Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

Oh I just thought this was wonderful - I didn't want it to end. It's one of those books that you just want to be part of, you want to live in their world and live how they live. I guess in this instance it's because all the characters are very free spirited and they all enjoy their lives. I don't want to make out it's a happy book, because it isn't really. A mother has gone missing, feared drowned, so her husband and children have spent 11 years not knowing whether she'll come back into their lives or not. The book has 3 intertwined storylines - the present where it's 2004, the children are grown up and carrying on with their lives, and the father, Gil, has an out-of-control habit of collecting second hand books that have old letters or notes or doodles from past owners in them. The second storyline is from the mother, Ingrid, in 1992 where she is writing letters to an absent Gil, telling him what she and their daughters are doing with their lives, and hiding the letters inside books. The third storyline is also set within the letters - Ingrid is retelling the story from when she and Gil first met in 1976, upto the present. It is mostly through these letters that we learn all the characters, especially that of Gil, and what may have caused Ingrid to disappear.

I loved all the characters, but all in a different way. I thought they were very realistic. I just wanted it to go on and on. I'm definitely going to have to read her first novel 'Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize.

Little Deaths by Emma Flint

I love a good murder mystery, especially if it's based on a true story. For example, Mr Briggs' Hat, and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Emma Flint got the idea for 'Little Deaths' from a case she read about when a teenager. Read a good interview article with her here.

The story is set in Queens in 1964, and follows Ruth Malone, single mother to 2 children, Frankie (aged 6) and Cindy (aged 4). Ruth is a  heavy smoker and a heavy drinker. She works as a waitress at the local bar, and regularly comes home with a different man. She's currently going through a court custody case with her ex-husband Frank, who says she's a bad mother and shouldn't be looking after the kids. One evening she puts the kids to bed and locks their bedroom door (her son regularly wanders around at night). After a troubled night's sleep where she dreams she can hear a child crying, she wakes the next morning to an eerie silence. She unlocks the children's bedroom door to find them missing. It's not long before their bodies are found in a nearby neighbourhood.

The rest of the book then focuses on her side of the story with her innermost thoughts, the story she tells the police, statements from neighbours and friends and her ex-husband, police reports, and reports from the main journalist covering the case. Everybody seems to have their own opinion of what happened that night and whether Ruth carried out the murders herself. The police are convinced she's guilty, but the reporter wants to prove otherwise.

Even though I quite enjoyed the book, I found the story overlong and couldn't quite feel anything for any of the characters. I was upset about the children, but that's as far as my feelings stretched. I just wanted to get to the end to find out whether Ruth was guilty or not. If it had been edited a bit more and had a bit more of an atmosphere, I would have liked it more.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

The Sellout has recently won the Man Booker Prize 2016, so I wanted to read it to see what I thought. I must admit, while I was reading the first chapter I was thinking, 'What is going on here, I'm not going to like this'. But you must stick with it, because you will end up enjoying it.

It's hard to sum up in a sentence what the book is about. I tried to explain to a colleague and they just looked at me slightly puzzled as I garbled a disjointed account of the story. They also looked slightly alarmed when I used the words 'funny' and 'racism' in the same sentence. But it's true!

The opening chapter is set in the Supreme Court in America. The case is 'Me v. the United States of America'. The Me in question is Mr Me - originally Mee but over the generations the final letter was dropped. That case title itself is ironic as Mr Me (who is black, and whose first name is never known) is accused of owning a slave, and almost the whole black population of America is mad at him for turning the civil rights clock back so many years.

Now if you are sensitive to racial language or indeed any language at all, you may want to avoid this book, but do bear in mind that the whole book is a satire, full of wit and sarcasm. Mr Me believes in segregation, and to find out why, we are taken through his life starting with him being home-schooled by his father, who would put Me through test scenarios (including electric shock treatments) to test fear, prejudice, servility and obedience. We learn about the small town he grew up in , how it was taken off the map and why he tries to get it back on there. We find out how he gets to 'own' a 'slave', about his girlfriend Marpessa, about the Dum Dum Donut Shop where they hold racism and black inequality talks, and about why an old friend of his father's tries to kill him.

