The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman- Book Review

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman- Book Review

Title: The Thursday Murder Club 

Author: Richard Osman

Publisher: Penguin Books

Publish Date: September 3, 2020

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Come Again by Robert Webb- Book Review

Come Again by Robert Webb- Book Review

Title: Come Again 

Author: Robert Webb

Publisher: Canongate Books

Publish Date: 2020

Rating: 3.5/5

Summary(blurb): Kate's husband, Luke --the man she loved from the moment she met him twenty-eight years ago-- died suddenly. Since then, she has pushed away her friends and lost her job, and her whole world seems to be falling apart. One day Kate wakes up in the wrong place and in the wrong body. She is eighteen again but remembers everything: This is her college room in 1992. This is the first day of orientation. And this is the day she meets Luke. Now Kate knows how Luke died, and she knows that he's already ill. But this Luke is not the man she lost: he's still a boy —the annoying nineteen-year-old English student she first encountered. If they can fall in love again despite everything, Kate might just be able to save him-but can she fall in love again?

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Something to Live For by Richard Roper- Book Review

Something to Live For by Richard Roper- Book Review

Title: Something to Live For (previously How Not To Die Alone)

Author: Richard Roper

Publisher: Orion Books

Publish Date: 2019

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): Meet Andrew. Everybody likes Andrew. But they don’t really know him. They know what he’s told them – that he’s happily married with two kids. Living the kind of life that’s either so boring it’s true, or so perfect it’s a lie...

Enter Peggy. Peggy arrives in Andrew’s life in a burst of kindness and possibility. For the first time in ages, Andrew feels alive again. So now that he has everything to lose, can he risk it all and tell Peggy the truth? A big-hearted story about love, loneliness, and the importance of taking a chance when we feel we have the most to lose..

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Starter for Ten by David Nicholls- Book Review

Starter for Ten by David Nicholls- Book Review

Title: Starter for Ten (also A Question of Attraction)

Author: David Nicholls

Publisher: Villard Books

Publish Date: 2003

Rating: 3.5/5

Summary(blurb): The year is 1985. Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first term at university. He has a dark secret--a long-held, burning ambition (stoked by his late father) to appear on the wildly popular TV quiz show University Challenge--and now, finally, it seems the dream is about to become reality. He's made the school team, and they've completed the qualifying rounds and are limbering up for their first televised match. (And, what's more, he's fallen head over heels for one of his teammates, the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson.) Life seems perfect and triumph inevitable--but as his world opens up, Brian learns that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. 

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Anthem by Ayn Rand- Book Review

Anthem by Ayn Rand- Book Review

Title: Anthem

Author: Ayn Rand

Publisher: Signet

Publish Date: 1938

Rating: 3.5/5

Summary(blurb): They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was one—the great WE. In all that was left of humanity there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy word—I.

**This book review may contain spoilers**

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides- Book Review

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides- Book Review

Title: The Silent Patient

Author: Alex Michaelides

Publisher: Orion Books

Publish Date: 2019

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. Until one night, when her husband, Gabriel, returns home late from work, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word. Alicia's refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into a mystery that captures the public imagination. And she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids at the Grove, a secure psychiatric unit in North London. Criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber is captivated by Alicia's story and jumps at the opportunity to work with her. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband will take him down a path more unexpected and more terrifying than he ever imagined.

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin - Book Review

Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin- Book Review

Title: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Author: Grace Lin

Publisher: Little Brown

Publish Date: 2009

Rating: 5/5

Summary(blurb): A Newbery Honor Book. Young Minli lives in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain, where she and her parents spend their days working hard in the fields.  At night, Minli listens to her father's tales about the Old Man of the Moon, who knows the answers to everything. Minli sets out on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon-- he will know how she can bring good fortune to her family. Along the way, she meets many magical friends, including a talking fish, a powerful king, and a dragon who can't fly.

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Dune by Frank Herbert- Book Review

Dune by Frank Herbert- Book Review

Title: Dune

Author: Frank Herbert

Publisher: Ace Books

Publish Date: August 1965 (original publishing)

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): "Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe."

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for... When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Thrawn by Timothy Zahn - Book Review

Thrawn by Timothy Zahn- Book Review

Title: Thrawn

Author: Timothy Zahn

Publisher: Del Rey

Publish Date: April 11, 2017

Rating: 5/5

Summary: After Thrawn is rescued from exile by Imperial soldiers, his deadly ingenuity and keen tactical abilities swiftly capture the attention of Emperor Palpatine. And just as quickly, Thrawn proves to be as indispensable to the Empire as he is ambitious; as devoted as its most loyal servant, Darth Vader; and a brilliant warrior never to be underestimated. On missions to rout smugglers, snare spies, and defeat pirates, he triumphs time and again—even as his renegade methods infuriate superiors while inspiring ever greater admiration from the Empire. As one promotion follows another in his rapid ascension to greater power, he schools his trusted aide, Ensign Eli Vanto, in the arts of combat and leadership, and the secrets of claiming victory. But even though Thrawn dominates the battlefield, he has much to learn in the arena of politics, where ruthless administrator Arihnda Pryce holds the power to be a potent ally or a brutal enemy.

**This book review may contain spoilers**