Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad

For the Decades ‘08 reading challenge (first published 1902).
English
111 pages
a Project Gutenberg e-book
First line: The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.
Back cover blurb:
In this tale of colonial exploitation, the narrator, Marlowe, journeys deep into the heart of [...]

Posted on May 25th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: C, Classics, Decades '08, English, Historical | No Comments »

Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned
by Stephen Cole

English
254 pages
BBC Books
ISBN: 0-563-48644-9
First line:How can something so big sink so fast?
Back cover blurb:
When a naval cruiser sinks in mysterious circumstances in the North Sea, all aboard are lost. Rose is saddened to hear that the brother of her friend, Keisha, was among the dead. And [...]

Posted on May 25th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: Adventure, B, English, Science Fiction | No Comments »

Strong Poison
by Dorothy L Sayers

English
261 pages
Harper Mystery
ISBN: 978-0-06-104350-5
First line:There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood.
Back cover blurb:
Mystery novelist Harriet Vane knew all about poisons, and when her fiancé died in the manner prescribed in one of her books, a jury of her peers had a hangman’s noose in [...]

Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by Love
Filed under: B, English, Historical, Mystery | 1 Comment »

Daddy-Long-Legs
by Jean Webster

For the Decades ‘08 reading challenge (first published 1912).
English
160 pages
J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd/E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
ISBN: n/a
First line: The first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful Day—a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste.
Back cover blurb: n/a
Thoughts: I’ve read Daddy-Long-Legs before, but [...]

Posted on May 20th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: B, Classics, Decades '08, English, Young Adult | No Comments »

Doctor Who: I Am a Dalek
by Gareth Roberts

English
106 pages
BBC Books
ISBN: 0-563-48648-1
First line: Rose checked the seal on her space helmet, then she looked across the TARDIS controls to the Doctor.
Back cover blurb:
Equipped with space suits, golf clubs and a flag, the Doctor and Rose are planning to live it up on the Moon, Apollo-mission [...]

Posted on May 20th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: Adventure, C, English, Science Fiction | No Comments »

Atonement
by Ian McEwan

English
481 pages
Anchor Books
ISBN: 978-0-307-38884-1
First line: The play—for which Briony had designed the posters, programs and tickets, constructed the sales booth out of a folding screen tipped on its side, and lined the collection box in red crêpe paper—was written by her in a two-day tempest of composition, causing her to miss a [...]

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: C, English, Historical | 3 Comments »

My War: Killing Time in Iraq
by Colby Buzzell

English
358 pages
Berkley Caliber
ISBN: 0-425-21136-3
First line: Kids from the suburbs don’t really join the military.
Back cover blurb:
Colby Buzzell traded a dead-end future for the army—and ended up as a machine gunner in Iraq. To make sense of the absurd and frightening events surrounding him, he started writing a [...]

Posted on May 6th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: B, Biographies, English | 1 Comment »

I Am America (And So Can You!)
by Stephen Colbert

For the A-Z reading challenge.
English
iPod audiobook
First line: Hi, I’m Stephen Colbert and I am no fan of books.

Back cover blurb:
Realizing that it takes more than thirty minutes a night to fix everything that’s destroying America, Colbert bravely takes on the forces aligned to destroy our country [...]

Posted on May 5th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: A-Z Reading Challenge, B, English, Humour, Politics, Religion, Sex, sexuality & gender | 3 Comments »

Educating Rita
by Willy Russell

English
123 pages
New Longman Literature
ISBN: 0-582-43445-9
First line: I was born in Whiston, which is just outside Liverpool.
Back cover blurb:
Rita feels that life is passing her by. She wants an education but does Frank, her lecturer, have anything to teach her? Willy Russell’s play is a hilarious yet moving account of a young [...]

Posted on April 30th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: B, English, Plays | 1 Comment »

Making History
by Stephen Fry

For the A-Z reading challenge.
English
556 pages
Arrow
ISBN: 0-09-946481-0
First line: It starts with a dream.
Back cover blurb:
Michael Young is convinced his history thesis will win him a doctorate, a pleasant academic post, a venerable academic publisher and his beloved girlfriend, Jane.
A historian should know better than to think he can predict the future.
Leo [...]

Posted on March 27th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: A, A-Z Reading Challenge, English, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »