Kell

Author: J K Rowling ISBN # 0747538484 Not bad. Not bad at all. This one picks up where The Philosopher's Stone left off (as if there's anyone on the planet who doesn't already know that!), in the summer holidays between Harry's first & second year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. All the favourites from the previous book with a few extras thrown in for good measure, most prominently Ginny Weasley (younger sister of Ron & the seemingly millions of other Weasley boys); the ghost haunting the girl's loos, Moaning Myrtle, & the flamboyant new teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts, Gilderoy Lockhart. My main gripe is that Professor Snape is barely mentioned at all. He was my favourite character in the last story (although, even in that one, was criminally underused) & I only wish he'd featured more heavily in this one, but he hardly graced the pages at all. My greatest wish is that he be given the coveted Dark Arts teaching post he so richly deserves in the sequel.

Author: Celia Rees ISBN # 0747555680 Written in a different style to Witch Child (this is the sequel), but no less captivating for it. This picks up Mary's story as seen through the eyes of one of her descendants who also has some of the same gifts as Mary had. We're also given some information on what happened to some of the other characters in Witch Child after Mary left them - shown as the results of research made by a fictional author, Alison Ellman, who is a character in this new story herself. This really highlights the difference between two cultures - that of the Puritan settlers (accusing Mary of Witchcraft) & the Native Americans (revering her as a healer - a Medicine Woman of great power) - & shows that both had people who were sympathetic to her plight, as well as those who feared her & saw her as an enemy. I really enjoyed both these books & may well look out for other titles by this author.

It's excellent - I'm just about to post the review to it's sequel - Sorceress...

Author: Eoin Colfer ISBN # 0141381647 This is the fourth full-length Artemis Fowl novel (there having been a short story published: The Seventh Dwarf, which fits between the 1st & 2nd books) & although it certainly delivers, it doesn't feel quite as complete as the previous offerings of Artemis, our, now 14-year-old, criminal genius. It picks up a year after the end of the previous story, The Eternity Code; after all knowledge of The People has been wiped from his memory - or has it? The Fairy Folk are in need of a criminal mastermind, so they must be in trouble! It's Artemis to the rescue - if only he can get his memories back & convince himself that Pixies are real & he's not hallucinating after all! Very enjoyable, but only if you've read the first three, otherwise this will make absolutely no sense at all, having completely missed out on the backstory provided by the previous adventures of the Irish boy-genius & his Fairy friends. Pick them up, read them, then follow it with this.

Author: Carl Hiaasen ISBN # 0552772534 My sister-in-law made me take this book when I saw her last weekend. I almost purposely left it behind as, going by the previous reading she was telling me about, I really didn't think it'd be something I would enjoy all that much. I was wrong. From the moment Joey Perrone is thrown off a luxury liner by her husband on their 2nd anniversary cruise (which is right on the first page, by the way - hell, it's in the opening paragraph!) I was hooked. Witty, slick, dark humour, well-written drama; this one has it all. I might even e tempted to sample Hiaasen's other offerings...

Author: J K Rowling ISBN # 0747532745 Well, I put off reading any of the Harry Potter books for a very long time - they just didn't grab my interest. Besides, I'm a huge Artemis Fowl fan & I couldn't imagine these living up to that example. I was right - Artemis Fowl was way better than Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone. That doesn't mean to say this book wasn

Author: Celia Rees ISBN # 0747550093 Every now & then I like to read a book that's supposedly been written for children. I'd seen this one on the "Teen Fiction" bookshelves for some time & it caught my interest. I finally bought it at the weekend & I'm so glad I did! This is not a book specifically for children at all, but one that can be enjoyed by readers of any age. Set in the 1600's & written in diary form, Witch Child charts the journey of Mary, a Warwickshire lass who is orphaned when her only living relative, her grandmother, is executed as a Witch. Packed onto a ship with Puritans, she makes her way to the New World to settle in Beulah, a small town not far from Salem, Massachusetts. Mary's wildness & natural ease in the forest set her apart from the rest of the town & it isn't long before she is in danger of being accused of Witchcraft herself. I was blown away by how well written this book is & will certainly get hold of the sequel, Sorceress.

