The Koran (Al-Qur’an) translated from the Arabic by the Rev. J.M. Rodwell with an introduction by the Rev. G. Margoliouth.

This book has a lovely introduction and preface to this translation of the Koran. It puts the reader in the right frame of mind to enjoy this epic work in context. Each Sura is translated and has numbered footnotes that expertly explain the context and technicalities involved.

I found the Koran a great challenge to read. It is not easy reading and I dipped into it over a period of four years. I found the footnotes a great help in understanding the context and to stop any easy misunderstandings. For example on the last Sura V.? The Table [CXIV.] …

O believers! surely wine and games of chance, 34 and statues, and the divining arrows, are an abomination of Satan’s work! Avoid them, that ye may prosper.

... Okay, I do enjoy a beer, which is a type of alcohol and I understand that strict Muslims shy away from all alcohol. I do not gamble because the maths prove that the gambler will ALWAYS lose, so that is an obvious belief to hold. What I was surprised at was footnote 34 which informed the reader…

Tradition has expanded the word ansab, so as to include all figures, and hence the strict observers of the letter of the Koran forbid the game of chess. The Persians, however, and Indians generally interpret this verse more liberally.

… So that is the beauty of this book, it puts the Koran in it’s historical context. It is not an easy read and I think that Rodwell and Margoliouth have done a very good job in making this work available to readers who are ignorant of Arabic but are able to read this classic text in English. It gave me the ability to understand the Koran and form my own view of it’s value to society. I learned a lot about Islam and what the Koran means to Muslims. I feel enlightened having read this book and the secrets surrounding the Koran have been shared with me. I now know what Muslims believe rather than the sound bites propagated by commentators in popular media.

Rodwell and Margoliouth have done a good job in making the Koran accessible to English readers. For that I am truly grateful and I will give their work the top score of 5 stars. What is very nice is that they allow the reader to form their own opinion about the Koran and Islam. Here is a translation and interpretation of the Koran, read it and then make your informed opinion.

Peace be with you.

While I was dying... by Natacha Troubetzkoi.

Follow Nicki in this first person narrative about a young woman finding her way in life. She has many pitfalls along the way as she tries to establish a name for herself.

This book showed promise as her story unfolds but I found her tale quite tedious. It was like one of those telephone calls when a woman is droning on about the little problems in her life and you wish she would end her call. The story does move on from one job or relationship to another but I never gained any empathy for Nicki. This whole book was quite dull and it was not an entertaining read. Nothing much exciting happened although Nicki did travel quite a lot. For all the glamour that Nicki was involved with, her tale did not have any sparkle. Even the sex she had was described as though she went to the shops!

While I was dying… was a drag for me to read through. I did not like the structure as you knew from the prologue that she was going to die and this tale was her looking back on her life. I took nothing away from this book as I was rather bored. I am a fan of first person narratives but this book left me cold. The attitude was shallow and the dialogue between characters was poor. This book was a big disappointment for me, so I can only vote it 2 stars as it was such a poor read.

While I was dying… is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2014.

The Villager by Matt Kruze.

This novella is a British thriller about a suspicious stranger who comes into a rural village. Is he up to no good? Can our resident protect the village against any potential threat posed by this visitor?

What follows is a cat and mouse game where both men use their skills in a classic, hunter and the hunted. Matt has written his story in what he calls “parts” rather than chapters. However these parts do not form logical breaks as the next part continues on the same day! There is plenty of tension in this story as the plot unfolds. The action is quick and snappy which makes for a thrilling read.

Matt does use a lot of obscure words in his book making the average reader do a lot of tapping to bring up the dictionary definition. He appears to be trying hard to raise his game by using an extensive vocabulary but I do not feel that a thriller of this type needs these obscure words. I got the feeling he had been on a creative writing course and was ticking the boxes as the story went on.

I found The Villager to be an okay read in the way that it was entertaining. It did not have an attitude though and the writing was quite sterile. His style was of a magazine story writer, giving you the feel this was a throwaway book. I finished this story and thought it was average, a pleasant read that I will vote the middle score of 3 stars.

The Villager is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2013.

Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna.

This novel is set in Coorg, Southern India and runs from 1878 to 1940. It is a cross generational love story told in the third person. It is not a slushy romance but a story that explores the gripping emotion of love. This is a book that men can enjoy because Sarita understands just how people form loving bonds. Through the story the foundation of love is explained with the characters as they grow wiser with age. There is no explicit sex in this novel but lots of emotional turmoil.

Sarita’s writing is top quality, it is difficult to believe this is her debut novel. Her vocabulary is huge and her prose is very educated. Her book enables the reader to escape their everyday life, go back in time and to a country they may never have been to. You do not need to have travelled to India or be conversant with the culture. Sarita gently guides you through the rich landscape of Coorg, often described as the ‘Scotland of India” as she details the culture and Hindu traditions.

All the characters are well developed but at a natural pace. The love slowly grows, this is not whirlwind romance but something deeper and stronger. You feel for the characters and wish them well. You feel sorry for all the setbacks they encounter and appreciate their point of view. As a reader you take on a grandfatherly role and wish the younger offspring had the benefit of your experience and can understand the love that bonds us all.

Tiger Hills is a pleasure to read, it is one of those books that you can escape so easily into. It is a wonderfully crafted reading experience and because the timeline spans over 60 years, you feel as though you have lived in India with the characters and your home is in Coorg. The story is not claustrophobic because of the many characters and you feel as though you are part of the community. Many love stories are tightly woven around 2 or 3 characters but the beauty of Tiger Hills is the love that is shared through generations and the landscape. It is not the simple girl meets boy love but a greater and far deeper love that people develop as they grow older. Sarita really understands how love develops and how people have to deal with the pitfalls that life throws at them. This book is so easy to relate to because of how the characters develop a fondness and love for others, that you remember how you felt about past loves of your life. This is not just about love for other people but also for landscapes and animals. Many times through the book I have felt tears coming on and the desire to cry at the book “No! No!”.

Tiger Hills is a very moving book and when I finished it, I felt as though I had a lifetime experience of raising a family and cultivating a coffee plantation in Coorg. I put the book down and stroke Charlie the Pug, my pet dog and remember Nancy the Malabar squirrel and another tear comes to my eye. Sarita has written a wonderful novel and I have no reservations about voting it the top score of 5 stars. There is nothing I can find wrong with her book, the editing is spot on and she ticks all the boxes.

Tiger Hills was written in 2010 and has 593 pages. It was one of the novels featured in The TV Book Club on Channel 4 television in the UK during 2011.

Unleashed by Emily Kimelman.

Joy breaks up with her boyfriend, loses her job in the coffee shop and is looking for a fresh start. She gets a dog who she calls Blue and manages to find work as a dog walker. Then the fun begins as Joy has exciting adventures around New York.

Unleashed is easy reading, it is not a top crime thriller novel but something to pass the time with. It is a first person narrative but is written in the style of a television soap opera. The dialogue between characters is very good and witty. Joy is a colourful and lively person, a young woman with lots of attitude. The plot however is very far fetched and this lack of reality spoils this story.

Emily has a game plan and this book is the start of her series. You get to the end when the subtitle of Sydney Rye is introduced. This is cheap hype and you are left with nothing more than B-Movie content. I consider Unleashed to be an okay, 3 star read and it is worth nothing more.

Unleashed is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2011.

To Iraq And Back by Jessica Scott.

Jessica is a soldier who writes a blog and her book is compiled from her blog posts between October 2008 and December 2009. She has a deployment for a year to Mosul in Iraq and this is an insight into her life.

I enjoyed reading To Iraq And Back because it was such a refreshing read for me. I am a pacifist and was totally against the illegal invasion of Iraq but I wanted to read her book with an open mind. What I found was a lovely tale from a very ordinary girl-next-door type of woman, who chose to serve in the US Army. That is Jessica’s day job but she is not the aggressive, movie star, all action, guns blazing heroine. She is an ordinary soldier who has her specific job working in signals, she has a combat role but she is not front line. But Jessica is not a regular workplace blogger as she blogs about lots of things, not just her Army job. Jessica is also a wife, a mother to two young daughters and a romance writer seeking her first publication.

