The Gates (Review)
I loved it! I'm not sure what age group, John Connelly had in mind when he wrote this, neither had the branch of Waterstones when I looked for it on their shelves. I tried author, crime, young readers, even the assistant could advise, they did have one in the shop, but couldn't find it!. This wonderful book is funny, it has far more one liners than Connelly's usual approach in the Charlie...

Review for Black Swan Green (Review)
A very enjoyable read, well written in the first person of a 13 year old boy, with the Falkland’s War as background. It’s January 1982. Perhaps, a rites of passage story which may be semi-auto-biographical. Comic and quite touching, the author describes events such as bullying, family relationships and trouble. I was reminded very much of Michael Frayn’s ‘Spies’ (set in largely in WW2 England.)...

Review for Organisations & People (Review)
The September issue of Organisations & People has just been published by the Association for Management Education and Development on their website www.amed.org.uk The review follws.

Review for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (DVD) (Review)
This is a great detective story based on the the first of the Milleneum Triology books by Stieg Larrson. I read the book first and the DVD followed the story line well. The characters came to lfe in a way that was true to my imagination of them and the complexity of the story was not compromised. Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Rapace, captures the moods of this young woman with a troubled...

Review for The Dilbert Principle (Review)
One of the big advantages of a wall full of books is coming across something acquired many years ago that suddenly takes on a new relevance. This first edition of the Dilbert Principle came from family in the USA. Scott Adams may be better known for his cartoons, but this book is a goldmine! It touches on many management ideas that have been in circulation and are still hanging around. So...

Review for Nine Dragons (Review)
What a great read! I find this book, the latest in the Harry Bosch series, a compelling read. Although I was very busy with work there was enough time to keep up with this fast paced hunt for the killer, and the consequent hunt for his daughter. To read other reviews of this authors work search Ichael Connelly Harry Bosch started in his usual thorough approach to crime solving and his...

Review for The Museum of London (Review)
Spending a couple of hours wandering through the Museum of London reminded me of what a fantastic place London is. The exhibits took me through pre-history, Roman Occupation, Medieval times right through to the present day. I saw a Vespa Scooter in immaculate condition and was surprised that it was almost 50 years since I first rode one! The old gas lamps of the early 20th Century reminded me...

Review for England Their England (Review)
This is a book remembered for its description (Chapter 7) of the village cricket match. For anyone who has played club cricket for the 3rd eleven or lower it will help to recall some of the events that make cricket the exceptional sport it is. It is the same game with the same rules as for the pinnacle of the game, Test Cricket. It is usually played over a period of 4 hours 30 minutes,...

Review for The Penguin Book of Limericks (Review)
I was looking through my shelves of books, and as often is the case, I stumbled on one I wasn't looking for , but seemed relevant. It is one of those very useful books that I dip into every now and again - usually as I am looking for some inspiration about a specific topic. Either I find something that triggers a useful thought - or I am amused. My edition was published in 1983, and the...

What Works (Review)
Well laid out easy reading for the summer, ‘his is a book about success’ (Introduction p.ix). Although the author is a well-known economist and journalist, it’s not yet another ‘How to do it’ management tome and no overarching theory is pushed or startling insights provided – the author just observes success and quietly draws appropriate lessons. And success comes in many forms: he draws on a...

Review for The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Review)
From the first line the story had me thinking. The book starts with 'This is the story of Jesus and his brother Christ, of how they were born, of how they lived and of how one of them died. The death of the other is not part of the story' For those like me, with many years of listening to the Gospels, either at school in 'Divinity' lessons or in a church pew, the story of Jesus is well known....

Review for X Marks the Box (Review)
An enjoyable collection of snippets on politics in the UK designed for dipping into. Now the General Election 2010 has been called for May 6th it may be a good present for the politically active - ones with a sense of humour. I suspect that a revised edition including the 2010 Election will soon be in preparation. There are plenty of lists with a mixture of good advice, recent political history ...

Game, set and match to Dawkins! (Review)
This book on the argument for evolution should carry a health warning if you are a dyed-in-the-wool creationist, intelligent designer or ‘young earther’, as Dawkins is at pains to demolish the thinness of the counter-arguments such deniers attempt to present.  But if you are reasonably educated and open-minded enough  – and minded to know more about ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’, aka the story of...

Review for Nemesis (Review)
I enjoyed this book. It was well translated and I don't recall any strange use of English at all. Several stories are intertwined and I didn't guess who did what. The story had a good pace and was set in Oslo (Norway) and was similar to the books of Henning Mankell, being a police detective procedural. Characters are well defined and the task of the police well described. Characters were...

