tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42363668281837931432011-11-05T17:05:31.932+02:00phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.comBlogger811100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-62558445494438082792008-02-11T10:01:00.000+02:002008-02-11T10:12:52.986+02:00

The novel centres on a colourful group of refugee Tibetans. One of the group's members, the charismatic (and slightly dubious) Rabbi Chod, recognises himself as the reincarnation of Moses, and various friends as reincarnations of key Biblical figures. Despite condemnation from both the mainstream Jewish and Tibetan communities, he declares his followers the true 'lost tribe of Israel', and

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-33013320234980106102008-01-28T13:23:00.000+02:002008-01-28T13:44:37.900+02:00

It is the biggest treasure hunt in history with contesting nations involved in a headlong race to locate the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 4500 years ago, a magnificent golden capstone sat at the peak of the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was a source of immense power, reputedly capable of bestowing upon its holder absolute global power. But then it was divided into seven pieces and hidden, each

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-73381901797755460922008-01-10T13:51:00.000+02:002008-01-28T13:43:19.065+02:00

When a world renowned scientist is found brutally murdered, a Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man’s chest. His conclusion: it is the work of the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years - now reborn to continue their bitter vendetta against their sworn enemy, the Catholic church. In

ExMinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-45681601014998959382008-01-09T14:14:00.000+02:002008-01-09T14:51:57.998+02:00

John Irving's A Widow For One Year is the epic story of a family, dysfunctional at best, unable to cope with tragedy--or with each other. We first meet Ruth Cole in the summer of 1958 when she walks in on her mother having sex with 16-year-old Eddie O'Hare, the assistant to Ruth's alcoholic father. The death of Ruth's older brothers (years before she was born) turns her mother, Marion, into a

Jarredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12483165038859579592noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-76017772173850971562008-01-04T13:03:00.000+02:002008-01-09T14:56:58.339+02:00

Each year the magicians of Imardin gather together to purge the city streets of vagrants, urchins and miscreants. Masters of the disciplines of magic, they know that no one can oppose them. But their protective shield is not as impenetrable as they believe. Sonea, angry, frustrated and outraged by the treatment of her family and friends, hurls a stone at the shield, putting all her rage behind it

akikanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-13123309218104775812008-01-04T12:52:00.000+02:002008-01-09T15:02:43.478+02:00

Enid Blyton gave us the Famous Five and Fatty’s Find-Outers, the Enchanted Wood and the Wishing Chair. Some of us, encouraged by austere critics, have pretended no longer to want what Enid gave. We have pretended that we were not once upon a time enthralled by her stories. We have chosen to forget how much we loved the time we spent in their company. And we have feigned disdain. Now, Duncan

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-71583290682227043632008-01-04T12:31:00.000+02:002008-01-09T15:05:45.401+02:00

A passionate and accomplished writer, Laura Thompson now turns her highly acclaimed biographical skills to Agatha Christie. Arguably the greatest crime writer in the world, thirty years after her death Christie's books still sell over four million copies worldwide a year.Thompson describes the Edwardian world in which she grew up,explores the relationships she had, includingthose with her

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-71750368420750974492008-01-02T11:55:00.000+02:002008-01-02T13:33:54.894+02:00

The four-million-copy international bestseller of the incredible love story between a European woman and an African warrior.The White Masai combines adventure and the pursuit of passion in a page-turning story of two star-crossed lovers from vastly different backgrounds. Corinne, a European entrepreneur, meets Lketinga, a Samburu warrior, while on vacation in Mombasa on Kenya's glamorous

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-3657683491135859882007-12-27T15:26:00.000+02:002008-01-04T13:41:23.383+02:00

Crime and punishment is Lieutenant Eve Dallas's business. Murder her speciality...Named by the social worker who found her when she was a mere child roaming that city's streets, Eve Dallas is a New York police detective who lives for her job. In over ten years on the force, she's seen it all - and knows her survival depends on her instincts.The perfect holiday read, all six of them. It's

