June 2010 Archives

Lent to me by Lindsey.... it reads like an account of my life at various stages, starting from c 1997. It's not just an autobiographical account of Kasey Edwards's mid life career crisis - told with large dollops of self deprecating humour (with a smidgen of Bridget Jones); there are several well researched and summarised sections on relevant theories and findings.

And I now realise that some of my most successful career moves have been of the 'lilypad' variety....

Amazon.co.uk link: 30-something and Over it: What Happens When You Wake Up and Don't Want to Go to Work ... Ever Again - Kasey Edwards

Old teenage friendships are revived after one of the crowd dies in a terrorist bombing, and Holly Mac, Olivia, Paul and Saffron work their way through the immediate aftermath and the longer term mourning of their friend Tom.

Death and the transatlantic angle - their lives have taken them to London, New York and LA - means that there is plenty of opportunity for soul searching, mid life crises, the baby dilemma and reflection on the cults of celebrity and sobriety. It's also a stepping stone towards the next novel Jane Green wrote, The Beach House.

Amazon.co.uk link: Second Chance - Jane Green

Recommended and lent by Peter, The Winter Queen introduces young Erast Fandorin at the start of his career as a detective in the Moscow police force. Fandorin's initially amateur investigations into a series of apparently nihilistic suicides take him into wealthy social circles, a society from which his family fell from grace after his father lost his fortune.

We find plenty of drama and characters in 19th century Imperial Russia, and there's even a brief encounter with the ne'er do wells of the East London docks.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin