Heart of Oak, by Alexander Kent
Filed under: Alexander Kent, International bestseller, book review, historical fiction
The year is 1818. The war with France has ended. Captain Adam Bolitho is given command of the newly 
He knows he is lucky – the voyage should be easy, but Adam now finds that he longs for a chance to marry the beautiful Lowenna and settle down on the Bolitho estate in Cornwall. Instead he must deal with the envy and ambition of his officers, hidden agendas among his men, and the former enemy’s proximity.
Then the Nautilus becomes a sacrificial offering on the altar of Empire, and the hunt is on for a treacherous foe. Suddenly every man must discover for himself whether the brotherhood of the sea can transcend old hatreds and an ocean of blood.
In this latest Bolitho novel from the master of nautical adventure Adam Bolitho faces one of the most difficult decisions of his career. Will he find the courage and resourcefulness he needs when diplomacy fails and treachery cries out for vengeance? This is so far the latest books in the Bolitho series, and actually quite good!
Post Captain, by Patrick O’Brian
Filed under: International bestseller, Jack Aubrey, Main character, Patrick O'Brian, bestseller, book review, historical fiction, recommendation
It is 1802. Post Captain is the second in Patrick O’Brian’s epic 20-volume 19th-century maritime series about the unlikely companions Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Finally 
He meets the Williams family and their cousin Diana Villiers. Jack courts Sophia Williams, but is also very attracted to Diana, and commences an affair with her. His approach to courtship leaves a lot to be desired, and creates problems for him left and right – both with his superiors and with his friend Stephen, to the point where the two friends even challenge each other to a duel.
However, he plans to marry Sophia Williams, but quickly finds his fortune in prize money gone – he has been ordered to repay a wrongly captured merchant ship and at the same time he has been embezzled by his prize-agent. So instead of being a rich man, as he thought he would be, he is now severely in debt and at risk of being imprisoned for it! He has to flee the country and plans to live with Maturin in Spain.
But the peace of Amiens did not last long, and even before Jack gets to Stephen’s estate in Spain, France declares war and begins rounding up English subjects. Jack and Stephen escape, and are able to make their way back to England from Gibraltar.
In England, Jack – constantly seeking to avoid his creditors – is restored to active service. He is given command of HMS Polychrest, a very strange experimental ship designed to launch a secret weapon. As it turns out, she is a very bad sailing ship, and on top of it, Jack’s patience is tried by a sadistic lieutenant. But in the end, Captain Aubrey is able to take her to battle and win a decisive victory – he loses the Polychrest but leads three boats to board the Fanciulla. And returning to England in the Fanciulla, he is finally posted captain. Afraid of being captured by his creditors, he asks for a temporary command and is assigned to HMS Lively.
As luck will have it, Lively is assigned to a squadron sent to intercept Spanish ships bring bullion back to Spain from her American colonies. The Spanish convoy refuses to surrender, but after a short battle where Jack Aubrey plays an important role, one Spanish galleon explodes and the other three surrender. The victorious captains’ share of the prize money will be enough to pay off Jack’s debts and make him a rich man!
Post Captain is a wonderful book. It is rare to find a book that has such a rich blend of various ingredients. O’Brian’s writing is crisp and spare. The characters are fully-developed human beings, the writing is full of O’Brian’s quirky humor, and the action is exciting. The book is very hard to put down.
Praise:
Master and Commander raised almost dangerously high expectations; Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them…a brilliant book.
– Mary Renault
Aubrey and Maturin compose one of those complex and fascinating pairs of characters which have inspired thrilling stories of all kinds since the Iliad.
– Iris Murdoch and John Bayley
More reviews of nautical fiction book series?
Top 10 suspense books ever?
Filed under: International bestseller, bestseller, book review, crime book, recommendation
It is hard to say exactly which books are the best in any given category or genre. With books, as with many other things, the beauty is in the eye (or the mind) of the beholder. However, the books below are generally regarded as top suspense books, they are all very famous and written by well known, world class authors. They are all wonderful. They are my candidates for the top ten suspense books ever.
