Came upon it by accident

I came upon this book after reading two other books which led me to the genre:"The Kitchen Diaries" by Nigel Slater, and the hilarious take-off on cookbooks called"Barring Some Unforeseen Accident" which actually has a cookbook in it, just probably not anything you're going to want to make.

Delia Smith's DELIA'S HOW TO CHEAT AT COOKING hit the spot for me mainly because my life is always a mess and I need quick and easy ways to make things--foods that are different from the same things i've been eating for years.

Granted, there's been a bit of hoopla about the ingredients she suggests, but I've had no problem finding them or thinnking they're unhealthy. Delia doesn't profess this to be a"gourmet" experience, so if you're looking for that, go elsewhere. It is what it is---a book for people who want to cheat at cooking, hence the"tinned" lamb. If you had the time or wanted gourmet cooking, you wouldn't be buying this book anyway! Basically, I enjoyed trying out 95 percent of what's here. But then, I've never gotten a cookbook where I've wanted to make every single dish.

I'd highly recommend this along with FRUGAL FOOD.

Beautiful story

This book is beautiful. The first book that made me cry, it is very sad and left me thinking about it for a long time after I finished reading the story.

Stunning!

This is the first book I have read by R.J. Ellory, upon completion I ordered another of his titles. A beautifully written novel, the detail of surroundings and essence of character are portrayed in such vivid and meaningful ways that you cannot help but fall into the landscape. This novel, classified as crime fiction, is however, concentrated more fully on the impact events have on the main characters and less emphasis placed on the detail of the events themselves. A colourful page-turner with a winding plot and an autobiographical approach - highly recommended reading.

The Good Life Starts Here!

Having watched the excellent and informative TV series I decided to part with my cash and buy the book of the series.

I have not been disappointed, the dishes I have tried taste wonderful, in particular potatoes and onions roasted in half a bottle of balsamic vinegar! Awesome!

The combination of grow it then cook it works well.

This is one of the most honest, unpretentious"celebrity" cook books you could find, full of easy recipes bursting with flavour.

The book would make an excellent present to both an experienced cook and novice alike.

Absolutly superb.

The only drawback, I now want an oven in the garden!

Beautifully written

I will admit that when I first approached this book, I did not think I would finish it. It chops and changes between prose, lists and observations. I thought that this style of writing would confuse and annoy me, but I quickly became used to it. It also served as a great way of building up tension within the novel. Death frequently tells the reader of future deaths of characters, which really captured my attention. There were several moments when I could not be wrenched from my book as I feared for the life of a specific character.

The story is very touching. It is certainly a fresh take on the Holocaust and the Nazi regime. It is a story of chances, stolen books and fulfilled promises. The novel is not bogged down with details of German history but instead the novelist focuses on his characters. I love the idea of the Jewish fist fighter dreaming of being in the boxing ring with Adolf Hitler. Or the young German boy who blackens his face to be like his idol, Jesse Owens.

The Book Thief is a book that everyone should read. I can see from some of the comments that it is not everyone's cup of tea. However, I did love it but I may be biased as I frequently read books on World War Two. I am not ashamed to say that I cried for a full 15 minutes after finishing the novel.

Wonderful Short Story

This book is set around 35 years before the events depicted in His Dark Materials. It gives us a wonderful background of Lee Scoresby, the aeronaut Lyra meets in Northern Lights. In this new story a young Lee sets out to find adventure after a fortuitous win at poker finds him the proud owner of a balloon.

The fact that Lee is greatly under-prepared for flying a balloon adds to the excitement and amusement of how the tale unfolds. It also is the predominant reason for his crash landing into the middle of a confrontation between a Dutch sea-captain and a mining company! Never one to easily be distressed, Lee leaps into the thick of things. The story has all the essential elements of 'good' versus 'evil', as do all of the Pullman books, but it is far from repetitive.

For those who enjoyed the trilogy that this prequels I think you will be very interested in this short story. The echoes that resound between this and some of the events in His Dark Materials merely add to the charm of it. The good thing is that there is plenty of scope for other tales to be woven, as Pullman has many other characters that could be explored equally well.

My only criticism is that it is too short! Other than that it is a fantastic prequel to the trilogy of His Dark Materials, and this edition is beautifully decorated. The fold-out board game is a nice extra, as are the elegant illustrations. A truly adorable little book! If you are a fan of His Dark Materials, I highly recommend adding this to your collection.

Gripping and brilliant, if a little long

This Charming Man has to be a classic Marian Keyes title - it has everything that you would expect - moments of heartbreak, daft but loveable characters and you feel genuine warmth and affection for her main characters. This book, I believe is not as entertaining as her previous titles but the subject matter is much more important and is written with real respect and thorough research. I enjoyed it immensly.
Having said that though I do feel that at times the book was overly long and certain chapters could have been edited without the real thrust of the story being lost.
However that could be just be me being nit-picky - Marian Keyes, in my humble opinion is still way in front of any other women writers in terms of storytelling and humour.

