Here's updated synopsis of most of the books mentioned.
The Face - Dean KoontzThe Face mixes both elements of psychological and supernatural terror in an unusual and disturbing way. "The Face" is a Hollywood superstar who's never at home. For his lonely son Fric, that's the keynote of life: a father who gives him everything, including the run of a fabulous Bel Air mansion (the Palazzo Rospo) in a large estate, but no personal affection. A series of cryptic gifts arrive, suggesting a stalker's threat to the actor, but in fact the person in danger is 10-year-old Fric.
The house security boss, former LAPD cop Ethan Truman, isn't that worried. The Face is away as usual and the Palazzo's defences are spectacular. What does worry him is that after tracking down the middleman who delivered one of those sinister parcels, Ethan is killed--twice. But yet he lives, as though time has been rewound; and he keeps glimpsing an old friend who is very definitely dead.
Koontz's villain is a memorably unpleasant creation; thanks to wealth, contacts and horrible ingenuity, this bad guy is well-equipped to crack the Palazzo defences, kill Ethan and grab Fric. Gradually his inhuman scheme is revealed.
Meanwhile the supernatural element is working on the other side, though shackled by rules that forbid direct action. Fric gets disquieting phone calls warning that someone or something called Moloch, devourer of children, is coming and that the boy had better find a safe hiding place. Chillingly, the caller always knows exactly where Fric is and what he's doing. And these messages somehow don't register on the Palazzo's elaborate logging system.
Appalling rain drenches Los Angeles as Moloch's day approaches; Fric's terror grows, Ethan and a friend who's still in the LAPD follow hopeless leads and even the dead begin to despair of thwarting a psychopath who holds all the high cards. No plan, however, quite survives contact with reality. The finale offers extreme violence and electrifying twists, and delivers satisfaction
Runaway Jury - John GrishamA major film tie-in to the movie based on John Grisham's bestseller. Every jury has a leader and the verdict belongs to him. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake begins routinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and at least one juror is convinced he's being watched. Soon they have to be sequestered. Then a tip from an anonymous young woman suggests she is able to predict the juror's increasingly odd behaviour. Is the jury somehow being manipulated, or even controlled? And, more importantly, why?
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Adult Edition - Mark HaddonThe title The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (or the curious incident of the dog in the night-time as it appears within the book) is an appropriate one for Mark Haddon's ingenious novel both because of its reference to that most obsessive and fact-obsessed of detectives, Sherlock Holmes, and because its lower-case letters indicate something important about its narrator.
Christopher is an intelligent youth who lives in the functional hinterland of autism--every day is an investigation for him because of all the aspects of human life that he does not quite get. When the dog next door is killed with a garden fork, Christopher becomes quietly persistent in his desire to find out what has happened and tugs away at the world around him until a lot of secrets unravel messily.
Haddon makes an intelligent stab at how it feels to, for example, not know how to read the faces of the people around you, to be perpetually spooked by certain colours and certain levels of noise, to hate being touched to the point of violent reaction. Life is difficult for the difficult and prickly Christopher in ways that he only partly understands; this avoids most of the obvious pitfalls of novels about disability because it demands that we respect--perhaps admire--him rather than pity him
Goodfellas - Nicholas Pileggi Welcome to the world of New York organised crime; of heists, extortion, family, gambling, molls and casual violence. This is the book that inspired the film, written by Nicholas Pileggi in 1985 and originally entitled Wiseguy. Martin Scorsese read it, contacted Pileggi who apparently "had been waiting for this phone call all my life", and between them they wrote the screenplay for the hugely popular 1990 movie. The resulting blend of snappy dialogue, snappier editing and superb ensemble acting tended to overshadow Scorsese's dubious ambivalence towards violence, but the audience was blown away more spectacularly than one of Tommy De Vito's victims.
Pileggi's book was written with Henry Hill, whose life it describes. The narrative switches between Pileggi, Hill, and Hill's wife Karen, all delivered with the smooth action of a well-polished Magnum. It proves utterly compelling, breathlessly serving up an action-fuelled life of criminal excess with Henry starting as an aspirant 12-year-old errand runner ("To be a wiseguy was better than being president of the United States. To be a wiseguy was to own the world"), and progressing to such a status within the Mob that when he is finally nailed he turns Federal witness to implicate his former cronies, a move that represents his only chance to save his family's necks. The irony for Hill is that his fictionalised life story has been seen by millions, but he cannot tell anyone without jeopardising his new identity, which means he gets "to live the rest of my life as a shnook". As a source the book runs very close to the film, and someone who know the film will find it hard not to picture Scorseses's stylised realisation as they read, while those who don't will discover a grittily related, authentically grim amorality tale of a life shot through with brutality and survivalist scheming that stands on its own without the Big Screen treatment. Surprisingly bleak
The Boys from the Mersey - Nicky Allt Nicky Allt was a penniless teenager from the tough Kirkby district of Liverpool who wanted something more, when no one would employ him. In the late seventies that meant clothes, music and Liverpool FC. He joined a young scallywag crew who dressed different, spoke different and met at the Anfield Road End. Their travels would become legend as the Reds conquered Europe. The Road Enders were a bunch of blaggers and fighters to whom every No Entry sign was a challenge and every price tag a joke. They criss-crossed the continent, causing havoc in their wake - and had a whale of a time.
Tell No One - Harlan CobenElizabeth was taken from David one night, tortured, killed and abandoned by the serial murderer known as KillRoy; he was left for dead. Eight years later, he gets an e-mail which leads him to a camera feed, and sees her standing on a street corner looking at him. And suddenly he is on the run, accused of her murder and of others, dependent on the whim of a violent pusher whose child's life he saved. Harlan Coben's new thriller Tell No One is a terrifying kinetic novel of abuse of power, false accusation and the things that go wrong with the most careful of schemes. David Beck is a memorable character--a dedicated doctor whose mourning for his wife has gradually become itself a sort of paralysis, but who has a surprising resilience under stress; he has not got much going for him in the terrible situations in which he finds himself, but he makes ingenious use of what he has got. This is an intelligent thriller in which we get to watch suspect, police and some very unpleasant heavies chase each other around in impressively convoluted circles. Coben is one of the best multiple-bluffers in the business.
