Ms Dewar's been reading

A S A Harrison - The Silent Wife ***
The was written pre Gone Girl otherwise I'd say it was a rehash of Gone Girl - a capable, fairly enjoyable story of a super-controlling spurned wife

Michael Frayn - Skios ***
Heavily signposted farce - didn't enjoy it much.

Dan Rhodes - When the Professor got Stuck in the Snow *****
"I have devoted swathes of my life to kindly telling people how ignorant they are, and correcting them, and giving them the opportunity to think as I do" says 'Richard Dawkins', the noted scientist marooned in a snow bound village. This is a very, very funny satire, also featuring a lovely cameo from 'Lynn Truss'

Ms Dewar's been reading


Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend*****
These are the best books I have read in a long time - the first 2 in a quartet complex, deep  & beautifully written & translated. It centres on Elena (Lenu) & her brilliant, difficult friend Lila growing up in the patriarchal society of Naples  -  so far, Lenu has escaped to university in Pisa, while Lila has been trapped in a violent marriage

Deborah Copaken Kogan- The Red Book ***
I finished this but only just - a novel about middle aged middle class people finding themselves at their Harvard reunion - the cover was the best bit.

Suzanne O'Sullivan - It's All In Your Head****
Really interesting book by a doctor on her patients who suffer the real pain and disability of psychosomatic illnesses - eye opening answer to if the body rules the mind or if the mind rules the body ( it's b)

Mary Stewart - My Brother Michael*****
A re-read for one a series of this lovely books - romantic thrillers written in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This turns on the fall out from of the second world war, but it's the strong characterisation and fabulous descriptions of Delphi before mass tourism which makes it feel like a mini holiday.

Harry Bingham - This Thing of Darkness ****
Four stars because of a giant hole in the plot of what is otherwise a really interesting, different series of police thrillers with a brilliantly unusual main character - a policewoman who is not a loner alcoholic or a multitasking supermum but dealing with serious mental illness. Also - funnier than that sounds. I've read this once already since it came out in summer and will read it again.

David's Top 5 Reads


1. Tenth Man Down - Chris Ryan
2. The Hobbit - J.R.R.Tolkien
3. Super Fudge - Judy Blume
4. Cross - James Patterson
5. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Lego Club Challenges

As part of JYHS Library's Lego Club we offer the chance to win chocolate if your design wins the challenge.

Today was a whopper with three challenges being rolled into one - build a sea animal shaped catapult with only 25 bricks.

Watch out it's a Shark-apult!



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