Shardlake back in action - but radical religion is the problem at every turn

Having thought that Shardlake hung up his detecting laurels after the traumas of the last book (Sovereign), we thought we had seen the last of him. But his reappearance has got hearts racing and excitement levels raised - because Sansom is undoubtedly a great thriller writer - with an incredible eye for historical detail and nuances to boot. What more could you want in an historical novel. As Colin Dexter said in his review of the earlier books, Sansom makes the past feel like the present.

This book drags Shardlake, Barak & Guy into a grizzly world of a religious fanatic serial killer who is driven by a scary misreading of the Book of Revelation. These three are modern heroes - they are our guides in a world that is at one level so alien from ours (with the twists and turns of religious battles affecting the lives of countless mortals, from London butchers caught selling meat during Lent to the priggish hypocrisy of reformist clergy dominating the lives of their parishioners); and yet as Sansom mentions in his afterword, one which bears uncomfortable resonances in to our era, intimidated as it is by the terrorism and implacable hatred of zealots.

I suppose as someone who is a Christian, and who is equally horrified by the lengths people's principles enable them to go, I am disappointed that there are few sympathetic characters in London's religious world. Perhaps that is accurate. Cranmer is the only one who seems really to draw our empathy in this murky world - forced daily, even hourly, to exist in the tension between principle and pragmatism.

But that is not so much a criticism of the book as an observation - because historical novels tend to say more about the era in which they are written than the period they describe. And that is very much the spirit of the age. It doesn't detract from the book, though. It was gripping as ever - and investigates some serious problems and questions - such as the nature of madness, the cruelties of those in power, the absurdities of a monarch's marital whims causing societal earthquakes. But above all - this is all weaved into a great story. And that is what makes Sansom such a satisfying writer. Let's hope Shardlake returns for more! And that they don't go and ruin it by trying to make a TV series of them all, and thus obliterate all the skillful complexities!

A lovely, heart felt read

After reading all of Cecelia's books i was really looking forward to getting lost in this one. Usually im hooked from the word go in her stories but i found this one took me a while to get into. However i endured it and i am pleased to say i found this book not only a romantic story but a great comedy aswell. The relationship between the main character and her father had me laughing out loud in many places especially there little adventure to London. Over all, despite not being as good as her others i was not left disapointed. A great easy read. I cant wait for her next

Brilliant !!!

My daughter is 5 and loves it, I am quite a bit older and love it and nanny loves it too. Fab illustrations, fun story just great

Got it same day as THE Game

I have bought guides in the past, but this guide is certainly the biggest and most indepth...You may have your reason for buying a guide, mine is that I have limited time (family/job etc) to fuel a long standing game's addiction and I simply don't have the time for frustration...I am not a stats Nazi, nor am I in a hurry to complete the game, but if YOU are, fine, this guide is for you too...

Every mission is well covered and illustrated in the guide, every sub-mission, every girlfriend,friend etc.etc. Everything you need to
a) avoid frustration
b) be a stats Nazi
c) complete all the missions/ get 100% completion / copulate with 5 women (although not at the same time)etc

there is also a brief multiplayer guide which has a few tips. This guide probably won't help you rule the online games...only serious practice leading to possible RSI can do that...

Its a thick guide with a big bonus map thats more detailed than the one that comes with the game, and the guide even has pictures aswell as descriptions of all the flying rat/stunt jumps.
It has pretty much everything you'd need from a guide except it won't update itself when new content comes out,
but it does exactly what it says on the tin...
in discussion I will try and answer queries, but really you might aswell just buy it...

Nice idea, average author

I quite liked the idea of the gap year/war journey stories colliding but found the writing similar to that of a schoolchild. The most obvious example being the two or three pages that condense Leo's suspicion/confrontation of Hannah when he thinks she fancies him - in reality, the scenario would have taken place over several weeks but the whole thing was wedged into a few pages. It was like the author had to shoe-horn the situation into the story but couldn't be bothered to weave it into the plot. Ditto the"inheritance", which l found myself completely detached from. The storytelling, which was executed very well in the old man's tale, just did not come through when the strands of the two stories were being pulled together - they were stuck messily into place rather than carefully woven throughout the book.

An average read, easy to pick up and put down but nothing to shout about.

Jewel of a book

This is the best book I have read since"Birdsong"- a wonderful evocations of love, emotion, uptightness, duty, sex, and post war England.
A jewel of a book.

