Honest – Ulrika Jonsson

Ulrika’s autobiography written in her own style with emotion and humour. From her childhood through to the birth of her daughter , Bo, and her relationship with Sven-Goran Eriksson. She covers a lot of ground : family, TV-AM, Gladiators, marriage, birth of her son, infidelity within her marriage to John Turnbull as well as her relationships with both ‘Hunter’ from Gladiators and Stan Collymore. She does highlight the importance of her family and children in her life. Ulrika comes across as determined, emotional, ambitious and protective of her children. Can she write? At times it’s a pleasure to read and she expresses the emotion of specific events well. On occasion she slips into a jokey style which unfortunately jarred. Overall ... go Ulrika- ka –ka!!

The sexual life of Catherine M – Catherine Millett

Erotic memoirs of a Parisian art critic who caused a minor sensation with her tales of orgies in the Bois de Boulogne and sheer sexual exploration. Interesting but didn’t really ‘get it’.

A perfectly good family – Lionel Shriver

Set around the family who own a reconstruction mansion in North Carolina this novel certainly demonstrates Lionel Shriver’s skills and is worth reading. The mansion is called Heck-Andrews and becomes a point of contention between three siblings on the death of their parents. Corlis McCrea returns to the family home to find she is back in her childhood role of switching alliances between her two brothers. Younger Truman is the sensible, conservative married one. Her older brother Mordecai is spontaneous, wild and often drunk. Their inheritance, of characteristics as well as property, from their parents is explored and dissected in Shriver’s sharp and intelligent style

Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann

I had wanted to read Valley of the Dolls since seeing it on my gran’s bookshelf as an adolescent. The candy coloured cover fascinated me. I knew it was an adult book and that I would not be allowed to read it – yet. Somehow there’s been a gap of many years before I picked up this cult classic and actually did read it. I am extremely glad I did. This is Sex and the City in 50s America with the hard edge of drugs thrown in for good measure. There’s Hollywood glamour, now with a wonderful retro feel. It’s also a clever commentary on celeb culture as relevant today as at the time of the Hollywood starlet. Anne, Neely and Jennifer appear to have it all but underneath the pursuit of perfectionism means a dependence on the brightly coloured ‘dolls’; the uppers and downers which they feel enable them to cope with the ambitions which drive them. Loved it.   

Game Control - Lionel Shriver

I am a huge fan of Lionel Shriver. I consider ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ an incredible novel and have had the privilege of hearing Shriver read the short story A Convalescent Ego by Richard Yates at a Literary Festival a couple of years back. All in all a good start to enjoying this novel. Game Control was first published in 1994, then republished in 2009, and had minimal commercial success. Howwever I feel that’s quite surprising. It has a unique subject matter – demography and population control - with AIDS thrown in for good measure. There’s intellectual sparring and brilliantly flawed characters. However, I felt the ending didn’t quite match the edge contained within the rest of the novel. Shriver always offers a hefty dose of harsh reality and that’s what makes her work so strong. Game Control provides some great themes and writing but just falls short of Shriver’s best.

Dust to Dust - Ken McClure

Dust to Dust is the eighth Steven Dunbar thriller by Ken McClure. A research biologist turns violent and becomes seriously ill after entering an excavation at Dryburgh Abbey to examine some preserved bodies identified as having died of the Black Death. Our hero, Steven Dunbar, is called in to investigate. An ex-special forces medic, Steven has to attempt to answer the question of whether this has been caused by bubonic plague or a deadly new virus. His investigations identify individuals and organisations all with their own secrets to protect. In aiming to uncover the truth Steven is forced to truly fight for his life.

A thriller is meant to have you desperately continuing reading and Dust to Dust delivers. The plot is taut and exciting, revealing just enough as Steven picks up the pieces of this puzzle. The writing is skilled. The main characters are solid and distinctive enough to avoid being stereotypes. McClure’s talent is always noted as taking medical possibilities and making them into strong factual fiction. In Dust to Dust he does this successfully yet again.

Perfume - Patrick Suskind

Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Smells are important. Smell can evoke long forgotten memories, make you hungry, make you retch. Grenouille is born in stinking eighteenth century Paris. He has a talent for identifying and dissecting every odour around him but does not emanate any smell himself. This original tale follows Grenouille as he learns the trade of a perfumer and then travels to the olfactory mecca of Grasse. His obsession leads to deadly consequences.


A fascinating and absorbing novel.