Author: John le Carré
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Call for the Dead, 2010-07-12
Excellent thriller and a great inroduction to Le Carre's spymaster
Have ordered 2 more Smiley's since

Author: John le Carré
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More Conrad than Greene, 2010-04-11
At just under 700pp this book might be a labour of love for anyone reading this author for the first time. The Honourable Schoolboy is part of the 'Karla trilogy' - a series which pits the great George Smiley against his Russian rival of that name.

I'm giving this book the five-star-treatment, for, as always, le Carre has excelled himself with his prose style and eloquent dialogue, interwoven with a captivating plot. Further, this particular book has much in common with Joseph Conrad and is far less Greene-like than his previous works.

In any event, is this book worth reading? In all honesty, this book is not my favourite of the trilogy, though I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the c.1,600 pages, and recommend to anyone who finishes Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, to pick this one up and read it - you'll certainly enjoy it.

A couple of things to watch out for: watch how le Carre uses different techniques to develop the plot. At times through letters, at times through glimpses toward some point future in time from where he retreats, at times through direct dialogue, though, most commonly, through indirect, often obscure conversations which wander, and wander, until, suddenly, the golden-nugget of intelligence is gained and the plot pushes forward.

Another fascinating thing about this particular book is the performance in the field of the principal protagonist of the novel, the Honourable Schoolboy, Jerry Westerby, who attempts to carry out the instructions under extreme pressure of his superior Smiley; who is himself under fire from all sides!

A great read!

Author: David Mitchell
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Controlling an uncontrollable world by rewriting it, chapter by chapter, 2010-07-13
Black Swan Green is a rather more standard departure for David Mitchell from his earlier ultra-creative, multiple voiced novels. On the surface, it is an early 1980's period novel about a 13 year old boy struggling to fit into the complex, often cruel world of his peers, while his home world slowly self-destructs. The novel is told via very discrete episodes, which each feel like a short story in themselves.

However, as always with David Mitchell, such descriptions will never do his books justice. There is more humour and meaning than first appears - even the clashing of colours in the title is a subtle joke, which makes us think of the protagonist more as a unique person, and perhaps one comfortable with inconsistencies. The inventive style, although incongruous with a young adolescent's voice, sparkles very brightly in places. Some set-pieces are electric, as they were in other Mitchell novels. The voicing of the adults is painfully acute at times. The capture of a world 30 years now past, replete with very frequent references to the little details of that time, is wonderfully real and evocative. Most interestingly, the young protagonist, Jason, does feel like a very real 13 year old kid, with huge gaps in his understanding (while we see the marriage falling apart almost from the first moment, Jason doesn't realise - or doesn't choose to realise - that this is happening until near the end), and a burning desire to be popular, even though more often than not he is at the sharp end of teenage brutality. Although his constant hopeful strivings can be seen by some as a heartening point of view, Mitchell is just reflecting again the unsophisticated mental world that Jason has - where depression is perhaps emotionally a little beyond him.

But while Jason himself might be unaware of many of his own thoughts and feelings, being reasonably young, his character itself is actually rather complex, and this is the main triumph of the novel for me - the way that Mitchell subtly makes Jason develop in response to world events, seemingly without any conscious direction, but always trying desperately to gain control in an uncontrollable world. Most tellingly - and easily missed - is the way that every quite discrete chapter we read is not actually an online capturing of events, but Jason's later rewriting of them, as a prose exercise, so he can fix mistakes, embellish moments and indulge at times in elaborate fantasy. In the end we are left confused, not knowing where the foundations of the novel really are. But this is a strength, not a weakness - we are left questioning how we all recreate the truth to fit our own conscience and sense of interest, and we also can't help question the nature of fiction itself.

The one unnecessary, and for me slightly false, note in this novel, though, is Jason's interaction with the old Belgian poetry guide. Atlhough interesting and vivid, it also felt pretentious and contrived, and sticks out like a sore thumb against the rest of the novel. But it did allow Mitchell to weave together this novel with previous ones, as this old lady and those she interacted with in her youth figure prominently in Cloud Atlas.

