The Mysterious Plasticity of Trees by Charlotte Noble
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tess is a young woman spending her time between New York and college at Princeton. She's been brought up by her aunt and made to feel second best to her cousins, she's rather like Cinderella. We follow her story as she transcends from college life to the difficulties of becoming an independent adult.

This is not the kind of thing I read usually but once I dipped in got caught up in the story. I found it an effortless read and Tess reminded me of myself when I was young. The whole book is very 'American', I don't mean that in a bad way, just that there are references to things I have never heard of and I'm definitely confused and bewildered by the their college education system. I found the ending a little bit 'fairy tale', a touch too good to be true, I can't give away too much or I would explain more.

There is a twist in the tale, a secret is revealed which I wasn't expecting. I can see this book as a movie, in fact that's what I loved about it, as I read it I clearly 'saw' the characters, places come to life, in a cinematic way. 


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Read in May 2013

The Power of Now                  Eckhart Tolle

Practising the Power of now    Eckhart Tolle 

Stillness Speaks                    Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth                          Eckhart Tolle

Illuminati Rock God                Graham Carroll

Dark Moonlighting by Scott Haworth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Definitely not twilight-esque or a paranormal romance written for teens, and for me, that's a good thing. Our 600 plus year old vampire isn't handsome, he's not even very likable, but his exploits as a blood sucking killer who holds down three jobs are entertaining and like other reviewers have said, funny. You can't hate a guy who figures it's more moral to choose his prey from 'bad' people like email spammers and Jehovah Witnesses!.


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Lake Caerwych by J.  Conrad
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Amazon.co.uk review

Bridget and Celina are 14 year old American girls who follow their intuition to befriend each other, an ancient necklace, and amazing adventure in Wales. They both have a sense of having known each other before, dreams and memories help them put two and two together and they feel they must get to Wales to find out what is happening to them.

I liked the way the author's writing grew in confidence (I believe this is her first book) as the book progressed and for me the story really kicks off when the girls arrive in Wales. What takes place here had me gripped, I actually read until 2:20am in the morning! I'm glad I have the second part of the trilogy in my Kindle because I really want to find out what happens next


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'The Reaping' by H E Joyce Kindle Edition

The plot centres around a newly appointed village vicar and a parishioner who needs to unburden himself of a long hidden secret. A well written short story reminiscent of M.R James et al. I'm such an addict of all things paranormal and download many to my Kindle app, however most are not as skillfully written as this, it has all the requirements of a spooky story, and the build up is properly tense (it would be a 'page turner' if there were any!). When the nature of the spectre is revealed it doesn't disappoint.By the end I was left wanting more and would hope the author considers writing more tales of spookiness!

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'Engleby' gripped me from the start. I love books set in Oxford or Cambridge, the whole student scene fascinates me, especially when set in the seventies, it has that retro vibe of a scene I missed out on by a few years. If that wasn't compelling enough for me, the story moves on to London in the eighties, not only the same era I lived in London but also the same part of London I lived in. I ate in the same restaurants as Engleby, we used the same library!

I've been so immersed in Engleby's world (he narrates the story through the journal he keeps) he is lingering in my mind a day after I finished the book (which I read in a day and a bit by the way). I am absolutely sure I will reread the book, I'm tempted to read it again right now.

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Spirit Junkie by Gabrielle Bernstein

Spirit Junkie: A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is based on the principles and teachings of another book - A Course In Miracles. It doesn't matter at all if you haven't read it, in fact it would have helped me understand ACIM better if I'd read this one first.

I saw someone mention this book on facebook and before I knew it, I'd ordered it on Amazon. I consider myself a Spirit Junkie, so I couldn't resist it. When the book arrived, I must admit, I was put off by the cover, it seemed to shout 'this book is for young people'. But I put my judgement aside and I'm glad I did.

The first part of the book is about Gabrielle's life before she found her Inner Guide/Spirit, all the lows, addictions and pitfalls of living from ego. The rest of the book changes in tone, it becomes more like a guide on how you, the reader, can live from Love and Forgiveness and not from Ego. She includes meditations in the book and you can download some from her website.

I read this book in a short space of time and will probably read it again. It inspired me and reminded me of everything I know I should already be putting to use. It's just what I needed right now.



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