Bog child by Siobhan Dowd

I don't always read books shortlisted for awards but I made an exception for "Bog child" and I'm glad I did. It was a great interlinking story about 1980s Northern Ireland and stone age times and very well written. My only problem is who to target with this book. As a story it could be read by S1/2 but there is so much background knowledge needed about 'the troubles' that I am not sure the average S1/2 will understand why people wanted to starve themselves to death . I think the more dedicated types would do the research to understand the setting, but many would just abandon it, which would be a great shame . It's a fine and challenging read and well deserves its Carnegie award !

City of Thieves

City of Thieves by David Benioff is set in besieged Lennigrad during WWII. The Germans have cut off all food supplies and the city is starving. A young boy is caught looting a dead German soldier and a Red Army guard is accused of desertion and thrown together in prison. These two unlikely companons are set the task of finding a dozen eggs in a city where people are eating wood to survive. I didn't know anything about the German occupation of Russia during the war, but this book gave me a real insight into the struggle people had to endure. It is a moving, uplifting book with sprinkles of humour throughout, despite the grim setting. A lovely book - one I was sorry to finish.

Mystery Man: Murder, Mayhem & Damn Sexy Trousers

This fantastic, funny book by Colin Bateman caught my eye in Asda and I bought it purely because of the title. I hadn't read any of his other books, but I will now! I laughed out loud so often sitting reading beside the pool that people were starting to look at me as if I'd 'escaped' from some institution. It is set in Ireland and tells the story of a crime bookshop owner who ends up becoming a private detective when the real detective mysteriously doesn't open his office next door. It is wacky, weird and full of gut wrenching guffaws! Enjoy!

The other hand by Chris Cleave

This is the story of Little Bea, a Nigerian illegal immigrant and Sarah a high flying suburban magazine publisher. How their lives collide provides an amazing story of lives damaged by events in Nigeria and how the main characters cope with the aftermath in UK. The insight into the situation of an illegal immigrant was especially well drawn and little Bea was a very engaging 'heroine'.
It was a very well written book and a harrowing story with many elements and images which would make it work well for H personal studies

Just by chance I was given "the Cellist of Sarajevo" to read and I'm so glad that I did not miss this real gem of a book. It is written by Steven Galloway and is set in the 1990s during various stages of the four siege of the city. It is harrowing to hear how the people survived the constant shelling by the rival factions in the hills above the city. They all survived with litlle electricity and no running water, let alone the small problem of food shortages. The story is told by four very different characters all, equally affected and damaged by the war. It sounds grim and in parts , it is, but it is also a very uplifting story of hope and pride and sheer guts. It is based on the story of a real cellist who chose to play his cello in the street for 21 days as the mortar shells explode around him. The adagio by Albinoni is a soulful piece of music but for all of the people of Sarajevo and especially the four characters in the book, this act of resistance and the unifying and civilizing power of music was very symbolic. Needless to say there is a lot of human interest detail and the characters are very well developed in such short chapters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but its message was very emotional and very powerfully delivered. Incidentally its structure and the character deveopment would make it work very well for the personal study, but that is quite apart from being a superb read !

The Secret Scripture

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry - runner up for Booker and winner of Costa Award. This story is told by two people - an old woman who has been in an asylum in Ireland most of her life but now has to be moved because the institution is being closed down - and the doctor who has to investigate and assess her case. This has tinges of The Magdalene Sisters but it is not nearly as gruesome, yet the injustice that women suffered in these times is just as heart felt. It is well written and slowly draws you into the world of both the narrators where you genuinely feel for both of them.

The Road
Cormac McCarthy

This is a very stark, harrowing story about a father and son trying to survive what we can only guess has been a nuclear holocaust. It is sparsely written in typical McCarthy style which adds to the bleak theme of the book. It is both a celebration of human love and desperation for survival; and yet in contrast it is the horrific illustration of man's inhumanity to his fellow man when society is stripped away. When I closed the book at first, I didn't think I felt particularly sad or sorry for the characters, but as I stood in my kitchen making a cup of tea I suddenly burst into tears. It is a 'sneaky' emotional book which made me cry as a mother, a daughter, a friend and a member of the human race!

I just read these books for teen titles, and they were brilliant!

The Trap by John Smelcer
This made me cry a bit...its set in Alaska and is about this old man who is out checking his wolf traps, when he gets his foot caught in a trap. Meanwhile, his grandson is at home in the village growing more and more worried as his grandad fails to return, but he's reluctant to look for him in case he dents his grandad's pride. Its a really haunting tale, beautifully told, and it explains really well family relationships, the isolation of Alaska as well as the conflicts faced by native american people too. this could work for Int2 I think

Frozen in time by Ali Sparkes
This book looks like it should be awful, but the dialogue's great and it is genuinely funny! It is about a brother and sister who dicover that their great aunt and uncle were cryogenically frozen in a bunker in their back garden in the 50s. This book has intrigue (what happened to the kid's dad who froze them? why did he freeze them for so long?) , spies and a Librarian who has her eye on the 50s teenagers, and she has Cold War connections too. The way that the 50s teenagers are introduced to 2009 is well done too, as is the fact that the teenagers from 2009 grow to see some of the benefits that the 50s had.