Stop

Some good facts but the lack of science annoys do not buy this book if you want education buy it if you want to join a trend

Truly Inspirational

I really enjoyed reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Bringing awareness to my own life, I could see how many of things Rhonda writes about has happened to me. What stood out for me is the very first chapter. It is summed up on page 25 in Secret Summaries."Your current thoughts are creating your future life. What you think about the most or focus on the most most will appear as your life. I can see that when I believe I can do something I do and when I think I can't I don't.

The chapter, The Secret to Relationships, was also an eye opener. Dr John Gray says"You become the Solution for you" It was an eye opening idea that if my relationship isn't working the other person is not to blame and that I need to look at me. This brought to mind another book I've read and highly recommend:How To Create a Magical Relationship" Ariel & Shya's book is brilliantly written and guides the reader in how to have a Magical Relationship and how having a magical relationship is up to you and not your partner.

Thinking of both these books makes me smile. I highly recommend them both!

amazing

i read the back of this book in shops... convinced it wasn't my type of thing (i'm not that into war etc). when the film came out and everyone wanted to go, i thought..... i need to read the book first. so i gave in and bought the book. i ended up having it finished in days.... the book is truly amazing. i adored every moment of it, the flow throughout keeps you begging for more! I actually learnt a lot through its content. I advise anyone to give it a try and i promise you will enjoy it. ps the film is good too.

Harlan Coben is Up There With the Best of Them

Harlan Coben continues to prove that he is one of the best thriller writers around at the moment. A page turner is a much used phrase but in this case it is really appropriate. The author's books are always so well structured and his character's well rounded. He is obviously comfortable with his style and ability and this transmits itself to the reader making the reading of his books sheer pleasure from start to finish. Coben has now got a string of best selling crime novels behind him and all I can say is that I hope he continues to write for many years to come. The author lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children.

The author is always there or thereabouts in the best seller lists and his books are consistently good and this one is no different, although having said that I did not think it was his best, but still eminently readable. Always one to keep the reader guessing the books has lots of twists and turns but Harlan Coben has the happy knack of keeping the reader guessing almost until the last page.

It is difficult to provide a synopsis of the storyline without spoiling the enjoyment of the reader, suffice to say that a pair of overprotective parents, worried about the welfare of their sixteen-year-old son install a spy programme onto their son's computer, only to find out far more than they had bargained for.

Express Success!!

This book is a hit! I bought it when I was having guests for the week-end. I wanted to spend more time with my guests than time spent over a hot cooker. It worked, I prepared ahead where I could like Nigella's tip of storing your ready made pancake mix. My guests loved everything I made from the tasty Quesadillas Tortilla wrap Page 240 to the hugely popular Smoked salmon potato cakes page 198. with the exquisite Flourless Choc brownies page 51 and my absolute top favourite of Cherry cheesecake page 81. If I have any critisism, it would have to be the several pounds I piled on over the weekend. You do need to be aware that many of the recipes should carry a high fat warning. Right now, there's just time to make a Mocha choc smoothie whilst the TV adverts are on. Thats what I call an express success!!
P.S. Such was it's popularity that two of my friends have since made me order a book for themselves....Is nothing sacred?

Dull and disappointing schlock

Having read two others of his earlier books I thought decent beach reading at least but ... Stereotypes abound in this mawkish high-brow schlock. Cardboard cut-out characters (think: unhinged talented artist, stock-in-trade stolid solid husband, 'challenging' zany offspring with unlikely names, the uniquitous gay characters obssessed with matching fabrics, the art world and lifestyle)... generally a po-faced lot. Oh, and a North American connection chucked in too for transatlantic sales no doubt. The first 200 pages is especially hard going and padded.

The cover reviews are, in my opinion, are bizarrely over the top.

If you want good character studies with lovely tightly-written prose try Barbara Pym or Roddy Doyle or Julian Barnes.

The birth of detective fiction and the death of a child

This book is as much a history of Victorian social values and the emerging field of detective fiction in the nineteenth century as it is a book about a hideous country house murder in 1860. Researched using original police papers from the National Archives, books on the crime and many more sources, the book tells the story of the Road Hill House murder of 1860, when a three year old boy was brutally slain by another occupant of his home. The book sets out to detail the case, from the original event to the investigation by Scotland Yard detective Jack Whicher, to the aftermath suffered by the entire family.

It's extremely well written and well researched, and even though there is little to add suspense considering anyone with an Internet connection can discover the identity of the murderer, Summerscale still manages to inject a certain air of tension into proceedings, drawing things out as they must have unfolded at the time. With a peculiar ability to grab your attention and hold it firmly, the book is difficult to put down, and a thoroughly fascinating read for anyone with an interest in detective fiction, real life crime or a historical period that throws up as many questions as it answers.

Highly recommended.