I really liked this, though it's really quite disturbing. The background of the story is that a child goes missing, but the story is told from the point of view of a nine year old boy. Reading it while the Madeleine McCann case was in the news (a coincidence that I only realised after I started reading it btw - I've had it out of the library for a while and if I'd thought a bit rather than just picking up the next book in the pile I might not have read it) made it seem a bit odd, and kind of unrealistic too. But you have to remember that a nine year old narrator isn't omniscient.

Borrowed.

2 copies of this book are available on BookMooch.

• Jill McGown | Obituaries | Guardian Unlimited
  I just discovered Jill McGown has died. How sad. (Lloyd was *never* called Danny in the novels, pity the obituary writer didn’t read more closely.) (Just noticed the obituary writer was Val McDermid too.)
  (tags: obituary crime writer)

The third Joe Sixsmith novel; I don't think there are many more. I'll certainly read them anyway. Not top class Hill but very decently written and well plotted with plenty of humour.

Borrowed.

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• meish dot org » Things my new commute has taught me #1
  tube seat hierarchy
  (tags: tube london seating)

I was after something light and thought this might be too light but it worked out well. I almost didn't pick it up off the library shelf but then saw it was a follow on book featuring the sisters Pip, Fen & Cat from earlier books by the author. The earlier books were very "girl meets boy and lives happily ever after". This therefore must be about how the "happily ever after" bit works out. Which it is. And I enjoyed it a lot. It's quite bittersweet in places, not always frivolous, the characters aren't having a good time all the time and they have grown up quite a lot. I'll probably pick North's other recent books up at some point, these are better than any other "chick lit" I've tried to read.

Borrowed.

A copy of this book is available on BookMooch.

• A Mean Chocolate Chip Cookie — megnut.com
  a recipe that appeals to the mathematician in me.
  (tags: cooking recipe biscuit chocolate)

I'd put this somewhere on the up side of average. A bit slow in the beginning and not an author I'm going to race around looking for, though perhaps one I will read again. So it quite surprised me when I found her mentioned online as one of the big new names taking crime writing into the literary bit of mainstream fiction. I liked the plot and some of the characters (bit players better drawn than the major parts) but didn't think the writing was anything to get excited about.

Borrowed.

• BBC NEWS | England | Essex | Store drops bags in ‘green’ move
  Waitrose are experimenting with a “plastic bag-free green till”. Hurray! I always take my own bags to the supermarket; I’d love to be able to jump the queue at a dedicated checkout. Good move!
  (tags: supermarket bags environment)

The hardback copy of this I read had the subtitle "Evolution, Extinction and Economics" but it looks like the paperback got the subtitle swizzled to "...and how to avoid it". I probably wouldn't have picked it up with the latter title. I don't think either title is that descriptive though - it doesn't have that much to do with extinction or evolution and didn't really seem to explain that much about how to avoid failure.

I will confess I was skim reading more the further I got into the book though so may very well have missed the essentials. Quite interesting but not terribly enthralling.

Borrowed.