The content of her book is quite a split between Army life, being a mother and writing romance with a view to being published. This made for an enjoyable read as you got to know the whole person. You felt as though you were on tour with Jessica getting all the highlights by squeezing the year into the time it takes to read her book. I liked the structure of her book because the time-line was rigid and there was no going back in time which is one of my pet hates. I found it easy to indentify with Jessica and her personality really shines through her blog posts.

She was unable to give away any military secrets but was incredibly open about the process of writing romance novels. I was not expecting this and really enjoyed reading about her writing problems and her involvement with the Austin Romance Writers Association and others.

I liked how she wrote about her home, her marriage, her children and pets. Rather than being a hard faced soldier, this book let me see her as a normal person who has many interests outside of her day job. You get conditioned by many thriller novels that ALL soldiers are gun-ho and looking for a fight and are unquestioning about killing people. Her book showed the other, softer side of soldiers in support roles who are no different from blue collar workers around the world. What is refreshing is that these soldiers have a normal life with outside interests although they are serving in a combat zone,

I read To Iraq And Back with an open mind and am really pleased I had downloaded a copy. It was good to get a condensed view into a stranger’s life. Jessica is not a bland woman, she has attitude which gave her blog a lovely bite. There were no graphic scenes of bombs or limbs hanging off but Jessica lived in fear of the spider! What I took away from her book was that workers around the world do what they are paid to do but regardless of their uniform, they have personal interests outside of work, just like everyone else. Although you may not agree with company policy or the actions of government agents, these workers are only doing their job but underneath the uniform, they are ordinary nice people. The US army had invaded Iraq and many people lost their lives but not every soldier had their finger on the trigger. Some soldiers were just doing their duty and outside of work are quite nice people. I found To Iraq And Back to be a good read and I will vote it 4 stars. Jessica is now a successful published author and her hobby has developed into paid work. I am pleased that her perseverance has paid off, not just emotionally but in her bank account also.

To Iraq And Back is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2012

Nothing To Lose by Lee Child.

Thank you to the passenger who left this paperback on my coach as I have not read a Lee Child novel before but many of our drivers enjoy his books. Nothing To Lose is the 12th Jack Reacher story and sees him having an adventure in Colorado.

All these Jack Reacher stories are stand alones, you do not have to read them in a sequence. You can just read the odd one if that is all you want. The story is told in the third person and focuses very heavily on Jack, it is his tale. Something is not quite right about the small town of Despair and Jack is determined to get to the bottom of why the locals do not like strangers entering their town.

Lee Child’s writing style is different. Although his stories are set in America, because Lee Child is English, his spelling is British English which I find a boom as cars race around on real tyres! He writes in short chapters as there are 73 chapters in this novel, making reading session times easy to break. There is NO SEX in this story even though he takes a woman to bed! Lee simply writes “Afterwards…”. There are a few concurrent plot lines to follow but I thought why does Jack really bother? Things are thrown into the script in a tabloid fashion, things do not go too deep. There is not much character development as it is all centred around Jack. Everything is explained in the same way as a Drivers CPC course in the UK, lots of background as to why things are done a certain way. The pace of this novel is okay but I did feel as though I was on a training course completing modules to get a pass at the end.

Nothing To Lose was an okay read, it filled a space. I did not find it exciting or gripping. It is a shallow read and has about as much depth as a made-for-tv movie. It is quite a cheap read and I was not impressed. I do not know why Lee Child has so many fans and sells so many books that he is now onto his 20th Jack Reacher novel to be published in September 2105. I am glad I stumbled across this thrown away paperback because had I downloaded a Kindle copy I would have paid £5.01 which is far too much for a book of this quality. Nothing To Lose does pass my quality threshold but I can only vote it 3 stars as it is just an okay read. Having sampled his writing, I will NOT be in the market to purchase another Lee Child novel. There are plenty of very good authors out there and there is no need to pay more than £4.00 for a Kindle download - even a highly acclaimed 5 star read.

Nothing To Lose has 548 pages and was written in 2008.