Library Forum

Want a book to captivate you and remove you to another world, the world of Maderley? Be swept away by Rebecca's Tale, the sequel to du Maurier's classic tale Rebecca. April 1951. It is twenty years since the death of Rebecca, the hauntingly beautiful first wife of Maxim de Winter. It is twenty years...

This book stood out immediately when the new books came in today! Nearly everything that happens in it is based on factual sources. Isolated in his blitz-battered Regent's Park house in 1944, the ailing Herbert George Wells, 'H.G.' to his family and friends, looks back on a life crowded with inciden...

A high school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency. The sudden publicity seems to turn every act into a performance and every space into a stage. But when the local drama college decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of ...

We are reading this novel for the teenage book club next month. John Banville considers it 'One of the finest novels in many years - a Catcher in the Rye for the Nineties'. It will be interesting to hear what the teenagers will make of it... By the end of Jeffrey Eugenides' first paragraph you know ...

Time for an Irish author and noone better than Peter Cunningham from Waterford with his novel Consequences of the Heart. "An intimate tale of epic proportions...Peter Cunningham writes beautifully; each character is expertly defined with the smallest pen stroke". Caroline Clark, Literary Review Chud...

An injection of humour is just what we need now that winter has set in and no better man then Jasper Fforde with his surreal Jack Spratt detective novel. The Gingerbreadman - psychopath, sadist, convicted murderer and cake/biscuit - is loose on the streets of Reading, in this second novel featuring ...

Sarah Hall's Haweswater, published less than two years ago, was a remarkable debut; with her second novel, now longlisted for the Orange prize, she confirms her status as one of the most significant and exciting of our younger novelists. Cy Parks, the "electric Michelangelo" of the novel's title, is...

I didn't have to go far to stumble on this month's book. It was right in front of me on the New Books shelf. The minute I saw that is was Ross Raisin author of God's Own Country I knew I'd found a gem. God's Own Country was his first novel and I loved every word of it. It also was shortlisted for ni...

I heard Jackie Kay speak about her autobiographical novel on the radio recently and was captivated by her story tracing her birth parents. I was equally impressed and moved by her honesty in sharing the details of this very personal journey. Red Dust Road opens in the Nicon Hilton Hotel in Abuja. Ja...

If you are attracted to exotic cultures and unusual love stories then you will find this book The White Masai very interesting. I certainly did and couldn't put it down, if only to find out if the Swiss businesswoman and the Masai warrior managed to live happily ever after. Did having a child togeth...

I'm drawn to debut novels as they promise originality, freshness and an unusual take on the world, well to me anyway and this month's choice delivers just that. It's the first novel of Emma Henderson entitled Grace Williams Says it Loud. A review I found on the internet says it better than I could B...

Silk by Alessandro Baricco May's book Silk by Alessandro Baricco is a book that has passed through my hands many times working as a librarian and I often thought, that book looks really good or that looks like a book I'd really love. Not only does the cover appeal to me with its delicate turquoise ...

Did anyone manage to get a copy of this book yet? What did you think? Any ideas for future books for the book club?

The Girl With Glass Feet Today a library member brought back a book called The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw and it instantly caught my eye. The title intrigued me and the fact that is was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2009 and the Costa Book Awards Shortlist 2009 only increased m...

Thanks a million Kiwi for that. :D Isn't is great when you read a book that stays with you like that. Have you read any others lately that have had a similar effect? I read this book a year of so ago and totally agree with your comments. It is one of just a few stories that have remained in my mind ...