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Showing posts from July, 2010

Book recommendations in a nutshell

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Not your usual love stories... Random Acs of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann Leo and Moritz are the heros of this book. In 1992, Leo is separated from Eleni, his love, by death. In 1917, Moritz is separated from Lotte, his childhood sweetheart, by thousands of miles. How will these two men deal with their situation? The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The love story between Henry and Clare is confusing to say the least. They first meet when Clare is 6 and Henry is 36. They meet several other times at different ages and, at last, they meet in the "present" - if such a concept can exist in this book - when Clare is 20 and Henry is 28! A beautiful relationship both created and hindered by time travel...

Book review: Glasshopper

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By Isabel Ashdown Pubished by Myriad Editions In 2009, Brighton-based Myriad Editions published Isabel Ashdown’s début novel, Glasshopper, an extract of which had won the 2008 Mail on Sunday Novel Competition. I can only agree with the competition judges who described the author’s writing as “magnificent”! Set in Portsmouth in 1984, Glasshopper is the story of a troubled family. Thirteen-year-old Jake is an endearing main character, trying his best to live as normally as possible for the sake of his little brother, while his mother goes in and out of alcohol-induced depression bouts and his father, who moved out of the family home, makes an appearance only at weekends. Initially, Mary, Jake’s mother, is easy to despise for letting herself go and not thinking of her two children. However, not wanting her to be merely considered as a “hopeless alcoholic”, Ashdown decided to give her a voice. Hence the brilliantly balanced book structure of alternating chapters written from the points of