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1. | Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938). The heroine, who remains nameless, lives in Europe with her husband,Maxim de Winter, traveling from hotel to hotel. She has memories of a beautiful home called Manderley, which has been destroyed by fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before. | Amazon US Amazon UK
(links to order the books) |
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2. | Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris (1988). This is the second novel by Thomas Harris to feature the sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In the novel, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is sent to see the imprisoned Lecter in order to ask his expert advice on catching a serial killer given the name Buffalo Bill, who is abducting women and skinning them. The book has been filmed. | Amazon US Amazon UK |
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3. | Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris (1993). This is the first book about Hannibal Lecter. “Red Dragon” is a wonderfully intense psychological thriller, with plenty of obscene violence and “typical” Thomas Harris plot twists. The story of the ex-FBI agent stalking the “Tooth Fairy” or “Red Dragon” is extremely interesting and detailed, right down to forensic and crime scene evidence. This book, too, has been filmed. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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4. | Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark (1975) This book is very fascinating. The plot is about a woman named Nancy whose children were kidnapped and murdered on her birthday. Everyone pointed their fingers at Nancy, but she left the courtroom on a technicality.Seven years later, Nancy is remarried and has two more children. However, one morning Nancy goes outside where her children were supposed to be playing and finds them gone.. A must read! | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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5. | Laura, by Vera Caspary (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp) (1942, filmed 1944). Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful, elegant, highly ambitious, and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charms. As a tough cop probes the mystery of Laura’s death, he becomes obsessed with her strange power. Soon he realizes he’s been seduced by a dead woman. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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6. | Beast in View, by Margareth Millar (1945). A chain of events starting with a crank call from an old school chum sets the lonely, aloof, financially comfortable Miss Helen Clarvoe on a path as predictable only as madness. Lured from her rooms in a second-rate residential Hollywood hotel, she finds herself stranded in the more perilous terrain of extortion, pornography, vengeance, and ultimately murder. |
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7. | A Judgement in Stone, by Ruth Rendell (1977). This novel is famous in the world of crime fiction for its opening line: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write“. It has been acclaimed as a keen social examination of the differences between British classes in the 1970s, as well being remarkable in its levels of suspense, despite the reader knowing from the first line what is going to happen. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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8. | Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967). The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young pregnant woman, who begins to suspect her elderly neighbors are not the kindly souls they appear to be. Gradually she discovers they are the leaders of a coven of witches. Her husband, a struggling actor, allowed the devil to impregnate her in exchange for a successful career, but she is unable to convince anyone to believe her.A movie based on the novel was filmed by Roman Polanski. Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes starred in the movie. |
Amazon USAmazon UK |
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9. | The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing (New York Review Books Classics)(1946) . George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking writer for a New York media conglomerate. One day, before heading home to his wife, Stroud has a drink with Pauline, the girlfriend of his boss. Things happen. The next day Stroud escorts Pauline home. The day after that, Pauline is found murdered in her apartment.This novel was the basis for the feature films The Big Clock (1948) and No Way Out (1987). | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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10. | Brighton Rock, Graham Greene (Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition)(1938). Although this is an underworld thriller, the book is also a very powerful exploration of the nature of sin and the basis of morality (Pinkie and Rose, two of the main characters, are Roman Catholics, as was Greene, and their beliefs are contrasted with Ida’s strong but non-religious moral sensibility).This book was filmed in 1947. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
Brida, by Paulo Coelho
Filed under: Fiction, International bestseller, New York Times bestseller, Paulo Coelho, bestseller, book review, recommendation
Paulo Coelho is one of the most gifted and beloved story tellers of our time. As well, he has a mind where, seemingly, fantasy is allowed to roam free of constraints. Thus 
The relatively short and delightful tale of Brida O’Fem is definitely such a book – a well crafted mind stretcher! Young, cute Brida is an Irish lass wishing to become a witch. Her tale, set in Ireland during the mid-80s, is fantastic, compelling and vividly told. In its own right, it’s an epic.
