Fabulous

I love this book! I have cooked more of the recipes from this book than I have from any other on my heaving cookery book shelf! From the truly delicious prawn linguine on a work night, to the glittery marshmallow squares for my niece's birthday party, to tasty Mexican scrambled egg on a Sunday morning... fab fab fab! And that's not to mention the coq au riesling and quesadillas, which I have happily cooked for friends. I've recommended this book to family, friends and colleagues, and heartily recommend it to Amazon readers too!

An outdoor swimming treasure

I was delighted to receive this book for Fathers Day and have already swam in two locations previously not known to me. The outdoor pool at Nantwich, whilst not a truly"Wild Swim" is a fantastic spot, fresh and deep in a lovely setting with easy carparking.
The all-year round wild swimming, sometimes clad in triathlon wetsuits, looks more demanding but the pleasure of Kate, Dominick and companions is evident on each page of the book and I am tempted. The summary paragraphs after each location are particularly useful and are influencing my summer plans. Detailed location maps would be useful but with the web and Kate's directions it does not look difficult to identify the swimming spots.

In short this is an excellent book, both the prose and the photography, for quiet time reading (preferably outside in the sun) for reference and to share with friends and family. This is a book that will travel with you, brighten a difficult day and distract you if you let it. I dare you not to be tempted by an outdoor dip having read it. As per the cover"Go on. Dive in" - this is an outdoor swimming tresure.

Easy reading

I read this book in a couple of evenings and thought the description of the storm especially good. Fast moving and different from the norm plot.
Would have given 5 stars, but found the final ending a little far fetched. That apart a very good read and recommended.

A book that falls between two (football) stools

No mistake; this is a book fashioned from a clever concept, but having ploughed through it, I am left unclear as to the mix of Clough biography and the artistic licence added by the author. It is written in a style that becomes grating after about 150 pages. If you really want to know more about the legend of Brian Clough - then pick up one of his biographies (or Peter Taylor's book: with Clough by Taylor). If you want to know more about the events at Leeds in 1974: go to the library and read the newspaper reports of the time. So in short: not a recommended read even for the footbal devotees.

A hell of a big splash

This is the book to make poltroons like me brace up and take the plunge. On so many occasions, hot and sweaty on a walk, I have come to a pool, a river or a waterfall and thought, 'Oh, I'd love to fall in there - but I can't.' And why can't I? Because it's too cold, because I don't dare, because I might not be allowed, because I haven't got a towel, because, because ...

Pathetic, man! Here is the wonderful antidote to all that cowardice. 150 brilliant places where it's not only OK to swim or plunge or flop out on your back - it's the nicest, most natural thing on earth, if you judge by the ecstatic expressions on the (mostly young, mostly shapely) people who cavort in or stand invitingly on the brink of the cool pools in Daniel Start's quite irresistibly seductive photos. Why aren't there any snaps of saggy greybeards like me? Because, let's face it, we don't scrub up so well. But Daniel's message is that there's room and tolerance for all of us in the clear trout-filled River Nadder at Teffont Evias in Wiltshire, under the mountain oaks of the Wolf's Leap in deepest Wales, or among the Faerie Pools in the dramatic shadow of the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye.

Great Scott! I can hardly wait. This is a wonderful, youthful, inspiring book. I've let my Health Club subscription lapse because I couldn't take the urine and chlorine and locker-room macho any more. But now I shall be a swimmer into cleanness leaping. Here I gooooooooooooo ... !

Intellectually engaging

Not sure what the previous reviewer was looking for.
George Soros brings an interesting and quite realistic perspective to how financial markets work and why the current financial downturn has come about. His writing style does not lend itself to light reading and can be heavy going at times. And reading this book requires a degree of inmersion into elements of philosophy as well as financial markets. This does not in itself disqualify the subject matter in it. Soros offers an interesting and timely analysis which I have found worth understanding.

Warning - May contain some plot giveaways!

