Fiction

Flying with Angels you would expect it to be about the angels in heaven. No not this book it is about the angel family and the problems that enfold them during and after the war. How they loose their home and end up in a pre-fab. Dad works in Billingsgate Fish Market gutting fish from first light till late afternoon. One daughter works at Wookworths on the Hooloway Road and another is at college.

Cage of Stars sounds like a book all about stars of stage and screen. It is far from that being a very emotive book, and one that had me at times crying my eyes out, with the older daughter Ronnie and her family, and praying in the next breath for them to come through the trauma of that late autumnal day.

Home to Big Stone Gap, is the second in the Big Stone Gap saga, and is a wonderful book on an American family's chance, after the marriage of their daughter to an Italian in Italy, to rebuild their own lives.  Etta their daughter is their only child, having lost their son when he was just four years old, before this story starts. 

For such a heavy subject this tale of life and escape from Afghanistan is a touching family tale of guilt and redemption, that made me realise how little I knew about the conflict that ahas been ‘in the news' for so long.

It deals with post traumatic stress syndrome and the sheer cruelty that has been with man throughout the ages - when will we ever learn. I must read before the Hollywood film comes out.

You can read an interview with Khaled Hosseini in Written Interviews with kind permission from Bloomsbury Publishers.

Mark Hadden, author of ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night' and the recent television play ‘Coming down the mountain', certainly has insight into a number of conditions that affect the human mind and the way we are.
In this book he examines anxiety/panic disorder and weaves this into a warm and funny tale of family life.

A very easy read I think this book will appeal to readers of all ages from adolescence upwards (although I didn't much like those in their fifties being called ‘old people') and foster understanding between the generations.

Begun in the 1960's this is the tale of 2 separate lives (the result of an elaborate deception), eventually brought together a quarter of a century later. It explores western societies attitude to disability on several different levels, personal, professional and family.

Although easy to read and a real ‘page turner' I feel that this book requires a certain experience of life to be fully appreciated.

A cross between ‘Yes minister' and Mrs Dale's diary this delightful contemporary ‘science fiction' deals light heartedly with the political posturing that affects current British public service.

It also (as my Iraqi friend testifies) draws on middle eastern politics and culture to provide a romping good read.I learnt a lot about salmon fishing too!

This book shows what happened to normal people during the second world war. In 1938, Ulrike Walter, a beautiful young German musician, is engaged to be married to Erich, a member of the Hitler Youth. But when she meets Inspector Ross, a Scotland Yard officer, whose father is a Colonel in the British Intelligence, and how her life will change for ever. When war is declared, Her only hope of rescure is Cameron, who despite his better judgement, is falling in love with her. ..read more

I have to say I loved this book with a story that works on many levels and two different cultures. Miranda's ability to weave in and out how mental illness can effect the whole family and any relationships they may have. I found the nurture versus nature fascinating - for instance Sally, the twins mother, has manic depression;Emi shows very similar symptoms but does she have a mental illness that is genetic or is she simply copying her mother and how she deals with life.

High School principal Tom Gardner realises the new student that has transferred to his schoolis the son that he never knew he had, the result of a one night stand on the eve of his wedding years before. Kent Arensis a fine young man, but his very presence represents something much deeper and darker. To his wife Clair, he is the symbol of an act of betrayal: to his daughter , he is the boy that she is falling in love with and to his son, he is a rival. As the Gardners career towards disaster, they have all to learn the true meaning of unconditional love.