Like the main characters in other Coelho books, she goes searching for the wisdom and crafts she will need. But is it magic she wants? Or love? Or wisdom? Does she really know? She meets people of great wisdom. She is taught about the other, spiritual world. She is taught to see and listen. She learns to overcome fears. She learns to hear the music of the world, and to dance to it. She learns to pray to the moon. She encounters the concept of the soul mate.
But where in the multitude of options in the many planed universe lies her destiny? And what is it? How and where is fulfillment to be found – in love, passion, mystery, witchcraft? And what is it she is learning on her strange journey – more, I think, self-discovery and self-acceptance than anything else.
Brida is a book which transforms the reading experience into a journey of its own. A travel alongside Brida into the depths of the readers’ minds. Beautifully worded, marvelously told, stirring the senses and raising a desire to reach that which must be there, at the end of the journey. A mind-teaser of a book!
Review of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y K Lee
Filed under: Fiction, International bestseller, Janice Lee, book review, recommendation
The Piano Teacher tells a complicated, convoluted story of adaptation, love, betrayal and responses to changing circumstances. The story is set in war-torn Hong Kong,
A focal point in the novel is Will Truesdale, an Englishman who arrived in Hong Kong in 1942. In most ways he is an ordinary, self doubting man. However, having arrived, he more or less immediately falls headlong into a passionate relationship with the extremely attractive, intriguing and beautiful Eurasian socialite Trudy Liang.
As the war in Asia spreads, Hong Kong too is captured. Will, being English, is forced into an internment camp. Trudy, on the other hand, is Eurasian and is able to remain outside. And while they struggle to retain their affair even after they have been separated, it soon becomes apparent that their opportunities and outlooks develop in quite different directions.
Will tries his best to contribute to the collective of the prison camp, and is increasingly shaped by the events, obligations and bonds there. Trudy, on the other hand, seeks to preserve her high society lifestyle, and involves herself with the Japanese. She soon gets involved in affairs far beyond her control. Her desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art on behalf of her Japanese lover leads to a chain of terrible betrayals, involving several pillars of society.
Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. She meets Will, is attracted to him, and becomes his mistress. Again, a love affair of Will’s takes on an importance much larger than the affair itself. And as Claire begins to understand the intricacies and multiple conflicts of the world she has entered, long-buried secrets are brought to the fore. And now Claire’s whole life changes as a consequences of the revelations that are unleashed.
Janice Y. K. Lee’s first novel, The Piano Teacher, is beautiful and written in a spare and understated form, where only the tips of huge icebergs of events are visible up to the very end. None of her characters are particularly endearing, but they are complex, interesting, often disagreeable, and very authentic. The whole book is full of intrigue. And even though the novel raises many more questions than it answers, the answers that are provided are very satisfactory. I strongly recommend it!
Praise:
“Evocative, poignant and skillfully crafted, The Piano Teacher is more than an epic tale of war and a tangled, tortured love story. It is the kind of novel one consumes in great, greedy gulps, pausing (grudgingly) only when absolutely necessary.” — Chicago Tribune
Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Freeman
Filed under: International bestseller, Non-fiction, book review, web design
This is currently the #1 book on the amazon bestseller list for computer and 
Head First HTML with CSS & XHTM breaks down elements of HTML, XHTML, and CSS so that it beomes possible figure out what is going on and what needs to be done in web page design using these technologies. Also, this is a great choice for a textbook if you need to upgrade your skills!
This book covers the basics of HTML, putting your webpage on the Internet and linking to other web resources. It also tackles XHTML. Next, it introduces CSS along with the properties that can be controlled via CSS. And it does it all in a plain, nice way with lots of illustrations.
The authors show you how to do pretty advanced layouts using the tools available to you without you even noticing that you’ve been “studying”.
The book’s final chapter is appropriately entitled “The Top Ten Topics We Didn’t Cover”, and thus acknowledges that this is not an advanced book on webpage design.