Married to the Guv'nor - Peter Gerrard, Valerie McLean It's been three years since "The Guv'nor" was published, turning bareknuckle fighter Lenny McLean into an unlikely cult hero. Lenny died shortly after his autobiography came out, devastating his wife, Valerie. In this text, Valerie reveals what it was like to be married to this formidable man. Lenny always said he had enough stories from his life to fill another book - now Valerie has done this. They started courting when she was eighteen, in the face of opposition from her family who knew Lenny's reputation as a tearaway. Her life from the point onwards was never dull, as she found herself dealing with the unpredictable Lenny, making cups of tea for a Mafia don, and coping with the aftermath of the shooting of her husband, who was hit in the back outside their front door.
Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde Thursday Next, Head of JurisFiction and ex-SpecOps agent, returns to her native Swindon accompanied by a child of two, a pair of dodos and Hamlet, who is on a fact-finding mission in the real world. Thursday has been despatched to capture escaped Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine but even so, now seems as good a time as any to retrieve her husband Landen from his state of eradication at the hands of the Chronoguard.
It’s not going to be easy. Thursday’s former colleagues at the department of Literary Detectives want her to investigate a spate of cloned Shakespeares, the Goliath Corporation are planning to switch to a new Faith based corporate management system and the Neanderthals feel she might be the Chosen One who will lead them to genetic self-determination.
With help from Hamlet, her uncle and time-travelling father, Thursday faces the toughest adventure of her career. Where is the missing President-for-life George Formby? Why is it imperative for the Swindon Mallets to win the World Croquet League final? And why is it so difficult to find reliable childcare?
Still Life with Woodpecker - Tom RobbinsStill Life with Woodpecker is sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads.
Bag of Bones - Stephen KingWhen Mike Noonan's wife dies, he is drawn to their summer home in the town of Sara Laughs. He finds the town in the grip of millionaire Max Devore, who is hell-bent on getting custody of his deceased son's child. Kyra and her mother turn to Mike for help, but there are sinister forces in their way.
Fever Pitch - Nick HornbyThis book is amazingly intuitive. Nick Hornby has been there and done that so far as genuine football supporting goes. He assesses in a surprisingly rational way (for one so irrational at times) both the benefits and the destructive nature of obsession. Although this book is based around the games of Arsenal (and a brief flirtation with Cambridge United) it says a lot more about human nature (and Charlie George's haircuts) than the tactics of George Graham! This book could save thousands of people from heartache if it was handed out to people entering relationships where only one partner is football obsessed! If you have a partner who baffles you with their shouts and screams and moods every Saturday afternoon between August and May - this book will help you to understand that they are the ones who need help - you will learn to pity and support them in their affliction. If you are one of those people who shout and scream and have moods every Saturday afternoon between August and May - you will learn that you are not alone.
The Da Vinci Code - Dan BrownRobert Langdon, Harvard Professor of symbology, receives an urgent late-night call while in Paris: the curator of the Louvre has been murdered. Alongside the body is a series of baffling ciphers. Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Da Vinci - and further. The curator, part of a secret society named the Priory of Sion, may have sacrificed his life to keep secret the location of a vastly important religious relic hidden for centuries. It appears that the clandestine Vatican-sanctioned Catholic sect Opus Dei has now made its move. Unless Landon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pieces of the puzzle, the Priory's secret - and a stunning historical truth - will be lost forever.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill BrysonBill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller: but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth, or what a black hole is, or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time and space, he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists, like the painfully shy Henry Cavendish who worked out many conundrums like how much the Earth weighed, but never bothered to tell anybody about many of his findings. In the company of such extraordinary people, Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey, and reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.
Mccarthy's Bar - Pete Mccarthy Pete McCarthy's tale of his hilarious trip around Ireland has gained thousands of fans all over the world.
Pete was born in Warrington to an Irish mother and an English father and spent happy summer holidays in Cork. Years later, reflecting on the many places he has visited as a travel broadcaster, Pete admits that he feels more at home in Ireland than anywhere. To find out whether this is due to rose-coloured spectacles or to a deeper tie with the country of his ancestors, Pete sets off on a trip around Ireland and discovers that it has changed in surprising ways. Firstly obeying the rule 'never pass a pub with your name on it', he encounters McCarthy's bars up and down the land, and meets English hippies, German musicians, married priests and many others. A funny, affectionate look at one of the most popular countries in the world.
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy In her first novel, award-winning Indian screenwriter Arundhati Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz improvisation. The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely; it is the product of a genius child-mind that takes everything in and transforms it in an alchemy of poetry. The God of Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that's completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.
Mr. Nice - Howard Marks What an extraordinary fellow Howard Marks is. His autobiography takes him from his South Wales childhood and Oxford University education through his life dealing marijuana and the enormous mythology that accrued around what the tabloids called "the English Toff Drugs King of the World". This book is called Mr Nice after one of the many aliases Marks's life as a merchant of pot obliged him to assume, but it describes him perfectly too: the epitome of British niceness, the nicest international criminal you could hope to meet. It's not hard to see why this has become a cult book--Marks is a brilliant version of a mate down the pub, telling you the gobsmacking stories of his many adventured life. The writing is direct and the narrative will detain you as comprehensively as Marks himself was detained for seven years at Terre Haut Penitentiary, Indiana. He was released the same day as Mike Tyson. "I had," he observes mildly, "been continuously in prison for the last six-and-a-half years for transporting beneficial herbs from one place to another, while he had done three years for rape." Truly there is no justice; but there are eye-popping adventures, hilarious touches and a thorough-going wisdom in this excellent book.
