Fiction

Lieutenant Alex Delillo's partner almost dies in a bomb explosion, Alex is catapulted into the middle of an incendiary and deadly game being played with ever increasing stakes. The annual teleivised Rose Bowl parade is in two days and all indications suggest that a bomber is intent on making the parade his final target. Alex is closing in on her prey when the unthinkable happens and the bomber takes the most important person in Alex's life hostage as collateral. ..read more

Gathering the Water is set in 1847, Northern England and Charles Weightman has been given the task of overseeing the flooding of Forge Valley and evicting the lingering inhabitants. Weightman is heartily resented by the locals, and he himself is increasingly unconvinced both of the wisdom of his appointment and what he is really needed for?  

Footprints in the Water is the story of the rise and fall of Katya Schmidt and is set in the German Democratic Republic in the years before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

All Aunt Haggar's Children by Edward P Jones

In this wonderful new collection, Edward P Jones returns to the place that first inspired him: WashingtonDC These are short stories of the city's ordinary inhabitants. its labourers and lawyers, sailors and nun, children and pensioners - people who in Jones's masterful hands emergeas fully human and morally complex. He explores the American Dream on an epic canvas from the start of the 20thCentury until modern times.

This book is amazing, it tells of what happened when the Berlin Wall went up in Germany.  I only remember vaguley what happened, and yet the tearing down of the wall I can remember vividley. 

This book by Julie Walters, is written in a different way to most, although it is becoming a way that one or two authors are adopting, that of using a chapter to talk about one character's part in the story. With this book to begin with I was confused and could not understand how the characters linked together, then suddenly a third of the way through I grabbed the significance of each players part.

This is the forth of Linda Newbery's books and it is a wonderful story.  Linda gives wonderful descriptions not only of the countryside where the story is set but you can really visualize the characters.

I love the book and was really stuck with my nose in it and did not want to put it down. The area of the story reminds of places around Duxford airfield, though I'm not sure that this is where it is meant to be set.  The characters are very ordinary people but they really come to life in her book.

Tyler's Row had me laughing and crying at the residents of Tyler's Row, with the old war hero and the old biddy at the other end scrapping over the two fences between their properties. Mr & Mrs Hales own the middle part and that's where we are introduced to the story, and meet again the teachers and the pupils of the village school.

A wonderful story about the head teacher of the village school with this being another of the great Miss Read books and audio books.

I listened to the story on audio cd while driving the other day to my university tutorial and found myself drawn into the story of the village head mistress and the time she spends with one of her best friends. It was great to be able to relax and listen and enjoy this audio book because of the way Carole Boyd read it.  I found this to be a great way to use the time in a traffic jam, in fact it is a great way to while away any journey on your own!