and there seem to be no clues of the killer's identity.

With time running out, can the detectives capture the perpetrator and prevent him from killing again?]]> 264 John Broughton Tony 1
I say read but more like run away from. Plenty of people enjoyed this but it wasn’t for me, didn’t like the style.

Edit: Gave it a second chance because I’m nice like that. Can I score it a negative? ]]> 4.21 The Quasimodo Killings (Vance and Shepherd Mysteries, Book 1)
author: John Broughton
name: Tony
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
No stars awarded as seemed a bit unfair as I read so little of it.

I say read but more like run away from. Plenty of people enjoyed this but it wasn’t for me, didn’t like the style.

Edit: Gave it a second chance because I’m nice like that. Can I score it a negative?
]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 54659324 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.


The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition.

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Includes part one of the exclusive bonus story “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.�]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Tony 0 to-read 4.57 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Tony
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Last Seen Wearing (Inspector Morse, #2)]]> 76910 326 Colin Dexter 0804114919 Tony 5 3.86 1976 Last Seen Wearing (Inspector Morse, #2)
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:
Another good read, picked up smoothly where the previous left off. What surprises me most is how dated this now seems, a few years gone by since the first reading.
]]> Chatterton. A Novel 984477 234 Peter Ackroyd 0802100414 Tony 0 to-read 4.22 1987 Chatterton. A Novel
author: Peter Ackroyd
name: Tony
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Morse and the Mystery of the Drunken Driver]]> 7683735 Colin Dexter Tony 0 to-read 4.18 2008 Morse and the Mystery of the Drunken Driver
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Evans Tries An O-Level 61126216 76 Colin Dexter 0860040437 Tony 0 to-read 4.56 Evans Tries An O-Level
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Other Half (A Mulholland / Strand Magazine Short)]]> 30615355 From the author of the Inspector Morse series, a short story about a freelance investigator and what should be a simple case. Mrs. Isobel Rodgers is an investigator's perfect beautiful, wealthy, and offering a straightfoward assignment. Mrs. Rodgers suspects her husband of an affair, and it's up to the investigator to determine the object of Mr. Rodger's affections. For someone with brilliant deductive powers, this should be an open-and-shut case-but Mrs. Rodgers may know more than she's letting on. "The Other Half" by Colin Dexter is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!]]> 15 Colin Dexter 0316361259 Tony 0 to-read 3.25 2015 The Other Half (A Mulholland / Strand Magazine Short)
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cracking Cryptic Crosswords 21918808 104 Colin Dexter Tony 0 to-read 4.04 2009 Cracking Cryptic Crosswords
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories]]> 859795 304 Colin Dexter 0804113092 Tony 0 to-read 3.75 1993 Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Judge and His Hangman 34379486
'Spellbinding mystery' Washington Post

'Dürrenmatt reinterpreted the detective novel... passing the baton to the lies of Umberto Eco and Paul Auster' The National

Inspector Barlach is dying
But not fast enough for his arch enemy

When a member of the Bern police force is shot dead on a Swiss country road, the enigmatic Inspector Barlach and his colleague Tschanz are intent on tracking down the killer. But the ailing Inspector doesn't have time to lose. Soon the pair discover that the victim was murdered on his way to a clandestine party at the home of a wealthy power broker - so why was a local policeman socialising with some of Switzerland's most influential men? Who was his shadowy host? And why has Barlach's past returned to haunt him in his final hours?

The Judge and His Hangman is a thrilling tale of lifelong rivalry, and of two men chained together by a wager that would destroy them both.]]> 128 Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1782273417 Tony 0 to-read 3.86 1951 The Judge and His Hangman
author: Friedrich Dürrenmatt
name: Tony
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1951
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Last Bus to Woodstock (Inspector Morse, #1)]]> 76909 282 Colin Dexter 0804114900 Tony 5
There’s something warm and cosy about immersing oneself in a tale that’s been traversed before. This didn’t disappoint and was good to remind myself of a Morse who is a fair distance from the one on the screen. I considered knocking off a star from my original five but that would be wrong. The writing here is excellent and I immediately downloaded and launched into the second. ]]> 3.85 1975 Last Bus to Woodstock (Inspector Morse, #1)
author: Colin Dexter
name: Tony
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:
Re-read. First read long before I joined this place. Read even before the internet. My internet certainly.

There’s something warm and cosy about immersing oneself in a tale that’s been traversed before. This didn’t disappoint and was good to remind myself of a Morse who is a fair distance from the one on the screen. I considered knocking off a star from my original five but that would be wrong. The writing here is excellent and I immediately downloaded and launched into the second.
]]> Upgrade 59838811 You are the next step in human evolution.

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.]]> 352 Blake Crouch 0593157532 Tony 5
Mr Crouch can certainly weave a tale and this is wonderfully entertaining; once again it asks questions which need answering. ]]> 3.77 2022 Upgrade
author: Blake Crouch
name: Tony
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:
I considered knocking a star off for the amount of unnecessary detail but that would be churlish. And to be honest, I felt that the last chapter repaired the occasional flaw.

Mr Crouch can certainly weave a tale and this is wonderfully entertaining; once again it asks questions which need answering.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ghoul On The Hill (The Hipposync Archives Book 2)]]> 217274081 Previously Published as Frivolous Pursuits.

"Where crime collides with the occult, DC Farmer rules. Brace for bewitching mysteries - but beware, they're dangerously funny too."

They say a picture is worth a thousand words�

With a job he hates and his personal life less than rosy, Darren Trott’s world is turned upside down by an unlikely and desperate request from a place he thought he’d forgotten.

Or hoped he had.

Now, with the help of warrior queens, a mischievous bwbach, and other, otherworldly allies, he must confront his past to save both his world, and the one he’s drawn to.

But with enemies closing in, Darren must tread carefully—or risk unleashing a ravaging force of unimaginable proportions. And that’s just the wrath of his current partner, never mind the things that wait across the great divide.

If he could only get his life into focus.

Another stunning fantasy adventure between worlds from the Hipposync Archives.

‘looking for something to fill the gaps between Tom Holt, and the late lamented Sir Terry? D C Farmer’s contemporary urban fantasies really hit the ground running.�]]> 367 D.C. Farmer 1915185289 Tony 4
I’d have liked a better link with the characters from the first book but a small point and otherwise thoroughly enjoyed it! ]]> 4.37 2015 The Ghoul On The Hill (The Hipposync Archives Book 2)
author: D.C. Farmer
name: Tony
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:
Second in the series and another enjoyable romp, marginally better than the first as it doesn’t begin by trying to impress through the use of tedious metaphors.

I’d have liked a better link with the characters from the first book but a small point and otherwise thoroughly enjoyed it!
]]> <![CDATA[Code Blue (Charlie Cooper Thrillers #5)]]> 216370719 A kidnapped agent. A race against time. A deadly conspiracy that could shatter global security.

Former MI6 officer Charlie Cooper is thrust into a high-stakes mission when a fellow operative, codenamed NORTH STAR, vanishes in Macao. The trail leads to a shadowy team of Russian mercenaries with a chilling to expose Group Fifteen, the clandestine organisation that operates beyond the reach of conventional intelligence agencies.

Cooper races to New York, believing the Russians will unveil their shocking plan at the upcoming UN General Assembly. Operating undercover as a lowly IT technician, he infiltrates the Russian delegation and forms a dangerous alliance with Irina, a disillusioned diplomat trapped in a brutal relationship with a ruthless intelligence officer.