Author: Charlaine Harris ISBN # 1841493708 If I hadn't read the previous 3 books in the series (Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas & Club Dead), this book would have made slightly less sense (having none of the background story) but pretty much holds up as a stand-alone story in its own right. I can't believe I happened upon this author by sheer chance (a bookclub offered the 1st three books as a single choice & they looked interesting, so I ordered them, & boy was I glad I did!). I'll now be looking out for other titles by Harris as well as the 5th installment of the Sookie Stackhouse books (the enticingly titled Dead as a Doornail). There's not really much I can say without giving away huge chunks of the plot, so all I'll say is that we have the slightly telepathic Sookie getting embroiled in the business of vampires, weres & Witches while hunting for her missing brother, Jason, with some fiendishly good plot-twists & devilishly well-drawn characters. I can't wait to get my hands on Dead as a Doornail!

Author: Kelley Armstrong ISBN #1841493414 It's no secret that I'm a fan of Kelley Armstrong's "Women of the Otherworld" series, but neither Dime Store Magic nor Industrial Magic were a patch on the 1st two books in the series; Bitten & Stolen. What can I say? Armstrong is most definitely back on form with this 5th installment Focusing on Eve Levine; powerful half-Witch/half-Demon & self-styled "bad-girl", who is now a Supernatural ghost (as opposed to a "normal" ghost), the reader is enticed into the afterlife with her, where she manages to cause as much trouble as she did when she was alive. This time, however, she has to hunt down a most dangerous breed of demi-Demon; a Nix. As the story is firmly set in the afterlife, we don't tend to see much of the living characters we've grown to love, such as Savannah (Eve's teenaged daughter) & her guardians Paige (a Witch) & Lucas (a Sorcerer), but we have the novel twist of being able to leap in & out of the afterlife to witness events of the past - with an ingenious explanation for the horrific murders committed by Lizzie Borden - which more than makes up for their almost total absence. We do, however, have time to really get to know Eve a little better, as well as having the chance to see Savannah's father, Kristoff, in a different light, now that he has also passed over to the other side. It makes for interesting reading, to see characters previously thought of as being "bad" people actually turning out to be pretty normal when you are finally able to see things from their point of view without the bias of others who think they are the enemy! All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through the various ghost dimensions & can't wait for the next book, Broken, to be published next May (incidentally, a teaser for this next tale is included at the back of the book, so I already know we return to Elena Michaels, the Werewolf from Bitten - hurrah!). If you haven't already read the previous installments, I heartily recommend picking them up - you'll thank me for it in the end!

Author: Kim Harrison ISBN # 0-06-057297-3 An improvement on the first book, not not hugely so; still not exactly a rip-roaring read. It seems to me that the first book wasn't really a story in its own right, but a lead-up to this book. Rather extravagant to use an entire 416 pages just to provide background for the next 452 pages. At least this time, Harrison seems to have got a better grip on her writing & the narrative flow is a lot more smooth this time round. The plot is still lacking that something special, though, & the twist revealed ni this one was no surprised as I had already guessed it about half way through the last book, so that was a bit of a let-down. So, not exactly a challenge on the old grey matter, but this sequel was easier to read & I managed to get through it without wishing a demon would appear & rip out my eyeballs, preventing me from forcing myself to read on. Still no clear resolution, which I find annoying to the max, leading me to the conclusion that this book was also just laying down the groundwork for the next one (which, incidentally, I won't be buying, so I suppose I'll never now how the story ends). No odds to me - I found myself completely failing to give a damn about any of the characters, even going so far as to thinking the lead character; the witch, Rachel Morgan, is incredibly dull (in every sense of the word). I find I cannot sympathise with someone who continually puts herself in ridiculous situations due to her own stupidity, then expects others to get her out of it. Her boyfriend, Nick, isn't any better. I completely fail to understand how anyone would be attracted to such a person. I think I would have been happier if she'd been killed off in the first chapter of Dead Witch Walking; then we could have focused on Ivy, the non-practicing living-vampire, who could have been an intriguing character if only Harrison had been a skilled & creative writer. Or perhaps Trent, the attractive underworld biodrug dealer - now there's a character I could have happily got my teeth into; but he was left shallow - barely even two-dimensional. What a waste - of an idea, of characters, & of my time.

