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Written by Tash Aw, We The Survivors is as good a read as any I have found.

He has a comfortable, easy style and his narrative about nothing much, held my attention, despite everything it was not. If there was a theme it was grinding poverty and the futility of trying to change things that remain the same. Life inevitably returning to where it begins.

Short term temporary assignment. Contract staff

I enjoyed this book by Rachel Kushner. She has a contemporary style of writing that is both honest as well as engaging.

The Mars Room is a strip Club and the story is an account of what it is like to be poor and a female and to be serving two life sentences in a correctional facility in America. Raw earthy and at times brutal. Worth reading, albeit in small chunks.

It is not one of those books you can’t put down.

Another action thriller from Andy McNab. Cold Blood precedes the other two in the series which I have read.

An easy read with all the usual hardcore exploits expected from a fictional Special Forces operative.

Readable but only just. I needed the help of Google to recall the story line of this book by Mark Billingham.

The unfolding plot is both clumsy and contrived. In particular, the attempt at an erotic twist in the tale. Inserted for impact rather than content, the punch line falls flat. Clumsy and puerile. Only suggested if there is nothing else to hand.

A work of fiction woven out of historical facts. The melodrama is overdone but it was interesting enough to keep going.

Covering perhaps one of the most interesting periods in the history of the Moghuls. A time when the seeds of conflict were sown, a conflict that has boiled over and which has split the continent between Hindu and Muslim.

This was one of the few books I have enjoyed reading recently. It is crime thriller and an easy captivating read.
Continue reading Borrowed Light

Reasonably well written but a weak story line

It is a multi-generational tale of a family haunted by the death of a young concubine in 1930s. Essentially a critique of a custom that is still commonly practised widely throughout Asia. It is naive, lacking substance and authenticity.

Just another story which doesn’t really get anywhere.

Another Dud.

Note to self: Nominated for….Winner of…..Shortlisted for…..is no guarantee

Didn’t take long to decide that this book was not working for me