28 December 2010
Genre: general fiction, Juv/YA
Setting: Australia
5 Comments
ISBN: 1864488239 “I’ve got to get our of that house.” Janey looked almost small, walking past these angled girders. Growing up is hard. Even when you have encouraging responsibly parents, like Chloe. When you don’t, when your parents are like … Continue reading
26 October 2010
Cast: Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright
Script: Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett
Genre: horror, sff
Setting: future, space
6 Comments
Dir. Ridley Scott
Can you believe that this film is 31 years old? Thirty one years old. That’s as old as I am. And yet it is still as effective as ever. And perfect for the RIP’s Peril on the Screen.
You probably all know the plot; a commercial space vessel’s crew is woken from cryo-sleep midway through their journey home. The ship’s computer has picked up a transmission that may be an SOS call. As they investigate they find an abandoned ship but suffer an attack on a crew member. They retreat to their own ship, carrying their injured member, and ignoring quarantine procedures, they undergo treatment from the science officer. And then things begin to go wrong…
14 October 2010
Genre: horror
Setting: England
14 Comments
by Susan Hill
Coming home one evening from meeting with a client, rare books dealer Adam Snow takes a wrong turn and ends up outside a derelict Edwardian house. For some strange reason he is drawn to this building and its wilderness of gardens and finds himself wandering through the overgrown weeds. And, standing all alone, he feels the strangest of sensations. A small hand, in his. As though he were a father taking hold of a son’s hand. But he is not a father. And there is no child.
14 September 2010
Genre: detective & mystery, historical fiction
Setting: 1920s, England, Interwar Europe
4 Comments
I really wish that I had gone back and reread the previous book in this series before starting this. The language of bees is the ninth in the series, but it was the first that I read, I then went back and reread from the start, skipping this because it was checked out of the library and I haven’t gotten around to buying them all yet. But I should have waited, because this starts off right where language left off, so it took me a while to catch up on exactly what was going on. Continue reading
12 September 2010
Genre: detective & mystery, historical fiction
Setting: Britain - Civil War & Revolution, England
4 Comments
By Iain Pears
This was a wonderful read. When I first started it I had no idea what to expect; I knew nothing about it apart from the fact that it was an Historical Favorites pick and so, most likely, an historical novel :). It opens with Marco da Cola setting down his recollections of his time spent in England. He travelled over in an attempt to help with his family’s business troubles. However there was little he could do and soon he found himself in Oxford among the professionals there and became embroiled in the case of Sarah Blundy, and the possible murder of Robert Grove. As well as delving into medical experiments with blood transfusion.
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6 September 2010
Genre: detective & mystery
Setting: 1920s, C20th, Interwar Europe
4 Comments
After solving the mystery of Whose Body Lord Peter Wimsey holidays in the wilds of Corsica, but, tiring of the rustic and wanting a bit of luxury he heads to Paris where he gets the shocking news that his brother, the Duke of Denver, has been arrested for murder. And the victim was Denis Cathcart, his sister’s fiancée. Wimsey heads for home straight away, and together with Inspector Parker he begins to investigate what actually happened.
14 August 2010
Genre: historical fiction, romance
Setting: Britain - Georgian
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by Georgette Heyer
The library at Fontley Priory, like most of the principal apartments in the sprawling building, looked to the south-east, commanding a prospect of informal gardens and a plantation of poplars, which acted as a wind-break and screened from view the monotony of the fen beyond.
Adam Deveril has just left the army and the Peninsular War. Not through choice, but because his father recently died and he must assume his family responsibilities as the new Viscount Lynton. Added to his problems is the fact that his father was not the most reliable with money, and Adam finds himself hugely in debt. He may even be forced into selling the family home, as not only does he have mortgages and debts, but he will also have to support his mother and provide for his two sisters. But he is also a man of principle and honour; he does not even consider his advisor’s opinion that he find himself a wealthy bride. But he forced to reconsider when the wealthy business man Jonathan Chawleigh suggests he marries his daughter.
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30 June 2010
Genre: Juv/YA
2 Comments
“Oh, come on, Jude. My feet are killing me,” Morgan moaned.
This continues pretty much where Noughts & Crosses finished up. If you haven’t read that one you really have no business reading this book. It won’t make a lot of sense to you, not to mention you’ll know how the first book ends, and you won’t know the characters at all. Have I convinced you to go read the first yet? Good, off you go.
Now, if you thought that Noughts & Crosses was depressing and dark, I’m guessing that you’ll feel this one is simply a black-hole of despair. Where is the hope? Where is the faintest of bright endings? Cause, wow, darkness is all around.
Spoilers for book one follow
28 June 2010
Genre: Juv/YA, sff
2 Comments
I wriggled my toes, enjoying the feel of the warm sand trickling like fine baby powder between them.
Callum and Sephy have grown up together, best friends, and now in their teens maybe their friendship is developing into something more. But there is a problem, Callum is a Nought, and Sephy is a Cross, and the two don’t mix, not in this world. But there are moves towards progress and integration, or at least hopes of that in the future; for the first time noughts will be allowed into Sephy’s school, and Callum is one of the four that managed to pass the entrance exams. He will be allowed in, but he knows that it will be difficult, Sephy is more innocent. She’s just glad they’ll be able to spend more time together. Neither knows just how hard it is going to be, and all that is before the bomb goes off.
13 June 2010
Call no: 800
Genre: historical fiction
Setting: 1960s, USA - Mississippi
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Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960.
The Help of the title refers to the black women domestics who worked all other the southern states, the maids and cleaners who went into the homes of “polite” society and looked after children, cleaned house, cooked, and generally looked after everyone before returning to their own homes to do the same there. Specifically this is about two maids, Aibileen and Minny, who agree to tell the story of their lives to Miss Skeeter, a white woman in her twenties who wants to be a writer.