As the clock ticks down, Irina's loyalty is tested, Cooper's cover is threatened, and NORTH STAR's true allegiance remains a mystery.

Will Cooper expose the Russian plot and escape with his life? Or will the Group's secrets be revealed to the world?]]> 137 Mark Dawson Tony 4 4.35 Code Blue (Charlie Cooper Thrillers #5)
author: Mark Dawson
name: Tony
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:
Short and sweet secret agent romp, over before I knew it really. Little ‘obvious� in places but enjoyable on the whole.
]]> <![CDATA[Blame It On The Bogey (Man) (The Hipposync Archives Book 3)]]> 217290114 This book was previously published as The Bewilderment.



'DC Farmer's urban fantasy where the occult lurks, the laughs are plenty, and sleep is optional.'



Kittens playing the piano videos� What’s not to like?

For Bobby Miracle, the job at Hipposync was supposed to be a dream internship.

But when a trans-dimensional lockdown freezes time, she is trapped with a terrifying enemy who has a very sharp axe to grind.

With survival at stake and secrets lurking in every corner, Bobby must bring her A game to the party and hope that her surname finally, finally, kicks in.

Because though she may dress like one, even gets called one, no way is she a witch� right?



'Another ripping read from the scribe DC Farmer. The classic convulsion with laughter in a hot tube carriage clinches the 5 star rating from me. Amz reviewer'



'I am literally sucked into the story. Mr. Farmer has a wonderful way with words that just keep you going deeper into the Fae world filled with complex and unique characters. Interactive human and other worldly characters so rich you're begging for the story to continue... AMZ review]]> 372 D.C. Farmer 1915185300 Tony 0 paused, to-read 4.61 16 Blame It On The Bogey (Man) (The Hipposync Archives Book 3)
author: D.C. Farmer
name: Tony
average rating: 4.61
book published: 16
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: paused, to-read
review:

]]> Gabriel's Moon 215198466 In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession.

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy�, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story.]]> 272 William Boyd 0802164870 Tony 4
Exceptionally well written, a well crafted tale. ]]> 3.88 2024 Gabriel's Moon
author: William Boyd
name: Tony
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
Slow but entertaining tale about spies. At least I’m fairly sure that was the idea but I find myself with memories, smells and flavours of French cigarettes, whisky and various foods.

Exceptionally well written, a well crafted tale.
]]> Hawksmoor 67729 'There is no Light without Darknesse and no Substance without Shaddowe'

So proclaims Nicholas Dyer, assistant to Sir Christopher Wren and man with a commission to build seven London churches to stand as beacons of the enlightenment. But Dyer plans to conceal a dark secret at the heart of each church - to create a forbidding architecture that will survive for eternity.

Two hundred and fifty years later, London detective Nicholas Hawksmoor is investigating a series of gruesome murders on the sites of certain eighteenth-century churches - crimes that make no sense to the modern mind ...]]> 217 Peter Ackroyd 0140171134 Tony 0 currently-reading 3.49 1985 Hawksmoor
author: Peter Ackroyd
name: Tony
average rating: 3.49
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Voided Man 213953553 average it balances out in all directions, but some regions are not average.

For every dense cluster of galaxies in one place, there is a tremendous void somewhere else. These voids are not black holes. They are areas of normal space that just happen to contain…nothing much. There are no galaxies within them, no stars, no planets, and no moons.

They can stretch tens or even hundreds of millions of light years across. Scientists have theorized that, if a man found himself at the center of such an empty space and looked around, he would see only darkness in every direction. Even the brightest galaxies, they say, would be too far distant to be visible to the naked eye.

I got a chance to test that theory firsthand.

I am the most distant exile in human history.

My name is Prisoner Number One.

This is my story.]]> 326 Anthony Dean Tony 4
This book is a little like that. Want something, need something.. then magic it up with virtually no explanation. Easy.

But fun.

Really did enjoy this, but don’t come looking if you like your SF explained ]]> 3.82 The Voided Man
author: Anthony Dean
name: Tony
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves:
review:
When I was a kid I wanted to make cartoons. They made me laugh and laughing was good. This desire however, was driven mainly by the fact that anything and everything is possible in the created world. Whatever you could dream easily became reality. Ask Wile E. Coyote.

This book is a little like that. Want something, need something.. then magic it up with virtually no explanation. Easy.

But fun.

Really did enjoy this, but don’t come looking if you like your SF explained
]]> <![CDATA[An Honourable Thief (Company of Rogues #1)]]> 60840450
The Kingdom is riddled with a rumour. The late Queen Anne supposedly left a secret will promising the nation to her half-brother James � the man the Jacobites call the King Over the Water. With George I now settled on the throne, this document could prove devastating.

Enter Jonas Flynt. Gambler. Thief. Killer. Man of honour. A reluctant member of the Company of Rogues, a shady intelligence group run by the ruthless Colonel Charters, Flynt is ordered to recover the document, using any means necessary. But he is not the only one on the hunt�

The trail takes him from London’s dangerous streets to the dark Edinburgh of his childhood, where Flynt is soon embroiled in a long overdue family reunion, a jail break and a brutal street riot.

Come what may he must uncover the truth, about the crown... and about his own past...

An atmospheric and utterly compelling blend of crime, history and thriller, to delight fans of S. G. MacLean, S. W. Perry and C. J. Sansom.]]> 368 Douglas Skelton 1804360147 Tony 4 4.07 2022 An Honourable Thief (Company of Rogues #1)
author: Douglas Skelton
name: Tony
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves:
review:
Travels along rather nicely and manages the right mix of history and adventure. Couldn't shake the feeling that it was more a screenplay than a novel but I did rather enjoy it.
]]> Strip Tease 13074
When a deranged Florida congressman falls for a gorgeous but virtuous stripper, he dedicates himself to pursuing this tasselled princess. Not only is she a real beauty, she's a damsel in distress. The effects of his quest will ripple through the spotlights of the strip joint, the sugar cane fields of south Florida, and some powerful political careers. Fueled by innocent lust and dizzy miscalculations, this story will keep you howling with surprise.

George Wilson's colorful narration is the perfect vehicle for Carl Hiaasen's twisted fairy tale.]]> 464 Carl Hiaasen 044669567X Tony 4 3.86 1993 Strip Tease
author: Carl Hiaasen
name: Tony
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves:
review:
Took me an age to read this. There’s nothing wrong with it, I just couldn’t engage with it. Written well and an entertaining story but just not my thing.
]]> Come Back, Dr. Caligari 664236 184 Donald Barthelme 0316082546 Tony 0 to-read 3.86 1964 Come Back, Dr. Caligari
author: Donald Barthelme
name: Tony
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dogs and Monsters: Stories 205727969 From the “terrifyingly talented� (London Times) author of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG-IN THE NIGHT-TIME and THE PORPOISE, eight mesmerizingly imaginative, deeply-humane stories that use Greek myths and contemporary dystopian narratives to examine mortality, moral choices and the many variants of love.

