Wm Paul Young: Cross Roads

Multi-millionaire Anthony Spencer is trapped in a coma and finds himself in a surreal world that reflects the skewed priorities of the life he's lived on earth where he meets a stranger who turns out to be Jesus and a grandmother who is the Holy Spirit. He is sent back to earth to redeem himself. There he must fight to put right the mess he's created, experiencing events through others' eyes before deciding how to use the miraculous gift he's been given.

I absolutely hated Tony and was at the point of giving up on this story, just because I couldn't stand Tony. My eight-year-old son encouraged me to continue the story, as "Tony might become a good person". So I did. And from the point, where Tony meets Cabby and Maggie the storyline was gripping. And I really enjoyed it in the end.

Joyce Meyer: Do Yourself a Favour - Forgive

Forgiveness is easier said than done and is one of the most difficult personal issues to deal with. When people fail to forgive, it damages - often ruins - relationships, causes stress and other health problems and can turn life and work into a prison of the mind. Without forgiveness, anger and bitterness become a cauldron of poison. The anger doesn't go away - it just gets worse.

Very insightful and interesting to read. Probably more difficult to apply, but it makes to work hard on genuinely forgiving others.

Yann Martel: Life of Pi

One boy, one boat, one tiger ...After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

Although I didn't feel like starting this book initially, it had me gripped. At times it was hard to say, if this was supposed to be fiction, as it was told in such detailed way that it might well have been based on facts. The religious aspect was very interesting indeed, but for my taste it could have been explored more...

Joyce Meyer: The Penny

One summer in 1955, 14-year-old Jenny Blake picks up a penny imbedded in asphalt, and consequently ends up stopping a robbery, getting a job, and meeting a friend who changes her life forever. Her unexpected relationships with Miss Shaw and the coloured girl Aurelia transform her in ways she could have anticipated. The ripple effect that begins in the summer of the penny goes on to bring new life to the people around her, showing how God works in the smallest details. Even in something as small as a penny.

A most exciting read. The story was quite sad and upsetting due to the family circumstances Jenny lives in. But when she realises the power of The Penny, and when other people return the penny favour, the story is a huge inspiration.

Joyce Meyer: Any minute

Sarah Harper is driven to achieve success no matter what the cost. She wants to do good and not hurt the people she loves - especially children and her husband, Joe -but her desire to succeed in her career too often leaves little time for family. One cold, autumn afternoon, all of that changes when Sarah's car plunges off a bridge and into a river. She is presumed dead by those on the 'outside', but Sarah's spirit is still very much alive. What she discovers on the other side transforms everything about Sarah's view of life - past, present, and future. When Sarah is revived, she is a changed woman. And the unsuspecting world around her will never be the same again.

This was a rather strange read. In a way, it was devastating to see how Sarah doesn't notice her negativity in her hectic family life and how she is being used in her job. And then the storyline was a little flat, too. But in the end some parts of the story were quite uplifting and encouraging and as such I did after all enjoy it...

Wm Paul Young: The Shack

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, still trapped in his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack.

I read this book approximately a year ago. But still I wanted to re-read it. And I loved it just as much as I did then.

JK Rowling: Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

After all the reviews and critiques I was keen to see for myself, what everyone was talking about. At times the story is hard to take, especially where Krystal and her family are concerned. But Somehow the book was written in such a way that I was keen to find out more about each of the 34 characters in the book. Very different from Harry Potter, but still a great read in my view.

Todd Burpo: Heaven is for real - A little boy's astounding story of his trip to heaven and back

A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven. 'Heaven Is for Real' is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear. Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how 'reaaally big' God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit 'shoots down power' from heaven to help us. Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Fascinating, sad and gripping and life-confirming, positive. Although it's difficult to believe, the book does provide a new view of heaven and makes you rethink your belief.

Sarah Tucker: Battle for Big School

There are 50 places at The Oaks, the best grammar school in Letchbury, and 1,000 children applying. Competition is fierce and parents are prepared to do everything and anything to get their child one of the coveted spaces.

An easy read, but a little disappointing. It wasn't as gripping and funny as it could have been.

Sarah Herbert Robbins: The Everything Parent's Guide to Raising a Gifted Child

Sarah Herbert Robbins, Med is a curriculum development specialist with advanced degrees in designing programs for gifted children. She currently provides training workshops as well as counseling services for parents of gifted children and teaching professionals. She is a former elementary school teacher with direct experience teaching gifted students in both traditional and self-contained classroom environments as well as gifted programs in public school settings. Sarah currently offers advice, posts news pieces, and shares her methods for parenting gifted children on her website, www.parentinggiftedkids.com.

This book is an absolute eye-opener. Our child has been diagnosed with a high IQ, but we were not aware of how this would affect social and emotional needs and development. This guidebook provides great insight and links to further research and reading, but also some practical ideas to try out at home. This book has certainly helped us understand our child better.

Linda Sonna: Everything Tween Book

A guidebook for dealing with Tweens. The tween years fall between the ages of eight and twelve and can often be a challenging time for both parents and children. This books helps to navigate the trying years between childhood and adolescence and covers serious issues as eating disorders and school violence as well as tolerance for pink and blue hair. The book helps understand the child's psychological, social and emotional needs.