I liked the idea of this book - about an island in turmoil, and the children able to escape into a Dickensian world. The first half of the book is delightfully sweet (almost twee) - with some elements of comedy coming from the Mother's who attend the school to impart their"wisdom". I was considering giving this to my 8 year old niece to read after I'd finished because it seemed like a good children's book. Then it takes a rather sinister twist and some killings are described in rather graphic detail - which somewhat changed my opinion. In this respect it is very much a book of two halves - I am forgetting about the tedious ending where Matilda is in Australia...and finds out the rather deflatingly boring reason for the red nose and the trolley. I felt some characters were poorly represented - particularly Grace who really didn't get an airing until her burial. Where was the description of her madness? We were just supposed to take that for granted because Matilda said"everyone knows she's mad"...Why? And then finding out she went mad because she played a part in a play...? What? I think Jones tried to make Mr Watts and Grace's relationship a fascinating one - but it was never really backed up with any substance. Overall I was glad I read this book, but maybe that's because I'm a very quick reader and it didn't cost me many hours of my life as it's relatively short. The reviews listed about the emotional detachment of the book are warranted, although I'm not sure whether that was deliberate or not. It was weird reading a 13 year old girls narrative (well 20 something when she wrote the book), and glimpsing the fat balding grey New Zealand author in the back cover.

Stunning achievement

The Great Mutiny in 1857 has been a major inspiration for writers of fiction (and non-fiction too off course). Some of those fictional books I've read, though by far not all (has anyone read them all?), but never have I been as impressed by one as by `The siege of Krishnapur'.

This is really a most extraordinary book. I may perhaps not read it as people born and bred in England (to them Krishnapur is probably a household-name and a legendary part of their national history) but in fact this matters little. `The siege of Krishnapur' is much much more than a book about the siege of that particular place. The entire story is told from the point of view of a number of the English residents, while the sepoys are merely present as a part of the setting (almost as the summer heat, the monsoon rains, the bugs, ...). And it is in the description of these characters and their thoughts and feelings that this book surpasses all others I've read. Mr. Hopkins (the Collector), Mr. Willoughby (the Magistrate), George Fleury, Harry Dunstable, the Padre, and many more, will impress themselves upon you as if you know them in the flesh.

Their near-sighted views of most everything (the `civilizing' influence of British rule over India and science's progress, the roles of men versus women), their stubborn adherence to `proper' conduct and society's rules and regulations ever after 3 months of siege, the proverbial British phlegm in the face of desperate odds, it is all described with such an incomparable style and vocabulary to make these people both tragic, heroic, and - oddest perhaps of all - at times extremely humorous.

One of the best books I've read in years.

Here & Now. And then

As a child the Paddington books were a great pleasure to me, managing to be both cosily conventional and yet utterly iconoclastic at the same time. To a child, the experience of watching an ingenue in the adult world is one with which it is very easy to identify. This was the great strength of the series. And now, after all this time, Paddington returns. So has time been kind to our friend form Darkest Peru? Happily, the answer is a very resounding"yes".

The book itself is a solid and heavy hardback and the illustrations are charming and of good quality, as is the jacket. Such presentation gives a good feeling about what lies inside.

As for the book itself, in all honesty the style has changed not one bit. The odd thing is that it is really quite difficult to identify when these stories happen. There is no sense of any great time having passed at all since the earlier books. There is a passing oblique reference to a nefarious journalist having a mobile phone and a visit to the London Eye, but otherwise these stories are resolutely old-fashioned in tone and the Brown family hardly seem to have aged at all. It's all the better for it and actually quite comforting that Michael Bond hasn't been too gimmicky with this update. It gives the book its considerable charm.

The opening chapter deals with our ursine friend's experiences at the police station after his shopping trolley goes missing. The events are gently satirical and manage to poke some good-natured fun at the puzzlement that older readers may feel about policemen looking ever younger. As can be expected, Paddington enjoys some run-ins with the familiar Mr Curry, has a Hallowe'en party, plays the piano suspiciously well and towards the end gets a huge surprise. As ever the prose is clear and contains several laugh-out-loud moments of fun. It's probably not giving too much away to say that Paddington comes out on top in the end, but it's the journey that's the most fun. Indeed, the last chapter or so is really rather touching and cuts to the heart of what it feels to be feel wanted and part of a family.

A must read for children of any age (including those of us in our thirties and above!). Very highly recommended.

Great insight but a little too self centered

I did enjoy this book. Do not get me wrong. BUT I think that there is a great cultural divide. In the US people tend to be less backward in coming forward about themselves and about half way through the book started to grate on me. Elizabeth just seemed to be totally obsessed with me me me me me to the extent that as a UK woman I was cringeing. I am not saying that women should not be confident, or that UK is better than US, but very different. I would like to have seen more context in her writing, more consideration for others and her effect on others, perhaps less ego centicness. All being said it is a unique book.

Is it just me?

I know that this book is supposed to be one of the classics, and I understand how observation of human nature is very interesting etc. What I don't understand is why everyone raves about The Catcher in the Rye- I think maybe I am just missing the point.

I say each to their own- read it and make your own mind up.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

I am quite surprised that there are people who did'nt like this book, each to their own I suppose. I really enjoyed it, I thought it was a great story, and, like Kate Mosse's last epic Labrinth I found myself caring for the characters and what became of them, like a previous reviewer I enjoyed the past story of Leonie, Anatole and Isolde much more and thought that Victor Constant was a wonderfully dark character. All in all I enjoyed this book greatly. My advice. Give it a try, you might just find it was worth it.

Can reading this book make you thin?

This book claims that it will change your relationship with food and that will ultimately make you thin but of course we all know is that eating less and excercising more will make you thin not reading a book so whats this guys silver bullet. The point is I think that part of loosing weight is about determing the reasons why you are doing it and making sure that you can sustain that weight loss. My doctor told me that less than 10% of people who loose weight keep it off so its true that the long term solution is as important as the hunger pangs and gym time. The two main aspects of the plan are firstly only eat when you are hungry and secondly positive thinking and reinforcement of positive messages - which I found the most interesting as it encourages you to turn any negative idea or thought into something positive so mental as well as physical gymnastics. The book itself contains 90 pages and on the left hand side there is a daily idea from our mentor, for example, taking the time to think positively about some part of yourself. On the right hand side is a daily checklist and space to put in some comments to two questions a) One positive thing I noticed today and b) What I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The checklist asks if you have if you have moved your body, drank lots of water, eaten only when you are hungry, looked in the mirror and thought about how great you. The second key to this plan or idea is only eat what you want and only eat when you are hungry. The idea being not to enter into a negative cycle of deprevation but embracing what you like eating but only eat when you need to and as much as you need. All these ideas are great and important to long term success. I also find that writing in a journal and having checkpoints is a good way to keep on track. But whether any diet works is up to you not the author, so the book is a tool to help you as an overweight individual feel more positive about yourself, more committed to a diet and build a long term sustainable relationship with food. So did it work for me? well it helped me think about why I was dieting and the postiive thinking was a very good excercise which I much appreciated and I honestly did change some things in my relationship with food such as only eating at the table - not in front of the TV and to think about the enjoyment of food rather than using it as a comfort blanket and I started doing more sport - I do however admit that although I kept on the diet I gave up with the journal after around 1.5 months as the daily questions are the same but ever so often I go back and have a peek.

Too, too long

Well, I finally managed to finish The House at Riverton. The overall story was OK but it lacked any kind of pace (except dead slow). It was so turgid. I feel the book was written for literary effect and judging by many of the reviews it seems to have worked but it left me feeling impatient and frustrated and really not much caring about how the final denouement.

Great Pre-school Reading

Absolutely fascinating book. My twin nieces have enjoyed this from the age of three, when it was first bought for them until now, at the ripe old age of 4 years.
They love the story, the illustrations and love telling Mum & Dad what is going to happen on the next page before it is turned over !!!
This book was well worth the cost and has been excellent in every way. Highly recommended for your toddler.

So Glad I Bought It

I only bought one book after having my little boy a year ago and am I glad it was this one. It has covered every aspect for the first year, which you would expect, but it was not one of those books which tells you which way is best. What I mean is, I am still breastfeeding my son at just over one year old and I never felt it pushed the bottle on me or breastfeeding, just gives advice on whatever you feel is best. And lets be honest, we all know what feels right for each of us, we just need a little bit of advice.