Greek myths have fascinated people for millenia, seeing in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existence. Mark Haddon digs into the heart of these ancient fables and sees them anew. The dawn goddess Eos asked asks Zeus to give her lover Tithonus eternal life, but forgets to ask for eternal youth. In “The Quiet Limit of the World� Haddon imagines Tithonus� life as he slowly ages over thousands of years, turning the cautionary tale of tempting the gods into a spellbinding meditation on witnessing death from the outside, and ultimately, how carnal love evolves into something richer and more poignant with time. In “The Mother’s Story,� Haddon takes the myth of the minotaur in his labyrinth, in which the beast is the spawn of the monstrous lust of the king’s wife Pasiphae, and turns it into a wrenching parable of maternal love for a damaged child, and the more real monstrosities of patriarchy. In “D.O.G.Z.� the story of Actaeon, who was turned into a stag after glimpsing the naked goddess Diana and torn to pieces by his hunting dogs, becomes a visceral metaphor about the continuum of human and animal behavior.

Other stories play with contemporary mythic tropes � genetic engineering, trying to escape the future, the viciousness of adolescent ostracism � to showcase how modern humans are subject to the same capriciousness that obsessed the Greeks.Haddon’s tales cover a vast range, from the mythic to the domestic, from ancient Greece to the present day, from stories about love to stories about cruelty, from battlefields to bed and breakfasts, from dogs in space to doors between worlds, all of them bound together by a profound sympathy and an understanding of how human beings act and think and feel when pushed to the very edge.Throughout Haddon’s supple prose showcases his astonishing powers of observation, of both the physical world and the workings of the psyche. His vision is clear-eyed, but always resolutely empathetic.]]> 262 Mark Haddon 0385550871 Tony 0 to-read 4.09 2024 Dogs and Monsters: Stories
author: Mark Haddon
name: Tony
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fiends In High Places (The Hipposync Archives Book 1)]]> 217273181 This book was previously published as The 400Lb Gorilla.

Seriously funny contemporary urban fantasy fiction.

Luck. If only you could bottle it...

Matt Danmor’s brush with death uncovers a fantastical truth, plunging him into a world of intrigue and chaos.

With his ex, Silvy, back at his side and Kylah from The Dept. of Fimmigration ever watchful, he stumbles into a plot to undermine civilisation across several worlds. Matt is faced with a simple choice. Believe that everything he sees is a figment of his traumatised imagination, or accept that it is all terrifyingly real.

In which case, he’s got a hell of a lot of catching up to do. Plus a whole hive of demonic zealots to fight.

The multiverse is holding on for a hero.

Trouble is, Matt never got the memo�

Fiends In High Places is the debut Fantasy Crime Thriller in the Hipposync Archives series.

Perfect for fans ofTom Holt, Jin Butcher, and Ben Aaronovitch.

‘Master of occult intrigue and wit, DC Farmer delivers supreme urban fantasy crime stories. Expect addictive, hilarious adventures…and not much sleep.'5* AMZ.

'looking for something different to fill the gaps between Tom Holt, Jim Butcher, and the late lamented Sir Terry? DC Farmerhits the ground running� ' 5* AMZ

'What a gem of a book. Interesting, engaging, daftly funny and captivating. A very welcome addition to the ranks of humorous fantasy. Well written with a lovely plot and I think Rimsplitter the vulture is one of the best comedic inventions...' AMZreview]]> 314 D.C. Farmer 1915185262 Tony 4
That’s rather comforting as there are quite a few in the series!

Onward!]]> 4.33 2014 Fiends In High Places (The Hipposync Archives Book 1)
author: D.C. Farmer
name: Tony
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this a whole lot more than I initially thought I would. The start is quite disjointed, the metaphors supremely irritating and childish but it quickly grows up and is a thoroughly entertaining.

That’s rather comforting as there are quite a few in the series!

Onward!
]]> <![CDATA[The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder, #1)]]> 39507 The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer—a minister's son—hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl's father has come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in search of terrible truths about a life that was lived and lost in a sordid world of perversion and pleasures.

]]> 182 Lawrence Block 0752834525 Tony 0 to-read 3.87 1976 The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder, #1)
author: Lawrence Block
name: Tony
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stranger 22571540
Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream: a big house, a good job, a seemingly perfect life.

Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corinne’s deception, and realizes that if he doesn’t make exactly the right moves, the conspiracy he’s stumbled into will not only ruin lives—it will end them.]]> 386 Harlan Coben 0525953507 Tony 0 to-read 3.85 2015 The Stranger
author: Harlan Coben
name: Tony
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mexican Gothic 52873094
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 304 Silvia Moreno-Garcia Tony 0 to-read 3.76 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Tony
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fairy Tale 60177373 Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.� And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.]]> 607 Stephen King 1668002175 Tony 0 to-read 4.05 2022 Fairy Tale
author: Stephen King
name: Tony
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Soldier of the Mist (Latro, #1)]]> 322067
But in recompense for his unhappy condition Latro has received the ability to see and converse with invisible beings, all the gods and goddesses, ghosts and demons and werewolves, who inhabit the land and affect the lives of others, all unseen. Everyone knows that supernatural creatures are constantly around them and sometimes, under special circumstances, can perceive them—but Latro is now constantly able to penetrate the veil of the supernatural, which is both a triumph and a danger.]]> 335 Gene Wolfe 0812558154 Tony 0 to-read 3.97 1986 Soldier of the Mist (Latro, #1)
author: Gene Wolfe
name: Tony
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Art of Death 55813080 432 David Fennell 1838773428 Tony 0 to-read 3.95 2021 The Art of Death
author: David Fennell
name: Tony
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Midnight Mayor (Matthew Swift, #2)]]> 6465697
One by one, the protective magical wards that guard the city are falling: the London Wall defiled with cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London Stone destroyed. This is not good news. This array of supernatural defenses - a mix of international tourist attractions and forgotten urban legends - formed a formidable magical shield, one that could protect London from the greatest threat it has ever known. But what could be so dangerous as to threaten an entire city?

Against his better judgment, Matthew Swift is about to find out. And if he's lucky, he might just live long enough to do something about it...]]> 480 Kate Griffin 0316041238 Tony 0 to-read 4.14 2010 The Midnight Mayor (Matthew Swift, #2)
author: Kate Griffin
name: Tony
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1)]]> 6186355
Two years after his untimely death, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home.

Except that it's no longer his bed, or his home. And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hole so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable...despite his body never being found.

He doesn't have long to mull over his resurrection though, or the changes that have been wrought upon him. His only concern now is vengeance. Vengeance upon his monstrous killer and vengeance upon the one who brought him back.]]> 458 Kate Griffin 0316041254 Tony 0 to-read 3.76 2009 A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1)
author: Kate Griffin
name: Tony
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Christmas Carol 56365296 Listening time: 2 hours and 44 minutes.

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. It tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a supernatural visit by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come.

The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. The book was written and published in early Victorian era Britain, a period when there was strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions together with the introduction of new customs, such as Christmas trees and greeting cards. Dickens� sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.]]> 3 Charles Dickens Tony 5
Seems so trifling to be negative on discovering this was abridged... but it did somewhet take the edge off. However....

This is a magical production, masterstroke having Mr Grant narrating.

Loved this ... magical (is worth repeating)
:o)

Happy Christmas everyone (to paraphrase the little chap)]]> 4.34 1843 A Christmas Carol
author: Charles Dickens
name: Tony
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1843
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:
Start with the positives or the negatives .. half-full, half-empty?

Seems so trifling to be negative on discovering this was abridged... but it did somewhet take the edge off. However....

