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Book Reviews and a reader log

Lessons in Chemistry

★☆☆☆☆
Elizabeth Zott is a serious, no-nonsense chemist and a single mother. But she finds herself hosting a cooking show on daytime television, a show where she galvanizes the oft-downtrodden American housewives into self-respect.

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The Man Who Died Twice

★★★★★
The four pensioners at Cooper’s Chase are at it again, solving a case involving a ghost from Elizabeth’s past and £20 million in diamonds.

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Solaris

★★★★★
Kris Kelvin lands on the remote research outpost around the ocean planet Solaris. There is definitely intelligent life on this planet, but the nature of the intelligence is beyond human comprehension...

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Where The Crawdads Sing

★★★★★
Marsh girl Kya Clark has been left to fend for herself in a rundown shack outside Barkley Cove. Most of the village treats her as an outcast and pariah, while she grows up all alone into a young woman, and a sensitive, artistic naturalist. When rich kid Chase Andrews is found dead in the marsh, the locals immediately suspect Kya.

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Alpha Strike

★☆☆☆☆
Commodore Jack Romanov must get nuclear warheads for the Last Hunter, but they are all stored in New Copenhagen, now controlled by the locusts. Only way to get them is to launch an Alpha strike...

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The Snowman

★★★★★
Detective Harry Hole is investigating a case where several young mothers have gone missing, with a snowman being left at the scene. Harry is personally being toyed with by the killer too, as he receives ominous communiques from the purpoted killer...

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Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

★★★★★
Medicine has leapt forward in recent times, with several new drugs and procedures which have reduced the life-threatening to minor inconveniences. But the goals of medicine often run counter to the needs of the patient. The author explores all sides.

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Bonds of Blood

★☆☆☆☆
Captain Jack Romanov has rescued a group of more than 200 ships, mostly civilian, from certain death at the hands of the locusts. Now he is stranded and faced with a challenge to his authority by a group of pirates and colluding naval officers...

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Rendezvous With Rama

★★★★★
A gigantic cylinder-shaped structure whizzes through the solar system on a celestial journey. Humanity calls the structure "Rama", and sends a team on a ship to investigate it.

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The Explorer

★★★☆☆
A group of children are marooned in the Amazon jungle when their plane crashes. They meet an explorer, a man who has forsaken civilization in favour of living his life out in the jungle. But will he help get the children rescued?

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The Last Hunter

★★☆☆☆
Captain Jack Romanov of the space force is being drummed out of the navy. But some political game sees him shunted to another division, promoted, and in charge of a old relic of a battleship. The only battleship capable of repelling the aliens who are just attacking....

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Never Let Me Go

★★★★☆
Kathy H, a carer for donors, reminisces about her time at Hailsham, a private institution where she spent her formative years, and her friends.

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The Lincoln Lawyer

★★★★☆
Mickey Haller is a criminal defense lawyer who works from the back of his Lincoln Town Car, mostly with decidedly guilty clients. Then a very high-paying job drops in his lap, where the client insists he is innocent...

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Under the Skin

★★★★☆
Isserley drives around in her car, and picks up big muscular hitch-hikers on the highways around Scotland. She talks to them, understanding their lives, where they are headed and whether they have families and relatives who will miss them when she is done with them.

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A Gentleman in Moscow

★★★★★
A Russian nobleman is sentenced to life imprisonment in a luxurious hotel in Moscow. But the indomitable Count takes his circumstances in his stride, never losing his spirit or deep humanity.

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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

★☆☆☆☆
A study into how we live, and how to be better at living, set around a narrative of a father-son motorcycle trip across the American Northwest.

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