Jon Wallace Great action adventure with sci-fi, AI and nanobot ideas. Told from the perspective of an 'Artificial' directed from a central 'Control'. They are at war with the 'Reals', but it also flashes back to the time the war began. Not as dense ...

Eric Kraft I only made it half way through, it was not for me. I maybe started at the wrong book, maybe if I knew other Leroy stories first I could withstand the arrogant introductions. It is enchanting writing, depth of character and description. B...

Terry Pratchett This is a wonderful Watch book. Vimes, Carrot, Nobby and the diversification of the Watch. Vetanari and the Guild of Assassins. Well balance, easy read, steady plot. One of Terry's better ones....

Ashlee Vance This biography is well paced and covers Elons family in south africa, through PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City, Hyperloop, etc. Impartial insight into a driven tech entrepreneur. Some hurt feelings along the way, but this unique person...

Jean M. Auel Another Ayla adventure. Lives up to the previous ones. Epic at 784 pages. Maybe more relationship and less prehistoric living and techniques. I was absorbed again....

How one man built an empire. Amazing story of humble beginnings after the war to now where each of his children are in the top 10 richest people. This book conveys his passion and drive and might be whitewashed and bias, but it feels honest and strai...

Terry Jones I am always concerned when people walk into another authors universe. I tried to make sure I was not expecting Adams standard, to give Terry space for his style and personality. It worked, this book is great. It is light, fun, humer...

Anthony Bourdain. Feels more like a selection of short stories. Some tv show stuff, some reflection on Kitchen Confidential and where are they now. Same brash, cynical, heartfelt approach, just older. Enjoyed it. His own self-deprecation "A loud, e...

Bret Easton Ellis Its been over 10 years since I read this and it is still as shocking. It is violent and sexually explicit. I have read his other work and I think that helps. I really enjoyed it, it is a dark examination of wall street, capitalism,...

Giles Milton I really enjoyed this one, a combination of your normal travel non fiction and then some great history investigation. So some descriptions of the current day city and then finding clues as to what they would have been like in Mandeville...

Bill Bryson Bill delivers what you have come to expect from him again. A Loving exploration of England. This time he is a bit older and so there is a bit more grumpiness and biting wit. Very enjoyable....

William Gibson I read this in the early nineties and have reread it over the years. It is so dense with concepts and description. This is an author that can cunjur up a scene or concept in one sentence. I have to slow down when I am reading his work...

The Rise and Fall of Cobb & Co Sam Everingham Set in the late 1800s this is a great colonial tale. Coaches, Pastoral Stations, Gold Rushes. It follows the story of the partners in Cobb & Co and their families. From starting out, to exp...

Peter Carey I don't understand the big deal about Peter Carey. I was expecting literature like Richard Flanagan or Tim Winton. His style, in this book, seems to be dialog driven, little description of place, and then changing narrators. Not fus...

Malcolm Gladwell Other books by Gladwell I have read have been smoother and more cohesive. The message is great and the story interesting. I found myself uplisted and looking more kindly on my differences....

Terry Pratchett This is Terry's last book. It is a witches story and delivers again, nothing special, just a normal Pratchett book. I got a sense of the Discworld being crowded with characters from previous books and many included in this tale. ...

Jean M Auel I loved the adventures of Ayla on her own. Magic and enthralling. I was not really interested in the story of the two men. I read parts of it and skimmed through others. Well worth the read. I enjoy Auel's balance between escapist/other ...

Bill Waterhouse Great insight into bookmaking and the personality required to be one. Also the colourful characters surrounding them. Told from Bill's perspective, so it is not an investigative journalist piece, I developed a compassion for him. Not...

Simon Hayes This is a fun, sometimes humerous space adventure. Very light read, no real sci-fi concepts and characters I had little empathy for....

Fascinating. I don't think I have read a journalist's book before. It was wonderful to be introduced to journalism. Each chapter is a new story Chris has investigated and for one reason or another never made it into print. Candid, thoughtful, and int...

Stephen Fry I knew stephen from tv, his QI show and some documentaries. I found him intelligent and charming. This book is about his early life as a boy at nboarding school, a deliquent and a homosexual. It was very insightful, examining societies i...

I loved this. Small clan, self sufficent, social norms and heirarchy. On my first read I was a bit tramatised by Ayla's treatment, but now I am older its just life, a bit rough, but good with the bad. Easy to read, great flow, I enjoyed the descripti...

Aldous Huxley This was written in 1932! Some books I have read are really of their era, sherlock homes, jane austen, dickens. This is ageless, it reads like a modern book. It is an amazing philosophy, human condition story. I really enjoyed it and i...

Tony Hawk, with Sean Mortimer This book covers from the start of his skating career to about 2000. I was never a skater but grew up with this subculture. Entertaining read, good history of skateboarding, hawks life story, good anecdotes of skating l...

Jeff Noon This reminded me of cyberpunk novels. Written in 1997, it had some good ideas, the blurbs and the vaz. Nice mix of characters, I was engaged with their story. I finished it but I wont keep it to re-read....

Bill Bryson This was a hard read, Bill looked into a lot of words and when they originated and their meaning. Amongst these were tracts about American histroy which was interesteting and like his other books. ...

Stephen Dando-Collins I normally avoid committees, but suprisingly I found it interesting to read about one. This book is built on some detailed resaearch, but it flows nicely, I did not feel bogged down anywhere. I enjoyed the Colonial Australia a...

Duncan McNab I thought this would be more of a linear biography. But it is really just the lastest episode of Rogers life, the Gao murder. Thats at the end of the book and leading up to it is some recounting of Rogers lifes. There is also his co-con...

Douglas Adams This is a great read, well paced, funny, all your favourite characters (except Zaphod). This is probably once of the best written in the series. Not detracting from the others, this is just more mature as an author. HHGG2, The Sandwic...

Douglas Adams This is the Fenchurch and Arthur's love story, with a bit of Ford Prefect and Marvin. This is much more a novel than his previous works, steady, descriptive, story arc, deeper characters. His writing in other books have been a bit di...

Douglas Adams This is the one about Krikket. Again a fun adventure, but just piecing together a lose plot with scifi ideas....

Douglas Adams This is a well paced adventure with good scifi concepts and great humour. I love this series and re-read it often. I think I prefer this one to the first. Zaphod and the rulers of the universe, The Restaurant, and Arthur, Ford and the...

Roger Zelazny I could not make it through this one. It was some combination of scifi, ancient civilisation, reincarnation, gods... I just did not connect to it. Some glimpses of technology/magic kept me going but eventually there was nothing for me ...

Douglas Adams I read this each year around Christmas time. It is one of my favourite books. Unique ideas, sci-fi, human condition, and humour. Well paced and at around 150 pages an easy read. Love it, highly recommended....