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourtIn this memoir, Frank McCourt looks back with sadness and affection at his first 18 years growing up in New York and Ireland. The book combines stories of hunger, poverty and social deprivation with a celebration of the human spirit, laughter and human kindness.
Shankhill Butchers: A Case Study of Mass Murder - Martin Dillon This book by the author of "Rogue Warrior of the SAS", retells the story of a series of murders by the Ulster Volunteer Force in N. Ireland in the 1970s. When convicted, the killers received over 2000 years in jail, the longest sentences ever given in a single trial in British legal history.
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby Rob is a music junkie who owns record shop in Islington. Unable to make his relationship with Laura work, he seeks refuge in the company of the two hopeless guys, and in a one night stand, only to find that life with Laura has its unexpected attractions.
The Dice Man - Luke RhinehartThe cult classic that can still change your life... Let the dice decide! This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart -- and in some ways changes the world as well. Because once you hand over your life to the dice, anything can happen. Entertaining, humorous, scary, shocking, subversive, The Dice Man is one of the cult bestsellers of our time.
Live from Death Row - Mumia Abu- JamalIf you are uncertain whether this book is worth the read, let me assure you it is. If you are unsure whether this book is for you, that depends. Where the writing is beautifully crafted - smooth poetic alliteration in an articulate African-American tongue belies Abu Jamal's history as a well-respected professional journalist - the content is challenging and graphic. The book is split into three parts. The first details disturbing accounts of prison brutality and oppression, the second is an outlet for Abu Jamal's opinions on the current affairs of the time and the prison administration as a whole, giving an analysis that is at once logical and emotive, and the third part follows Mumia Abu Jamal's life and life influences. The third part proves a most effective and moving climax for the book. The first section details individual cases of injustice, the second looks at injustice in the system as a whole but the book ends on the human face of a man who has spent more than 20 years of his life in a concrete hole waiting to die. The most surprising thing for me was the sympathy and interest it incurred in me for the 'Black Power' type movements. An ex-Black Panther Party member, Mumia Abu Jamal writes frankly his respect for Huey P. Newton as a political leader but also his warm devotion to him as a father-figure. The fear I once felt about those tainted by association with labels like 'extremists' and 'militants' thankfully dissipated with my ignorance. This is a book for anyone interested in race in America, politics within the African-American community or quality writing by gifted man with a unique perspective
Holocaust Theology: A Reader - Dan Cohn-SherbokWhere was God when six million died? Over the last few decades this question has haunted both Jewish and Christian theologians. If God is all-good and all-powerful, how could he have permitted the Holocaust to take place? This reader provides a panoramic survey of the responses of over one hundred leading Jewish and Christian Holocaust thinkers. Beginning with the religious challenge of the Holocaust, the collection explores a wide range of theodices which seek to reconcile God's ways with the existence of evil. In addition, the book addresses perplexing questions regarding Christian responsibility and culpability during the Nazi era. Designed for general readers and students, each reading is divided into topics and is followed by a series of questions. For anyone who is troubled by the religious implications of the tragedy of the Holocaust, this collection of Holocaust theology provides a basis for discussion and debate.
Digital Fortress - Dan BrownWhen the NSA's invincible code-breaking machine - encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls in its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage... not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it will cripple U.S. intelligence.
The Universe in a Nutshell - Stephen William Hawking The Universe in a Nutshell attempts to address the relative difficulty of Hawking's first foray into popular science, A Brief History of Time. While this sold in its millions, few readers got past the first few chapters. Helpfully, this new work is full of beautifully prepared colour illustrations and decorations, and has a "tree-like" structure, so that readers can skip from chapter to chapter without losing the thread.
In 200 highly illustrated pages, Hawking is pushing the frontiers of popular physics beyond relativity and quantum theory, past superstring theory and imaginary time, into a dizzying new world of M-theory and branes. It's a colossal venture--one Hawking is uniquely qualified to undertake--but it is crammed into far too small a space. When you consider the other rather good tomes being written on the nature of consciousness these days, the decision to limit The Universe in a Nutshell to the dictates of publishing rather than to the natural parameters of the material is an unfortunate one.
Worse, Hawking tries to paper over the complexity of his field. He rushes over the very concepts he should be helping us understand, only to belabour simple ideas, often by means of flip Star Trek metaphors. Also unfortunately, the illustrations--by turns trivial and opaque--mirror the faults of the text. The author's name alone will guarantee sales, but the book we long for--the long, ruminative, poetic celebration of Hawking's world--seems as far away as ever.
A Brief History of Time - Stephen William HawkingA Brief History of Time is a truly magnificent piece of work detailing all of the major points about the cosmos.This book hands over everything that the budding scientist requires,despite its rather "Brief" title.Most astrophysics books show the mathematical side of things which cannot be understood by the average person.Instead Hawking has chosen the more understandable side of it.He explains things in great detail without using any tricky equations or any mathematical heeba-joo. This book just shows the great mind which Hawkings has.For this he is sometimes not given the appreciation he deserves.This to me is appaling as he is truly the greatest since Einstien.This can be understood by the work he has done to make "A Brief History of Time " the succes it is.I would guarentee this book to anyone who is interested in Science or anyone who is simply interested in a good read.
Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America - Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose Following on from the success of their prophetic book Shrub, Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose well-researched and comprehensive expose of the effects of the George 'GeeDubya' Bush presidency is as heartfelt as it is clinical and as damning as it is revealing.
Issue by issue - be it healthcare, education, the environment and of course, foreign policy - Ivins lays bare the damage being wrought by multi-billion dollar tax cuts paid for by special interest business and religious groups.