Author: Kim Harrison ISBN # -0-60-57296-5 If I had to sum it up in only one word, it'd have to be "disappointing". There was so much potential there: Harrison had all the right ingredients; various paranormal/supernatural beings mingling with humans in an alternative modern day Cincinnati, where a goodly portion of the human race was killed off by killer tomatoes (I kid you not - it was a bio-engineered virus carried in the popular, red, salad ingredients), unfortunately, the recipe went wrong somewhere in the mix & what you actually get is pretty dull & not particularly well written. The story itself would be alright, but it takes forever to get started, doesn't really go anywhere in the middle & has no proper ending. I was left feeling rather unsatisfied. Testimony to the case of the dulls is the length of time I took to read this novel: I started on the 5th & finished it today - that's an astonishing 7 days to work my way through it, & to be perfectly honest, it felt like I was wading through glue, the going was so hard. If I hadn't already bought the sequel (I got them both as a "same choice" deal through a book club) I wouldn't be bothering with it. As it is, I'm planning on reading the 2nd book, "The Good, The Bad, & The Undead" straight away, just to get it over with. With any luck, the sequel will turn out better than the opening title. Either way, I don't think I'll be keeping these books as what good is a sequel when the 1st book is so dull you'll never want to read it again?

~* SPOILER WARNING *~ (just in case I wasn't the last person on the planet to read this fantastic book) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I saw a similar site & had to come to the conclusion that: 1. Harry is NOT a horcrux 2. Dumbledor is NOT dead, & 3. Snape is NOT actualy a traitorous Death Eater. I get the feeling that Dumbledore knew that Malfoy had been forced into LV's service & that his mission was to kill Dumbledore. He's a good old man & he wouldn't want the burden & mental scars of being a murderer lumped on a 16-yr-old & so I think he'd arranged for Snape to do the deed instead, but that Snape used a non-verbal spell which was NOT the Avra Kedavra curse (although those were the words he spoke), thus Dumbledore is NOT dead. That said, I actually cried throughout that entire scene - I was so upset!

This is actually one of the very few books my sister (who is an absolute non-reader) has read from cover to cover. I think she even read the sequels. I really should get hold of them myself for a looksee.

I feel I'm missing something here. I don't think I remember ever being scared by something I read in a book. And here's me a big horror fan too. I get engaged in the plot & involved with the characters - i even worry about what's going to happen to them, but I've never been frightened. Same with films. There must be something wrong with me - I think it's down to watching Hammer Horror films at an early age & having it drummed into me that it's not real - it's only ketpchup, not blood - & I think I must have applied the same rationale to books.

We did Of Mice & Men, which I adored. We also did Sunset Song, which I thought was incredibly badly written & didn't deserve any of its critical acclaim or to be on the curriculum. My mother later sat her higher english & had to read the same text. She heartily agreed with me! We also studied Macbeth as well as Romeo & Juliet (I had the great honour of playing the leading lady in both these while at drama school) which I adored. We had to do a thing called an RPR which was an indepth review type of thing. I did Animal Farm & Dracula (both of which were, & still are, firm favourites of mine). I think those are the only ones I remember as being set-texts or study choices. I did a lot of reading on my own time & have lost track of all the things Ive read!

Im enjoying it so far - already notching up the post scores!

I've been life-long fan of The Chronicles of Narnia - I regularly re-read them (at least once every 1 or 2 years, all of them from start to finish in order). For younger children, there's nothing beats the magic of Winnie the Pooh & The Wind in the Willows - I have hardback copies on my bookshelf which still get lovingly read every now & then, jst to remind me. For the 8-12 yr old bracket, I heartily recommend the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer - I have them all & adore them (they are part of the reason I didn't read the Potter books till recently - I was a hardened Fowl fan. I still am, but I'm now Potter potty too!). For 12+ (& most adults) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is essential reading. Poignant & intriguing - it's a riveting read from the get-go. I still regularly buy so-called childrens' books for myself (I don't have any kids myself & have no plans for them either) as they are getting better & better these days (the Potter books are testament to the fact that these books can cross the generation gap). I'v just finished reading Raven's Gate which is classed as teen-fiction & completely enjoyed it (gave it a respectable rating of 7/10). You can see what I thought of it in the reviews thread...