This is a magical production, masterstroke having Mr Grant narrating.

Loved this ... magical (is worth repeating)
:o)

Happy Christmas everyone (to paraphrase the little chap)
]]> Places in the Darkness 31933061 A propulsive science fiction tale of murder and memory, all set on a futuristic space station.

Hundreds of miles above Earth, the space station Ciudad de Cielo - The City in the Sky - is a beacon of hope for humanity's expansion into the stars. But not everyone aboard shares such noble ideals.

Bootlegging, booze, and prostitution form a lucrative underground economy for rival gangs, which the authorities are happy to turn a blind eye to until a disassembled corpse is found dancing in the micro-gravity.

In charge of the murder investigation is Nikki "Fix" Freeman, who is not thrilled to have Alice Blake, an uptight government goody-two-shoes, riding shotgun. As the bodies pile up, and the partners are forced to question their own memories, Nikki and Alice begin to realize that gang warfare may not be the only cause for the violence.]]> 416 Christopher Brookmyre 0316435244 Tony 0 to-read 3.75 2017 Places in the Darkness
author: Christopher Brookmyre
name: Tony
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Narrative of John Smith 12409502 138 Arthur Conan Doyle 0712358412 Tony 0 to-read 3.52 2011 The Narrative of John Smith
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Tony
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Because She Loves Me 21888223 The Magpies.

When Andrew Sumner meets beautiful, edgy Charlie, he is certain his run of bad luck has finally come to an end.

But as the two of them embark on an intense affair, Andrew wonders if his grasp on reality is slipping. Items go missing in his apartment. Somebody appears to be following him. And as misfortune and tragedy strike his friends and loved ones, Andrew is forced to confront the frightening truth.�

Is Charlie really the girl of his dreams�or the woman of his nightmares?]]> 348 Mark Edwards 1477824863 Tony 4 3.84 2014 Because She Loves Me
author: Mark Edwards
name: Tony
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)]]> 18775247
Months later, an ex-cop named Bill Hodges, still haunted by the unsolved crime, contemplates suicide. When he gets a crazed letter from "the perk," claiming credit for the murders, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, fearing another even more diabolical attack and hell-bent on preventing it.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of eccentric and mismatched allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.
--front flap]]> 437 Stephen King 1476754454 Tony 0 to-read 4.01 2014 Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Tony
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Elsewhere 210493380 The legendary Keanu Reeves and inimitable writer China Miéville team up on this genre-bending epic of ancient powers, modern war, and an outcast who cannot die.

A mind-blowing epic from Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books.

She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods.

There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as \"B.\"

And he wants to be able to die.

In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.

In a collaboration that combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, these two inimitable artists have created something utterly unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones.]]> 337 Keanu Reeves 152915054X Tony 0 to-read 3.08 2024 The Book of Elsewhere
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Tony
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #5)]]> 179311283 In New York Times–bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, a gaggle of shrieking children and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and they quickly offend every last one of their neighbours.

When Giles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator that can be called on to solve the case.

Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?]]> 419 Anthony Horowitz 006330564X Tony 5
Split timelines and split viewpoints makes this a rather special book, very much recommended!

And not so much self depreciation from Mr Horowitz this time. Refreshing! ]]> 4.06 2024 Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #5)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Tony
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:
A little different than the others� and a little darker.

Split timelines and split viewpoints makes this a rather special book, very much recommended!

And not so much self depreciation from Mr Horowitz this time. Refreshing!
]]> <![CDATA[Hag's Nook (Dr. Gideon Fell, #1)]]> 930199
Rampole is especially interested in the family, having met the young and beautiful Dorothy Starberth on the train from London. He readily agrees when Fell and the local reverend, Thomas Saunders, ask him to accompany them as they watch and wait for badly frightened Martin Starberth to complete 'his hour' in the prison. Martin has every reason to be afraid; more than one Starberth heir has met an untimely end. Will his turn come tonight?]]> 161 John Dickson Carr 1568659555 Tony 0 to-read 3.66 1932 Hag's Nook (Dr. Gideon Fell, #1)
author: John Dickson Carr
name: Tony
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1932
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Tony 0 to-read 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: Tony
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dr. Sleep (The Shining, #2) 16092173 568 Stephen King 9024559154 Tony 0 to-read 4.16 2013 Dr. Sleep (The Shining, #2)
author: Stephen King
name: Tony
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Project for a Revolution in New York]]> 169600 183 Alain Robbe-Grillet 0394177681 Tony 0 to-read 3.88 1970 Project for a Revolution in New York
author: Alain Robbe-Grillet
name: Tony
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)]]> 20174424
Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched � along with her terrifying “secretary�, Sigrud � to solve a murder.

But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem, and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not yet be over.

A tale of vast conspiracies, dead gods, and buried histories, City of Stairs is at once a gripping spy novel and a stunningly original work of fantasy.

]]> 452 Robert Jackson Bennett 080413717X Tony 0 to-read 4.07 2014 City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Tony
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1)]]> 150247395
Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.]]> 410 Robert Jackson Bennett 1984820702 Tony 5
A superb set of crafted characters weave magic on every page, creating a tale that gets better and better as it unfolds!

Excellent! ]]> 4.28 2024 The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Tony
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves:
review:
Been a long time since I picked up a fantasy tale and I’m so pleased I chose this one.

A superb set of crafted characters weave magic on every page, creating a tale that gets better and better as it unfolds!

Excellent!
]]> <![CDATA[The Hotel Avocado (Gary Thorn, #2)]]> 210352077
But sinister forces are gathering in a cloud of launderette scented-vape smoke, and the arrival of the mysterious Mr Sequence puts Gary in an even worse soon he might be dead.

All Gary wants is a happy life. But he also wants to be alive to enjoy it�

THE HILARIOUS AND GRIPPING NEW NOVEL BY NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR BOB MORTIMER]]> 413 Bob Mortimer 139852963X Tony 5
A thoroughly enjoyable diversion from the real world, something which Mr Mortimer is a master at.]]> 3.93 The Hotel Avocado (Gary Thorn, #2)
author: Bob Mortimer
name: Tony
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:
There’s more of Bob in an avocado than there is in a satsuma.

A thoroughly enjoyable diversion from the real world, something which Mr Mortimer is a master at.
]]> High Vaultage 122780900 EVEN GREATER LONDON, 1887.

An uninterrupted urban plane encompassing the entire lower half of England and, for complex reasons, only the upper third of the Isle of Wight. The immense Tower casts electricity through the sky, powering the mind-boggling mechanisms of the city. The engineer-army of Isambard Kingdom Brunel swarms across the capital, building, demolishing, and rebuilding whatever they see fit. And at the heart of it all sits the country's first private detective agency.

Archibald Fleet and Clara Entwhistle hoped things would pick up quickly for their new enterprise. No-one is taking them seriously, but their break will come soon. Definitely. Probably.

Meanwhile, police are baffled by a series of impossible bank robberies, their resources absorbed by the case. Which means that when a woman witnesses a kidnapping, Fleet-Entwhistle Private Investigations is the only place she can turn for help. They're more than happy to oblige!

But what's the motive behind the kidnap? As Clara and Fleet investigate, they find more than they could ever have imagined . . .

