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This is the last book in the 100 Books in 2011 challenge and it is Others by James Herbert. A man’s soul is in Hell, tormented, and is given a chance to redeem himself. He accepts the offer. Nick Dismas is a private investigator running a small, successful business in Brighton. He happens to be…
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Writer Unboxed has a recent post on warm versus cool writing which made me rethink some of the things that I’ve heard and read about writing. Cool writing, as illustrated by the work of Ernest Hemingway, is dominated by ‘showing, not telling’; action and narration are prominent with the reader left to infer what the…
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I read 86 books in 2011. Not quite the 100 I was aiming for, but not an insignificant number. Out of those books 50 were by male authors and 36 by female authors. That’s a slightly more even split than I expected. I tend to read types of fiction dominated by male authors and while…
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Line of Polity is the second in the Ian Cormac series by Neal Asher, which is sci-fi spy thriller, basically James Bond in space. A rogue scientist is experimenting with ancient alien technology far more advanced than that of the Polity, and his intention is to use that technology to make himself all-powerful. The outlink…
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Continuing on with wrapping up the last few book reviews for the 100 books in 2011 challenge we have Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks. Lededje Ybreq is an indentured servant who is killed by her owner. She is revived on board a Culture ship, courtesy of a neural lace given to her by a…
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I’ve not read many classics this year, due to a perception that they take longer to read that modern novels of the same length, and I’ve been conscious of having a target. Towards the end of the year I stopped picking short books in order to meet the target because I wanted to read books I…
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Ah, Jack Reacher, I just can’t stay away from you. And in Worth Dying For, Lee Child’s taciturn alpha male itinerant troubleshooter/maker is on good form. Reacher is hitching across the US, as is his wont, and is dropped off in the middle of the desolate plains of Nebraska. He finds a motel and walks…
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The sixth in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris, is a bit of a return to form. Sookie is left an inheritance by her cousin Hadley, former ghoul of the Queen of Louisiana. She has to go to New Orleans to collect. At the same time, Eric Northman wants her to go…
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The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig was the last Book Club book of 2011. I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but actually I loved it. Christine is a young woman living in Austria in the years after the first world war. Life is hard, there’s not enough money and the rooms she lives…
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Chapter 51 – Theon Winterfell is still hearing horns and drums but there is no sign of the enemy. Theon remembers Old Nan’s tales of storms that lasted for years. Roose Bolton’s wife, Fat Walda, is pregnant. Ramsay is in a bad mood and Theon is afraid he’ll know what he has planned. He tells…
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Boudica Marginalia 