Best Selling Books UK

Monday, November 7, 2011

Beyond All Evil: Two monsters, two mothers, a love that will last forever

Beyond All Evil tells the true story of two women whose lives were torn apart when on the same day, just a few miles apart, their husbands murdered their children.

In pre-meditated acts of unspeakable cruelty, two men chose that day to enact revenge in the most horrendous way possible, on the wives who had dared to leave them.

June Thomson and Giselle Ross, two people who were total strangers to each other, have now formed a firm friendship and lend support to each other in a way no-one else in the world can.

No-one, unless their children have been murdered by their partners, can possibly understand how those women feel. But they understood each other's grief.

June Thomson lost daughter Michelle, 25, and son Ryan, 7, when her husband, Rab, stabbed them during an access visit.

Just 5 hours later and 50 miles away, Giselle Ross learned that her estranged husband Ashok Kalyanjee has slit their sons' throats while taking the kids out on an access visit.

Two year old Jay Jay first, while his older brother watched in terror, then Paul, aged just six.

Husband and wife team newspaper reporters and award wining journalists Marion Scott and Jim BcBeth have co-written Beyond All Evil, along with Giselle Ross and June Thomson.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Top 10 Best Selling Books November 2011

The top 10 best selling books in the UK in November 2011 are as follows:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Now a Hollywood movie, The Help is an amazing book you will thoroughly enjoy.

Authoress Kathryn Stockett has managed to write a superb novel that will make you feel as if you are right there in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s.

The Civil rights Movement had begun, and the difference between the rich white people and their black maids was wide.

One young white woman wanted to change things.

Miss Skeeter was a young college graduate who with the help of two black friends, Aibileen and Minnie, both maids , decided to write a book.

The story is told through the narratives of each of the three women.

You will laugh, you will cry, but you will love their characters and not want to leave them when you reach the end of the book.

And what better thing can you say about a book?

Guinness World Records 2012

Do you remember when you were a kid being delighted to receive a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records at Christmas?

It would keep you absorbed for hours with all the information and interesting facts and records inside those glorious covers.

The new Guinness World Records 2012 is out, having been updated on the 15th of September, 2011, and is chock full of records both old and new.

Marvel at the International Space Station.

Read about the London Olympics.

With over 900 new stunning full colour photographs, hundreds of amazing bite-sized facts and an incredible 3D jacket cover, this beautifully bound hard back book with make a great Christmas present.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

Cabin Fever is the latest offering by Jeff Kinney in his hugely popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Aimed at kids aged 8 and above, children the world over cannot get enough of Jeff Kinney's books.

In Cabin Fever, Greg Heffley, who has 'starred' in the whole Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, is in trouble.

He is the prime suspect after some school property got damaged, and it wasn't his fault, not really.

A blizzard strands his family inside their home, but he knows that when the thaw comes, he is going to have to face the music.

Meanwhile, he is trapped indoors with his family instead of being out playing, and it is the holidays.

Author Jeff Kinney is an online game designer and developer as well as being a New York Times best selling author.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending is a beautifully written slim volume about a man who, later in life, looks back with regret for things he did in his youth.

Each word is carefully crafted and not padded out like you see in so many books.

Tony Webster remembers in detail the many philosophical conversations he had with his friends at a middle-class public school in the 1960s.

He needs to look back to make sense of events that have happened since.

The ending is totally unexpected and if you'd not fully understood the book as you were reading it, this will make you want to go back and read it again, as suddenly all the slots fall into place.

This book has invariably been described as "masterful", "imaginatively crafted", "elegant", "wonderful" and "beautifully written" to mention a few comments from the top book critics.

Buy it yourself and see what you think. You are sure to not be disappointed.

Snuff: Discworld Novel 39 by Terry Pratchett

In Snuff: Discworld Novel 39, Sybil, Commander Vimes's wife, insists he has a break at her ancestral pile in the country.

Green fields, fresh air, relaxation.

Not quite. It is not long before Vimes finds himself investigating a murder while leads to an even graver crime being committed.

Previously, Sir Terry Pratchett's books brought us stories that we humorous with an undertone of morality. In this latest Discworld novel, the morality is more deeply entrenched and the humour less so.

There are some funny scenes throughout, but in the main it is serious book that will make you think.

Some critics have even suggested that Sir Terry Pratchett's illness may be affecting his writing. He is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

1Q84: Books 1 and 2 by Haruki Murakami

If you have read any of Haruki Murakami's previous books, you might find it a lot easier to get the grips with the surrealism portrayed in 1Q84, which is a parody of George Orwell's 1984.

The letter 'Q' in Japanese sounds like the number 9, hence the title.

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author who has successfully broken the East/West barrier, and is probably the most famous author ever to come out of Japan.

Even the staid Guardian has described him as "one of the world's greatest living novelists".

1Q84 is based around two main characters who are seemingly living on parallel universes within the same city.

He is a writer and teacher, and she is a female assassin.

Their lives are inextricably drawn towards each other, and while at the start of the book you may be perplexed as to their relationship, all will be revealed, slowly.

An amazing book. Highly recommended.

If you are new to Haruki Murakami, it is advised you read After The Quake first.

The Drop by Michael Connelly

The Drop is yet another fantastic Harry Bosch story by the one and only Michael Connelly.

Harry Bosch is just three years away from retirement and he has been placed in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP).

He is desperate for more cases, and he gets his wish, with two on the one day.

First, the Regional Crime Lab throws up a positive DNA match for an unsolved rape and murder that took place in 1989.

Only problem is the accused, who is currently locked up for a different rape, would only have been 8 years old at the time.

Has something gone wrong at the lab?

Then a councilman's son dies after falling from a hotel balcony. Did he jump or was he pushed?

Councilman Irving demands Bosch investigate his son's death, despite previous enmity between the two men.

Bosch discovers that a serial killer has been operating in the city for up to 30 years, and that there is a deep political conspiracy going on that involves the police department at political level.

Typical Michael Connelly. Just pure brilliant.

Gangsta Granny by David Walliams

This is a must for children everywhere! In fact, never mind the kids - I want to read it!!

Gangsta Granny is the latest offering from best selling author David Walliams, who has been described as the new Roald Dahl.

11 year old Ben is unhappy at being forced to stay at his grandmother's every Friday night. She is boring. All she wants to do is make cabbage soup and play Scrabble. In Ben's own words "She’s the boringest grandma ever".

But Grandma is not all she appears to be.

She was once an international jewel thief, and she's always dreamt of stealing the Crown Jewels.

Would Ben help her?

Gangsta Granny will have kids laughing out loud!

David Walliams is one of those authors who can get inside kids heads and write in a straightforward way using kids' direct logic to explain things - he has the ability to create a child's eye view of the world.

This book will make you want to curl up in corner, giggling away at the antics you are reading about, never mind the kids!

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

This is the book they have all been talking about. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, written by best selling author Walter Isaacson, is a fascinating insight into the life of the man who co-founded the giant Apple corporation and who sadly died on the 5th of October, 2011, aged only 56.

From is adoption as a baby, through his earlier live, his loves, his trials and tribulations, this biography takes you through the life of man whose famous quotes includes the lines:

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.

Steve Jobs

The man who was hugely successful not once, but twice in his life, leaves a tremendous inspirational legacy to the young and up and coming entrepreneurs of this world.

Walter Isaacson has written a book that is clear, succinct and highly enjoyable.