Cramlington Book Club

This has probably been my favourite inbetweeny so far. It was a present from my mum who liked the look of the cover. Based very loosely on real events it took place in New Orleans in the 1920s when jazz, racism and the mafia were rife. I really enjoyed the three thronged approach used by Celestin. Who out of the three detectives was going to catch the killer?, could they all be right or were their clues/trails leading them down the garden path? The 'catching' of the killer (sorry trying to not give too much away) was perhaps the weakest part of the book but I loved the ending and went away frantically googling Louis Armstrong to learn more. I liked both Michael and Luca and wanted them to make up. I questioned early on how things would pan out for Luca – realistically how could he ever escape the mafia either in Italy or America? Celestin really caught the flavour of New Orleans, the grizzly underworld of prostitution, opium and poverty coupled with the flair of its mus...

A signed copy for 1p on Amazon (plus postage)! Sorry, had to get my little boast out of the way. Now that that's done I can talk about the book . I had never heard of Montefiore before although a few of the group had read Jerusalem that by all accounts is quite good. Book Club fact alert: Did you know Montefiore is the husband of author Santa Montefiore who is the sister of Tara Palmer Tomkinson? That’s a lot of surnames! The book was suggested by our Russian literature fan and is loosely based on the 'the Childrens Case' where children from higher ranking families are caught up in a murder in Stalin's Russia. I really enjoyed reading about how the seemingly untouchable upper class children who really were quite innocent were embroiled in a conspiracy to overthrow the government and how skilled the interrogators were at twisting words and skewering the truth. This is where the group split though as at least 3 of the group couldn’t get past violence inflicted on ...

Having seen this advertised on television (although I haven't watched it due to me not having Amazon) I was immediately interested in the concept of what the world would have been like if Germany and Japan had won World War 2. Not being a book club book or being aware of anyone who had a copy I could borrow High Castle was the first book in a long time that I had gone out and bought for myself. Well I hadn’t actually gone out I clicked a button on a computer screen. Did you know Dick is the guy who wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? (Aka Blade Runner )? Do you know Total Recall and Minority Report are also based on novels by him? Do you know the K stands for Kindred? Just throwing in a little lunchtime trivia for you there. Anyway I found it very confusing at first, it jumped around a lot and took a while to seem to fall into place. Something that I've noticed is I always struggle when foreign names are rife in a text. Be it French, Chinese, Russian, Itali...

In return for leaving Too Good To Be True on the swop shelf of my hotel I picked up this one amongst the various Germany novels and rather bizarrely gardening books that were on offer. I had watched the film The Bone Collector before but never read any of Deavers other novels. I started this book on the balcony of my hotel room and finished it on the train to work having been able to squeeze it into the suitcase on the way home (well we had no toiletries to bring back with us so more suitcase room). I really enjoyed it especially the endless twists and turns in the cat and mouse game that was Rhyme v Coffin Dancer. I liked the characters, the information about flying a plane, I even liked the Sachs/Rhyme twist. The book slightly threw me when the Kall twist came to light (trying very hard to not give too much away) which perhaps was one twist too far but really enjoyable and a step above the usual American cop thriller novels. What's the next one?

So when your main criteria for packing a book to take on holiday is how thin it is you're not necessary expecting a masterpiece to accompany you to the sun lounger (ha who am I kidding with three children, I would be lucky to even see a sun lounger!) Being the smallest book on my book shelf (page wise not size wise although that probably too unless you take into account the endless Mr Men stories) it was somewhat half-heartedly I packed Too Good to be True. Cleeves is the author or Vera and Shetland the latters of which this book was a kind of spin off of. It was given to me by my Auntie who had received it free as part of the Quick Reads for 2016. I enjoy watching Shetland, hadn’t read any Cleeves before so was interested to see what could be delivered in so few pages. I'm struggling to think of anything to say other than 'yeah it was ok'. Cleeves did a good, neat job. A who dunnit with a clear beginning, middle and end coupled with a slightly dramatic near mi...

So what did I make of Lord Alan Sugars autobiography – What you see is what you get? I enjoyed it. It was very detailed and genuinely written by him in his direct no nonsense style we are accustomed to in The Apprentice . I didn’t realise how much I didn’t know about him being an avid watcher of the Apprentice for quite a few years I had picked up about AMSTRAD and his electronics background but I had no idea in his involvement with Tottenham, his involvement with BSkyB and his involvement with Curry's. He doesn’t hold back, friends, staff, family and celebrities all get a bashing. I was left thinking it would have been interesting to have read the headlines at the time and read the other guys (or girls) side of the story to get the overall picture of events, particularly in relation to the football and the several law suits (I am a lawyer after all) but he did seem to be fair in his criticism and reflection. It was refreshing to read an autobiography – this was my first one...

I first read To Kill A Mockingbird many years ago whilst at school. As it was a set text the obligatory pulling apart line by line was done complete with pencil notes in margin which is the kind of thing I love. Unlike some school texts (Far From the Madding Crowd, Macbeth) this one escaped my teenage loathing and I look back on it with fondness rather than with a shudder of exam stress. We had clocked this book as soon as it came out but being price conscious (and carrying hardbacks on train adverse) decided to wait until it was out in paperback. I was surprised to note it was written in the 50s and had only been released very shortly before Lee's death. This made me suspicious as I was immediately dubious as to whether she wanted it released. Why wait so long? It didn’t stop me though and I approached it as you would meeting a long lost friend. I initially enjoyed the train ride with Jean Louise and viewed the folding bed incident to similar trouble she would have gotten in t...