It's a marvellous book like no other - it pushes boundaries and raises eyebrows. It's brilliant.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

This is not a new title - the book was first published in 2008, and many of the chapters were originally published as short stories in various magazines from as early as 1992. I'm not quite sure why it was re-released, but it made an appearance as a Waterstones book of the month about 2 months ago, and has become a bit of a bestseller. In 2014 it was turned into a mini-series on HBO with Frances McDormand (of 'Fargo' fame) in the title role.

It took me a while to settle into the standalone chapters style. When I'm introduced to characters in a first chapter, I make sure I remember their names, their characteristics, I decide whether I love them or hate them, so it comes as a bit of 'slap' when suddenly they're not mentioned in the next chapter, nor the one after, and I'm introduced to a bunch of new characters and it's like starting a new book all over again. I've never been a fan of short stories, but luckily this book can't really be classed as that. The book is called 'Olive Kitteridge' because she is the main character who makes an appearance in most chapters, whether as an acquaintance, a child's teacher, a wife, a friend, a saviour, a neighbour. Many of the chapters are very moving and emotional - there was many a moment when there was a tear in my eye. They're so full of feeling and so well written that they made me take out pen and paper and write half a page of an emotional moment in my life - I guess you could call that therapy.

This is a book that you would easily want to read again, and I thoroughly recommend it.

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

While holidaying with her parents in a small riverside village not far from Manchester, a 13-year-old girl, Becky, goes missing. She was last seen by her parents while they were all out walking together. Being a teenager, she was sulkily keeping half a dozen steps behind them, and as they picked up speed, so she slowed down slightly so that when they next turned around to call to her to catch up, she had completely disappeared. She was never seen again.

The police were called, a search was set up, the villagers all volunteered their services to help in the search, a re-enactment of her last days was put together and aired, reporters swamped the village, pleas for information were televised daily. What happened to Becky? Was she murdered? Did she fall? Did she run away? Was she kidnapped?

So begins a tale of how a village and its inhabitants, and the family of the missing girl, all cope as the days, weeks, months, years go by. Life goes on, seasons change, babies are born and grow up, new families move into the area, but still the missing girl is in the back of everyone's minds, and the wonder of whether the truth of what happened to her will ever surface.

I thought this was a remarkable book. The author goes into such detail of daily life, much of which is repeated many times as that is how life is, but the story never becomes boring. You don't mind hearing about the badgers and the foxes and the plants and the changing weather, and the river and the reservoirs - you're hoping that in amongst all this information is a clue as to the whereabouts of the missing girl. I found myself continually on tenterhooks with the expectation of a revelation of what happened. I found myself suspicious of all the villagers - everyone seemed to have something they wanted to hide, some little secret.

Jon McGregor is probably most well known for his award winning novel 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things'. I hope this will be enjoyed just as much.

The Girls by Emma Cline

Emma Cline the author always had the idea of writing a book about a commune, and then she started researching Charles Manson. He was an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. In the summer of 1969, Manson's murderous “family” of 3 young women went on a rampage in Los Angeles that left nine people dead, one of them being Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of Roman Polanski. He ordered the killings, but was not present during them. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He is still alive in prison today, aged 82.

In 'The Girls' we are introduced to Evie Boyd, a middle-aged lady, recently unemployed, living in a friend's holiday home. One evening her friend's son comes to the house with his girlfriend, and recognises Evie's name as being part of a cult which carried out violent murders in the '60s. By alternating between the past and the present, we start to find out from Evie what happened.

Aged 14, she is living with her mother - her parents have divorced, her father having left her mother to live with his personal assistant. After an argument with her mother, Evie goes out on her bike, but the bike breaks. As she's struggling to repair it, a black bus pulls up and a girl gets out to offer help. Evie has met one of the girls on the bus before, and they invite her to a solstice party at the ranch where they're staying. Thus begins Evie's inclusion in the commune, which is headed up by Russell, who seems to have a hypnotic effect on all his followers. He preaches about all-encompassing free love, the lack of a need of money and material things. Evie is taken in by life on the ranch and especially Suzanne who she becomes close to. She spends most of her summer there, lying to her mother that she is staying at her friend Connie's house. It is only on her return to the ranch after a 2-week stay at home, that she notices a difference in the mood amongst the commune. She is soon to get herself included in part of a grisly history which she will always have nightmares about.