Want to understand what makes Blair Tick? (Review)
If you have followed the Chilcot enquiry and wish to understand what made Blair tick, then you could not do better than read chapter 11 ‘Young Lochinvar’ (Brave Dawn, High Noon and Slow Dusk) of Marquand’s scholarly work.  As someone fascinated by the decades that my parents’ generation and my own have lived through, I found the book shed new light on the political processes and characters that...

The synopsis on the cover said it all (Review)
Gotland is a small part of Sweden. I get the impression that not a lot goes on there. Not enough murders to generate a long series of mysteries. Although that didn't stop Oxford being the location for the excellent Inspector Morse books. I found 'Unspoken' easy enough to read with few  unusual translations. The story had a good pace, albeit rather straightforward. It seemed that clues would...

Now I know why others buy! (Review)
This is a well researched book that reads more like a novel. I read it when the fourth edition was published in 2001.  I have been dipping into it ever since! I believe the 5th edition is due in 2010. The ideas are very accessible about how people can be influenced and how to avoid falling for these methods. These are explained under 7 headings:  - Reciprocation  - Commitment and Consistency...

Hilarious, I loved it! (Review)
At  9.00 on Sunday 15th November 2009 I switched on the TV to watch the ‘Andrew Marr Show. Ann Treneman, sketch-writer for The Times,  was one of the reviewers of the Sunday papers. Sophie Rayworth (standing, or should I say, sitting in for Andrew Marr) asked the questions and Ann Treneman said that Gordon Brown had a good week. So she seemed fair in her judgement. That led me to obtaining...

Have you kept your inner author in check too long? (Review)
Anyone who has made a living helping managers and organisations is already a master of the creative use of language. We are verbal alchemists who transform  pejorative descriptions of people and organisations into constructive feedback.  So it is surprising to discove that a book entitled Creative Writing for Dummies has so much to teach those of us whose inner author has been kept in check too...

Great story, interesting lecture! (Review)
I enjoyed this book as much as all the other Dan Brown books. It was a great tour of the places in Washington that you might never see! Told at an incredible pace as the lead characters aim to save a friends life and prevent unimaginable distaster befalling the planet! The story was well constructed,  following twists and turns as each clue was uncovered and solved (as only Robert Langdon...

I loved the longer short stories! (Review)
I'm not a great one for short stories, as I find the end often less satisfying, but I liked number 10 ‘ Some Children Wander by Mistake.’ This really was creepy! However: the book was well worth the cover price for the two novellas alone. The 1st and the last were both much longer (70 and 112 pages respectively) This gives the author time to develop the chill and include the humorous one-lin...

Only a Blackberry fanatic would understand this! (Review)
I had a Blackberry for 18 months so I thought I might have the necessary expertise to review this book. I have to confess that despite the cover, which I found attractive enough for me to pick up and look inside, I couldn’t really work out what this book was for. Perhaps a stocking filler for a friend that was addicted to this mobile phone. As the title itself was a dig at the owners of a...

Don't miss this one! (Review)
A great story, the second in the Millennium trilogy. I found the translation from the original Swedish brilliantly combining pace with detail. As this is the first of the three books read I am not able to say whether reading the books in order makes a significant difference. Such is the attention to detail that it contains a shopping list from IKEA used by the complex, flawed yet morally sound...

Another great read (Review)
Another great read from the master of the detective genre. I was delighted when I found this book, as I had thought that I had read the complete set of the Kurt Wallander series. I’m not sure that I learnt much about the developing Wallander that I didn’t know before, as Mankell is so good at filling in the back history in his books. I felt that I already knew about Mona, his father and his...

Great one liners - not enough chill! (Review)
I enjoyed this book, more for its sharp one liners, than for Connolly’s menacing and chilling atmosphere of previous books. For example: ‘He (The Priest) had studied at an Orthodox seminary for 3 years before discovering his true vocation, which lay primarily in providing the kinds of services for which priests are usually required to offer forgiveness.’ The story is about survival but...

I wanted to believe it was true (Review)
I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller. Robert Harris’s ability to take some historic facts (extraordinary rendition flights landed in the UK in 2002, admitted by the Foreign Secretary David Milliband 22 Feb 2008), build credible characters (ex British prime-minister and wife) and weave a story around them is undiminished. The humour of the narrator provides delightful contrasts to the seriousness...