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-46295941524163042522007-12-19T12:09:00.000+02:002007-12-19T12:38:01.261+02:00

'We are eternal'. 'The Buddhists believe that each life, each consciousness, is like a single candle flame, but that there is a continuity between each flame. Imagine lighting one candle with the flame of another, then using that flame to light the next, and that to light the next, and on and on forever. A thousand flames, all passed from one to another across the generations. Each is a different

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-26014936698838976402007-12-14T09:38:00.000+02:002007-12-19T12:39:45.721+02:00

This book was originally reviewed on 23 August 2007 by Jarred. Read both reviews here.

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-59023536427932518312007-12-03T07:25:00.000+02:002007-12-03T07:34:28.083+02:00

This book was originally reviewed on 12 September 2007 by akika. Read both reviews here.

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-18541358191303577132007-11-08T07:18:00.000+02:002007-11-08T07:27:07.395+02:00

But Spud is returning to a boarding school where he is no longer the youngest or the smallest. His dormitory mates, known as the Crazy Eight, have an unusual new member and his house has a new clutch of first years (the Normal Seven). If Spud thinks his second year will be a breeze, however, he is seriously mistaken. He is soon beset with women trouble, coerced into misguided late night

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-53897337253032314782007-10-30T17:39:00.000+02:002007-10-31T08:12:48.101+02:00

When Daniel Stone was a child, he was the only white boy in a native Eskimo village where his mother taught, and he was teased mercilessly because he was different. He fought back, the baddest of the bad kids: stealing, drinking, robbing and cheating his way out of the Alaskan bush - where he honed his artistic talent, fell in love with a girl and got her pregnant. To become part of a family, he

Lopzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04746662835146630607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-32651327742952119602007-10-30T17:04:00.000+02:002007-10-31T08:11:55.055+02:00

The Balcon sisters are London's paparazzi darlings. Serena, the country's most beautiful actress, Venetia the glamorous designer, Camilla the rising political star and Cate the feisty magazine editor. They have wealth, privilege and sizzling sex lives. But money doesn't buy you love. When their aristocratic and tyrannical father Oswald Balcon is found dead, the finger of suspicion points towards

Lopzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04746662835146630607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-7184530295999638592007-10-17T10:13:00.000+02:002007-10-17T10:19:53.492+02:00

All women want to kill their husbands some of the time "Where there's a will, I intend to be in it," wives half-joke to each other. Marriage, it would appear, is a fun-packed frivolous hobby, only occasionally resulting in death. But when Jazz Jardine is arrested for her husband's murder, the joke falls flat. Life should begin at 40 - not with life imprisonment for killing your spouse. Jazz,

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-43693821655886656072007-10-16T18:13:00.000+02:002007-10-17T10:36:39.595+02:00

This book was originally reviewed on 10 April 2007 by phillygirl. Read both reviews here.

Lopzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04746662835146630607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-49356439901541221682007-10-15T10:16:00.000+02:002007-10-15T10:52:02.710+02:00

Lying quietly in Marina’s spare room, you can hear the sea, tell the tide. When I first stretched my toes down into Marina’s sheets, they encountered sand. Someone else had slept there before me, come straight to bed after a day on the beach. I curled up like a mollusc, like a purple-lipped dog whelk, and let the bleakness of my life wash over me. What would become of me?A wonderful book. The

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-72731905299155683942007-10-12T12:45:00.000+02:002007-10-12T13:15:23.631+02:00

Here Pat tells the story of her charmed life among the glittering names of the twentieth century – Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Gianni Agnelli, Princess Grace and the Hollywood crowd – and the day everything changed for her, when she was presented with a tiny lion cub and she entered a world more magical and inspiring than anything she had known before.Pat

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-36764982207569864882007-10-10T15:19:00.001+02:002007-10-12T13:04:21.925+02:00