This was very readable, I quite liked the flashbacks from past to present, it didn't interrupt the storyline at all. Most of the story is about Evie, her close friendship with Suzanne, her crumbling relationship with her mother, her realisation of how she is attractive to men. But this is also the most disturbing part for me, being myself the mother of a 14-year-old girl. I found some of the storyline uncomfortable as I imagined someone the same age as my daughter going through the things Evie did. Russell is excellently portrayed as a very creepy, sinister character, even though all the girls on the ranch can't see this and would do anything he asked.

Well written, with an atmosphere of impending doom which will keep you hooked.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

I haven't read a Zadie Smith novel since 'White Teeth', and that was years ago (1999) - so long in fact that I'd forgotten what it was about. I just looked up a précis and was surprised to read similar threads in the storyline to this one. In fact it seems that in a few of her books, Zadie sticks to themes that she knows and is obviously comfortable with - multiculturalism, racism, the state of society, class wars.

These themes abound in 'Swing Time'. The story mainly follows the life of the narrator, whose name is never revealed to us. Her mother is Jamaican, her father an East Ender with a possible criminal past, but who is now past trouble and dotes on his family. They live in a council flat on the Willesden Road. During childhood she becomes friends with Tracey during a dance class, though it quickly becomes clear that Tracey is the more natural dancer out of the two. Tracey has a white British mother, and an absent Jamaican father, who is regularly in and out of prison. The narrator's mother is not overly keen with Tracey as she lives on the opposite council block which contains the type of one-parent families that she'd frown at, and she's also not keen on how Tracey acts and the language that comes out of her mouth. We follow this friendship through the next few years, and we see how their lives take separate paths, how the friendship breaks up, how they both try to follow their dreams - Tracey becoming an actress in musical theatre, the narrator becoming a personal assistant to a famous pop star. But what does the future hold for them both?

The book is very long, and the narrator goes back and forth in time to give us snippets of her moments with Tracey when they were young, then back to the present, then back to when she got the job, then back again...At times, I wished the story was told in a straightforward timeline. There were places where I wasn't sure which job her mother had, where she was living, how old the narrator and Tracey was, etc. There's a huge part of the story that takes place in West Africa. The famous pop star that the narrator works for (imagine an Australian version of Madonna) has decided to use her millions to set up a new girls school there, so there is much travelling back and forth to the area to put things in place, make sure things run smoothly, etc. However, I found this part of the book rather laborious and boring, I kept looking at the page numbers on my e-reader and sighing to see how much I still had left to read. I was yearning to learn more about Tracey - the parts of the book that included her and the narrator were definitely the most exciting and interesting.

What I found interesting while reading this book was that I kept forgetting that the narrator was half Jamaican, so when characters make mention of her brown skin, I'm momentarily surprised. However, with Tracey, that's how I always pictured her - a dark skinned beauty with attitude, defiant, disrespectful, rude but ambitious.

The last part of the book took my interest again, but overall it was far too long and didn't hold my attention all the way through. I'm not sure I'll be reading another Zadie Smith book again.

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

This book is currently on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2016. In our shop we seem to be selling more of this and also 'His Bloody Project' by Graeme Macrae Burnet, than any of the other books on the shortlist. But the feelings of the public don't always match those of the Booker judges!

So what did I think about Eileen. Well there's a quote on the front cover from The Times describing it as 'A taught psychological thriller, rippled with comedy as black as a raven's wing'. That would definitely make me buy it immediately, but I would've been disappointed in the end. I think that makes it sound more of a thriller than it actually is. It's quite a short book, and about two thirds of it describes Eileen's character, home life and work life. It's only the last third where the story builds, once she meets her co-conspirator Rebecca. But even then, I was expecting something more.

