Since its a collection of, mostly, unrelated articles I struggled to get into a rhythm when reading this book. If you live reading Dickens writing though you'll  love this. For myself since I probably enjoy the stories more than just the writing style it wasn't the easiest read, but still phenomenally written. There were some absolute gems in this collection, and I think your personal politics and experiences will play a big part in whether you enjoy or not individual articles. As an example of how to write is 5 masterclass. As a book to just sit and read though some of the articles can be a bit of effort to get through. I'm definitely happy to have read it but it's one I'll not go back to given the plethora of great Dickens novels to choose from

I was surprised by how much I loved this book. It's an old writing style but with the characters and the plot it's perfect. It feels like a Georgette heyer novel but with more drama. Given the opportunity I'd love to go see the original play, and I've read this I'll be taking down the sequels and prequels. I can see why not everyone loves the book, it's not complex, but it's so much fun to read. A touch predictable in parts but I didn't even find that to distract from the book as I always looking forward to the reveal and how the other characters would react. I hovered between 4.5 and 5 but in the end I can't really give it 5 from a pure literary point of view

A brilliantly done mystery novel. I am personally a big fan of this type of structure, that being chapters written from different perspectives. These also jump between past and present which I have found sometimes can be an issue where parts are repeated or spoiled but in this case it was managed well, but still with a couple of times it didn't work perfectly. The plot itself is gripping and I always looked forward to picking this one back up. There's a broad range of characters and each is well written, though the dichotomy of Henry's character I think could have used exploring more. I suspect this has been done to be able to expand more into it in the sequel. That being said, for me, it's not a good enough reason to hunt down the 2nd in the series and it felt like the story ended in a good way for a standalone book, making it feel a bit like a movie franchise where they weren't confident in the popularity of the first and so had to make it work as a standalone or the first in a series and as a result it doesn't quite fit either case. Those are my only negatives though and I will probably read the subsequent books when I come across them. Well worth reading. 

I went into this book with no prior knowledgem found it in a book store and hadn;t heard of it or the author before.Suffice to say i'm very happy with this chance discovery and really enoyed the book.

 

The protagonists and all the side characters are believable and had a great ballance between flaws and ingratiating traits. Given the nature and humdrumness of the plot it's shockingly gripping. Combined with the characters and writing it's probably one of the best books I've read this year.

 

The one downside which has taken it down a notch for me was the vert final chapter which I'm not sure was needed. The penultimate chapter was brilliant and having the epilogue put on the end was a bit detractive.

When I picked this up on the bookshop the premise looked very interesting, unfortunately my bookshop is a bit of a Faraday cage so it's not possible to check online reviews as you shop. Overall I found this book perfectly fine, definitely not as bad as some reviewers have said,but it is quite slow and doesn't have a substantial plot. The writing itself though was nice, and very easy to read, and whilst none of the characters were particularly loveable I didn't hate them all either. This is a meh book, a perfectly pleasant way to kill time but in a month I won't remember much of the plot at all. I'm willing to read some of T. C. Boyle other work since based on reviews this looks like a bit of an outlier 

As I gradually work through Dickens this was my 4th novel, and one I had only heard of in passing when compared the the well known others. It surprises me how little known this one is given that in my opining, it's much better than Oliver Twist, and at least somewhat better than Great Expectations. The biggest downside to this book is the slow pace of the first half, somewhat lacking in plot and focusing heavily on character development. Given the breath, and depth, of the characters in this novel though it was kind of necessary to have this long build up to the riots. My other favourite Dickens novel is A Tale of Two Cities, this being another historical revolution setting it's unsurprising I enjoyed it so much, the big difference being I'd never heard of the Gordon riots before making it all the more interesting. I still have a lot of Dickens to go but this will surely be one of the highlights

I picked this up because I actually had no idea the film was based on a book, so I thought it would be a fun silly read just like the film. Turns out the film is nothing like the book, and whilst the film is great in an ironic way the book is geniuenly great. It's clearly s Sci fi classic and doesn't feel like it was written in 1959. It's a lot more of a political commentary than am action Sci fi. The actual war with the bugs, featured so prominently in the film, serves almost just as a back drop in the book. It's always nice to find another classic Sci fi author to enjoy so I'll have to find more by Heinlein

Another dci banks novel, and it's a decent read. I didn't find it quite as suspenseful as previous entries but the characters are definitely coming into their roles as the series progresses. The ending of this one

was a bit more sudden and darker than previous entries and saved the book from being a bit bland.

It's clearly one of the weaker entries in the series but the side characters start to come into their own in this book and as long as they become important later then it will have made this book worthwhile, otherwise it's a bit of a filler. I'll surely continue with the series though as even when bland they're very easy to read and relax to, like watching an episode of Midsommer murders on a rainy Sunday

This is a brilliantly written book, the progession between characters pov and the plot is so smooth you don't notice the time has gone backwards or forwards. The plot showcases the many approaches people could take to being Muslim during the crisis in Syria. Following the life of an individual family who all have different reactions to their fathers Jihadist legacy. It's a powerful story about the rise of extremism and how the government tackle it. I think the ending felt a little out of place with the rest of the book, and whilst shocking a touch forced. It's still a phenomenal book and one I highly recommend

This translation by David Raeburn is refreshingly accessible. Having recently finished Dante's Comedy I was worried this would be a difficult read but was pleasantly surprised about how easy it was. Considering it's effectivity a collection of all the Greek myths related to metamorphosis the book flows very well, Ovid managed to chain the stories together so it doesn't feel like a collection of independant stories. If you're interested at all in Greek mythology then this should be on your must read list. Stephen Frys mythos is another good one to read, and have 2 versions written 2000 years apart to compare. I'll look up more Raeburn translations because this was so well done.