A real treat - the incredibly funny jottings of a hugely bestselling and much-loved author Her books are read and adored by millions around the world - now read the collected journalism of the woman who writes them: the woman under the duvet. Marian loves shoes and her LTFs (Long Term Friends), hates estate agents and lost luggage, and she once had a Christmas office party that involved roasting

Lopzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04746662835146630607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-74932154717702987512007-10-04T08:57:00.001+02:002007-10-04T09:05:16.782+02:00

BOOK SA is an online SA Lit Daily, dedicated to covering matters literary - in English and beyond - in Southern Africa. BOOK SA reports on local fiction, non-fiction, poetry, biography, book reviews and happenings and more.Definitely handy if you enjoy the occasional Book launch or reading since they have an up-to-date Events calendar.

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-87417267564161632252007-09-28T12:15:00.000+02:002007-09-28T16:17:29.290+02:00

In this, the fifth volume in the Sword of Truth series, the Chimes are loose in the world and intent on destroying all its magic. This spurs our heroes, Richard Rahl and his wife Kahlan Amnell, to embark on a quest into the middle of a civil war that will further splinter an embattled land.I deliberately used the shortest synopsis I could find, as this is a book in a series, and any more info

Lopzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04746662835146630607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-47255117820268896512007-09-26T10:41:00.000+02:002007-09-28T09:15:11.982+02:00

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring....In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.Only it's different.At first, things seem marvelous

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-37990009262698751142007-09-25T11:28:00.000+02:002007-09-27T07:41:57.151+02:00

Match wits with the razor-sharp mind and keenly honed instincts of literature's most famous detective. Every one of the immortal Sherlock Holmes novels appears in this single volume, unabridged, embellished with the beautiful original illustrations, and reasonably priced. The classic works include:A Study in Scarlet: the very first Holmes adventure--and the start of a beautiful friendship between

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-16004252567463464302007-09-19T09:56:00.000+02:002007-09-28T09:16:07.081+02:00

BookCrossing, where 589,463 people in over 130 countries come to share their passion for books with the world.At BookCrossing, you can register any book you have on the site, and then set the book free to travel the world and find new readers.Leave it on a park bench, at a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym -- anywhere it might find

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-85499694934887132202007-09-18T07:46:00.000+02:002007-09-25T11:38:26.067+02:00

Ever read a book that was a few hundred pages longer than it needed to be? Yeah, so have we. Fortunately, there are authors out there that would rather have a concise and effective book than a lengthy and diluted tome, and that's where the Lazy Library comes in.The Lazy Library, where you can find books on any topic without having to worry about high page counts. If it's over 200 pages, you won't

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-22269510870930086522007-09-17T11:51:00.000+02:002007-09-18T10:04:47.675+02:00

One of the most ingenious (or infuriating, depending on your point of view) of Christie's novels. Narrated by a Doctor Sheppard, who takes the place of Hastings (now living in Argentina with his wife) in assisting Poirot. A wealthy widow in the village of King's Abbott, Mrs. Ferrars, is found dead, and Dr. Sheppard suspects suicide until Roger Ackroyd, a widower who was expected to marry her, is

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-91263010695277922002007-09-14T09:21:00.001+02:002007-09-18T10:03:44.685+02:00

A girl's body lies, posed, on the pale sand of a Hamburg beach, a message concealed in her hand. 'I have been underground, and now it is time for me to return home...' Jan Fabel, of the Hamburg murder squad, struggles to interpret the twisted imagery of a dark and brutal mind. Four days later, a man and a woman are found deep in woodland, their throats slashed deep and wide, the names 'Hansel'

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-84614812955894850292007-09-12T15:18:00.000+02:002007-12-03T07:34:01.102+02:00