The whole story - the characters and the setting - is quite depressing. The main story is set in 1964 when Eileen is 24, but it is narrated by Eileen 50 years on. It is set in a small town in Masachusetts, it is 5 days before Christmas, it's cold and it's constantly snowing. Eileen has not had a happy upbringing, and she continues to be unhappy. She was never loved by her parents, she was maltreated and poked fun of by them. Once when she was little and she hadn't tidied her room, her mother pushed her down the basement stairs and locked her in there in the dark as punishment. Her mother has since died of cancer, and her father turned to drink. He continues to be verbally abusive towards her, even though she is his main carer. They live in filth, the house doesn't get cleaned, and Eileen herself has no personal hygiene. She barely eats, (she lives on peanuts, bread and milk) but takes laxatives daily as she feels she is big and bloated. She is fed up with her existence but doesn't want to die. A common occurrence in the book is the mention of the icicles hanging precariously over her porch, and how they could easily fall and pierce through her or her father at any time. She dreams of running away to New York.

Eileen works as a secretary in a correctional facility for teenage boys. She doesn't like anybody at work, and they don't seem to like her - in fact, most of the staff don't seem to notice her existence. She fantasises about Randy, one of the guards, and most evenings she drives to his house and sits outside in the car and imagines what he'd be doing inside. Her sad and lonely existence changes with the sudden appearance of Rebecca at the facility. Rebecca seems to understand Eileen, she talks to her and appears to want to be her friend, but Eileen finds herself drawn into something a lot more sinister.

The character descriptions are excellent, the author does a great job of creating a sombre setting for Eileen (well, she couldn't make it any more depressing really!), but the finale wasn't as big I was expecting. I find that how you feel at the end of a book sums up your feeling about the whole book - so, disappointed really.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Having worked in the children's department at Waterstones for many years, Anthony Horowitz was more famous to me for the bestselling 'Alex Rider' series of spy books (recommended highly for ages 10+). However, in the adult world, he has also written two Sherlock Holmes novels ('The House of Silk' and 'Moriarty') and a James Bond novel ('Trigger Mortis'). He has written and created Foyle's War for television, and he writes newspaper columns.

Most interestingly for this book, he produced the first seven episodes of Midsomer Murders. I say interestingly because the murder story in this book could be taken straight out of a Midsomer Murder episode!

Susan Reynolds is a book editor at a small publishing house, Cloverleaf Books. Their main money-making author is crime writer Alan Conway, whose novels featuring the German detective Atticus Pund sell in their millions. He sends her the manuscript of his latest detective novel, 'Magpie Murders'. She spends the weekend reading it (as do we, as the novel is part of this book), but when she reaches the end, she realises frustratingly that there are pages missing - pages where Atticus Pund is just about to reveal the murderer. When she goes into the office Monday morning to tell her colleague about it, she is met with the news that the previous day Alan committed suicide. Susan decides to become detective herself - she doesn't understand why Alan would take his own life without finishing the book. She thinks he may have been murdered. As she delves into his past and his family and friends, she realises that perhaps this may be one instance where life imitates art, and clues may be hidden within his novel.

This is a very clever book - you get a novel within a novel. While I was reading the section of Alan's book, I forgot that it was part of another story, so when it came to an abrupt end, I too was surprised, just like Susan. Anthony manages to keep all the characters interesting, and importantly keeps them all under suspicion. It was like a book version of Cluedo! Booksellers will delight in all the references to authors, festivals, publishers, radio shows and publicity tours.

The only downside to the book was that I got confused between the names in Alan's novel, and those in his real life, there were so many characters to remember!

Other than that, I can recommend this book to those who love to read a good murder mystery, very much a la Agatha Christie.

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

The last book I read by Maria Semple was 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette?' which I absolutely loved. This one....meh...hmmm...not so much. A bit higgledy piggledy, a bit all over the place, some early facts I think she actually forgot until later, when she quickly had to tie it up in a few sentences, the young boy in it is only 8 but sometimes talks and acts older than his mother, and the ending is a bit too unbelievable for me.