Interesting. Some very fascinating insights into the psyche of young children and pre-teens.

Sarah Tucker: The playground mafia

Meet Caroline Gray: divorcee and newly-single mother. Firmly closing the door on her acrimonious divorce, Caroline and son Ben have moved to trendy Frencham where they join Caroline's long-time best friends, Heather and Eva. Settling into their new life is easy, but nothing has prepared Caroline for the demands of motherhood at The Sycamore, the school the trio's beloved offspring attend. Forget classroom bullies, forget trips to the head's office, this is full-scale adult playground politics. This is battle with the mothers who won't take no for an answer -- the Playground Mafia.

Easy chick-lit. This was quite funny in the middle, whilst the first few pages and the ending weren't that brilliant. The story about bullying amongst mothers on the school playground could have been explored a lot more, in greater detail and in more funny ways. But still quite relaxing...

Patricia Cornwell: Unnatural exposure - 8

Dublin, Ireland and Richmond, Virginia: separated by thousands of miles - linked by murder. For Dr Kay Scarpetta a lecture stint in Ireland provides the perfect opportunity to find out if the murders on both sides of the Atlantic are indeed connected. Five dismembered, beheaded bodies were found in Ireland five years ago - now four have been discovered in the States. But the tenth corpse in Virginia is different. There are vital discrepancies, and an indication that the elderly victim was already seriously ill. A copy-cat killing. Ghoulish, perhaps, but not unusual. And then abject terror grips Scarpetta and her colleagues when the next body is found. The circumstances of death broadcast a clear and horrifying message: the killer is armed with the most lethal weapon on earth - smallpox.

This Scarpetta novel was again a treat. The final twist in the "whodunnit" was not predictable at all and kept me intrigued.

Patricia Cornwell: Cause of death - 7

New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year takes Scarpetta thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. A diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favourite at the Medical Examiner's office. Was Eddings probing the frigid depths of the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified?

Great and quick read.

Patricia Cornwell: From Potter's Field - 6

Christmas is not a particularly good time for Dr Kay Scarpetta. A naked, female body is found propped against a fountain in a bleak area of New York's Central Park. Her apparent manner of death points to a modus operandi that is chillingly familiar: the gunshot wound to the head, the sections of skin excised from the body, the displayed corpse - all suggest that Temple Brooks Gault, Scarpetta's nemesis, is back at work.

This was the most predictable of the series so far. It was very gripping, but I really have preferred the previous novels, where in addition to the forensics there were some unexpected twists, too.

Patricia Cornwell: The Body Farm - 5

Black Mountain, North Carolina: a sleepy little town where the local police deal with one homicide a year and so the discovery of the corpse of an 11-year-old girl sends shock waves through the community. Dr Kay Scarpetta is called in to apply her forensic skills to this latest atrocity, but the apparent simplicity of the case proves something of a poisoned chalice...

I had enjoyed the previous Scarpetta novels, but this one certainly was the best so far. Although some of the forensic details became a little confusing at times, the unexpected twists and turns made this novel a great read.

Patricia Cornwell: Cruel and unusual - 4

The fingerprints say the murderer is the man who's just been executed. At 11.05 one December evening in Richmond, Virginia, convicted murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell is pronounced dead in the electric chair. At the morgue Dr Kay Scarpetta waits for Waddell's body. Preparing to perform a post-mortem before the subject is dead is a strange feeling, but Scarpetta has been here before. And Waddell's death is not the only newsworthy event on this freezing night: the grotesquely wounded body of a young boy is found propped against a rubbish skip. To Scarpetta the two cases seem unrelated, until she recalls that the body of Waddell's victim had been arranged in a strikingly similar position.

Gripping and fascinating, although a little far-fetched at times.

Patricia Cornwell: All that remains - 3

A killer is stalking young lovers. Taking their lives and leaving just one tantalising clue. But when the latest girl goes missing turns out to be the daughter of one of the most powerful women in America, Kay Scarpetta finds herself prey to political pressure and press harassment. As she starts to investigate, she finds that vital evidence is being withheld from her - or even faked. And all the time a cunning, sadistic killer is still at large...

Having read two previous Scarpetta novels, I become more interested in Scarpetta's personal life in addition to the forensic aspects.

Patricia Cornwell: Body of Evidence - 2

A reclusive writer is dead. And her final manuscript has disappeared. Thus begins for Dr Kay Scarpetta the investigation of a crime that is as convoluted as it is bizarre. As Scarpetta retraces the writer's footsteps, an investigation that begins in the laboratory with microscopes and lasers leads her deep into a nightmare that soon becomes her own.

Fascinating, quick, thrilling, gripping.

Patricia Cornwell: Postmortem - 1

A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, brutalised and strangled in their own bedroom. There is no pattern: the killer appears to strike at random - but always early on Saturday mornings. So when Dr Kay Scarpetta, she knows there is a fourth victim. And she fears now for those that will follow unless she can dig up new forensic evidence to aid the police.

A quick holiday read. It was great to get into a series of books as to not run out of reading materials. But I sometimes struggled with the outdated approach to investigations. DNA tests, for example, are new...