This title is the winner of the Medical Journalists' Open Book Award 2005. Revered and feared in equal measure, John Hunter was the most famous surgeon of eighteenth-century London. Rich or poor, aristocrat or human freak, suffering Georgians knew that Hunter's skills might well save their lives but if he failed, their corpses could end up on his dissecting table, their bones and organs destined

akikanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-8781720971791698172007-09-11T14:18:00.000+02:002007-09-18T09:36:09.979+02:00

What connects a movie star, an archaeologist, a French maid, a prime minister, a wealthy dowager, and an Italian count? Crime, of course—and the master crime-solver, Hercule Poirot.I've always enjoyed Christie's writing, for the very reason that most people seem to hate it - it's so very intricate and detailed. Yes it's horrendously outdated - this set of eleven short stories was published in

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-83562883883210980362007-09-11T14:02:00.000+02:002007-09-18T09:30:55.573+02:00

Totally absorbing...as gripping a tale of hatred and revenge as you will read... It is superb. This is the story of Nicholas Linnear, half-Caucasian, half-Oriental, a man caught between East and West, between the sexual passions of a woman he can't forget and the one he can't control and between a past he can't escape and a destiny he can't avoid. A sprawling erotic thriller that swings from

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-66470885226583920162007-09-10T18:38:00.000+02:002007-09-18T09:30:12.326+02:00

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to plaints about "The Boss from Hell." Narrated in Andrea's smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda's children in Paris by

The Divine Miss Mnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-5782299977590486382007-09-10T15:18:00.000+02:002007-09-18T09:42:31.107+02:00

Despite the many exotic places Pete McCarthy has visited, he finds that nowhere can match the particular magic of Ireland, his mother's homeland. In McCarthy's Bar, he journeys from Cork to Donegal. Travelling through spectacular landscapes, but at all times obeying the rule, Never Pass a Bar That Has Your Name On It, he encounters McCarthy's Bar's up and down the land, meeting fascinating,

The Divine Miss Mnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-34636520241344549592007-09-07T09:58:00.000+02:002007-09-18T10:08:55.684+02:00

The No.1 ladies' detective agency consists of one woman, the engaging and sassy Precious Ramotswe, who sets up shop in Gabarone, Botswana. This unlikely herione specialises in missing husbands, wayward daughters, con men and impostors.A fun book - you'll find phillygirl did the review for the follow up a couple of weeks ago. This is not your usual detective agency, nor will you find the latest

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-23215766678240392892007-09-06T17:03:00.000+02:002007-09-18T10:10:47.317+02:00

Pieces together the damaged life of Mary Bell, who aged 11 was tried and convicted of manslaughter after the death of two young boys. Only as an adult has she been able to realize the moral enormity of her crimes...This was truly disturbing. Not only the fact that she killed the two boys, which is integral to the book, but not what the book is about. The book is about what led up to her killing

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-61414156583965958042007-09-04T13:21:00.000+02:002007-09-18T10:13:32.416+02:00

A brilliant new historical epic from the best-selling author of The Alexander Trilogy. As the Western Roman Empire begins to collapses in 470AD, a small band of British Roman soldiers, make a long and arduous journey to Rome. They arrive to find the city on the edge of chaos, over-run with rebellion, not far from destruction. Despite the tumultuous events around them, they resolve to continue

Lopzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04746662835146630607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-67170555794863811362007-09-04T09:26:00.000+02:002007-09-18T10:28:14.117+02:00

In 1971, as Mao's Cultural Revolution swept over China, shutting down universities and banishing "reactionary intellectuals" to the countryside, two teenage boys are sent to live on the remote and unforgiving mountain known as Phoenix in the Sky. Even though the knowledge the narrator and his best friend Luo had acquired in middle school was "precisely nil," they are nevertheless considered

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-60879805014316048402007-09-04T07:57:00.000+02:002007-09-18T10:30:43.698+02:00

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-55987280054699516782007-08-31T12:08:00.000+02:002007-09-18T12:44:20.589+02:00