Eleanor Flood, well known for being the Director of Animation on a famous cartoon show 'Looper Wash', is married to Joe, a well-revered hand surgeon to the stars. They are both 50 years old, and have an 8-yr-old son Timby (born Timothy), and a terrier/pug cross, Yo-Yo. Eleanor wakes up one morning determined to be different - she will give more time to her husband and son, will put on a dress and look smarter, she will be a nicer, calmer person. She walks the dog (because she has to - Joe doesn't particularly like Yo-Yo), drops Timby off at school, and goes off to her poetry class (to try to improve her memory by learning and reciting the lines). But soon the day starts to take a turn for the worse. 

Timby's school rings to say he is feeling unwell. This is the third time in a couple of weeks that he's done this, and has feigned tummy-ache, so already Eleanor's new state of calm is unravelling. She takes him to the doctor's where Timby reveals,much to Eleanor's surprise, embarrassment and shame because he hasn't told her, that he is being bullied at school. Eleanor decides to spend some time with him for the day. It is over the course of this day that Eleanor's past catches up with her, and memories which she has tried to kept hidden for years are brought back up to the surface. We learn about her parents, her sister, her brother-in-law, and she learns more about her husband in one afternoon than she wanted to - will this bring their relationship to an end? 

I felt the story didn't flow incredibly well, it felt rather clunky. We spend more time in Eleanor's past than in the present, so much so that I sometimes forgot what she was doing and where she was before we ran off down memory lane. Even the characters she was with at the time seem surprised to have her back. There's so much to-ing and fro-ing that at one point poor Yo-Yo is forgotten about - seemingly even by the author herself - abandoned outside a supermarket for hours. It's only when Timby reminds us and the author about him that he is quickly retrieved. The revelation concerning her husband at the end was, to me, complete nonsense. From what we learn about him during the story (again, from the past, he doesn't make much of appearance in the present), it doesn't fit with his character and way of thinking. Indeed, Eleanor is just as shocked as me, but the final way she responds just doesn't fit right.

It's a whirlwind of events and characters, and a story that left me feeling a little indifferent.

Holding by Graham Norton

Graham Norton written a novel? As in, Graham Norton, most brilliant and funniest chat show host ever? Yes, that one. I was surprised at first, but then thought 'why AM I surprised?' Celebrities are branching out into everything nowadays. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the book though. I just loved the outline of the story.

It's set in Ireland (good start, he's writing about what he knows), in a small village near Cork called Duneen. The village garda is Sergeant Patrick James Collins, single, overweight, looked after and fed by Mrs Meany the housekeeper. His life as the village garda is a simple and boring one - he issues licences and checks tax discs. He hopes to prove himself as something more. His hopes soon come true - human remains are found by builders working on a new housing development behind the primary school. Detective Sergeant Dunne arrives from Cork to assist Sergeant Collins in the case. It is thought by many of the villagers that the remains may be those of Tommy Burke, a young farmer who had vanished about 20 years ago, but it seems some of the villagers are hiding secrets and may know more than they're letting on.

I just loved reading this book. There was action on every page which kept you interested in the story, you wanted to know more about all of the characters, none of them annoyed me! There were twists and turns, interesting sub-stories of characters' private lives, bits of humour (as you'd expect with Graham). I'd finish a chapter of an evening, and look forward to picking up the book again the next day. I did find myself reading the words of the whole book in my head in an Irish accent, but surely that's understandable, so it is? (oops).

Bravo Graham - I look forward to your next one!

Serious Sweet by A.L. Kennedy

This is one of the titles on The Man Booker Prize 2016 longlist (shortlist announced 15th October, winner announced 24th October). I try to read at least one of the titles each year. Last year I read A Little Life - I thought it was going to win, it was shockingly (literally) brilliant. Alas (for me), the winner was A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. Unfortunately for me, the one book I chose to read from the longlist I did not enjoy at all. There were too many things that annoyed me which spoiled it for me. It didn't help that I really didn't like one of the main characters, Jon. But let me tell you a brief outline of the story.

