Dear RISI Members, Have recently read this book (more accurate to call it a rant, though a very funny one). Got it as a Xmas present, what an interesting read! The book is by a well-respected film critic, who cares deeply about the state of the movies. The best way to describe the book is to state the...

Dear RISI, I recently listened to this audiobook of Bad Pharma, by Ben Goldacre. I found it a very interesting listen. As this is a non-fiction book, it tells the story of drugs companies, and in particular their relations with doctors and patients. The author highlishts the fact that drugs companies...

The women of a remote Welsh valley wake up one morning in 1944 and discover that their husbands have left their farms in the night. The German Army has invaded Britain, it is an alternative 1944. A German patrol, led by Albrecht Wolfram, is sent to the remote valley near Hay on Wye by the SS . The soldiers...

Amazon Product Description In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis , a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and...

Synopsis (from fantasticfiction): Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné. As he becomes involved with...

Synopsis (from Amazon) In the seamy theatre world of 1970s New York, where rents are cheap and love is free, aspiring actor Edward Day joins his friends for a summer weekend on the New Jersey Shore. But something happens - and Edward's life will never be the same again. He is saved from drowning...

I thought we already had a thread about this one as I know several people have read and enjoyed it - but I can't find a review so here goes... Howard's End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill (Blurb from fantasticfiction): This is a year of reading from home, by one of...

I've just completed reading this book. Having suffered from anxiety and procrastination for many years, i thought what the heck and gave it a go. This book really is worth it's weight in gold. I'd not read for years but couldn't put this one down! It's full of realistic and practical...

Paperback: 544 pages Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New Ed edition (7 Jan 1988) Language English What a hidden treasure, well, hidden to me until the recent resurgence in interest in Winifred Holtby thanks to the excellent BBC dramatisation of this epic novel. It's been quite a while since I've...

Synopsis: Tommy Carr was a kind man; Eve had been able to tell that after half an hour of knowing him. There had never been a day when he had not shown her some small kindness.The birth of a daughter, Jeannie Eliza, crowns the young couple's happiness -- just as her shockingly early death casts them...