A fascinating account of the Crusades. Yes it's fiction dressed up as 'look what I found in the archives', but if you read the fine print, you'll see that it is indeed a novel. On the other hand, you could also argue that it's the story of a man's journey towards enlightenment dressed up as a book about a bunch of prejudiced religious fanatics going around killing people who don't agree with them

akikanoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-20456683761945597592007-08-29T12:34:00.000+02:002007-09-18T12:49:45.048+02:00

To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin, seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor’s wives. When she is chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate façade lie whispers of murders and ghosts, and the thousands of concubines will stoop to any lengths to bear

The Divine Miss Mnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-36429642502365385452007-08-29T10:38:00.000+02:002007-09-18T12:53:44.254+02:00

It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr.

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-26949584371801809162007-08-28T17:08:00.000+02:002007-09-18T12:59:29.553+02:00

In "God is Not Great", Christopher Hitchens takes on his biggest subject yet: the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In an acute reading of the world's major religious texts, Hitchens documents the ways in which religion is man made, a cause of dangerous sexual repression and a gross distortion of our origins in the cosmos.How clever you think this book is depends, largely,

Jarredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12483165038859579592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-44405117544964569872007-08-28T17:00:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:10:12.561+02:00

It is the steaming heart of summer in the City of Brotherly Love. Back on the force after taking a bullet during the arrest of a sadistic murderer, Detective Kevin Byrne warily returns to police headquarters. He cannot shake the memory of the Rosary Killer's innocent victims-or his growing sense that the evil has not been vanquished. And when he and his partner, Detective Jessica Balzano, are

Lopzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04746662835146630607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-86526345875829619952007-08-28T10:40:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:07:27.125+02:00

Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She can take on purse snatchers, drug dealers, and worse. But when Trudy Lombard - a seemingly ordinary middle-aged lady - shows up at the station, it's all Eve can do to hold it together.J.D. Robb is the pseudonym of Nora Roberts, better known for what I understand are romance novels [but since I've only ever read one of these and it only because it was related to

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-48238798919846091072007-08-27T10:25:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:10:57.127+02:00

By the Sword features Kerowyn, the grand-daughter of the Sorceress Kethry from The Oathbound, Oathbreakers, and Oathblood. By the Sword is set between events covered in the Arrows of the Queen Trilogy and The Mage Winds Trilogy.The only stand-alone book in the entire Valdemar series, where the previous books serve as myths, etc. for the later books. This book is the tale of Kerowyn - she starts

akikanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-13708217490493001482007-08-23T11:27:00.000+02:002007-12-19T12:47:01.569+02:00

'His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.' With

Jarredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12483165038859579592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-29128271104393578912007-08-18T22:26:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:14:23.733+02:00

Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son is perfectly healthy, but his daughter has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect his wife, he asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, the nurse disappears into another city to raise the child herself.The book was pretty good, I enjoyed it as a fairly light holiday read - nothing

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-39424284106803004772007-08-12T19:22:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:16:08.879+02:00

THE NO.1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY introduced the world to the one and only Precious Ramotswe - the engaging and sassy owner of Botswana's only detective agency. TEARS OF THE GIRAFFE, McCall Smith's second book, takes us further into this world as we follow Mama Ramotswe into more daring situations ... Among her cases this time are wayward wives, unscrupulous maids, and the challenge to resolve a

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-86557701356175113542007-08-05T01:36:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:17:18.554+02:00

It is Berlin, year 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-36081622455645899582007-07-31T17:27:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:28:55.769+02:00

Citizens waiting to enter the country of Inner Horner, a strange land that is only large enough for one resident at a time, fall prey to the tyrannical rule of the ambitious and power-hungry Phil, igniting an outbreak of injustice and mass hysteria, in an unusual novel by the author of Pastoralia. Original.A quick and truly bizarre read. I'm guessing I didn't pick up all the political innuendos

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-25709604944863142892007-07-30T12:59:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:21:24.227+02:00

Marc Bassett has a reputation as a pitiless restaurant critic. When he writes a devastating review of a particular establishment, the chef commits suicide, roasting himself in his own fan-assisted oven, with Basset's review pasted to the door. Suddenly Basset is moved to do something he has never done before: apologize. After a series of virtuoso expressions of regret, word of Bassett's

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-57771716357296461272007-07-10T07:30:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:24:20.431+02:00

'I lived through the Dutroux affair from the inside, and all these years I have kept silent about it - about my 'personal' Dutroux Affair, my time in the company of the most hated psychopath in Belgium. I need to write this book for three reasons: so that people stop giving me strange looks and treating me like a curiosity; so that no one ever asks me any more questions ever again; and so that

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-14000678555581633692007-07-05T08:44:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:23:28.709+02:00

Heard the one about the airline that has introduced 'corpse cupboards' on new planes to cope with the number of people who die in the air? Heard the story about the First Class air hostess who got fired for sitting on the face of a passenger during a long haul flight? Heard about the amount of knickers and false teeth that are left behind in the body of the plane? Heard how pissed-off stewards

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-40795666110516855632007-06-20T08:32:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:25:25.182+02:00

Los Angeles is full of actors. For psychologist Alex Delaware, finding out what's real and what's not is about to become a matter of life and horrific death ...Called in to evaluate an aspiring actress accused - along with her boyfriend - of staging her own abduction, Alex is indifferent when the case seems to go nowhere. But then the girl is savagely murdered, and suddenly a straightforward

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-86171577845997641272007-06-12T08:43:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:28:34.884+02:00

A trail of blood winding through a squalid flat in Margate leads DCI Dave Gosworth to the body of Jacqui Jennings, her skull smashed with a chisel. For Dave it is just the start of a long and puzzling case...Forty miles away in South London, a young single mother named Melanie Stenning is blissfully unaware of Jacqui's life and death. But that trail of blood will one day lead straight to her door

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-48218735090979114242007-06-06T09:07:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:12:41.533+02:00

'I have never looked into my sister's eyes. I have never bathed alone. I have never stood in the grass at night and raised my arms to a beguiling moon. I've never used an aeroplane bathroom. Or worn a hat. Or been kissed like that...So many things I've never done, but oh, how I've been loved. And, if such things were to be, I'd live a thousand times as me, to be loved so exponentially' In

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-59472651109897753012007-06-04T08:42:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:30:41.648+02:00

Lincoln Rhyme has travelled to a world-famous spinal cord injuries center in North Carolina for some risky, experimental surgery. It may make him a tiny bit better, it may kill him. But before he has a chance to undergo it, the local police department are drafting in Rhyme and Amelia, using their forensic skills to help find two women kidpapped by a psychotic young man known locally as the Insect

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-58390757797146051432007-05-29T08:52:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:18:25.398+02:00

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's, a form of autism. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-1915248185137487602007-05-28T08:36:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:30:31.648+02:00

Someone - a woman or somebody pretending to be a woman, is writing to convicted rapists in prison, befriending them and then brutally killing them when they are released. DI Tom Thorne must discover the link between these killings and a murder/suicide that took place twenty-five years before; a tragedy to which the only witnesses were two small children, now adults and nowhere to be found...How

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-71306614626129872462007-05-15T09:42:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:29:40.313+02:00

It's the night of the full Cold Moon - the month of December according to the lunar calendar. A young man is found dead in lower Manhattan, the first in a series of victims of a man calling himself the Watchmaker. This killer?s obsession with time drives him to plan the murders with the precision of fine timepieces, and the victims die prolonged deaths while an eerie clock ticks away their last

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-54448652006285150072007-05-03T09:03:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:32:39.756+02:00

Washington D.C. A woman is found murdered in her own home; her throat slit, her corpse brutalised, subjected to the most appalling torture before she died. A piece of incriminating evidence leads to the swift arrest of a local drug dealer. Case closed. But local cop Jack Cassian has questions. The victim came from one of the city's wealthiest families. So why was she living in such a rough part

