Counselling for Toads by Robert de Board

I read this twice once in Dember 2013 and again in January 2014
James lent me this book.

This is a book about the Counselling process written as a story of Toad of Wind in the Willows fame, undergoing Counselling...
I have learnt about these Parent/Child/Adult states before but it never hurts to look again at our own behaviours and why we react the way we do to what life throws up.....
An interesting read as I am going through a lot of family issues at the moment.
Being not one to lose my temper it was nice to read this and actually give myself permission to be angry...
9/10

The Mary Testament by Colm Toibin

I read this January 2014
I borrowed it from Pat McHugh
This is a small book, only 104 pages.
It is an alternative story of Christ's crucifixion written from Mary's point of view.  Interesting, gruesome, poignant.
8/10

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

I read this January 2014

It was one of the books put forward to read for the Waterstones book club, but was pipped at the post...2 members of the group who had not liked/read  Last Exit to Brooklyn sung it's praises.

The cover blurb does not gove away the plot...
*****Spoiler Alert****
It's about a couple whose marriage is on the rocks going to Nigeria on holiday and encountering 2 girls who have witnessed atrocities in their village, who are hunted down.. some violent scenes. One of the sisters escapes to Britain, where she tracks down the couple...
****End of Alert ****

If I didn't know who this was written by I would have guessed Ian McEwen, if you know his style... to my mind this is quite similar.

It's well written, but I'm not sure it really did it for me...

I think I expected too much...

6/10

Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jnr

I read this January 2014

It was the January read for Waterstones Book Club.

One of the 'Beat Generation' novels.  With comments by Alan Ginsberg...read it if you dare.  It was subject to a obscenity trail when it was first published. 
The style is controversial, a distinct lack of punctuation  - I love this sort of writing... it's vey brutal and not for the faint hearted.  I had trouble getting into it, but once I was used to the style I could hardly put it down...

8/10

The Small Hand by Susan Hill

I read this December 2012

A Ghost story set in a derelict Edwardian House.  Adam Snow is a bookseller who stumbles across the house late one summer's evening.  He feels the sensation of a child's hand taking his, and becomes entranced by the house and it's sinister story...
Chilling

10/10

Dolly by Susan Hill

I read this December 2013
I seem to be on a Susan Hill fest at the moment...ah well it could be worse!
Another ghost story from Susan Hill
A chilling story set in the fens....a small orphaned boy is spending a summer with his Aunt Kestral and his spoilt, spiteful cousin, Leonora...whose wish for a beautiful dll and a wileful act of violence has consequences  only apparent years later when the two meet up again at the Aunt's forboding house...
10/10
Can you guess I like Susan Hill and Ghost stories?

A Question of Indentity by Susan Hill

I read this December 2013,  
A series of crime stories set in ithe Cathedral City of Lafferton.  
We follow Simon on his hunt for a serial murderer of old ladies... chilling and thrilling.
 The crime plot is interspersed with the story of Simon, hs family and life in Lafferton...I feel I have come to know the 'City' eve though it's fictional

A really great read
10/10

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I read this December 2013

This is a book made out of, basically, short stories that can be read as such, but read as a whole they move the story along.  I like this style of book very much.

Jennifer Egan is a Pulitzer prize winner and the writing is quality.  Set in the States, the stories revolve round the music business, a family and it's attendant interactions with each other and the outside world.

I really enjoyed this book

8/10
Helen