Aimee Miles
Aimee Miles is an American who has moved to Devon, leaving all of her books in the Rocky Mountains, so that she could marry an Englishman. But he has made up for it by rereading Harry Potter with her. An ex-librarian, Aimee will try reading anything, her favorite books being Benny and Shrimp, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. She is on goodreads and is often found contentedly haunting bookstores.
The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman
Reviewed on August 21, 2012
The Dovekeepers follows the four women who work in the dovecotes in Masada, caring for the doves which serve as messengers and provide droppings to fertilize the almond trees in Masada, and eventually provide food as the fortress begins to struggle against hunger and lack of supplies. The first section of the book traces the [...]
Timeless by Gail Carriger
Reviewed on August 12, 2012
The saga of Alexia Maccon (nee Tarabotti) comes to a close in this fifth book, Timeless. She is irrepressible is as ever, despite having a toddler, though Prudence has been living with Lord Akeldama, and Lord and Lady Maccon next door as was left as the end of the last book. Things have been relatively [...]
The Hairdresser of Harare, by Tendai Huchu
Reviewed on July 21, 2012
The ever fickle literary trends seem to be turning from India toward Africa, with books like Little Bee and The Association of Foreign Spouses. I was a little hesitant about reading books set in modern Africa–most Westerns only hear the bad stuff, poverty, war, genocide. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to get into [...]
How to Climb Mt. Blanc in a Skirt: A Handbook for the Lady Adventurer by Mick Conefrey
Reviewed on June 17, 2012
While I know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, How to Climb Mt. Blanc in a Skirt: A Handbook for the Lady Adventurer sounds like an excellent title for an engaging book! I really wanted to like this book. I like adventures, I like lady adventurers, I was all set to be [...]
The Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton, by Noel Fielding
Reviewed on March 20, 2012
As you probably assume when picking up this book, it’s weird. If you didn’t expect this when picking up The Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton, with a picture on the cover of what looks like a photo which has been painted over Full-Moon Party style, then you just don’t know much about Noel Fielding. The [...]
Perfect Lives, by Polly Samson
Reviewed on March 18, 2012
No life is perfect without a few secrets swept under the rug, and this is the part of these perfect lives that Polly Samson takes us to, the cracks beneath the veneer. Samson builds an affluent seaside town for her characters, hippies, artists, businessmen, stay-at-home mums, sprinkling them across the town, physically and socially. The [...]
One Thousand and One Nights, by Hanan Al-Shaykh
Reviewed on March 11, 2012
Everyone know the tale of Shahrazad, who tells story after story to her husband, the mad shah betrayed by his first wife, to keep herself alive and save the other girls of the city from the shah’s madness. There is something incredibly alluring, especially to a bibliophile, at the idea that enough stories can cure [...]
The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
Reviewed on December 11, 2011
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern’s début novel has been making splashes all over the book world since its release in September 2011. The story focuses on a competition between two master magicians, each pitting their champions against the other in a battle to the death. Hector’s daughter Celia, born of a casual liaison to a [...]
A second look at A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness
Reviewed on December 10, 2011
Among the publicity reviews for this book was, ‘Twilight for grownups’, a comment sure to have any discerning bibliophile throwing this one into the bin. I had run out of things to read and was looking at a long journey, so I thought I’d give this one a try. It had to be better than [...]
The Girl Who Circumnaviated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne Valente
Reviewed on October 27, 2011
September lives in Nebraska with her mother during WWII. Her mother is a mechanic and her father is off fighting in Europe. September, similar to Pan of Pan’s Labyrinth, is eager to escape the realities of her worn-torn world, though unlike Pan, September’s realities include washing floral print tea cups and being nice to small [...]
The Association of Foreign Spouses by Marilyn Heward Mills
Reviewed on October 22, 2011
The immigrant story is a well-known one with Brick Lane and White Teeth recounting immigration to the UK, and innumerable stories of immigration to the US. With The Association of Foreign Spouses, Marilyn Heward Mills takes a different tack on the immigrant experience–white European women moving to turbulent Ghana for the love of their Ghanaian [...]
Heartless, by Gail Carriger
Reviewed on October 16, 2011
Alexia is back as Lady Maccon, wife of one of the most powerful Alpha werewolves in her alternate England. This time she is eight months pregnant, but that doesn’t slow her down, waddling between hives of vampires, out-of-control werewolves, dens of mad scientists, and leading a giant, angry, mechanical octopus on the rampage out of [...]
Under A Monsoon Cloud: An Inspector Ghote Mystery, by H.R.F. Keating
Reviewed on October 2, 2011
Inspector Ghote and his famed morals are back. This time he is caught between his urge to tell the truth and losing his cherished career as a Bombay policeman. The first part of the book is setting Ghote to witness a murder , removing him from Bombay to an out of the way police station. [...]
