Hello world!
Mission Statement
This is a blog about books, mostly; music, film, politics, science, food and the state-of-the-world I also consider fair game for comment, but books have my heart. As might be guessed by the site’s name, childrens’ classics and young adult literature are high up on my reading list, as are anything by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and Alan Moore. Feel free to drop in, kick your shoes off and slurp a latte while you’re here…and pass the buns along, no hogging! What do you think of the books listed here – do you have a book you passionately love that I’ve haven’t mentioned and have never heard of? Let me know!
I will write about the books (and other topics!) that I feel passionately about - sometimes joyfully, often furiously and always opinionatedly. To give you a flavour of my reading tastes, a sample what I’ve read, loved and couldn’t stand in the last six months is listed below.
Books I loved:
Crime Fiction
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Lots of John D. MacDonald
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Entire Modesty Blaise series of novels – Peter O’Donnell
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All Robin Hudson series – Sparkle Hayter
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Borderlands – Brian McGillowray
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Exit Music – Ian Rankin
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In the Woods – Tana French
Science Fiction/Fantasy
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Making Money – Terry Pratchett
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Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
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Thomas the Rhymer – Ellen Kushner
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The Host – Stephenie Meyer
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Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest – Various, including Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Emma Bull & Kathe Koja
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Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
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I am Legend – Richard Matheson
Non-fiction
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Wild Places – Robert MacFarlane
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A. D. 500 – Simon Young
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The year 1000 – Robert Lacey/Danny Danzinger
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Red Carpets and other Banana Skins – Rupert Everett
Graphic Novels
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Stardust – Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess
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30 Days of Night – Steve Niles/Ben Templesmith
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Chosen – Mark Millar/Peter Gross
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Mouseguard Autumn 1152 – David Petersen
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Breathtaker – Mark Wheatley/Marc Hempel
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Give me Liberty – Frank Miller/Dave Gibbons
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Optic Nerve – Adrian Tomine
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Love and Rockets: Maggie the Mechanic; The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. – Jaime Hernandez
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Love and Rockets: Human Diastrophism – Gilbert Hernandez
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Embroideries – Marjane Satrapi
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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen -Black Dossier – Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neill
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Complete Book of Lost Girls – Alan Moore/Melinda Gebbie
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Wanted – Mark Millar
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Pride of Baghdad – Brian K. Vaughan
Childrens/Young Adult Novels
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick
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Fire and Hemlock – Diana Wynne Jones
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The Exchange – Paul Magrs
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Shadow Web – N. M. Browne
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Little Grey Men; Little Grey Men go Down the Bright Stream – B. B.
Fiction
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Lots of P. G. Wodehouse novels
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Confessions of a Fallen Angel – Ronan O’Brien
Books I didn’t enjoy so much -
Crime Fiction
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Death in Dublin – Bartholemew Gill (seriously the worst book I’ve ever read set in Dublin – the accents have to be read to be believed! And the characters are the least likely Dublin cops I’ve ever seen portrayed in fiction.)
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Murder Most Fab – Julian Clary (Expected funny and bitchy, which I got, but it was a little too sexually graphic for my taste!)
Non-Fiction
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Other People’s Money – Elliot Castro with Neil Forsyth (Autobiographical account of how Elliot Castro, who scammed hotels and ripped off peoples identies to live the high life, ended up in jail. For someone with all that money and supposed intelligence, he came across as rather a sad and pathetic figure. I would have had a lot more fun with the money!)
Young Adult
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Darkisle – D. A. Nelson (Feels like a first novel, too influenced by better-known and better-written books.)
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Twilight; New Moon – Stephenie Meyer (Bored me rigid. Low-grade Buffy clones.)
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Poison Diaries (Very peculiar – I loved the botanical-type illustrations of the poisonous plants, but the story itself is extremely unpleasant – the protaganist, a young boy, watches while the man he has poisoned writhes in his death agonies – ugh!)