By placing real people at the heart of the book - from the Vietnam veteran who worked day in day out only to see millionaire Bush-buddy Ken Lay wipe out his Enron pension, to the tragic story of how Bush's judicial friends and appointees stalled a quadriplegic child's compensation from Ford for years until he died - Ivins paints a sickening portrait of who really runs America.
Ivins and Dubose compliment the book also with a series of steps they believe can help bring democracy back to where it belongs, with the people.
Bushwhacked is not just another Bush-basher in the vein of Michael Moore or Al Franken. It is though, the comprehensive manual on everything that's wrong with the Geedubya administration.
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum - Heinrich Boll Katharina Blum is a quiet, reserved divorcee who lives alone. She values her privacy. One night she goes to a party and falls in love. Nothing wrong with that you might think - but Katharina is in Cologne in 1974, and is about to understand fully what that Kafka bloke was on about.
Henrich Boll's novella is an icy, brilliant satire without any humour whatsoever. Every single word - even in translation - is sharp as a scalpel; every page will chill you to the bone. Boll simply reports what actually went on in 1970s Germany: the midnight arrests, the McCarthyite persecution of "terrorists" and their "sympathisers", the callous bureaucracy that continues for its own sake and - finally - the truly satanic alliance between the police and the tabloid Press who, even more than their British cousins - care nothing about the truth.
What's even scarier than the story, however, is the fact that this isn't one. There were thousands of Katharinas in 1970s Germany; many thousands of innocent people destroyed by lies and innuendo. You will never forget this book and you'll never ever cease asking yourself the following question: How on earth could this happen in a country that is, ostensibly, a democracy?
And with the way things are going, Americans may find themselves asking that question before very long.
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony BurgessI happened to be lucky enough to read this excellent piece of work whist Kubrick’s film was still under its self-imposed ban. This meant that whilst discovering the book for the first time, my mind was free to create it’s own images and scenarios that spring from the page in a manner, not too dissimilar, to the characters featured within. After the film had been re-released I went back to the book and found that my way of seeing the action was now tainted; I was now viewing the resulting fisticuffs between Alex and Billy Boy complete with a Rossini soundtrack... I was picturing the ultra-violence with a methodical restraint, whilst almost pining for the inclusion of the singing in the rain sequence (one of the most powerful scenes ever committed to film). More importantly, I found myself mentally dictating the narration in McDowell’s odd Manc-Shakespearean dialect. The film is a great and original work, but I cant help feeling that if I had seen the movie before discovering Burgess’s landmark text I may have found some of these social ideologies a little cloying. Because of this, I urge you to first read the book before even thinking about seeing the film. Here we have one of Britain’s greatest authors in his prime... creating a work of science fiction that is both surreal and believable. The use of language is fantastic, combining various dialect styles with vivid descriptions, elements of poetry and a combination of Cockney and Russian, working-class slang; whilst the characters manage to walk the line between larger than life archetypes and real, believable human beings. As it says on the back of the sleeve, “every generation should discover this book”... I agree. I read this when I was sixteen and loved it. You will too. Read it before seeing the film and you’ll further understand why so many people consider both Burgess and Kubrick to be geniuses.
Trace - Patricia CornwellSince POSTMORTEM garnered critical acclaim and a record-breaking five awards for a first crime novel, the Scarpetta novels have often been imitated, but never bettered. Against her own judgement and the advice of Benton Wesley and her niece, Lucy, Scarpetta agrees to return to Virginia as a consultant pathologist on a case involving the death of a fourteen-year-old girl. Accompanied by Pete Marino she finds the once familiar territory of her morgue and her department much changed, and the new Chief Medical Examiner treats her with disdain despite the obvious fact that he is in desperate need of her expertise. But professional as ever, she re- examines the evidence and proves the girl was murdered. She also finds trace evidence which matches that found on an accident victim and at the scene where one of Lucy's operatives was attacked. It is not only a forensic puzzle, but opens up the probability that someone is after those closest to Scarpetta.
Clubland - Kevin SampsonThe Mersey might still be one of the world’s muddiest rivers, but the Liverpool depicted in Kevin Sampson’s Clubland is keen to leave its murky past behind. Brussels-bound bureaucrats toast the success of the post-Toxteth regeneration; young people are flocking to its universities and money men are clambering over each other for a slice of the lucrative club trade.
Veteran gangster – and hero of Sampson’s earlier thriller Outlaws--Ged Brennan wouldn’t normally turn down an opportunity to earn more money. He’s got a wife and kids with decidedly upmarket tastes, after all. But he’s also got strong principles. The idea of a decriminalised zone in the heart of clubland--where prostitution and drug use would be tolerated--appals him. Unfortunately, he’s not in the best position to fight a crusade. The council are head-hunting him as the figurehead for their latest scheme. He’s just handed over a string of strip clubs to his wayward--and distinctly warped--cousin Moby. And there’s Marguerite, hot-shot lawyer and Haitian ice-queen. Who, in addition to being the widow of Ged’s dead brother, has very much her own ideas about the future of clubland.
This is a highly original tale of tangled loyalties, set against a backdrop of shifting values. Ged Brennan is a protagonist to rival TV’s Tony Soprano: gentlemanly and coarse, principled yet disarmingly ruthless. His journey through the mean streets of Merseyside is sometimes shocking, sometimes disturbing, always tinged with wit. Read it--and be grateful you’re not living it.
The Name of the Rose - Umberto EcoApart from the gripping murder mystery in this book, there is quite a lot of medieval history and politics thrown in. This does not mean, however, that you have to be a medieval historian to enjoy it. If you know nothing about this period, you will probably find it very illuminating. Likewise, although Eco is naturally very interested in the science of signs, you don't need to know anything about semiotics to derive a great deal of enjoyment from it.
If you don't like your fiction to challenge you in any way, that it might be best to avoid this. However, if like most people you read not only to be entertained but enlightened, then this is as rewarding a book as you could hope for.