In Defence of Dogs, by John Bradshaw
Reviewed on September 11, 2011
No one loves their dogs quite the way that the Brits do as a society, inviting dogs into eateries and on public transportation, but Anthrozoology Professor at University of Bristol, John Bradshaw, takes quite a bit of issue with the way dog training has been promoted in the past and ways in which owners may [...]
Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart, by H.R.F. Keating
Reviewed on September 9, 2011
Ghote is defined by his obedience to rules, whether it be his superior at work or his own strict moral code. Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart, eighth in the Ghote series, is the story of when these two motivators are at loggerheads with one another. The book opens showing Ghote’s soft heart grudgingly giving alms [...]
Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg, by H.R.F. Keating
Reviewed on August 31, 2011
This the sixth book written by H.R.F. Keating detailing the trials and tribulations of Inspector Ganesh Ghote in his timeless quest to fight crime and bring about justice in Bombay. In this story, Inspector Ghote finds himself sent far into the countryside to a small village to investigate a cold case, the mysterious death of [...]
Faery Tale: One Woman’s Search for Enchantment in a Modern World, by Signe Pike
Reviewed on August 5, 2011
Signe Pike had the life that high-powered girls aim towards–an editor at a prominent publishing house, living in NYC with a big apt, and a kooky, clear-eyed neighbor. Sounds like the set-up for the next Sandra Bullock/Jennifer Aniston chick-flick vehicle. Instead, rather than searching for a man, Pike gives it all up to go looking [...]
A Little Aloud, edited by Angela Macmillan
Reviewed on July 27, 2011
A Little Aloud is an anthology put together by The Reader Organisation, a national charity which holds reading groups for people in disadvantaged positions, such as prison inmates, young mothers, and old folks homes. In these reading groups, they promote a sort of ‘bibliotherapy’ helping to build people up through reading aloud and to help [...]
The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery, by H.R.F. Keating
Reviewed on May 11, 2011
Penguin’s new reissue of H.M.R. Keating’s The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery begins with a forward by Alexander McCall Smith, rock star author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, set in Botswana, and many other popular books. This is a perfect introduction for people who may not know Keating and Inspector [...]
The Pink Hotel, by Anna Stothard
Reviewed on April 18, 2011
Anna Stothard’s The Pink Hotel is a grimy world, of dirty scabs, dingy walls, and one hot sweaty L.A. summer. The protagonist is an unnamed seventeen-year-old girl who flies to Los Angeles for her unknown mother’s funeral. Her mother, Lily, owned the titular hotel, and our girl steals a suitcase of Lily’s clothes and letters [...]
Nourishment, by Gerard Woodward
Reviewed on March 4, 2011
At the time I was reading Nourishment by Gerard Woodward, I happened to be reading Andrea Levy’s Small Island, a loan on the suggestion of my mother-in-law. Levy’s book made its splash in 2004 and was made into a BBC TV drama in 2009. I have little doubt that Woodward read Small Island, and the [...]
Born Wild, by Tony Fitzjohn
Reviewed on February 24, 2011
Everything about Born Wild‘s cover and title are specifically tuned to draw a direct line from Joy Adamson’s famous series of books about Elsa the lioness beginning with Born Free in 1960. In Born Wild, however, Tony Fitzjohn details his own life in animal conservation in Kenya and Tanzania, beginning as the lion rehabilitation assistant [...]
Cloak of Dreams: Chinese Fairy Tales, by Bela Belazs, translated by Jack Zipes
Reviewed on December 29, 2010
At the bottom of the cover is written the key to this anthology, “oddly modern fairy tales”. Jack Zipes, magical fairy godfather to all academic folklorists, has translated these tales into English and written an accompanying foreword for those not familiar with Bela Balazs (probably most of us). Balazs, born Herbert Bauer, was a playwright, [...]
The Girl With Glass Feet, by Ali Shaw
Reviewed on December 24, 2010
The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw has an excellent title, based on a striking mental image. However, it is not the story of the eponymous girl, Ida, who has travelled back to St. Hauda’s Land, the island where she first heard about the spreading glass affliction which had taken her feet. This book [...]
Soulless (Parasol Protectorate), by Gail Carriger
Reviewed on December 20, 2010
Currently, vampires seem to be synonymous with Twilight, which will polarize readers before they’ve even picked up the first book of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate. But, it shouldn’t. Soulless details the adventures of Miss Alexia Tarabotti, who classifies herself as a spinster due to a triple-whammy of negativity: her age, her Italian heritage, and the [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Mark Oldfield
Mark Oldfield has worked in criminological research for over 20 years. He has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Kent and has carried out research in the areas of risk assessment and prediction and as well as evaluative research on policing, prisons and probation. He has also taught in various Universities on research, crime and criminal justice.
