Book Review | Just In Case by Meg Rosoff
December 31, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 3 stars, 50 book challenge, Young Adult
The novel starts out in the bedroom of David Case; a teenage boy with a baby brother. A baby brother who decides that he wants to be a bird and stands a little too close to the window ledge. In that moment David loses his childhood innocence – his lack of fear – and starts to think what if…?
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | Blog Blazers by Stephane Grenier
December 30, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 3 stars, 50 book challenge
Blog Blazers by Stephane Grenier is a series of interviews of top bloggers who reveal the secrets of their success
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | Lord of the Flies by William Golding
December 30, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 3 stars, 50 book challenge, Classics Challenge
This was another book that I picked up for the Classics Challenge, and I can’t actually believe I’ve reached the wise old age of 32 without reading it! I always thought Lord of the Flies was just a book about a group of young boys stuck on a desert island — but as is usually the case with esteemed classics it is so much more than that!
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
December 30, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 3 stars, 50 book challenge, Classics Challenge
I have to admit that I was dreading reading this novel — but I was pleasantly surprised! It’s in no way old and stuffy and full of hard to read language as some classics are, in fact if you didn’t know the author you could quite easily mistake it for a modern day story (in an olden day setting obviously!).
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | The Moon in Deep Winter by Lee Polevoi
December 24, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 3 stars, 50 book challenge
The Moon in Deep Winter by Lee Polevoi is a strange and harrowing tale of a young man trying to keep his family from imploding.
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie
December 24, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 4 stars, 50 book challenge, Reviews
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie set in 1960s Nigeria and follows the lives of a number of different characters as they are engulfed in the shocking horror of war.
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | Murder on the Down Low by Pamela Samuels Young
December 17, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 5 stars, 50 book challenge, Challenges, Reviews
Murder on the Down Low by Pamela Samuels Young is a legal thriller about murder and a group of young African-American women who are trying to come to terms with the death of their close friend.
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | Dating da Vinci by Malena Lott
December 7, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 5 stars, 50 book challenge, Reviews
Rating
5 stars – chick lit at its finest – with a handsome Italian thrown in for good measure!
When Ramona becomes a widow at the age of 34 her world comes crashing down around her, and the only thing that keeps her getting out of bed in the morning are her two young sons. That is [...]
Book Review | Coraline by Neil Gaiman (Graphic Novel)
November 3, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 3 stars, 50 book challenge, Reviews, Young Adult
Coraline is about… A young girl who goes exploring in her apartment and opens a door to another world where her ‘other mother’ tries to kidnap her and her parents.
I’ve heard fantastic things about this book over recent months and thought it would be a good opportunity for me to experience my first graphic novel – but I think it will unfortunately be my last. I just didn’t get it.
[ Read this article → ]Book Review | One Foot in the Black by Kurt L. Kamm
November 2, 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
Filed under 5 stars, 50 book challenge, Reviews
I was hooked from that very first line and thoroughly enjoyed this book. In a move away from most novels the whole story is pretty much told using dialogue between the characters rather than any descriptive narrative. This works perfectly and I felt like I was right alongside Greg, through the training, the beatings and the fires.
I was quite surprised when I finished the book to find this was a work of fiction; I was so sure it was a biography. Every year we hear on the news about the wildfires burning in California; next time I will definitely spare a moment to think about the brave men who risk their lives to save the locals, while understanding a bit more about how they go about it.
If you’re looking for a gripping read that’s a little different from the norm I can highly recommend One Foot in the Black by Kurt L. Kamm.
[ Read this article → ]
Hi - I'm Clare Swindlehurst; welcome to my little corner of the Internet!
