Emma's Bookish Lifestyle

By Phillipe Sands My rating: 5 of 5 star Philippe Sands, QC is a Franco-British Lawyer at Matrix Chambers, and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. Synopsis:   When human rights lawyer Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg trial. Part historical detective story, part family history, part legal thriller, Philippe Sands guides us between past and present as several interconnected stories unfold in parallel. The first is the hidden story of two Nuremberg prosecutors who discover, only at the end of the trial, that the man they are prosecuti...

The Cows by Dawn O'Porter My rating: 3 of 5 stars I listened to this on audio book on my commute each day and it took me about 4 days to finish it. There is some whit but I never found myself laughing out loud to the characters. This story centres around 3 women, Stella living in the self imposed shadow of her sister after the untimely death of both her mother and sister, Cam the reclusive internet blogger and Tara a 42 year old single working mother whose actions have shot her to the heights of fame for all the wrong reasons! I would recommend this to people who like a light and easy beach or pool side read for their holidays. Although the plot rolls along easily enough I wasn't blown away by the story and didn't really connect with any of the characters, who were all extreme versions of real women.  I definitely felt underwhelmed unfortunately in the feminist girl power stakes. The Audio was recorded by the author herself and was performed well. As a...

Panty by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay My rating: 5 of 5 stars This slight novel contains two stories within it's 122 pages. The first is the main story Panty and is about a woment with no name, friends, family to mention of arriving and living in a new city in a flat owned by a man we don't know whilst she is awaiting an operation. The book is based in Kolcata, India and at times as you are absorbed into the poetic prose, you can feel the heat emanating from the page. The chapters are composed in a unique style out of sequence which give us moments of viseral beauty, tenderness and sexual individuality. In equal measure this small story had not only the depth and power to absorb you, it could also leave you feeling disarmed and disorientated. Ultimately this book deals with a number of interesting questions being dealt with by Bengali and Indian women at the current time around feminism, ownership of their sexuality, there religion and there place ...

Fire Damage by Kate Medina My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a psycholigical thriller kindly received from Netgalley for a fair and honest review. Jessie is a psychologist working within the Army when she is asked to council a disturbed 4 year old boy after his father returns from Afghanistan with severe burns. Sami refers to himself as "The Girl" and is in constant fear of "The Shadowman", could this be his father? Ben Callen is a former patient of Jessie and MP investigating a death in Afghanistan when his case converges with Jessie's. This book jumps in feet first with its plot based character development and with the initial introduction draws you in with your concern for Sami, the tension building with each new turn of events. Although this book was easy to read it did feel at times formulaic and somewhat lacking in originality (especially for the beginning of a new series). I often wonder why these types of books have to b...

The Fatal Tree by Jake Arnott My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is based on real life characters of the 18th Century. Elizabeth Lyon "Edgeware Bess" is portrayed with a fictional backstory however, she was indeed a prostitute and a thief during these times in London and was well acquainted with the Black Lion Pub, Jonathan Wild "The Thief Taker" and Jack Sheppard. Jonathan Wild was notorious for working both sides of the law and eventually was handed over by his own men for his duplicity. Jack Sheppard grew up in a workhouse with his mother after his fathers death before taking on an apprenticeship in his fathers trade of Carpentry. What is unique about this book is the language, the back of the book has a useful glossary of terms for the slang used however, I found it extremely easy to work out the meanings and it never stopped or stilted the path of the story. The story itself is based around actual events noted in the archives ...

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters My rating: 3 of 5 stars First of all I would like to begin by saying I enjoyed Sarah Walters writing style and the format in which she wrote this plot backwards from the end to the beginning, the descriptive prose made you feel part of the atmosphere of the story. The only thing I struggled with was the pacing of the story, for me I much preferred the pace of the third and final part of the book, at times throughout the rest of the book I felt I had to compel myself to return back to it. The main characters left me feeling somewhat flat and lacked a personality within their roles of the story which meant at times it was hard to empathise with the circumstances they were finding themselves in. There were a number of areas however, that did interest me and which I wish had been looked into with more depth. I enjoyed the bits involving Kay's involvement in the Ambulance Service during the bombings of London, I actuall...

The Man In The Picture by Susan Hill My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the first ghost story from Susan Hill I have read, and although I know many of you would have said to start with The Women in Black I wanted to see what a lesser spoken about story was about. The title of the story pretty much lays out the premise for this book however, I was blown away by the beauty of the writing, slowly drawing me in and pulling me along with the tale of the Venetian oil painting scene and the effect of attracting people to it and to hold on to it. This story is 145 pages long and therefore goes at a fair pace to tell the tale, at first from Theo a Cambridge professor to his friend Oliver and then from Oliver to his wife Anne and the effect. I did enjoy it however, I did not find this either spine tingling or foreboding as I would have hoped therefore I have given it 3*. I have a number of her other books and will continue to expand my reading of Susan Hill as I ...