Dead Air - Iain Banks There's no question that the anticipation for each successive Iain Banks novel grows ever greater, and Dead Air is a literary event. The sardonic, inventive prose guarantees a unique reading experience with each new book (the misfires may be counted on one hand), and whatever genre he tackles, Banks is one of the most stimulating writers at work in Britain today.
His protagonist here is Ken Nott, a character as penetratingly realised as ever. He's a committed contrarian, ekeing out a living as a left-wing radio shock-jock in London. He makes his home in a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be demolished in a few days. After a wedding breakfast, people begin to pitch fruit from a balcony on to a deserted car park 10 storeys below; then they begin dispatching other things: a broken TV, a loudspeaker with a ruptured cone, bean bags and other useless furniture. Then the guests enter a kind of frenzy and start dropping things that are still working, at the same time trashing the rest of the apartment. But suddenly mobile phones start to ring urgently and they're told to turn on the TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. And Ken Nott finds his life is to change irrevocably.
Banks's subject here is nothing less than the survival of the individual in the face of a chaotic world. The destruction of personality under the lacerating values of modernity is a subject repeatedly addressed by JG Ballard (and that author's shadow is clearly evident here), and although this is one of the Iain Banks novels in which he pointedly does not use the "M" in his name that marks his science fiction, this nightmare vision of contemporary London has more than a trace of that genre in its sense of fractured reality. But all the caustic humour and dark character development that Banks excels in are fully in place.
1984 - George OrwellThis book starts with one of the most striking first lines of all time but is not the most accessible book you'll ever read.
Persevere, though. The story will grip you, I can virtually guarantee it. Orwell creates a truly believable world that retains the power to terrify even now that the cold war is dead and buried, and you find yourself praying for Winston to succeed even while realising that he won't. That is the secret of Orwell's success: he can keep you hooked even though you know Winston cannot win.
My one gripe with this book is the book supposedly written by a rebel. The ideas are good, but the makes everything drag a little and temporarily stops the narrative flow. This is a little problem however, and should not put you off. And as I said, the ideas in that rebel book are interesting.
Overall, I agree with the blurb on the cover: this really is the greatest British novel to have been written after the war.
Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland Girls, memory, parenting, millennial fear -- all served Coupland-style. Karen, an attractive, popular student, goes into a coma one night in 1979. Whilst in it, she gives birth to a healthy baby daughter; once out of it, a mere eighteen years later, she finds herself, Rip van Winkle-like, a middle-aged mother whose friends have all gone through all the normal marital, social and political traumas and back again... This tragicomedy shows Coupland in his most mature form yet, writing with all his customary powers of acute observation, but turning his attention away from the surface of modern life to the dynamics of modern relationships, but doing so with all the sly wit and weird accuracy we expect of the soothsaying author of Generation X, Shampoo Planet, Life After God, Microserfs and Polaroids from the Dead.
Le Livre De Promethea - Helene CixousThe type of literature that recreates in the symbolic, exploring the unconscious in an extremely poetic manner, this book, opened on any page at random, will undoubtedly widen your understanding of love and take you where you dream to have lived it. Source of inspiration for thorough introspection in the most awe-inspiring landscapes of the soul, the material mingles with the word to carry you where the body alone cannot take you. An exercise of the feminist language. Some might have got bored by reading it in a conventional way. But, using it with that ethereal wisdom that comes from the debris of unbridled passion, it might prove to be your most precious pillow-book. The Book of Promethea/Le Livre De Promethea (European Women Writers). A most precious pillow-book.
Wannabe in my gang? - Bernard O'Mahoney"Kray gang boss" Tony Lambrianou - who served a life sentence for the brutal murder of Jack "the hat" McVitie - has threatened to "kill him by smashing a hammer through his head".
"Dodgy" Dave Courtney, who claims to have murdered two gangland rivals, tried "‘to put him out of his misery", and "the most dangerous man in the country", John "Gaffer" Rollinson, has vowed to kill him "when he finds him."
But Bernard O`Mahoney, one time friend of the notorious Kray Brothers and former key member of the Essex Boys Firm, isn't concerned about their boastful threats because he knows the truth about the wannabe gangsters who have built their "reputation" on fantasy gleaned from Hollywood movies and "true" crime books written by their heroes.
This story is of a journey, a journey that spans two decades and involves the most infamous names and crimes in British history. It gives a unique insight into the Kray brothers "Firm" whose public image is a far cry from the truth.
Wannabe also reveals what happened to the remaining members of the Essex Boys Firm following the death of Ecstasy victim Leah Betts and the murder of three of its leaders, who were found in their blood spattered Range Rover one winters evening.
For the first time ever, O'Mahoney will expose the gangland myths that have made legends of those who claim to be responsible for mayhem and murder. He reveals the sordid secret of one of Britain’s most infamous gangsters and tells the truth about the impostors who make a living selling stories and writing books about events that have never even happened.
This is the book many in the underworld never wanted the public to read
Powder Wars - Paul Grimes.Powder Wars is the true story gangster Paul Grimes, a one-man crimewave with a breathtaking capacity to steal. He robbed safes, banks, lorries, warehouses, even whole buildings. Villains who got in his way were shot, stabbed, tortured, thrown out of windows and ejected from speeding cars. But when his son died of a drugs overdose, the old-school mobster turned undercover informant, swearing revenge on the new generation of Liverpool-based drug dealers flooding Britain with ?powder?. Focusing initially on Curtis Warren, the wealthiest and most successful criminal in British history, Grimes infiltrated his cocaine cartel and led Customs to the largest narcotics seizure on record, worth #260 million, putting Warren in the dock in the drugs trial of the 20th century. He then turned his attention to notorious heroin dealer John Haase. Grimes rose to become the boss of Haase?s ?security firm? ? a professional gang of rapid-fire, round-the-clock racketeers addicted to cocaine, explosive violence and non-stop criminality. In the morning they would take delivery of six kilos of heroin, in the afternoon they would send a cache of guns to Scotland and in the evening they would petrol bomb a nightclub. And then they would go to work ? as doormen on Liverpool?s buzzing and brutal nightclub scene. They would fight gun-slinging turf wars with rival door teams, kidnap drug dealers and broker the sale of swag ? lorry loads of stolen whisky and designer sportswear worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Finally, as his net began to tighten, Grimes was confronted with the ultimate dilemma. He discovered his second son was now a rising star in the drugs business. Should he shop him or not? Today Paul Grimes has a 100,000 pound contract on his head, a real-live dead man walking. Powder Wars is an account of modern gangsters told in fascinating, brutal detail.
