Love catching the train to work!
I get to read so much!
Last week I finished another nephew present - Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door, the first book by Ross Montgomery. Alex Jennings lives in a town on the outskirts of which is The Forbidden Land. If anyone tries to travel across the border dividing the town and The Forbidden Land, they are physically forced back and compelled to run until they reach home. For centuries the town has organised expeditions to try to reach the centre of The Forbidden Land. Alex's father led the most recent expeditions and has since disgraced himself by repeatedly trying to return to The Forbidden Land. The current leader of expeditions, Davidus Kyte, wants to interrogate Alex, convinced that he knows why his father, also Alex Jennings, keeps going back. Alex decides to follow his father and finds to his surprise that he can easily cross The Forbidden Land. With a dog he meets at the disastrous launch of the latest expedition, he reaches the centre to find out what has happened to his father.
Donna Leon's 23rd book about Commissario Guido Brunetti is By Its Cover. The vandalising and theft of various antiquarian books from a library in Venice is reported to the police. The staff suspect an American researcher who has until recently been working at the library. As Brunetti questions the library staff, and other users of the library, he begins to suspect that it wasn't that simple.
Geoff McSkimming's second book about Phyllis Wong, Phyllis Wong and the Return of the Conjuror was a fun read (it doesn't seem to be out in the USA yet). Phyllis is grounded after a magic trick goes wrong at school. While in the basement where her great-grandfather stored all his props, she actually meets her long-lost great-grandfather, looking no older than when he disappeared in South America many years ago. When Phyllis becomes involved in the investigation of the auction of many previously-unknown copies of Shakespeare's First Folio, she decides to return to the past to discover where all these authentic books have mysteriously come from.
Last week I finished another nephew present - Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door, the first book by Ross Montgomery. Alex Jennings lives in a town on the outskirts of which is The Forbidden Land. If anyone tries to travel across the border dividing the town and The Forbidden Land, they are physically forced back and compelled to run until they reach home. For centuries the town has organised expeditions to try to reach the centre of The Forbidden Land. Alex's father led the most recent expeditions and has since disgraced himself by repeatedly trying to return to The Forbidden Land. The current leader of expeditions, Davidus Kyte, wants to interrogate Alex, convinced that he knows why his father, also Alex Jennings, keeps going back. Alex decides to follow his father and finds to his surprise that he can easily cross The Forbidden Land. With a dog he meets at the disastrous launch of the latest expedition, he reaches the centre to find out what has happened to his father.
Donna Leon's 23rd book about Commissario Guido Brunetti is By Its Cover. The vandalising and theft of various antiquarian books from a library in Venice is reported to the police. The staff suspect an American researcher who has until recently been working at the library. As Brunetti questions the library staff, and other users of the library, he begins to suspect that it wasn't that simple.
Geoff McSkimming's second book about Phyllis Wong, Phyllis Wong and the Return of the Conjuror was a fun read (it doesn't seem to be out in the USA yet). Phyllis is grounded after a magic trick goes wrong at school. While in the basement where her great-grandfather stored all his props, she actually meets her long-lost great-grandfather, looking no older than when he disappeared in South America many years ago. When Phyllis becomes involved in the investigation of the auction of many previously-unknown copies of Shakespeare's First Folio, she decides to return to the past to discover where all these authentic books have mysteriously come from.