From the creators of the acclaimed audio drama podcast Victoriocity comes a hilarious novel set in the greatest, most chaotic city in history. Twisty, inventive, and joyously funny, High Vaultage is perfect for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett.]]> 400 Chris Sugden 1399604163 Tony 2
Made to about quarter of the way through with this but really couldn’t connect. Probably not the fault of the book but to me, seemed very one-dimensional. No sub plot, no layers.

I’m choosing poorly at the moment. Sad times. ]]> 4.13 2024 High Vaultage
author: Chris Sugden
name: Tony
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves:
review:
I’m not having a great deal of luck with books at the moment. Many I don’t even log in here if I’ve been unable to find a connection.

Made to about quarter of the way through with this but really couldn’t connect. Probably not the fault of the book but to me, seemed very one-dimensional. No sub plot, no layers.

I’m choosing poorly at the moment. Sad times.
]]> <![CDATA[This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us]]> 38350571 From the New York Times bestselling author of Meddling Kids comes a brilliantly subversive and comic thriller celebrating noir detectives, Die Hard, Fast & Furious, and the worst case of sibling rivalry.


In a dingy office in Fisherman's Wharf, the glass panel in the door bears the names of A. Kimrean and Z. Kimrean. Private Eyes. Behind the door there is only one desk, one chair, one scrawny androgynous P.I. in a tank top and skimpy waistcoat. A.Z., as they are collectively known, are twin brother and sister. He's pure misanthropic logic, she's wild hedonistic creativity. A.Z. have been locked in mortal battle since they were in utero...which is tricky because they, very literally, share one single body. That's right. One body, two pilots. The mystery and absurdity of how Kimrean functions, and how they subvert every plotline, twist, explosion, and gunshot--and confuse every cop, neckless thug, cartel boss, ninja, and femme fatale--in the book is pure Cantero magic.

Someone is murdering the sons of the ruthless drug cartel boss known as the Lyon in the biggest baddest town in California--San Carnal. The notorious A.Z. Kimrean must go to the sin-soaked, palm-tree-lined streets of San Carnal, infiltrate the Lyon's inner circle, and find out who is targeting his heirs, and while they are at it, rescue an undercover cop in too deep, deal with a plucky young stowaway, and stop a major gang war from engulfing California. They'll face every plot device and break every rule Elmore Leonard wrote before they can crack the case, if they don't kill each other (themselves) first.

This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us is a mind-blowing, gender-bending, genre-smashing romp through the entire pantheon of action and noir. It is also a bold, tautly crafted novel about family, being weird, and claiming your place in your own crazy story, that can only come from the mind of Edgar Cantero.]]> 248 Edgar Cantero 0385543972 Tony 2
So sorry to have to say that I abandoned it. ]]> 3.80 2018 This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us
author: Edgar Cantero
name: Tony
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves:
review:
I love this writer so I tried really hard to get into it but it just kept pushing back.

So sorry to have to say that I abandoned it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)]]> 6218281
For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”]]> 374 Alan Bradley 0385342306 Tony 0 to-read 3.81 2009 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)
author: Alan Bradley
name: Tony
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mother Naked 213661136 The City of Durham, 1434. Out of a storm, an aging minstrel arrives at the cathedral to entertain the city’s most powerful men.

Mother Naked is his name, and the story he’s come to tell is the Legend of the Fell Wraith: the gruesome ‘walking ghost� some say slaughtered the nearby village of Segerston forty years earlier.

But is this monster only a myth, born from the dim minds of toiling peasants? Or does the Wraith � and do the murders � have roots in real events suffered by those fated to a lifetime of labour? As Mother Naked weaves the strands of the mystery � of class, religion, art, and ale � it starts to seem as though the chilling truth might be closer to his privileged audience than they could ever imagine.

Taking its inspiration from a single payment entered into Durham’s Cathedral rolls, ‘Modyr Nakett� was the lowest-paid performer in over 200 years of records. Set against the traumatic shadow of the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt, Mother Naked speaks back from the margins in a fury of imaginative recuperation.]]> 256 Glen James Brown 1913512487 Tony 0 to-read 4.42 Mother Naked
author: Glen James Brown
name: Tony
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Study in Brimstone 26150538 SherlockHolmesis an unparalleled genius.WarlockHolmesis an idiot. A font of arcane power, certainly. But he’s brilliantly dim. Frankly, he couldn’t deduce his way out of a paper bag. The only thing he has really got going for him are the might of a thousand demons and his stalwart companion. Thankfully, Dr. Watson is always there to aid him through the treacherous shoals of Victorian propriety� and save him from a gruesome death every now and again.]]> 303 G.S. Denning 178329972X Tony 5 3.71 2016 A Study in Brimstone
author: G.S. Denning
name: Tony
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Tony 0 to-read 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Tony
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)]]> 203956647 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 059365322X.]]> 400 Richard Osman Tony 0 to-read 4.07 2024 We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Tony
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Life Impossible 198281740
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…�

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.]]> 324 Matt Haig 0593489276 Tony 0 to-read 3.45 2024 The Life Impossible
author: Matt Haig
name: Tony
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> War in Heaven 218487830 An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found: here

A battle over the most sacred object in Christendom...

In the tiny English village of Fardles, a practitioner of black magic has located the Holy Grail in the sacristy of the local Anglican church. Intent on possessing it so as to amplify his own nefarious powers, he tries to trick its guardian into donating it. When that fails, he resorts to theft.

Thus begins a tug-of-war between powers infernal and celestial, between a magician who would use the Sacred as an instrument of his own will, and an Archdeacon who seeks to protect and preserve what is sacramental and holy.

Along the way, Williams reveals the tug-of-war within us all � the interplay of desire and Desire, the polarity of possession and sacrifice...and the significant gray areas in between.

War in Heaven is the first novel Williams published, and also the most comic. It is everything you’ve come to expect from a Williams novel � suspense, supernatural danger, and a mysticism so real, good, and terrible that nothing can stand against it.]]> 256 Charles Williams 0802812198 Tony 0 currently-reading 3.83 War in Heaven
author: Charles Williams
name: Tony
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Toast Me Gently 212315897 Kjia
I can't live without my toaster. He is quite literally the most important thing in my life.
I'm not going to lie and say my life is perfect, but with Tobias in my life, I feel like I can do anything.
Well, maybe not love.
I guess that's one thing I'll never have.

Tobias
I've loved my beautiful Kjia for what seems like forever... but I have no way of telling her.
I'm a gods damned toaster, for crying out loud...
But maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to profess my love for her.
At least... that's what I tell myself before I put my toaster self to sleep every night.]]> 48 P.P. Stroker Tony 1
This was obviously written by a toaster. An adolescent toaster.

A faulty adolescent toaster. Cut price. Parts only. ]]> 3.16 Toast Me Gently
author: P.P. Stroker
name: Tony
average rating: 3.16
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves:
review:
I made it to 60%. Where’s my medal?

This was obviously written by a toaster. An adolescent toaster.

A faulty adolescent toaster. Cut price. Parts only.
]]> <![CDATA[The Spy Who Came in from the Bin (Jonathon Fairfax, #3)]]> 56127685
Berlin: a man wakes up in a bin* with no idea who he is. He’s taken to hospital for treatment. Then people start trying to assassinate him.

The man has to find out why, how to get them to stop, and what the CIA has to do with all this. There’s also the little problem of working out who he used to be, and why that changed. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Piper and best friend Lance are trying to find him�

Jonathon Fairfax � still the world’s most socially awkward hero � is back. If only he knew.

