This is where all of my book reviews start. Each review is on its own page; but the menu of reviews stays with you throughout your visit to the book reviews section.

My reviews

Nick Edwards is an A&E (emergency) Doctor and he has written a very engaging autobiography In Stitches centring largely an English General Hospital. He regales us with interesting medical stories and tales of mis management and political interference. Laughter and tears in equal measure: worth a read!

I follow Stephanie Quilao on twitter (she's @skinnyjeans) and since she wrote a book, I bought it and have now read and reviewed it. It's a Kindle book and is very readable. Positive review! Just follow the menu on the left!

My longest ever poem after I read the Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. Written in Russian in 1833, read in English by me in 2011. I enjoyed it overall but it might be that I read a poor quality translation.

There are many authors who have done extremely well for themselves as they have produced books of magnificence! Some authors have done very well for themselves in spite of their inability to write something worth reading: we all know who they are!

Stieg Larsson is an author of note whose Millennium Trilogy got its hooks into me and wouldn’t let go. If you like rop roaring action and a fantastic female central character then read these three books. You do NOT have to be feminist to admire Lisbeth Salander, the central character: unless you are off your rocker you must like and admire the woman.

A nice and easy read with a decent story line. You might not fall in love with the American character who struts the stage but work your way through that! Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund is worth a read.

In some senses this is just an ordinary book: a book of stickers that children will find as no surprise. The difference, however, is that this book is for grown ups. PK Munroe wrote the book The Thursday Night Letters: see my review here. The Thursday Night Letters are a wacky collection of ideas along the lines of the Henry Root Letters. You can stick it is another book altogether.

Three murder stories on the bounce: Shamini Flint's Inspector Singh Investigates: a Bali conspiracy most foul is a slow but steady read with some nice cameos of Bali; Simon Kenrick's Target is a very fast paced kindap turned murder turned mayhem story well worth reading; and John Burdett's Bangkok Haunts is again slower paced but methodical with a good story line.

Adrian Mole is back and welcome too, laddie. Read Adrian Mole: the prostrate years by Sue Townsend, you won't regret it.

A book I would almost certainly not have bought and read if a friend hadn't mentioned reading one of his books one day: Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is the latest book I have read! Not sure if I recommend it because I am not sure whether it is a book on alchemy or philosophy!

Dan Brown's back with another Robert Langdon book based on symbology, murder and mayhem: The Lost Symbol. A reasonably good story and a reasonably good read. Not as good as The da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons though.

John Grisham's The Associate is an average read, David Wolstencraft's Good News Bad News is like spies in Eastenders and Ian Rankin's The Naming of the Dead is good but it has taken me a year and eight months to tell you I've read it and can remember few details except that I enjoyed it!

A good read about Tenerife: a guide for long term tourists and travellers looking to settle on the island. Not a perfect guide but it contains a great deal of very useful information: Going Native in Tenerife by Andrea and Jack Montgomery.

Another and more than welcome book about Brian Clough, football sage, wit and man manager extraordinaire. Provided you don't kiss me: 20 years with Brian Clough by Duncan Hamilton.

Sad to see that Michael Crichton has died this week: I have read and enjoyed just a small sample of his work and my reviews show how much I admired them. ave atqe vale Michael.

For cost accountants, take a good look at Andrew Wileman's Driving Down Costs. If you are serious about Excel spreadsheets you must read Bob Umlas'. My review of Bob Umlas' book tells you it is a must: This isn’t Excel, it’s Magic! and there is Alastair L Day's Mastering Financial Modelling in Excel that is good but is more specialist than Bob Umlas' book.

Bob Umlas is an Excel Trickster and guru! If you want to learn things that will leave you wondering how simple Excel can be then read this short but powerful book by Bob Umls. My review illustrates some of the things that Umlas talks about: not blowing the gaff but a good insight for you.

Another good Michael Crichton, Next; another but not quite so good Mark Haddon, A Spot of Bother and, a commisioned read, bookkeeping and accounting book by John Passmore, Accounting for a Better Life.

Michael Crichton's book Congo is a good read but not as good as the later novels of his that I have read; and John Harvey's Lonely Hearts is an average British detective story with an archetypical British detective at the centre of it!

I really don't know how I got to the end of this book as I found it a dreadful read, especially the first half of the book. There was just something in the style of writing and the storyline that left me absolutely cold.

Chris Zook has written a good and serious book on the hidden assets of the company. It well researched, well written and well worth the time taken to read it. It will give you many insights through the 25 cases that Zook presents.

My fifth Dean Koontzread and although the book was published in 1992, it hasn't aged except that had it been written today he would have used mobile phones quite a bit I think! A good story, very well written.

A good rant from Jeremy Paxman, The English: a portrait of a people. Lots of excellent quotations and pithy sayings to prove a hypothesis that the English are different ... you might not agree! Worth a read.

Yet another commissioned review: The Thursday Night Letters by PK Munroe. Exactly along the lines and style of the Henry Root Letters, you will enjoy these if you enjoyed the Root nonsense!

Another commissioned book, The 90 Minute MBA by Arnold S Grundvig Jr. for the small business person, a good and vital read; but for the serious MBA student it won't work. Bearing that in mind, I do recommend it because it does contain a lot of useful insights and examples.

For The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K Liker, I give it the highest recommendation that you must read this book if you are studying business from any point of view, not only manufacturing. You will find the contents of the book useful whoever you are and whatever you are doing. It is also very well written and there are many examples to think about.

I have now shortened this page considerably by chopping off all the brief introductions that I make make that are older than around about nine months. I know it's like losing a friend but there you are!

26^th January 2012

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