Although not as good as his earlier three novels, there is still much to love about Black Swan Green. The style is just so utterly skilled that I was gripped on every page, even when little seems to be happening (which was rare). Add to this the deliberate inconsistencies, the hidden meanings, and a second reading would definitely be warranted - and probably even more enjoyable.

Author: Rob Ryan
By Sceptre

just right, 2010-07-19
I heard about Rob Ryan's work from my art teacher, and studied it this year as pieces of art but it wasn't until I read the book that I realised that it's a lot more deep than just pretty pictures and nice words. The work is really beautiful, and I particularly liked the fact you could see how it was made and all the hours that went into it. Some of the double pages take your breath away and it was more than what I expected from the book. The writing was also serendipitously good; handled badly it could have been twee or pretentious, but it seemed childlike whilst still relatable, to me. The book really struck a chord, and I'd really recommend it.

Author: David Benioff
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Captivating, fast paced and cinematic, 2010-06-12
In short, I loved this book. At first glance, the back of the book didn't grab me but the promise that if you didn't like it, you could claim 2 more drew me in. I figured I had nothing to lose and could claim the free books in any case! However, I just wasn't able to do it. From the off, this book draws you in, sweeps you along and leaves you excited and exhausted by it's sheer pace. I have never before read a book that I could describe truly cinematic. It was almost like watching a movie as you turned the pages. Fantastic. My book-shy boyfriend reluctantly picked it off our shelf and is as captured by it as I was. I am terrible for flicking forward a few pages to see where books are going but I never once did so with this little gem.

Author: Chris Cleave
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Excellent book, 2010-07-15
Another excellen book by Chris Reave .... I couldn't put it down .... it was intriguing from start to finish and hooked me in immediately.

Author: David Mitchell
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Wonderful, totally engaging read, 2010-04-27
I very, very much enjoyed this novel. It is a wonderful escape read : I live in 'old Europe' and through this novel (which I devoured in a few afternoons in the spring sunshine in my garden), I travelled to a multitude of different far-away worlds, real and imaginary, difficult, violent, touching, riveting and always fascinating. I have never been to Japan and strangely enough, at the end of the book, I still didn't feel I had. I looked up a few place names on the map of Japan, just for interest; and then I realised that I had not really journeyed in geographical terms but into my own interior... to meet again my own growing-up fears and hopes, occupations and pre-occupations, the same the world over it would appear.

Here there was nothing Japanese about the characters except their names; and I understood that the story/stories could have taken place almost anywhere.

David Michell's style is really masterful and I love his way of nesting the stories together (techniques also used in Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten). In this story you are guided by the use of symbols which precede each part, thus helping you to orient yourself (once you have understood the system!).

The central character, Eiji Miyake, is a wonderfully calm person who meets the extraordinary events he lives through with equanimity. One has the impression that despite his youthful quest of self-discovery, he is actually already in possession of all the answers before he sets out.

Interesting how David Mitchell achieves this.

Is the clue to be found in those parts of the novel most readers don't like, and particularly in Goatwriter's Pool of Death? Should one stop force-questing, stop trying to make events conform to one's pre-conceived notions of how things ought to be? Just jump in and go with the flow? The Goatwriter sequences don't fit in. So what? The future chapter is blank. Not written yet.

Mothers and fathers are firstly people with their own problems, then they are parents. They launch us but do not own or control us. Sacrifices for reasons of principle bring little lasting gain. Our future is as much in our own hands as in those of chance and fate.

Life is as it comes. Like music.

What a super book! Highly recommended - but, when you read it, do so with an open mind :)

Author: John le Carré
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5 Stars again!, 2010-07-25
If you like Le Carre, and enjoy radio plays, this series is a must. Beautifully produced and, whilst abridged, keeping close to the original story line.
Le Carre at his best and the BBC doing what it's so good at.
I think I've got the whole series now other than Smileys People and I intend to invest in that soon.

