Reviews

For those of you who've read Kate Mosse's preceding novel, Labyrinth, Sepulchre follows the same narrative style and relies upon a fairly similar storytelling technique: events from the past are inextricably bound to events in the present day and our present day heroine becomes enthralled with her historical link and is compelled to try to right the wrongs of the bygone era.

It's a rare occasion when a movie reduces me to tears, but Big Fish has the ability to reduce me to a blubbering heap every time.

Big Fish tells the life story of Edward Bloom through a series of flashbacks and retrospectives. As Edward nears the end of his life, his estranged son comes home and their tensions resume as it becomes clear Edward has invented many of the childhood stories he told his son William.

Any time you encounter a Will Smith movie, he's valiantly fighting to save the world from something. In The Pursuit Of Happyness, it's different. He's valiantly fighting to save himself.

Movies featuring Will Smith usually pit him as an energetic, wise cracking hero amid a bunch of aliens and special effects. But perhaps it is because of - or in spite of - this pedigree that Smith manages to surprise us with a remarkably low-key and touching performance as a down on his luck single father trying to make ends meet for his family.

You know, I've always considered Harry Potter as a bit of a wimp. With the glasses and always being bailed out by someone else or accidentally worming his way out a situation.

But what if we beefed Harry Potter up a little bit, perhaps got someone a bit tougher to play the role. It'd be worth it just for what would ultimately become the new Potter's catchphrase:

The tagline to Never Hit A Jellyfish With A Spade is “How to Survive Life’s Smaller Challenges”, and that’s the essence of this book. A series of short articles lifted from Browning’s Guardian column, each focuses on a micro-topic from everyday life: How to…. eat biscuits, mow the lawn, read a Sunday paper.

If you don’t have the stamina for a book review right now, scroll down to the question at the bottom for an interesting ethical debate!

The last time I read a Dean Koontz novel, he was specifically a writer of horror stories. That was a fair few years ago to say the least, and in the meantime Koontz seems to have transcended the pure horror genre. These days, he seems to be writing in the more modern, more lucrative thriller style.

My cynicism (for Koontz’s motives) aside, the man has not lost his touch. Velocity is a fast-paced crime thriller, but manages to raise some interesting moral and ethical questions at the same time.

On the cover of On Second Thoughts… is a drawing of King Arthur and his knights sitting at a square table as one of the group asks if anyone else thinks the Feng Shui is all wrong.

Before I read Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs, I was a complete Irvine Welsh virgin - had never read one of his books before, or even seen Trainspotting (hard to believe?).

Somewhere it must be written that with every new Harry Potter book release, the population must rush out and buy said tome (queuing up for bonus points, of course) and then attempt to read all six hundred and something pages in about twenty minutes.

Being the independently minded, well-balanced individual that I am, I bought my copy on the Saturday morning (in fairness, I didn't queue) and proceeded to read it. But because I'm a big boy with grown up responsibilities, I finished reading The Deathly Hallows on Monday evening.