I'll admit I do rather tend towards books by authors I now I like. Then I go for authors who have been discribed as similar. Or if I liked a book & something is described as being similar, I go for that. Other than that, I grab whatever looks interesting off the shelf in the shop or library & read the blurb. If it sounds like something I might enjoy, I take it. I do take recommendations from other bookish buddies if they have similar likes to mine. Most recently, I started enjoying a whole new genre by sheer chance - never one to pass up a bargain, when I saw Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow on sale for just 99p in Ottacker's, I couldn't resist. I'm now on the 3rd in the series & have bought the 1st in a series which looks similar as a direct result of this serendipitous event. Never look a gift book in the mouth - LOL!

Still Me by Christopher Reeve is amazingly upbeat & inspirational (as is it's follow up, but I can't recall it's title at the moment). I also loved Lucky Man by Michael J Fox - his attitude & the way he's changed his lifestyle is amazing. Very powerful & moving. If you want a bit of a "shocker" full of intimate revelations, then you can't beat Cybill Disobediece by Cybill Shepherd - raunchy stuff!

Author: Anthony Horowitz ISBN # 0844286193 Publisher: Walker Books Published: 2005 Genre: Teen fiction Before the beginning there was the gate and five gatekeepers: Children. Four boys ~ One girl. It has been written. The night of everlasting darkness is drawing in. The gate is about to open. The gatekeepers must return. Thus begins an adventure that melds magic with science, the past with the present & good with evil. Matt Freeman is a troubled 14-year-old orphan who lives with his aunt & her partner. After making a terrible mistake, he is made part of the LEAF programme rather than sent to a young offenders' institution & is sent to stay in the foster care of Mrs Deverill in Yorkshire. But all is not as it seems in Hive Hall, nor in the village of Lesser Malling. What is the secret they are hiding? What mysteries are hidden deep in the woods? And what is Raven

Have a look at her official site for more info: http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/

I wasn't interested at all, but I eventually succumbed after one of my best book-buddies started raving about HP6, so I finally grabbed the 1st one about 2 months ago & I've been hooked ever since. I had seen the movies, but although I'd enjoyed them, the bokos just didn't appeal till now. Im now eagerly awaiting the 7th installment as well as the 4th movie, as Goblet of Fire was my favourite by far - chock full of action! I'll definitely be seeing it in the cinema as soon as possible after it comes out

I read an extract on a site & am adding it to my Xmas wish-list (along with many, many other books). It looks really good & if it's anywhere near as dark as Neverwhere or as funny as Good Omens, I'll be incredibly happy. Especially if it's dark and funny!

Has anyone else read her Women of the Otherworld series? They run as follows: 1. Bitten 2. Stolen 3. Dime Store Magic 4. Industrial Magic 5. Haunted The 1st 2 predominantly follow the story of Elena Michaels - the world's only female werewolf (& therefore highly desireable in the WW community). The 2nd one introduces a whole host of otherworld characters & the 3rd & 4th focus more on the Witch/Sorcerer relationships along with a few demons & vampires (see the whole thing opening up, here?). The 5th one carries on the story but from the afterlife point of view (it's intriguing - take my word for it). There's a 6th book due out next Spring which should see a return to the WW characters (a very welcome return at that). I've read them all & love them but would be interested in hearing from anyone else who's read/would like to read them...

Lightning is my favourite - a wonderfully dark exploration into the posibility of time travel. But don't let that put you off, it's not at all sci-fi-ish - it's thriller through & through! A must-read for anyone who fancies giving him a try. It's quite possibly the most well-thought out & cleverist of all his offerings to date.