My sister has just had her first baby and I have bought the book for her. We have different ideas on things, but we have both felt a great deal of reassurance from this book.

Great gems

This is great! We were camping up around the lake district and it directed us to some superb little-used spots. It also has excellent suggestions for eating/drinking etc near each campsite and/or warnings if there's a bit of a walk. We definitely found a few gems (like the Drunken Duck!). It covers 40 campsites across England (each one gets a page or two, and some lovely photographs so you can see what you're getting) - not a huge amount of choice, but as it says itself it"features a hand-picked selection", and seemingly they visited hundreds of camp sites across England to find this list of 40, and i'd much prefer that to a huge list of ones where you turn up and are disappointed.
Something that i found a huge advantage, but that you might find a disadvantage is that they're NOT looking for"holiday park" type camp grounds - their (and my) idea of hell. so the ones listed here will be beautiful , or quirky, or in a brilliant location ... but they won't have lots of swimming pools and hi-de-hi activities etc.
The only (small) disadvantage is, although the directions to/from the campsites are detailed, it wasn't great with directions to some of the"nearby food/amenites" locations - but it does give phone numbers so you can ring and find out if you want to (i suppose it saved space).

Bottom line - i've just now discovered on Amazon (sorry - i originally bought cool camping : england in a little camping shop!) that there are companion guides to wales etc ... and I'm going straight out to put them in the shopping basket!

A surprisingly good read!

I found this book for a sale in an airport bookshop when it first came out and having read the back of it, I thought it would be worth £1.50 of anyone's money. I wasn't expecting it to be particularly brilliant, more of a timefiller for the plane. I thought the shop didn't have much faith either in it as it was so cheap! But I couldn't have been more wrong! I found it a little irritating in the beginning due to the poor grammer and badly formed sentences, but its a translation so I guess its to be expected to some extent. After a while your brain allows to you stop re-writting the sentences and actually enjoy the story. I throughly enjoyed it and found it to be a real page turner - I would definately recommend it! Its certianly memorable and an unusual read, I've certainly never read anything like this before. I won't go into all the detail about it as it will spoil the story - the back of the book does that a little which is a shame, but there is plenty there to keep you intrigued.

The quintessential read of contemporary history on the war in Helmand Province

If you're in the wild by conflicting reports, and the dulled down gibbergabber of our politicians on the military reality on the ground in Afghanistan, then"3 Para" is definitely the book to set you straight.

I am quite simply amazed at Patrick Bishops unique ability to, very professionally, go from the overall strategy employed to conquer Helmand, to the on-the-ground reality of fighting the battles to achieve it, however flawed the overall strategic considerations behind them might have been.

Bishop does a good job in showing all the facets the war in Helmand, from the strategic to the emotional, but what makes"3 Para" an amazing read, is the fact that that Patrick Bishop bases the hard facts around the soldiers' own accounts, sometimes quoting word by word, to describe what's going on and how it looks from the point of view of the warriors themselves.

Every read about the British Army's own"Dirty Dozen", the paratroopers, is bound to inspire some measure of fascination, with the outrageous culture surrounding their calling and their quirky identity as the ever spiteful paratroopers. This is a truly unique opportunity to get a still-fresh rundown on the events, only a few years after they happened, rather than the arguably more faded accounts from the regiments actions in the Falklands. As amazing as that campaign was in it's own right.

As a Dane, this book was especially valuable to me, as information on the the operational reality of the fighting in Helmand is never truly revealed to us without some form of censorship, or"angling" of the information by our own officials. Reading the book, you can somewhat see why.

If, like me, you've been looking for some insight on the ground in Afghanistan without any of the glorymongering, that you risk getting from some of the sensationalist soldiers-turned-writers, who are sadly often left in charge of some parts of military history, then"3 Para" should all the more be considered an inescapable part of your education on the subject.

From cover to cover it's a very well written gem of contemporary military history, solid through it's journalistic accuracy, yet still retaining a very human face throughout.