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown.It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of anti-matter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. Kudos to Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) for achieving the nearly impossible. Angels and Demons is a no-holds-barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, breathless tangle of a thriller--think Katherine Neville's The Eight (but cleverer) or Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (but more accessible).
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati--dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism--is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out and the society's ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, anti-matter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared--only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Langdon and Vittoria, Vetra's daughter and colleague, embark on a frantic hunt through the streets, churches and catacombs of Rome, following a 400-year-old trail to the lair of the Illuminati, to prevent the incineration of civilisation.
Brown seems as much juggler as author--there are lots and lots of balls in the air in this novel, yet Brown manages to hurl the reader headlong into an almost surreal suspension of disbelief. While the reader might wish for a little more sardonic humour from Langdon and a little less bombastic philosophising on the eternal conflict between religion and science, these are less fatal flaws than niggling annoyances--readers should have no trouble skimming past them and immersing themselves in a heck of a good read. "Brain candy" it may be, but it's tasty
Pretty Boy - Roy ShawRoy Shaw is the ultimate hardman. He has cult status and commands a respect that few, even in the violent world he moves in, can equal. To him, violence is simply an accepted part of his profession. He doesn't exaggerate it, he can't excuse it and he refuses to apologize for it. His name may mean nothing to you - he's no actor, no showman, no wannabe celebrity. He does, however, live by a merciless code, and though he may not have cloven hooves and a tail, if he goes after someone, all hell comes with him.
Roy Shaw Unleashed - Roy Shaw/Kate KrayThis is a collection of true stories told by Roy Shaw himself and those close to him. True stories of murder and violence; the final truth about his famous fights with Lenny "The Guv'nor" McLean; tales from inside the shadowy criminal fraternity from the likes of Mad Frankie Fraser and the Richardsons. It also reveals a gentler side to this relentless fighting machine as Kate Kray searches for the one thing that will make Roy's intriguing life complete - the lost love who has eluded him for the last 20 years.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American WestWith a life-time of reading behind me I can say that without a shadow of doubt that this book has raised more emotion than anything I have ever passed my eyes over. The history of the native Red Indian has been portrayed so inaccuratly by Western Films that we have the image that they were all savages. This book by Dee Brown puts this lie to rest but does not stop there. This must be one of the finest written examples of mans inhumanity to his fellow man. A story of broken promises,lies and deceite and the planned destruction of North America's indigenous people is portraid in way that is hard to accept when you realise that this happened less than two hundred years ago. The film Dances With Wolves must be the nearest true film of the struggle of the Indian against the merciless tide of the 'New American's'. If you have never been moved by a piece of literature before, buy this book and I challenge you to read it and not be moved by the plight of a race driven to near extinction.
The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance - Paul StrathernThis title follows the the fortunes of the Medici family in Florence as well as those who achieved success away from Florence, including the two Medici popes and Catherine de' Medici who became Queen of France. "The Medici" has been written to accompany a Channel 4 series (of four one-hour parts), due to be screened at the end of 2003. It explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence, as well as the Italian Renaissance which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings - including Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo and Donatello, together with scientists such as Galileo and philosophers such as Pico della Mirandola - both of whom clashed with the religious authorities. The book ends by describing the decadent decline of the Medici family in Florence as they strove to be recognized as European princes.
Bringing Down the House - Ben Mezrich ‘Blackjack is beatable – so we beat it. We beat the hell out of it’
Liar’s Poker meets Ocean’s Eleven in Ben Mezrich’s riveting story of a team of brilliant card counters who developed a system to take some of the world’s biggest casinos for millions of dollars. Bringing Down the House is a gripping real-life thriller, and a captivating insight into a tightly closed, utterly excessive and totally corrupt world.
American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story - Cynthia True On the eighth anniversary of his death, the first ever biography of the cult anti-hero comedian, Bill Hicks. His popularity - buoyant when alive, with sold-out gigs (inc. 2,000+ at London's Dominion), a famously-axed spot on the Dave Letterman show, and top-selling videos and CDs - has mushroomed in Kurt Cobain-like proportions since. Born to Baptist parents in Little Rock, Hicks cited his formative influences as being down to his prized typewriter on which he'd compose his own scripts, a small b/w tv (or 'Lucifer's Dream Box'), a poster of Woody Allen and a fixation with The Tonight Show. The result was a radical philosopher masquerading as a stand-up comic, plumbing the American psyche with challenging (and side-splitting) conclusions. His brand of American self-analysis struck a particular chord in post-Thatcher Britain, with several national tours, and a widely-seen C4 commentary on the Gulf War. The Letterman show shot Hicks to national prominence in America - not only from his regular slots, but his spectacular sacking following an un-aired tirade of pro-life and Pope digs. Hicks's response was typical: 'Why are people so afraid of jokes?'