‘A hugely entertaining novel � a surprising, yet strangely fitting, progression to the Jonathon Fairfax story.�
Scott Pack (former head buyer for Waterstones)

Pick up the latest Jonathon Fairfax novel � sequel to two Amazon bestsellers: The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax (‘A comic gem� Stylist, ‘You can’t help being tickled� The Guardian, Bath Novel Award shortlist) and Jonathon Fairfax Must Be Destroyed (‘A funny, daft-yet-relatable, nerve-jangly thriller� Emerald Street).


*That’s a trashcan or dumpster, for American readers.

The Jonathon Fairfax novels can be read in any order.]]> 290 Christopher Shevlin Tony 4
Բɲ�

It’s clever but not as funny as the others. And I kinda liked the funny. I like the clever too and that it’s so well constructed, but so is my new kitchen.

There’s a 4th in the series but maybe I need a break. I will return�.]]> 4.30 The Spy Who Came in from the Bin (Jonathon Fairfax, #3)
author: Christopher Shevlin
name: Tony
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves:
review:
Interesting one this. I mean, it’s rather clever and a wonderful core concept of ‘natural disrupters�. (I’m reasonably confident that’s not a spoiler but who knows? Do you feel spoiled? Well do ya punk?)

Բɲ�

It’s clever but not as funny as the others. And I kinda liked the funny. I like the clever too and that it’s so well constructed, but so is my new kitchen.

There’s a 4th in the series but maybe I need a break. I will return�.
]]> <![CDATA[Drinking, Smoking and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times]]> 101910 224 Sara Nickles 0811807843 Tony 0 to-read 3.74 1994 Drinking, Smoking and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times
author: Sara Nickles
name: Tony
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Withered Hill 211051861 If you find your way here, you’re already lost.

Inside
A year ago Sophie Wickham stumbled into the isolated Lancashire village of Withered Hill, naked, alone and with no memory of who she is.

Surrounded by a thick ring of woodland, its inhabitants seem to be of another world, drenched in pagan, folklorish traditions.

As Sophie struggles to regain the memories of her life from before, she quickly realises she is a prisoner after multiple failed escape attempts. But is it the locals who keep her trapped, with smiles on their faces, or something else, lurking in the woods?

Outside
In London, Sophie leads a chaotic life, with too many drunken nights, inappropriate men and boring temp jobs. But things take a turn as she starts to be targeted by strange messages warning her that someone, or something, is coming for her.

With no idea who to trust, or where to turn for help, the messages become more insistent and more intimidating, urging Sophie to make her way to a place called Withered Hill�

An utterly bewitching, dual timeline folk horror novel, with a truly devastating twist you have to read to believe.]]> 337 David Barnett 1804367575 Tony 0 to-read 4.12 2024 Withered Hill
author: David Barnett
name: Tony
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Paths Not Yet Taken: A dramatic, wry, feel-good satirical novel that offers hope to us all� eventually. (The Path Finder Series)]]> 211177663 345 Philip Rennett 1738574709 Tony 0 to-read 4.70 Paths Not Yet Taken: A dramatic, wry, feel-good satirical novel that offers hope to us all… eventually. (The Path Finder Series)
author: Philip Rennett
name: Tony
average rating: 4.70
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Vesuvius Club (Lucifer Box, #1)]]> 838668
So when Britain's most prominent scientists begin turning up dead, there is only one man his country can turn to for help. Following a dinnertime assassination, Lucifer is dispatched to uncover the whereabouts of missing agent Jocelyn Poop. Along the way he will give art lessons, be attacked by a poisonous centipede, bed a few choice specimens, and travel to Italy on business and pleasure.

Aided by his henchwoman Delilah; the beautiful, mysterious, and Dutch Miss Bella Pok; his boss, a dwarf who takes meetings in a lavatory; grizzled vulcanologist Emmanuel Quibble; and the impertinent, delicious, right-hand-boy Charlie Jackpot, Lucifer Box deduces and seduces his way from his elegant townhouse at Number 9 Downing Street (somebody has to live there) to the ruined city of Pompeii, to infiltrate a highly dangerous secret society that may hold the fate of the world in its clawlike grip.]]> 240 Mark Gatiss 0743483790 Tony 2
The protagonist has nothing in him which I could admire and frequently demonstrates nothing but the very worst narcissistic qualities. Not that there are any good narcissistic qualities. Probably. I mean, taking pride in one’s appearance is ok I suppose depending on which direction one approaches oneself from.

Can't see I'll be picking up any more in the series...]]> 3.59 2004 The Vesuvius Club (Lucifer Box, #1)
author: Mark Gatiss
name: Tony
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves:
review:
To be honest, I can't believe this came from Mr Gatiss. I notice that I highlighted several witty comments through the book but on the whole, it grated. Or shredded if we’re talking lettuce.

The protagonist has nothing in him which I could admire and frequently demonstrates nothing but the very worst narcissistic qualities. Not that there are any good narcissistic qualities. Probably. I mean, taking pride in one’s appearance is ok I suppose depending on which direction one approaches oneself from.

Can't see I'll be picking up any more in the series...
]]> The Rain Heron 51320017
A vibrant homage to the natural world, bursting with beautiful landscapes and memorable characters, The Rain Heron is beautifully told eco-fable about our fragile and dysfunctional relationships with the planet and with each other, the havoc we wreak and the price we pay.]]> 269 Robbie Arnott 1838951261 Tony 0 to-read 4.14 2020 The Rain Heron
author: Robbie Arnott
name: Tony
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Stories and Poems]]> 23919 821 Edgar Allan Poe 0385074077 Tony 0 to-read 4.39 1849 The Complete Stories and Poems
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Tony
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1849
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Long Kill 46150039 A retired assassin becomes a target in this “feverishly suspenseful ... tour de force� by the author of the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries (Publishers Weekly). Best known for his Dalziel and Pascoe novels, which were adapted into a hit BBC series, Reginald Hill proves himself to be a “master of ... cerebral puzzle mysteries� in his stand-alone thrillers as well—now available as ebooks (The New York Times). Jaysmith is a hit man highly regarded for his telescopic flair for the “long kill.� Until failing eyesight results in a Jaysmith misses his target. Perhaps it’s time to retire. Where better than the English Lake District? He’s fallen for beautiful young widow and single mother Anya Wilson, and has found himself a cozy cottage where he can hang up his M1. Just two Anya’s loving father is the man he was hired to kill, and Jaysmith’s vicious handlers aren’t letting him—or his intended target—off the hook. Even if it means taking out Anya and her son with him. For Jaysmith, it’s going to be another defend, rather than destroy. But this time he’s really got to focus. ]]> 272 Reginald Hill 1504058011 Tony 5 3.82 1988 The Long Kill
author: Reginald Hill
name: Tony
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/15
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:
I’ve said it before (although possibly not so eloquently), and I’ll say it again. This fucker can write. Could write.
]]> <![CDATA[Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (War Memoirs, #1)]]> 330919
'At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked "This is your enemy". I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train . . .'

In this, the first of Spike Milligan's uproarious recollections of life in the army, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ('it must have been something we said'), through his attempts to avoid enlistment ('time for my appendicitus, I thought') and his gunner training in Bexhill ('There was one drawback. No ammunition') to the landing at Algiers in 1943 ('I closed my eyes and faced the sun. I fell down a hatchway').

