A must read about a failing estate in southern England where the owners decided to let the acreage go wild. Fantastic inspirational stuff

Wow. Read this for book group. My suggestion. How did Tara educate herself after such a shaky start in such a unique family. Recommend it if you want to be inspired to persevere against huge odds..

Suffice it to say I am not eating as much gluten

I loved this. It had all the elements of a great story and even better it is one of seven. I haven‘t rushed into getting the others yet, but I will. It is loosely based on constellations but I didn‘t hold that against it.

I finished it, but found the format irritating. I also found the whole plot too far fetched and therefore was not engaged. The characters were irritating and two dimensional. The gist of the plot is that a marriage is failing due to the inability of the husband to behave. The house is collateral damage but that is only a tiny bit of the story.

Well let me tell you first and foremost that this is a book about ice hockey. Let me tell you second of all that I do not do sports. I don‘t watch I don‘t play. I take zero interest. Now let me tell you I couldn‘t put this book down. It is about ice hockey, yes but it is also about community, friendship, loyalty, fame, secrets, shame, families, teams, and the importance of good parenting. Read it. Just trust me and read it.

A bit heavy going this one. Well written but I didn‘t warm to it. The main character Torin is likeable enough, but the reasons for his journey back to Ireland and the characters he meets there feel very two dimensional and the plot is unconvincing. It left me feeling a bit lost and left behind myself.

How do you review this giant of a book. At first it seems it is short stories. Unconnected except that the overarching subject is the tree. But as the book unfolds you realise that like the trees themselves they have rooted and branched connections. Characters who are the same. The same causes to be fought for, the same trees in different places and times. It is the best book I have read in a long time. Very pertinent too with mass extinctions.

A lovely detailed and splendidly written book about a woman in her mid forties who journeys from Canada to Wells in Norfolk to investigate her father‘s mysterious past. The novel uses a time switch to tell the story. Some is set in war time Britain and some in recent times. The plot is rich with twists and turns and the writing is deft in its evocation of times gone by and sleepy coastal towns. To be recommended.

Unputdownable. Based on true events in Lancaster in the early 17th century. Fleetwood is the wife of a young nobleman and pregnant after three miscarriages. She meets a young midwife and befriends her with the hope that this girl will help her to have a full term child. Lancashire and pendle hill was a hotbed of witches, many of whom were tried and condemned to death. The fate of the witches, Alice the midwife and Fleetwood are woven together.

Wow. This book is amazing. The main character is very well drawn. Written in geordie vernacular but as I live here not a problem for me.

There is a nuclear holocaust on earth. Jon is in a hotel in Switzerland when it begins, his wife and two kids are at home in America. The internet stops working. He and his fellow inmates of the hotel seem to be the only survivors..a child has been murdered. Trust and reassurance and friendship are major themes in the book. However the plot is ragged. The characters two dimensional and the ending is meh.

A long book about an undercover female cop who resembles a stabbing victim. She goes under cover to try to ascertain who killed the murdered girl. The book is set in Ireland. The main protagonist is likeable and the situation she finds herself in is bizarre. Having said that I did enjoy it although at times it felt a little too strange.

A book about brotherhood. A book about sons. A book about life. A book about death. A book of laughter and love. It made me cry. Read it. Definitely the best book this year.

A bit like common people by pulp. Rich girl has a thing about poor boy. They have a lot of ups and downs and no proper dialogue with speech marks. It‘s still a pick though as despite it all I enjoyed it.

A Scottish Hebridean island ( fictitious) holds the ancestral home of the Cassinghams. Married to the heir to the Island and mother of his children learns of the skeleton of a dead baby in the garden. Holiday makers bring their anorexic daughter to the Island. Researching the dead baby, maintaining a grip on motherhood to her two sons and counselling the anorexic daughter all take their toll. The story weaves past and present and is a great read

Set during the troubles in Ireland. A young girl from a large catholic family tells her own tale of stalking,maybe boyfriend, a real milkman and her family. She talks of the perilous nature of life in one faction in a matter of fact way. It is a difficult book to read.

Really well written book about a man approaching 50 whose long term relationship has just ended. Also his latest novel has been rejected. He travels around the world on a writing mission, trying to resurrect his self esteem and rewrite his novel. He is an endearing character so you happily travel with him and by the end you feel you know him. Thoroughly recommend

Set in Ireland, the central theme of the book is the laundry which was a home for unmarried mothers run by the religious establishment. It is a crime novel and some of the back story is from less enlightened times. The plot kept me guessing all the way through so it is well crafted and tightly controlled. It describes some fairly brutal and unpleasant scenes, so only read it if you can cope with a bit of gore and some upset.

Definitely enough to put you off going to a spa for a week to recoup. The nine perfect strangers who did got more than they bargained for. The back stories of the characters are key to the success of this for me. The bizarre events took half the book to reveal .It was not what I expected and the reveal did make me feel less enthusiastic but
it moved on much faster and many threads that had been unravelled, ravelled up nicely by the end.