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-36591055612671360802007-04-30T11:04:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:48:20.260+02:00

With one of the most baldly obscene opening paragraphs of any modern novel, The Sacred Art of Stealing slaps its way into orbit with more expletives than prepositions. But get through the gang-rap obscenity nonsense and there's a clever, off-beat storyline handled with funky dexterity. 30-year-old Detective Sergeant Angelique de Xavia is taken hostage in a bank robbery, run by a bizarre quintet

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-23815685414019349652007-04-16T09:42:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:50:11.225+02:00

Jack St. Bride was once a beloved teacher and soccer coach at a girls' prep school - until a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation and robbed him of his career and reputation. Now, after a devastatingly public ordeal that left him with an eight-month jail sentence and no job, Jack resolves to pick up the pieces of his life. He takes a job washing dishes at Addie Peabody's diner and

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-80518296014103121752007-04-10T09:26:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:51:36.325+02:00

When his teenage daughter is killed, and no one is arrested for the crime, Dr. Davis Moore does the unthinkable: he clones the unidentified murderer from the genetic evidence and has the child adopted by an unsuspecting couple, the Finns, who name him Justin. With his partner as Justin's pediatrician, Moore is able to follow the child's development, hoping to eventually identify the killer

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-87136703152907193382007-04-10T09:23:00.000+02:002007-10-17T10:29:21.449+02:00

"Chart Throb" is the ultimate pop quest. Ninety five thousand hopefuls. Three judges. Just one winner. And that's Colin Simms, the genius behind the show. Colin always wins because Colin writes the rules. But this year, as he sits smugly in judgement upon the mingers, clingers and blingers whom he has pre-selected in his carefully scripted 'search' for a star, he has no idea that the rules are

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-35725358910198407782007-03-28T10:03:00.002+02:002007-09-18T14:55:37.282+02:00

In bestseller Gardner's first-rate follow-up to Alone (2005), Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a horrific crime scene in the middle of the night by fellow detective and ex-lover D.D. Warren. An underground chamber has been discovered on the property of a former Boston mental hospital containing six small naked mummified

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-3811293630859906652007-03-26T08:19:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:56:58.138+02:00

Thriller writer Connolly (Every Dead Thing) turns from criminal fears to primal fears in this enchanting novel about a 12-year-old English boy, David, who is thrust into a realm where eternal stories and fairy tales assume an often gruesome reality. Books are the magic that speak to David, whose mother has died at the start of WWII after a long debilitating illness. His father remarries, and soon

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-73825899987108135952007-03-20T20:46:00.000+02:002007-09-18T14:59:10.012+02:00

Two children are found dead in a basement. Four years later, their murderer escapes from prison. The police know if he is not found quickly, he will kill again. But when their worst fears come true and another child is murdered, the situation spirals out of control. In an atmosphere of hysteria whipped up by the media, Fredrik Steffansson, father of the murdered child, decides he must take

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-75984381135531534732007-03-19T20:27:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:01:30.993+02:00

"At the age of 15 I already had a criminal record, busted by the drug squad for possession of an illigal substance. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, wouldn't you, but I'm still learning, even though I'm clean of street drugs now - well, just for today - and have a lot of clean time behind me. The hardest lesson of all for an addict is that the nightmare is never over and the powerful

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-73530979841073579262007-03-06T22:10:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:02:28.417+02:00

From the outside, Vicky Townsley would appear to have it all. She lives alone in London, is single and seriously successful. But she'd give it all up in a heartbeat for marriage, children, and a house in the country. Amber, on the other hand, has exactly what Vicky wants. This is a story of the grass not being as green as you might think.A nice story with the ending everyone hopes for if you're

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-74946471640789321722007-02-27T08:50:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:09:24.573+02:00

Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out-with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes- to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There's Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-19747539894260960272007-02-20T08:34:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:11:12.492+02:00