It's set in London over a 24-hour period. It is Friday 10th April. Jon Sigurdsson is 59, divorced, works for the government as some sort of spindoctor for one of the ministers (I think), and he is a very anxious, worrisome person. He was not shown love by his mother when he was young - he was sent off to boarding school, then Cambridge - then he was made a fool of by his wife, Valerie (she was an adulteress). This lack of love has affected him throughout his life, he doesn't feel worthy of anyone's love, thinks he'll mess it up, so he's afraid of entering into another relationship. He discovers a way of showing love to a person without having to actually meet them. He advertises his services as a letter writer to women who need to feel loved and wanted. He collects responses from a PO Box address in Mayfair. He has a very low opinion of himself, and work colleagues seem to hold the same view of him also. He is losing faith with the meaning of his work - so much so that he pays regular visits to the Natural History Museum and leaves secret notes with state secrets to a journalist.

Meg Williams is 45 years old, lives on Telegraph Hill, works at an animal shelter in the admin office. She is a recovering alcoholic, is paranoid, and she suffers bouts of depression - so much so, she was disappointed if she were to wake up in the morning. She attends support groups. She is foul-tempered and foul-mouthed. But we get a sense that she is trying to get her life back together. She goes to the cinema, regularly watches the sunrise on the Hill, and has answered an ad for receiving letters. She decides to reply to one of the letters, saying in the letter "I have what you write in my head all the time. It's sweet. It's serious and sweet."

So the story is set up with Jon and Meg, each only just coping with living their own lives, and suddenly finding themselves thrown together. Will their relationship survive? 

A lot more goes on in the 24 hours than just their relationship - in fact their actual being together is a very short part of the book. Which is a shame really, as that was the part I was enjoying the most. Seeing how these two troubled minds acted when together. The rest of the story is about their state of minds, their parents, Jon's daughter, and a great deal of Jon's work, which I found rather boring. Also, when Jon talks about his feelings, he stammers, mumbles, stumbles, and never finishes his sentences. I was getting furious with that! When he was talking about his job, he spoke eloquently without a stumble. I guess this was showing how vulnerable he was when it came to close relationships and his feelings. He just can't cope. I was pleased at one point when even Meg, who's had a dreadful and tumultuous past herself, tells him in her own sweet way to get a grip!

It doesn't surprise me that this title is on the longlist. It is the sort of literary fiction that book prizes just adore. But not me. Too rambling, with an annoying character with a boring job. It'll probably win.  

Nutshell by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan is one of my favourite authors of adult fiction. His last, The Children Act, was just brilliant. Needless to say, when I heard he had another book out, I was rushing to NetGalley to request it. His diversity of subject matter and characters is just incredible. In this book, the narrator is an unborn baby. Very original.

Trudy and John Cairncross are separated. Trudy is living in a large old house left to John by his grandparents. It's in dire need of refurbishment - it is squalid, rotting, dilapidated and full of decay. Much like Trudy and John's marriage. Trudy is having an affair with John's brother, Claude, who lives in the house with her. She is 9 months pregnant with John's baby, the aforementioned narrator of the story. We learn nothing of baby from any conversation between the adults of the story, they do not mention him at all. None of them appear to want him to exist. The only way we know baby is a boy is because he finds it out for himself in the womb.

Through baby's running commentary, we find out much about Trudy, Claude and John, the most important fact being that the large house is worth 6 million pounds, and the only way Trudy and Claude can get their greedy hands on that money, is by getting rid of John. A plan is hatched and we follow baby's emotional journey while he is torn between love and hate for his mother, hatred and admiration for his uncle Claude, and love and pity for his father the poet John.

Do not assume that baby speaks only in baby talk. He is a highly intellectual being - he knows all the news and politics of the day by listening to all the radio channels and factual programmes that his mother listens to. He is also a connoisseur of wine - he becomes drunk with Trudy and suffers hangovers too. He is not yet born but he has the same worries as an adult in modern day - "In my confinement, I had other concerns: my drink problem, family worries, an uncertain future....."