Naked Prey - John Sandford The chilling new Lucas Davenport novel by the number-one-bestselling author His old boss, Rose Marie Roux, has moved up to the state level and taken Lucas with her, creating a special trouble-shooter job for him for the cases that are too complicated or politically touchy for others to handle. Of course, Lucas is married now, and a new father, all of which is fine with him; he doesn't mind being a family man. But he is a little worried. If there's one thing Lucas Davenport knows, it's that for every bit of peace you get, you have to pay - and he's waiting for the bill. It comes in the form of two people found hanging from a tree, in the woods of northern Minnesota. What makes it particularly sensitive is that the bodies are those of a black man and a white woman, and they're naked. 'Lynching' is the word that everybody's trying not to say - but, as Lucas begins to discover, the murders are not, in fact, what they appear to be. Neither are they the end of it. There is worse to come - much, much worse... Filled with rich characterization and exceptional drama that are his hallmarks, this is Sandford's most suspenseful novel yet.
Cocky - Tony Barnes, Richard Elias, Peter Walsh At eleven he was stealing cars. At fifteen he was beating up policemen. At twenty he was an armed robber. And by thirty, Curtis Warren was the biggest drugs dealer in Britain. Curtis Warren is the richest and most successful British criminal ever to be caught. He had a hotline to the Columbian Cali cartel, direct links with the Turkish heroin Maffya, and unlimited credit with the cannabis dealers of Europe and Africa. He organised shipments worth hundreds of millions of pounds and had a small army of violent soldiers prepared to do his bidding. His power was such that he was able to control the price of drugs on Britain's streets. And he did it all with a mobile phone, a photographic memory and an extraordinary criminal mind. COCKY has been extensively revised and updated to tell the amazing story of the rise and fall of Curtis Warren. To catch him, police and Customs officials throughout Europe set up Operation Crayfish, a unique operation, putting together a hand-picked team working from a secret location. In doing so they stumbled across police corruption at the highest level, walked smack into a bloody gang war, and uncovered an organised crime network linking the whole of the British Isles. Finally, Warren was caught in an SAS-style raid by Dutch police. Today, he is serving a twelve year jail sentence under maximum security. One of his gang has already escaped, and he has murdered one of the inmates.
Barcelona Plates - Alexei SayleComedians rarely make great fiction writers, the temptation to throw in cheap one-liners distracting them from any substantial narrative--which is why Alexei Sayle's first attempt at proper literature is a nice surprise. Although riddled with dark humour, his short story collection Barcelona Plates is actually best when he's being serious. Sayle has a knack for story-telling and a twisted imagination which creates perverse characters. They're mostly melancholic beings whose lives are in a rut when the smallest twist of fate changes everything--from the call centre employee who spills cream on her suit to the business woman who loses her keys. Especially good is "The Minister For Death", in which a retired pipe fitter from Liverpool discovers, after an incident returning from the chip shop with a steak pie, that old people are invisible in modern society and gains retribution as the "stealth codger".
After 17 years in London, Sayle's representation of his adopted city is powerful--from a nature reserve in Kings Cross to likely lads down Bermondsey, from wealthy Islington squares to Clerkenwell on a Saturday night. He eruditely describes the early evening Soho populace as, "Clerks in raincoats clutching beer bottles by the neck, standing outside bars looking up and down the street as if good times were about to arrive in a taxi."
Barcelona Plates is side-tracked from time to time by rants, such as Disneyland's rancid evil or the "stupidity" of recent comedy, mirroring Sayle's sardonic demeanour and acerbic monologues on TV. However overall, it's an entertaining collection of absurd yarns
Dude, Where's My Country? - Michael Moore Plenty of liberal scholars, entertainers and pundits have railed against the hoodwinking of the American people, but Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? stands out for its thoroughly positive perspective. He says America has been tricked by Republican lawmakers and their wealthy corporate pals, who use a combination of concocted bogeymen and lies to stay rich and in control. Moore is angry and has harsh words for George W Bush and his fellow conservatives concerning the reasoning behind going to war in Iraq, the collapse of Enron and other companies, and the relationship between the Bushes, the Saudi Arabian government and Osama bin Laden. But his book is intended to serve as a handbook for how people with liberal opinions (which is most of America, Moore contends, whether they call themselves liberals or not) can take back their country from the conservative forces in power.
Moore uses his trademark brand of confrontational, exasperated humour skilfully as he offers a primer on how to change the world view of one's annoying conservative blowhard brother-in-law, and he crafts a surprisingly thorough "Draft Oprah for President" movement. Refreshingly, Dude, Where's My Country? avoids being completely one-sided, identifying areas where Moore believes Republicans get it right and making some cutting criticisms of his fellow lefties. Such allowances, brief though they may be, make one long for a political climate where the shouting polemicists on both sides would see a few more shades of grey. Dude, Where's My Country? is a little bit scattered, as Moore tries to cram opinions on Iraq, tax cuts, corporate welfare, Wesley Clark and the Patriot Act into one slim volume--and the penchant to go for a laugh sometimes gets in the way of clear arguments. But such variety also gives the reader a broader range of his bewildered, enraged yet stalwartly upbeat points of view
Freshers - Kevin Sampson Kit Hannah is about to start University. He's funny, clever and popular, but he's harbouring a dark foreboding he dare not share with anyone. And it's with a heavy heart that he leaves home to begin a new life. At the vast Halls of Residence he can be the life and soul of the party - and there are lots of parties, lots of sex, lots of bad behaviour. Kit is naughty, witty and compassionate and everyone wants to be his friend. But more often than not he withholds that friendship and retreats from the gang - including Benny Bull, a pathological liar from Dudley; Adrian Dangerous, an achievement-driven fitness fanatic; Alex, a ballsy exchange student from Memphis; laid-back Simon; and Petra from Stirling, who wants nothing more than Kit - although Kit sees her more as a friend. The object of his affections is Colette - yet whenever Kit gets close to her, something seems to hold him back
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler In 1967 the Bedlow family lives quietly in Baltimore - an ideal, apple-pie household. The youngest, 17-year-old Ian, seems just an ordinary boy - until suddenly he feels compelled to tell his older brother that his wife's been unfaithful. The author won the Pulitzer Prize for "Breathing Lessons".