Author: Sebastian Horsley
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This Dandy's Destined One Day To Be A Cult Classic, 2010-07-23
Up until his untimely death some weeks before this review was written, Horsley's was a curiously unenviable life of seething excess, consumed by relentless decadence and velvet adorned decay. And yet he still somehow managed to defy the odds in writing this book of exceptional clarity & wit, before his offbeat ways finally stole the very beat from his heart. In other words, despite living the extraordinarily unstructured life of a 'die hard' waster in a bespoke bowler hat, he nonetheless wrote this truly engaging, most disciplined book - which rarely fails to be wickedly funny. Methinks "Dandy in The Underworld" is one day destined to be a cult classic, or at least it should be so for future generations of unashamedly well educated dropouts. Here's why...

Horsley was a one of a kind: a most privileged oddball who lived in a grand Georgian house in the seediest part of london, whose door bore the stern instruction for all passers by that "There are no prosti...'s at this address" and yet beyond that door's polished brass plate lived one of the greatest & most dedicated philanderers who ever lived. And by his standards that would be a very great compliment indeed, as you'll soon find on reading this most underrated autobiography.

Here you'll find what it is like to live the life of an uncommonly brazen addict who, unlike most, enjoyed "a certain spiritual charm that comes from having money in the bank". In many ways, Horsley was a 21st century hybrid of Bolan, Borroughs & Wilde. For his decadent ways, he made no excuses: "it is better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you are not." Such sentiment may well make many people wince with contempt, as he was by no means a moral person in the conventional sense of the word, and certainly did not write this book as a means of becoming born again; published as it was, some two years before his all too predictably fateful yet untimely demise. Nonetheless, on reading this book, I have every belief that his was a life of wasted near genius, dedicated most successfully towards defying convention, in the mould of a 'dandy'.

Many will not like this book, as it will often elicit disgust when it doesn't entertain. That it has some negative reviews doesn't surprise me at all. It is indeed disgusting in some ways, and that in itself should prove unacceptable to those of tamer intellect and disposition. There is also a certain smugness about Horsley's unashamed candour which does (& will) irritate many. But for me, I am left in no doubt that Horsley would have been a great (albeit unconventional) success in life - if only he were a more prodigious writer before he left this planet. I'm not saying he would have been a captain of industry, being such an unwitting slave to his wayward passions, but he certainly could have written many a great book, if only he had better focused his efforts in that way. For he certainly had storytelling talent, and that's not just because the story of his life couldn't have been anything but interesting. Horsley's writing is also generously seasoned with priceless quips, e.g., "altruism is the art of doing unselfish things for selfish reasons" or, "I wanted to be working class. The trouble was apart from serving as a diligent caretaker of my own beauty, I didn't work."

If the extraordinary life of a witty, depraved, early 21st century dandy is of any interest to you, then buy this book you must.

"Life for me was a great big canvas, and I was going to throw all the paint on it [that] I could."

Author: John le Carré
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Intelligent and atmospheric, 2010-07-27
John le Carre's classic spy thrillers deserve to be kept in print and read, decades after their original publication. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is a masterpiece of clever construction, finely-drawn characters and almost tangible atmosphere. The climax as Smiley slowly draws his net around his man, is brilliantly written.

The parallel world that le Carre illuminates for the reader is a vanished one. However, it is not hard to believe that behind the facade of early 70s London, agents and spies with their own strange lingo and systems watched and waited, researched and questioned, putting two and two together to make ten. I think that much of the authenticity comes from le Carre's own experience.

This is not a book for the casual reader - you have to have something of Smiley's faculties yourself to keep the plot strands and characters in mind, but the end result is certainly rewarding. What especially appealed to me is the multi-dimensionality of the characters - as well as being an excellent thriller, the book also makes you think about human concepts of loyalty and justice.