Ian McEwan, while delivering an excellent essay on modern day life, is a great thriller writer. I was hooked throughout, staying up till the small hours to find out what would happen next.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Jason lives with his wife Daniela and teenage son Charlie in Chicago. They're a happy family. They might have regrets at some life choices they made, just like any other couple, but they've lived with their choices and happy with the outcome. One evening Jason makes the choice to go for a drink with his friend Ryan, promising his wife and son to buy ice cream on the way home. He never makes it home, and he may never see his wife and son again. He is kidnapped and drugged, and when he comes around, he is lying on the floor of a hangar with a man who seemingly knows him, but who Jason has never met in his life. So begins a horrifying journey for Jason who slowly realises he is living in a nightmare world which he recognises, but which he doesn't belong in. As he learns the truth about where he is and how he's got here, he has the almost impossible task of trying to get back to his real life with his wife and son.

This is a thrilling and suspenseful story about choices in life, a muli-dimensional existence, the paths we take, and the decisions we make. This is not the first time I have read this subject matter in a book, but Blake Crouch pulls you in, and carries you through to the end on a terrifying but thought provoking ride.

Kook by Chris Vick

Living in Cornwall, I'm surrounded by beautiful beaches and crazy surfers, and I love a story that features that adrenalin-fuelled sport. I've already read and loved Blue by Lisa Glass, a story about surfing set in Newquay, so I was looking forward to reading Kook, also set in Cornwall.

The author, Chris Vick, works for a whale and dolphin conservation charity and is a keen surfer, and that truly comes through in his first novel. The word 'kook' is surfer slang for a learner or a wannabe. In the book, 16 year old Sam is exactly that. He's just moved back to Cornwall with his mum and little sister - they used to live there when he was younger, but his father drowned and his mother couldn't bear to live there with the memories. Now they're back to be near Sam's grandma - she has cancer and may not have long to live. Next door to Sam lives Jade, with her dad. They both go to the same school, so slowly Sam gets to know Jade and her friends - all super keen surfers. Not wanting to be left out, Sam teaches himself to surf, all the while doing research on a giant wave that no-one has yet ridden, called the Devil Horns - a wave that could prove disaster for anyone who attempts it.

I quite enjoyed the book, but unfortunately there were a couple of things which spoiled it for me - the profanity, and the drug use. There was a huge amount of both in this book, and it came across that there was nothing wrong with it. I know teenagers these days use bad language fairly often, but you don't want to have to read it on every page of a book. And as for taking drugs, the characters again did it on such a regular basis, it was made to seem that it was ok to do it.

As a bookseller, I have to be very careful when recommending books to certain ages. Because of the content of Kook, I will have to make sure I don't recommend it to anyone under the age of 15, which surely cuts out a huge audience for the author. I always think it's such a shame that a certain aged-audience may be denied a book purely because of bad language or other bad content. It's not necessary in a story, people don't like hearing it or reading it, so why write it?

The last few chapters were very emotional - weirdly, the chapters I enjoyed the most. If Jade was a bit nicer, and there was less bad content in the book, I may have enjoyed it more.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Alice Oseman is a truly remarkable young author. At age 18 she had her first book published by Harper Collins, 'Solitaire'. As you can see from my review of that book, I loved it and thought Alice just wonderful (she's also lovely in person - she came along to Waterstones Truro for a signing of Solitaire, and she spoke to our Teen reading group, who were inspired by her).

As you can imagine, I couldn't wait to read her second book 'Radio Silence'. I was just blown away. It's incredible. She pulls you right into the story, makes the characters real. This is because she writes about real situations that everyone can relate to. Alice herself is now 21 and is at university studying English. She was an excellent student at school. Guess what Frances, one of the main characters is about to do? She's an A-grade student at school and is expected/wants to go to Cambridge to study English. Alice is currently hating her course at University (just read her twitter messages). Guess what Aled, the other main character in the book, is going through? Alice is a keen user of Tumblr. A Tumblr story is a key thread in this book. I keep reading advice from other authors about writing about things you know. It's absolutely true - Alice is proof of this. Keep it real and your stories are addictive.

The one character I couldn't believe in was Aled and Carys's mother, Carol. I truly hope that Alice wasn't basing her on anybody she knows, because that is one evil character. Can a mother do such horrific things to her children to disturb them so much mentally? 