Filled with bathos, pathos and gales of ribald laughter, this is a barely sane helping of military goonery and superlative Milliganese.

'The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever read' Sunday Express

'Desperately funny, vivid, vulgar' Sunday Times

'Milligan is the Great God to all of us' John Cleese

'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard

'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man' Stephen Fry

Spike Milligan was one of the greatest and most influential comedians of the twentieth century. Born in India in 1918, he served in the Royal Artillery during WWII in North Africa and Italy. At the end of the war, he forged a career as a jazz musician, sketch-show writer and performer, before joining forces with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe to form the legendary Goon Show. Until his death in 2002, he had success as on stage and screen and as the author of over eighty books of fiction, memoir, poetry, plays, cartoons and children's stories.]]> 142 Spike Milligan 0140035206 Tony 5
Spike was a genius to the very, very end. If you need proof and haven’t already seen it, check out his gravestone. ]]> 4.01 1971 Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (War Memoirs, #1)
author: Spike Milligan
name: Tony
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
This series of books are probably the funniest and (equally) the saddest I have ever read.

Spike was a genius to the very, very end. If you need proof and haven’t already seen it, check out his gravestone.
]]> The Christmas Train 126185
The Christmas Train is filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischief ... and shows how we do get second chances to fulfill our deepest hopes and dreams, especially during this season of miracles.]]> 260 David Baldacci Tony 1
Just.

In this chap’s bio it states he has been writing since childhood. This must therefore be his first attempt at literature all those years ago. It might explain why it is so appallingly bad. Not just bad, but utter, utter, shite.

Plenty of people seem to like his stuff though, maybe I should try one which he had published after his fifth birthday?

I’ve stated that life is too short to read poor quality literature. Christmas is far shorter. Onward (and hopefully) upward.]]> 3.56 2001 The Christmas Train
author: David Baldacci
name: Tony
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2001
rating: 1
read at: 2018/12/16
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
Holy fucking shite! I made it to chapter two.

Just.

In this chap’s bio it states he has been writing since childhood. This must therefore be his first attempt at literature all those years ago. It might explain why it is so appallingly bad. Not just bad, but utter, utter, shite.

Plenty of people seem to like his stuff though, maybe I should try one which he had published after his fifth birthday?

I’ve stated that life is too short to read poor quality literature. Christmas is far shorter. Onward (and hopefully) upward.
]]> <![CDATA[In Lieu of You: A British Time Travel Adventure]]> 196426445
Hypothetically, we might want to know the answer. In reality, though?

Gary and Clare Kirk are set to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary � except they’re not. Childless, and with so little in common, the couple finally accept there’s no good reason to remain married.

However, Gary’s idea of an amicable divorce settlement differs significantly from Clare’s, and tensions between the couple soon mount. Money, as is often the case, is at the root of their disagreement.

As Gary explores every avenue to evade his wife’s financial demands, he inadvertently finds himself sitting opposite a relationship resolution advisor by the name of Edith Stimp. The mysterious Mrs Stimp then suggests a solution as unorthodox as it is unbelievable � a brief journey back in time to the day Gary first met Clare.

If he accepts the unlikely trip back to 1996, all Gary has to do is prevent his teenage self from meeting his future wife. If they never meet, they never marry, and there won’t be a financially-crippling divorce � what could be simpler?

For better or for worse, Gary Kirk is about to find out.]]> 384 Keith A. Pearson Tony 0 to-read 4.00 2023 In Lieu of You: A British Time Travel Adventure
author: Keith A. Pearson
name: Tony
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Complete Works and Other Stories]]> 514027 170 Augusto Monterroso 0292751842 Tony 0 to-read 3.97 1959 Complete Works and Other Stories
author: Augusto Monterroso
name: Tony
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies]]> 1272152 Enid Blyton 0603032656 Tony 0 to-read 4.20 1967 The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies
author: Enid Blyton
name: Tony
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jonathon Fairfax Must Be Destroyed (Jonathon Fairfax, #2)]]> 56140984 "It’s funny, it’s daft-yet-relatable, it’s still a nerve-jangly thriller and it moves at a cracking pace. In fact, if you’re stuck in a bit of a reading rut, it’s just the palate cleanser you need.�
Emerald Street

Longlisted for the Bath Novel Award 2017

Jonathon Fairfax, the world’s most socially awkward hero, works for a giant corporation where he specialises in muttering ‘um� and tripping over bins. When he accidentally discovers a colossal corporate conspiracy, it soon becomes clear that someone will do anything to keep it secret � including murder.

Read the book on its own or as a follow-up to The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax � an Amazon UK #1 bestseller that was shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award 2014. Stylist called it ‘a comic gem� and The Guardian said, ‘you can’t help being tickled�.

"This one is even better than the one before. Buy!�
John Lenahan (bestselling author, magician and voice of the toaster in Red Dwarf)

How readers describe it�
“A cross between PG Wodehouse and Tom Sharpe.�

"Christopher Shevlin writes the funniest dialogue you'll ever read so you may need to find a private space with this book unless you don't mind laughing out loud in public places.�

“Laugh out loud funny and thought provoking at the same time."

"This is the funniest book I have read in years.�

"Shevlin is a modern English Kurt Vonnegut.�

"Uplifting, a great little gem of a book.�

"I love the Jonathon Fairfax books. They're like a big hug for your neuroses.�

“There are beautiful sentences on every page."

"You'll love the characters and the writing style. What I would give to spend an evening at the local pub with Jonathan and co.�

"Excellent. Every sentence is somewhere between amusing and laugh-out-loud funny.�

"Funny but unusually also a page turner.�

"The only downside is that I find myself missing the characters.”]]> 366 Christopher Shevlin 0956965644 Tony 5
Here’s a quote to go some way towards demonstrating that and explaining what it’s all about..

“After all, she was by some way the greatest and most beautiful being in the history of the universe, and he was an amateur beggar who lived with a mouse.�

See? Told you. ]]> 4.42 2017 Jonathon Fairfax Must Be Destroyed (Jonathon Fairfax, #2)
author: Christopher Shevlin
name: Tony
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/17
date added: 2024/08/19
shelves:
review:
As good as the first. Maybe better.

Here’s a quote to go some way towards demonstrating that and explaining what it’s all about..

“After all, she was by some way the greatest and most beautiful being in the history of the universe, and he was an amateur beggar who lived with a mouse.�

See? Told you.
]]> <![CDATA[The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax (Jonathon Fairfax, #1)]]> 56140992
"Not many books make me laugh out loud, but The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax is one of them... A comic gem" - Stylist magazine

"Shevlin was rightly picked up by the literary agency that represents the likes of David Nicholls" - Metro newspaper

Amazon UK bestseller: #1 Political Humour, #2 Humorous Fiction, #9 Humour

Shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award

When Jonathon Fairfax accidentally helps a murderer bump off Sarah Morecambe, the secretary of a senior politician, he sets off a chain of events that astonishes him. Jonathon is wrong-footed by even the most everyday things, so he's particularly startled to find himself caught up in a conspiracy that goes right to the heart of government.

Teaming up with a suave private investigator, a glamorous grannie and the probable love of his life, Jonathon must confront his greatest fears - including talking to girls and balaclava-clad killers - and answer some very difficult questions. Who murdered Sarah Morecambe? What is the strange secret that unites the entire British government? And what exactly does it feel like to kiss a real-life woman?

