Physik (Septimus Heap) - Angie Sage

Advantages: A fun read and brightly illustrated.
Disadvantages: None

...which young children find very funny: “What if I made your nose a little bit longer” said Little Fairy. “Well then, I could make your bottom bigger and better” said Big Fairy. ☼☼☼ Sue Heap ☼☼☼ Sue Heap graduated from Hull College of Art and went on to work for an animation company. She then became a designer at various children’s books publishers. In 1991 she became a full-time freelance illustrator and has illustrated more than 30 books, she also gained the prestigious Smarties Prize for illustrating ‘Cowboy Baby’. Sue Heap has also written and illustrated some of her own children’s picture books: ~ Hairy Fairy ~ Let’s Play Fairies ~ Four Friends Together §§§ Style, Format and Illustrations §§§ This is a very simple story / book with a large bold text. The illustrations are, like... Read review

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Advantages: Single volume offering readable introductions to diverse sources of self-help literature, useful reference
Disadvantages: Biased towards modern American Christian interests, unequal depth of treatment of different classics

...When I first came across this book in an airport lounge shop I had an immediate instinctive negative reaction to it. In a single volume it promised to cover “50 Inspirational Books to Transform your Life - from timeless sages to contemporary gurus”. Without even opening it up it was clear that it pandered to those who seek instant fixes or five-minute solutions to life’s problems. It would surely only encourage those who ask: “Why bother to read a whole book for yourself when you can read a summary of it in just a few pages?” I wondered what some of the original authors of the works covered actually felt about their books being included in such a process of condensation and compilation, and whether the “contemporary gurus” among them had been consulted and approved of the content. Then I noticed that two of those authors had... Read review

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Advantages: Moving and funny
Disadvantages: None

...The hot property is a des res in the Cotswold village of Lilcombe Magna, Paradise Cottage, which Claire Snow unexpectedly inherits from a long-forgotten great-aunt. Paradise it isn't, it's more an old heap seemingly miles away from anywhere, but Claire can't resist a challenge. But there's more to it than money; she has to balance the demands of her employers in her tedious management job, boyfriends and other suitors, her best mate the ever-mercurial thespian Lorna, a Debbie Harry wannabe, and an insufferable mother who walked out on her when she was a child and has a habit of reappearing when she's least welcome. There's also a smarmy, unscrupulous cousin who lives next door, and the cantankerous, lonely old sitting tenant whose best friends are the TV and his enormous pig Brucie, who contributes some of the story's classic moments... Read review

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