A Patchwork Planet - Anne Tyler Barnaby Gaitlin is one of Anne Tyler's most promising unpromising characters. At 30, he has yet to graduate from college, is already divorced and is used to defeat. His mother thrives on reminding him of his adolescent delinquency and debt to his family, and even his daughter is fed up with his fecklessness. Still, attuned as he is to "the normal quota for misfortune," Barney is one of the star employees of Baltimore's Rent-a-Back, Inc., which pays him an hourly wage to help old people (and one young agoraphobe) run errands and sort out their basements and attics. Anne Tyler makes you admire most of these mothball eccentrics (though they're far from idealised) and hope that they can stave off nursing homes and death. There is, for example, "the unstoppable little black grandma whose children phoned us on an emergency basis whenever she threatened to overdo." And then there's Barnaby's new girlfriend's aunt, who will eventually accuse him of theft--"Over her forearm she carried a Yorkshire terrier, neatly folded like a waiter's napkin. "This is my doorbell," she said, thrusting him toward me. "I'd never have known you were out here if not for Tatters." These people are wonderful creations, but their lives are more brittle than cuddly; Barnaby knows better than to think of them as friends, because they'll only die on him. Yet his job offers at least glimpses of roots and affection. Helping an old lady set up her Christmas tree (on New Year's Eve!) gives him the chance to hang a singular ornament--a snowflake "pancake-sized, slightly crumpled, snipped from giftwrap so old that the Santas were smoking cigarettes." And Barnaby himself is sharp and impatient at painful--and painfully funny--family dinners, apparently unable to keep his finger off the auto-self-destruct button every time his life improves. As much as his superb creator, he is a poet of disappointment, resignation, and minute transformation.
Brazil - John Updike Tristao is 19, a black street-boy, believing in fate and destiny. Isabel is 18, an upper-class girl fresh from convent school and unafraid of life. Their lives spring together and they are forever in love and in flight - running from her rich father until the undreamed-of happens.
Girls - Nic Kelman girls is a journey into the most forbidden corners of male desire and a brilliantly provocative novel about lust obsession and power. A wealthy father of two deserts his family in order to spend the night in a college girl's dorm room. A CEO visiting his friends villa feigns a sprained ankle in order to have sex with their teenage daughter. A businessman in Korea has the best sexual experience of his life with a young woman whose true age he never learns. These are the men who have left their safe lives, who have replaced their old dreams with dreams of the girls they yearn for. In an age when everything is for sale, girls' subject matter is the power and fascination young girls have over rich men and vice versa. Juxtaposing philosophical asides and travelling deep inside the most forbidden corners of male desire, Nic Kelman's insights are both revealing and shocking.
Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden This work charts the rise and spectacular fall of the Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, richest and most powerful criminal in history. The book exposes the massive illegal operation by covert US Special Forces and intelligence services to hunt down and assassinate Escobar. It is a story that has rarely been told before: Mark Bowden has had exclusive access to highly classified intelligence documents, secret surveillance footage and Escobar's wiretap transcripts, and interviewed all the major players in the manhunt. The book sets out to combine the energy of a Tom Clancy techno-thriller and the detail of award-winning investigative journalism.
Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family - Nicholas Pileggi Pileggi materfully interdisperses the quotes from the book's main protagonist, Henry Hill, and his wife, with thoughtful and dispassionate analysis. While this book largely reflects mob life during the 1970s in New York, it's bredth and pragmatism have elevated it to timeless classic. There's little here to fault. The central narrative of Hill's life is expertly interwoven with a variety of scams, gangsters and mafia politics, and the result is a serious, unglamorised portrayal of a life rarely separated from crude stereotypes and generalisations of the popular media. Wiseguy is the best of the genre by a significant distance, and it's only real competition is the book 'Casino' also by Pileggi. If organised crime is something that interests you, this book is a must. If it's not, you should read it anyway for the skilled workmanship of suburb author.
Kingdom of Fear - Hunter S. Thompson In this memoir, Hunter S. Thompson looks back over decades of fast living, hard drinking and sharp writing. It is a story of crazed road trips fuelled by bourbon and black acid, of insane judges and giant porcupines, of girls, guns, explosives and, of course, bikes.
Ghost Riders: Travels with American Nomads - Richard Grant The best parts of American Nomads are the prologue and the final chapter. In between is an uneven collection of historical pieces and contemporary character profiles.
In the prologue, Richard Grant, an Englishman who grew up in London, tells how he traveled as a child and as an adult to sunny spots all over the world. Consequently, when he found himself spending yet another depressing winter in dreary, damp London, he scraped together enough money for a ticket to the U.S. He hooked up with east coast friends and they made a road trip to Los Angeles, but Grant wasn't through with the road yet. He traveled up the California coast, then to New Orleans, and when he ran out of money, he lived in his car in a parking lot at a motel and spent his days by the motel pool, writing letters home.
The recipients of these letters encouraged him to write for publication and he did. When he had enough money, he'd return to the U.S., then home to London when the money ran out, to write some more stories and articles. Then back to America. Finally he was making enough from writing that he didn't have to return to London.
Grant writes of the American Southwest, its history, people he meets, things he sees. A lot of his narrative is gritty, because the desert is like that, as are the people who settle there.
He winds up these travel essays with a chapter on the caravaners who congregate in Quartzsite, Arizona every year. Thousands of mostly retired people in their motor homes and trailers gather in a gigantic ghetto in the middle of nowhere. Grant observes and comments.
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment - Eckhart Tolle To make the journey into The Power of Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle offers simple language and a question and answer format to guide us. Surrender to the present moment, where problems do not exist. It is here we find our joy, are able to embrace our true selves and discover that we are already complete and perfect. If we are able to be fully present and take each step in the Now we will be opening ourselves to the transforming experience of The Power of Now. It's a book to be revisited again and again.
This worldwide phenomenon has captured the world's imagination with its ability to change readers' lives for the better.