Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

I read this book in October 2013
I picked up this book in a charity shop recently
It turned out to be a bit of serendipity.
I really liked this book -  written as a series of free verse poems, each moving the story on. A story about a 12 year old girl who runs, her life at home and at school...
a great idea format wise it really works
9/10
Helen

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

This is a World Book Night Book I picked up at Waterstones in April
I read this October 2013
This is a 'cross- over' book - teen to adult.
Very easy to read, a thick book that keeps going along, building up and sustaining the excitement.
A world where everyone's' thoughts can be heard... noise all teh time. Todd the last by in Prentisstown comes across a patch of silence.....
There are supposed to be on silences no women and no other settlements, suddenly Todd's world is turned on it's head....everything he had been told was lies...

A coming of age book

8/10
Helen

Chupsie by Bessie Marchant

I read this October 2013
I bought thsi book because it had teh type of cover I collect.
A children's book written c.1904 with all the moral and prejudices of the time.  Very un-PC! but I do so love to read something about the time written at the time.  It shpws people's attitudes and what was acceptable at the time.

2 children find an abandoned baby and eventually manage to restore it to the mother it was stolen form.  Set in India, the girls and baby are all white.  It shows the life style of the children of the colonialists...
So revealing

Helen

Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks

I read this October 2013
It was my choice for the Waterstones Book Club read.
I picked it as I have read 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' some time ago and really enjoyed it.
I found this informative but hard going.  I hadn't realised  I'd experienced Hallucinations before - noises in the night, tinitus, but now I know lots of things are classed as Hallucinations - aything not real really, should have thought of that.
Glad I read it, glad I've finished it
7/10

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

I read this in September 2013
It was a Waterstones Bury St Edmunds Book Club chioce.
I had read this years and years ago.  I had forgotten how readable George Orwell books are.  I enjoyed this dispute it's grim subject matter.  Ok we all know GO was an Eton boy and well heeled but he did actually live as a down and out so must be commended for that.
It made me understand teh hardship of the tramps lives - many tramps were still around when I was growing up (I lived near a Rowton House)
Very moving and interesting...
8/10

Briefs Encountered by Julian Clary

I read this in September 2013
It as a Waterstones Boob club book.
I thought I would really enjoy this book as I am a fan of Julian Clary's and so was looking forward to reading this one.  However I was somewhat disappointed to find it neither clever nor funny...I think I missed the point on this one!
5/10