The Accidental Further Adventures Of The Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson- Book Review

 

The Accidental Further Adventures Of The Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson- Book Review

Title: The Accidental Further Adventures Of The Hundred-Year-Old Man

Author: Jonas Jonasson

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publish Date: July 2018

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): 

It all begins with that pesky lever in the hot air balloon. Allan is sitting quietly with his friend Julius, waiting for his 101st birthday party to begin, when someone manages to break the lever, and before they know it, up they go, far above the Indian Ocean... 

But what goes up must come down, and after they are rescued from the water by a North Korean ship, it's only a matter of time before the pair are entangled in a global diplomatic crisis involving a briefcase full of contraband uranium. Everyone seems quite interested in this briefcase - from President Trump and Kim Jong-un to Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel - and from then on it's just one accidental adventure after another. There's a vital government message scribbled on the back of a napkin (after numerous glasses of apple vodka), a disastrous case of swapped coffins, a far-too-close encounter with a very angry Nazi, at least one séance, and plenty of illegal asparagus ...

**This book review may contain spoilers**

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**

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson- Book Review

 

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson- Book Review

Title: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Author: Jonas Jonasson

Publisher: Hesperus Press

Publish Date: 2009

Rating: 5/5

Summary(blurb): A reluctant centenarian much like Forrest Gump (if Gump were an explosives expert) decides it's not too late to start over . . .

After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant). 

It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: Not only has he witnessed some of the most important events of the twentieth century, but he has actually played a key role in them. Starting out in munitions as a boy, he somehow finds himself involved in many of the key explosions of the twentieth century and travels the world, sharing meals and more with everyone from Stalin, Churchill, and Truman to Mao, Franco, and de Gaulle. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world.....

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card- Book Review

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card- Book Review

Title: Ender's Shadow 

Author: Orson Scott Card

Publisher: Starscape Books

Publish Date: 1999

Rating: 5/5

Summary(blurb): Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. Here is the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean—the one who became Ender's right hand, his strate-gist, and his friend. Bean's past was a battle just to survive on the streets of Rotterdam. He was a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else's. 

Bean's desperate struggle, and his remarkable success, brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card- Book Review

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card- Book Review

Title: Ender's Game 

Author: Orson Scott Card

Publisher: Starscape Books

Publish Date: 1985

Rating: 5/5

Summary(blurb): Once again, Earth is under attack. An alien species is poised for a final assault. The survival of humanity depends on a military genius who can defeat the aliens. But who? 

Ender. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child. 

Recruited for military training by the world government, Ender's childhood ends the moment he enters his new home: Battle School. Among the elite recruits Ender proves himself to be a genius among geniuses. He excels in simulated war games. But is the pressure and loneliness taking its toll on Ender? Simulations are one thing. How will Ender perform in real combat conditions? After all, Battle School is just a game. Isn't it?

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata- Book Review

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata- Book Review

Title: Kira-Kira 

Author: Cynthia Kadohata

Publisher: Atheneum

Publish Date: February 1, 2004

Rating: 5/5

Summary(blurb): kira-kira (kee ra kee ra): glittering; shining 

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because is color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in lowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering--kira-kira—in the future.

**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**