Sphere

A thriller set around the retrieval and use of an ancient artifact and with the main action taking place in and around Egypt.

Id say it's a good holiday read - fast paced, reasonable plot given acceptance of the nature of the artifact, interesting characters, very good evocative descriptions. It'll keep you absorbed for the time it takes to read but won't clog up your memory !

Well, where do I start with this one?! The problem for me is that I now picture the characters as the actors who play them in the TV series ‘Wire In The Blood' and because of this I find the idea of Tony and Carol having a relationship highly unlikely; however, if I concentrate on book characters I have built up in my imagination, the suggestion of their closeness is more likely.

Bloodline opens with a prologue following Debbie and Jason, a young mother and her son, running away from someone who has them terrified. Keep this in mind because the same chapter is repeated at the end of the book, viewed through the eyes of Tom Thorne as he watches events unfolding.

Right to the Edge:Sydney to Tokyo By Any Means is Charley Boorman's third solo book and a good one it is too. We see Charley travel from Sydney in Australia and go by any means of transport around the Pacific Rim visitng most of the major islands and countries until he arrives in Tokyo, Japan.

Jeff Gulvin who is the writer who conveys Charleys adventures, fears, hopes and fun and most of all his spirit of generosity - has done a fantastic job.

This is a wonderful read - hilarious and honest, brusque and bonkers; detailing the highest peaks and lowest ebbs of the one and only Ozzy Osbourne. After reading it one thing really hits home, it's amazing that he's still with us -I'm sure a lot of people thought that way after seeing him on the reality tv show "The Osbournes", but it's not until reading this that I realised just how much he drunk; snorted; smoked, etc.

Don't be put off by the tag line "It's where fear lives.."

This is not a horror novel, rather a very good crime thriller and Mark Billingham proves that he is up there with the best crime novelists with "In The Dark". It is a fast paced and incredibly taught read, and Billingham's style is witty and electric. 'In The Dark' shows that he is more than a one trick pony (the pony being his Tom Thorne novels.. but lo! Thorne does make a cameo appearance here). Though not as gritty as his previous novels, this still ranks as a cracking read and well worth looking out for!

This is one of the creepiest M.O.'s I've ever read - here the antagonist doesn't deliberately kill the victims: it's far more sinister than that. By subtly manipulating the ligaments in the victims necks he induces complete paralysis - the victim can not talk, walk, or do anything - they are in complete awareness but are in effect dead to any stimulation. The realisation of this is one of the "highlights" of crime fiction.

This is a perfect follow-up to the original book on Charley Boorman and Ewan McGreggor's book the Long Way down.  Why do I say this?Because it is a wonderfully photographic volume of the same trip.

There were so many amazing photos taken and filmed on that trip - many will have been seen on the six week evening showing on television of their trip going the long way down through Africa.

Erica's book is fantastic!

This is a very small book that tells the story of a puppy following its mum out into the wide, wide world.

The puppy loses sight of his mum as she can run much faster and keep up with her owner.  But the puppy finds shelter under a large spruce tree and survives in the most remarkable way through the winter. When the spring comes he slowly comes to accept the food from a very patient man by a cabin near the lake, but not until after some really frightening things happen to him.