With its naïve, reluctant hero and wry look at life, The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax has been compared to books by Douglas Adams, Carl Hiaasen and PG Wodehouse.]]> 313 Christopher Shevlin 095696561X Tony 5
A bit later and probably with the addition of alcohol, I’ll figure out how to access the saved quotes and plonk them in. Probably.

Anyway, absolutely loved this. Read it, it’ll make you smile!

Edit: a promised quote. Just the one as I’m still on the move�

“Rachel, on the other hand, looked almost unbearably wholesome and pleasing, like a really sexy loaf of bread.”]]> 3.96 2012 The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax (Jonathon Fairfax, #1)
author: Christopher Shevlin
name: Tony
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:
I’m on holiday at the moment and on my phone but if I wasn’t I’d probably post a couple of totally amazing quotes here to demonstrate how fantastically wonderful this book was.

A bit later and probably with the addition of alcohol, I’ll figure out how to access the saved quotes and plonk them in. Probably.

Anyway, absolutely loved this. Read it, it’ll make you smile!

Edit: a promised quote. Just the one as I’m still on the move�

“Rachel, on the other hand, looked almost unbearably wholesome and pleasing, like a really sexy loaf of bread.�
]]> <![CDATA[Hollywood Station (Hollywood Station, #1)]]> 21489 340 Joseph Wambaugh 0316066141 Tony 0 to-read 3.71 2006 Hollywood Station (Hollywood Station, #1)
author: Joseph Wambaugh
name: Tony
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1) 3208948 Titus Groan is not merely one of the most brilliantly sustained flights of the imagination in modern English fiction, it is also a sustained piece of deadly irony. The characters are weird; the setting fantastic; everything about Mervyn Peake's masterpiece seems eccentric but for the stringent sense of reality which always seeps through the farcical, frightening antics in the mad castle of Gormenghast.]]> 506 Mervyn Peake 0140027629 Tony 0 to-read 4.18 1946 Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1)
author: Mervyn Peake
name: Tony
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass]]> 359559 200 Bruno Schulz 0395860237 Tony 0 to-read 4.32 1937 Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
author: Bruno Schulz
name: Tony
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 'Salem's Lot 5413 Also contains: One For the Road, Jerusalem's Lot. For standalone novel see ISBN 9780450031069.

Stephen King's second novel, the classic vampire bestseller 'Salem's Lot, tells the story of evil in small-town America. For the first time in a major trade edition, this terrifying novel is accompanied by previously unpublished material from King's archive, two short stories, and eerie photographs that bring King's fictional darkness and evil to vivid life.

When Stephen King’s classic thriller 'Salem's Lot hit the stands in 1975, it thrilled and terrified millions of readers with tales of demonic evil in small-town America. Now, thirty years later and still scaring readers witless, 'Salem's Lot reemerges in a brilliant new edition, complete with photographs, fifty pages of deleted and alternate scenes, and two short stories related to the events of the novel.

While the original edition of 'Salem's Lot will forever be a premier horror classic, 'Salem's Lot: Illustrated Edition, with the inclusion of material from King’s archive, is destined to become a classic in its own right and a must-have for all Stephen King fans. In this edition, the hair-raising story of Jerusalem’s Lot, a small town in Maine whose inhabitants succumb to the evil allure of a new resident, is told as the author envisioned it, complete with fifty pages of alternate and deleted scenes. With a new introduction by the author, two short stories related to the events and residents of Jerusalem’s Lot, the lavishly creepy photographs of Jerry Uelsmann, and a stunning new page design, this edition brings the story to life in words and pictures as never before.

No library will be complete without this ideal collector’s item for any King aficionado, the definitive illustrated edition of the great 'Salem's Lot.]]> 594 Stephen King 0385516487 Tony 5 4.28 1975 'Salem's Lot
author: Stephen King
name: Tony
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Grimm's Fairy Stories 18626865
Contains stories such as "The Goose Girl", "Hansel and Grethel", "Cinderella", "The Golden Goose", "The Frog Prince" and many more.]]> 144 Jacob Grimm Tony 5 4.16 1812 Grimm's Fairy Stories
author: Jacob Grimm
name: Tony
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1812
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Memoirs Found in a Bathtub 497121 204 Stanisław Lem 0156585855 Tony 0 to-read 3.81 1961 Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
author: Stanisław Lem
name: Tony
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1961
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Parnassus on Wheels 7625881 112 Christopher Morley 1411431596 Tony 0 to-read 3.52 1917 Parnassus on Wheels
author: Christopher Morley
name: Tony
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1917
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour]]> 25733907
Mark Twain, the highest-paid writer in America in 1894, was also one of the nation’s worst investors. “There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate,� he wrote. “When he can’t afford it and when he can.� The publishing companyTwain owned was failing; his investment in a typesetting device was bleeding red ink. After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars back when a beer cost a nickel, he found himself neck-deep in debt. His heiress wife, Livy, took the setback hard. “I have a perfect horror and heart-sickness over it,� she wrote. “I cannot get away from the feeling that business failure means disgrace.�
But Twain vowed to Livy he would pay back every penny. And so, just when the fifty-nine-year-old, bushy-browed icon imagined that he would be settling into literary lionhood, telling jokes at gilded dinners, he forced himself to mount the “platform� again, embarking on a round-the-world stand-up comedy tour. No author had ever done that. He cherry-picked his best stories—such as stealing his first watermelon and buying a bucking bronco—and spun them into a ninety-minute performance.
Twain trekked across the American West and onward by ship to the faraway lands of Australia, NewZealand, Tasmania, India, Ceylon, and South Africa.He rode an elephant twice and visited the Taj Mahal.He saw Zulus dancing and helped sort diamonds atthe Kimberley mines. (He failed to slip away with asparkly souvenir.) He played shuffleboard on cruiseships and battled captains for the right to smokein peace. He complained that his wife and daughter made him shave and change his shirt every day.
The great American writer fought off numerousillnesses and travel nuisances to circle the globe andearn a huge payday and a tidal wave of applause.Word of his success, however, traveled slowly enough that one American newspaper reported that he haddied penniless in London. That’s when he famously “The report of my death was an exaggeration.�
Throughout his quest, Twain was aided by cutthroat Standard Oil tycoon H.H. Rogers, withwhom he had struck a deep friendship, and he washindered by his own lawyer (and future secretaryof state) Bainbridge Colby, whom he deemed “head idiot of this century.�
In Chasing the Last Laugh, author Richard Zacks,drawing extensively on unpublished material in notebooks and letters from Berkeley’s ongoing Mark TwainProject, chronicles a poignant chapter in the author’slife—one that began in foolishness and bad choicesbut culminated in humor, hard-won wisdom, andultimate triumph.]]> 464 Richard Zacks 0385536445 Tony 0 to-read 3.81 2016 Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour
author: Richard Zacks
name: Tony
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Houses of the Unholy 203931568 HOUSES OF THE UNHOLYis a riveting horror thrill ride from bestselling creators ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the award-winning team behindCRIMINAL(soon to be a TV series on Amazon Prime),RECKLESS,NIGHT FEVER,andWHERE THE BODY WAS.]]> 144 Ed Brubaker 1534327428 Tony 0 to-read 3.59 2024 Houses of the Unholy
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Tony
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>