Water for Elephants: A Novel (Paperback)
Filed under: Fiction, International bestseller, Prize winning novel, book review
Sura Gruen’s novel is among my absolute favorites. It is a beautiful story, well researched, full of compassion, and deeply touching. It make me cry, it made me laugh, and it made me want to read more of this amazing, highly talented storyteller. Fascinating! Glued me to the chair! And, also, it has, of course, been an international bestseller acros a number of countries ofr a long time. Deservedly so!
Amazon.com Review
Jacob Jankowski says: “I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.” At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn’t always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn’t a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn’t write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison. Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob’s life (more…)
False Impression, by Jeffrey Archer
Filed under: International bestseller, Jeffrey Archer, Thriller, book review
In this thriller, written by Jeffrey Archer in 2006, it’s September 10, 2001, and 
Lady Victoria Wentworth is sitting in spacious Wentworth Hall considering the sad state of family fortunes
The next day in New York, art expert Anna Petrescu heads to her job as art wrangler for wealthy magnate Bryce Fenston of Fenston Finance. The pair’s offices are in the Twin Towers, and when disaster strikes, each sees the tragedy as an opportunity to manipulate a transaction scheduled to transfer ownership of a legendary Van Gogh painting, Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, from the Wentworth estate to the larcenous Fenston.
Another great story full of twists and turns from a master storyteller, but even so False Impression is not quite up to the pre-prison standards of Lord Jeffrey Archer. It is still well worth reading, of course.
Order False Impression
Cat O’Nine Tales, by Jeffrey Archer
Filed under: Fiction, International bestseller, Jeffrey Archer, Short stories, book review
Cat O’Nine Tales is Jeffrey Archer’s fifth collection of short stories. It was published in 2006, and nine of the twelve stories are based on tales Archer heard while in prison. The other three stories are also based on true events but are not derived from prison. Jeffrey Archer is an excellent short story writer – he masters the form of the short story almost to perfection. In Cat O’Nine tales he shows it yet again.
Cat O’Nine Tales is another great collection of short stories, with twelve stories with intriguing plots, by Jeffrey Archer!
Read more reviews of books by Jeffrey Archer.
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Genghis: Birth of an Empire, by Conn Iggulden
Filed under: Conn Iggulden, Genghis Khan, International bestseller, Main character, book review, historical fiction, recommendation
I have a passion for historical fiction. Conn Iggulden’s Genghis: Birth of an Empire (which published in the UK as Wolf of the Plains
Iggulden has been inspired by Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan
This book is the first of a series about Genghis Khan. Still, it has both the plot and the content to be read as a standalone novel. And there is nothing unresolved by the end. Iggulden weaves a spellbinding story of an exotic and “unforgiving land” and the enigmatic young man — charismatic, a brilliant tactician and capable “of utter ruthlessness” — who sets out to tame it.
The future conqueror Temujin, the name meaning a man of iron, is born to the khan (ruler) of a hard Mongol tribe that roams central Asia’s steppes in the 12th century. The Mongols are constantly warring with the Tartars, while both parties are influenced by and manipulated by the Chinese.
When his father is killed by Tartar raiders, a rival claims the tribe, assumes the title of Khan, and banishes Temujin’s family. Left behind without resources when the tribe migrates, the family struggles with nature and enemies to survive in the harsh environment. Thus Temujin is hardened and becomes a hard and tough warrior.
But, having been raised as a Khan’s son, he still dreams of being Khan – he even feels destined to become one – and starts gathering outcasts into a new tribe. Then he begins raiding Tartar camps. And as his fame spreads, Temujin launches an ambitious campaign to unite the Mongol tribes “after a thousand years of warfare” into a single people, defeat the Tartars and invade China.
This is a really epic piece of work. To research it, Iggulden even spent time in Mongolia, and it shows. One of the strengths of “Genghis” lie in Iggulden’s depiction of the extremely harsh Mongolian landscape and the life scraped out by its inhabitants. Genghis: Birth of an Empire is a gem of historical fiction – very, very entertaining at the same time as it is illuminating and educational. I strongly recommend it!
and The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan (C & T Asian Culture Series)
at amazon UK, amazon US: Genghis Khan, and amazon CAN: Iggulden: Genghis
and The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan
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