This is a great one!

Jackson Brodie, an irascible private detective. Reggie, a gutsy and determined teenager. DCI Louise Monroe – returning from her previous encounter with Brodie. Devastating train accidents. Trauma. And dark – bitterly dark – comical coincidences.

The Jackson Brodie series are among my favourite literary (and they are so literary!) detective series!

In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie, wise beyond her years, works as a nanny for a G.P. But her employer has disappeared with her baby, and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is a former acquaintance – Jackson Brodie – himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.

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My, it has been a long time since I read this! Back when I was studying A-levels!

I recall awkwardness, a claustrophobic intensity, breakdown and toxicity… all the things that would normally appeal to me in a drama!

When middle-aged Martha and her husband George are joined by the younger Nick and Honey for late-night drinks after a party, the stage is set for a night of drunken recriminations and revelations. Battle-lines are drawn as Martha and George drag their guests into their own private hell of a marriage.

I’ve not read this one – although I was interested enough to buy a copy.

A silly and comic version of Percy Jackson? Greek Gods being silly? Sounds like it might be sheer fun!

When Elliot wishes upon a star, he doesn’t expect a constellation to crash into a dungheap on his family farm.

The star is Virgo. She thinks she’s perfect. Elliot doesn’t. And together they release Thanatos, evil Daemon of Death … epic fail.

They need the King of the Gods and his noble steed. Instead, they get a chubby Zeus and his high horse Pegasus.

Are the Gods really ready to save the world? And is the world really ready for the Gods?

Also, I fear it might irk me. Which is probably why I haven’t read it yet.

Essays and books.

By an intelligent and witty writer and reader… Who could ask for more?

Why Read the Classics? is an elegant defence of the value of great literature by one of the finest authors of the last century. Beginning with an essay on the attributes that define a classic (number one – classics are those books that people always say they are ‘rereading’, not ‘reading’), this is an absorbing collection of Italo Calvino’s witty and passionate criticism.

When it comes to animals and nature, there is no end to our curiosity. Around ten thousand questions a year land on Lars-Åke Janzon’s desk at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. In this sequel to the successful book How Long Can a Fly Fly?, Janzon responds to nutty questions, freak happenings, and odd observations with interesting facts and explanations. Learn about snake sex, animals’ brightly colored warning signals, and why a vulture was arrested in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of being an Israeli spy. Find out the facts behind the headlines about Thailand’s poisonous jellyfish and the “killer sharks” of Sharm el-Sheikh.

This is a gorgeous novel!

But the title bothers me: grammatically it is a question; but it has no question mark! Some part of me prickles at that! But the novel itself is sublime.

America. In the twilight of the Gold Rush, two siblings cross a landscape with a gun in their hands and the body of their father on their backs…

Ba dies in the night, Ma is already gone. Lucy and Sam, twelve and eleven, are suddenly alone and on the run. With their father’s body on their backs, they roam an unforgiving landscape dotted with giant buffalo bones and tiger paw prints, searching for a place to give him a proper burial.

The book that gave us Blade Runner.

World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn’t ‘retiring’ them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal – the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life.

Nope, I’ve not read this one either but it sounded supremely silly and, well, Wodehousean!

Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968) features Mike Bond, the hitherto fortunate owner of Bond’s Bank, who finds himself in a spot of trouble so serious that he wants someone to burgle the bank before the trustees inspect it. Fortunately for him, Horace Appleby, currently posing as his butler, is on hand to oblige. For Horace is, in fact, not a butler at all but the best sort of American gangster, prudently concealing himself in an English country house while hiding from his rivals. Looking for peace and safety, Horace is to discover before long that the hot-spots of New York are a whole lot more restful than the English countryside. 

I was advised to read this as my daughter approached her adolescence. It is fair to say it is not really my style of book and I think I found it a little… dated?

Life isn’t easy for Margaret. She’s moved away from her childhood home, she’s starting a new school, finding new friends – and she’s convinced she’s not normal. For a start she hasn’t got a clue whether she wants to be Jewish like her father or Christian like her mother. Everyone else seems really sure of who they are. And, worst of all, she’s a ‘late developer’. She just knows that all her friends are going to need a bra before she does. It’s too embarrassing to talk to her parents about these things. So she talks to God instead – and waits for an answer . . .

Well, this one messes up my plan to divide my list into whos, whats, whys etc!

And again it is a book I am aware of but have never actually read…

It is World War II, and while the RAF struggles to keep the Luftwaffe at bay, Britain faces an even more sinister threat from ‘the enemy within’ – Nazis posing as ordinary citizens.

With pressure mounting, the Intelligence service appoints two unlikely spies, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Their mission: to seek out a man and a woman from among the colourful guests at Sans Souci, a seaside hotel. But this assignment is no stroll along the promenade. After all, N and M have just murdered Britain’s finest agent…