Cult bestseller, new buzz word..."Freakonomics" is at the heart of everything we see and do and the subjects that bedevil us daily: from parenting to crime, sport to politics, fat to cheating, fear to traffic jams. Asking provocative and profound questions about human motivation and contemporary living and reaching some astonishing conclusions, "Freakonomics" will make you see the familiar world

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-35743555192982965072007-02-15T08:17:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:12:34.834+02:00

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father's closet. It is a

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-26301158850330432382007-01-29T09:36:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:13:59.354+02:00

Everything is going right for lifeguard Ned Kelly. He is involved with Tess, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and what's more, a million dollars is within touching distance; his share of the score for the robbery of some world-class art. All he has to do is trigger alarms to throw the cops off the scent. But when Tess is brutally murdered and the others involved in the robbery are

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-53797401597175641212007-01-22T09:29:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:18:05.248+02:00

Sally Goodchild, a thirty-seven-year-old American journalist, suddenly finds herself pregnant and married to an English foreign correspondent, Tony Hobbs, whom she met while they were both on assignment in Cairo. From the outset Sally's relationship with both Tony and London is an uneasy one - as she finds her husband and his city to be far more foreign than imagined. But her problems soon turn

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-63714566589279417952007-01-03T08:30:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:20:52.784+02:00

It's South Africa, 1990. The country still squirms under the iron fist of apartheid. Two major events are about to happen: The release of Nelson Mandela, and more importantly, it's Spud Milton's first year at an elite boys only private boarding school. Cursed with parents from well beyond the lunatic fringe, a senile granny, and a dormitory full of strange characters, Spud has to forge a new life

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-22758134564492843722006-12-28T10:04:00.000+02:002007-09-19T09:15:10.023+02:00

Norah Vincent's witty and compulsively readable memoir tells how she dated women, joined a bowling league, visited strip bars, retreated to a monastery, got a job in sales and even infiltrated a men's therapy group. Norah did not predict how crucial the relationships Ned forged would be and how the burden of being an impostor would became almost too much to bear. The result is a constantly

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-85917077830202765962006-12-20T09:23:00.000+02:002007-09-19T09:25:18.977+02:00

When seven-year-old Faith White and her mother, Mariah, swing by the house on the way to ballet class, they find that Daddy is home and he's brought a playmate. This is not the first time he's been caught cheating. After the fuss and feathers have settled and Dad has moved out, Faith begins talking to an imaginary friend who, it seems, is God. And God is not male but female. Faith is able to

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-40873002851990944852006-12-13T07:47:00.000+02:002007-09-19T09:30:33.923+02:00

Lust, jealousy and murder suffuse Brown's crisp thriller (after White Hot), set in the snowbound mountains of North Carolina. Lilly and Dutch Burton's marriage didn't withstand the loss of their three-year-old daughter, despite their attempt at a fresh start with the purchase of a vacation cabin in bucolic Cleary, N.C., where the novel opens on the divorced couple discussing its sale. Dutch is

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-68271884895854967652006-12-06T08:24:00.002+02:002007-09-19T09:33:13.513+02:00

With old friends like these, who needs enemies? It's a question short, mild mannered detective Edward Newson is forced to ask himself having in romantic desperation logged on to the Friends Reunited website searching for the girlfriends of his youth. Newson is not the only member of the Class of '86 who has been raking over the ashes of the past. As his old class begins to reassemble in

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236366828183793143.post-17023308956315973802006-08-03T11:43:00.000+02:002007-09-19T09:36:54.599+02:00

A number of fictional attempts have been made to portray what might lead a teenager to kill a number of schoolmates or teachers, Columbine style, but Shriver's is the most triumphantly accomplished by far. A gifted journalist as well as the author of seven novels, she brings to her story a keen understanding of the intricacies of marital and parental relationships as well as a narrative pace that

phillygirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16618315315456011985noreply@blogger.com0