This is a fantastic book about discovering your true identity, believing in yourself, following your dreams and not feeling you have to do what is expected of you. It's also about realising that not conforming is ok - just because you're different doesn't mean you're weird. You're still a human being, with feelings. And lastly it's about the strength of friendships - never give up on your friends, true friends stay together forever.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I had read a few things about this book and all were positive, there was much praise about it. I don't often read non-fiction, but I was drawn to this one, even though the subject matter is the devil itself - cancer. We have all been affected by cancer in one way or another - I've heard the most scary statistic, that one in two of us will be stricken down by it. The worst thing in the cases that I have personally been aware of, and I'm sure millions have been through this, is that you fight it, you beat it, but it's not to be kept down. It stands back up again and overcomes you. A cure for all cancers cannot come quick enough.

This book follows the journey of 37 year old Paul Kalanithi, neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and cancer sufferer. He was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 36, and he found himself going from doctor to patient. This book is not a diary, it's a journey of a young man who is on the verge of becoming a highly revered and very successful neurosurgeon, when he suddenly has the devastating news that he is facing death much earlier than he wanted to. His chapters on his time as a junior doctor through to his being at the top of his department are absolutely fascinating. What is hard to digest is that he is writing this while battling cancer, while going through chemotherapy, while looking into a future that may not exist further than the next 6 months.

He questions everything - mortality, the meaning of life, being a doctor, being a patient. He and his wife Lucy have many things to discuss before he dies, the main one being - should we have a child, even though they know that Lucy will be bringing it up on her own, and the child may not be old enough to remember her father when he passes away.

You know it's going to be an emotional ride when you start, and boy does it have you in tears at the end, but it's written by a very brave, and very strong, individual.

The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine

Katherine's first book in this series - The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow - was a huge success and an all round bestseller. Would this second in the series be able to live up to its fame? Well the short answer is - yes. Definitely. Katherine is such a great writer - she manages to keep the pace of the story going, along with the excitement and interest in the characters. The only thing I wasn't too sure about was Mei's character and story. I loved Sophie and her friends so much in the first one, that I almost felt like a schoolgirl having to accept a new girl in the class - not too sure and slightly awkward. I must admit that I would look forward to the chapters that Sophie and her gang were in.

Storywise, Sophie is still working at Sinclair's the department store, and her fame following the first case she was involved in (the clockwork sparrow) has led to her being taken on to locate the whereabouts of a stolen brooch - the jewelled moth. Sophie and her friends find themselves entering the glittering world of high society and debutantes. But Sophie also finds herself coming face to face with an old adversary - the Baron. Will she be able to escape unscathed, and will they all be able to track down the stolen jewel?

A joy to read. I can't wait for the next in the series!

Exposure by Helen Dunmore

Being mainly a Children's bookseller, I have only ever read Helen Dunmore's picture books (and I do recommend them - check out 'The Islanders' and 'The Ferry Birds') and her books for teenagers, notably 'The Ingo Chronicles' series. I'd read good reviews of one of her adult books - 'The Lie' - but never got round to reading it, so when the opportunity arose to read her new book 'Exposure', I jumped at it. And I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it immensely, it is so readable, I finished it in a few days - it was a real page turner.

Set in London in 1960 it follows Giles and Simon, who both work for the Admiralty, and Simon's wife Lily and their 3 children. Giles has taken home a top secret file which he is not authorised to read, but after an accident at his home he is taken to hospital. He telephones Simon to retrieve the file and put it back in its rightful place, but Simon is suspicious and does not execute Giles' commands. What follows is a string of events involving espionage, cover-ups, lies, exposure of intimate relationships, blackmail and wrongful imprisonment. The main events are retold by Lily, who struggles to bring up 3 children on her own and is fearful of a knock on the door, and Giles, stuck in hospital with his leg in plaster but with further health complications. Lily goes from being a quiet, dutiful wife with a teaching job, to a strong fearless individual, willing to do anything for her husband, while Giles goes from being a very unlikeable bully to a rather pathetic sorrowful person, wishing to right all his wrongs.

This book does not disappoint.