The Collectors by David Baldacci

This is the second in The Camel Club series of books set in Washington DC. Again the book has an interesting plausible plot supported with funny quirky characters. We get to meet a new member to the Camel Club in the guise of con woman Annabelle Conroy. She is a strong confident ( no pun intended) woman and it is a refreshing character to get to know. There are no gratuitous sex plots to hinder one’s reading experience. The baddie could be badder but hey all things cant be perfect right. Forgeries, old biddy spies, rare books, cons, gambling, spies etc etc

In this one we also get to knoe the ragtag members of the Camel Club a bit better and Milton as always comes up tops.

Loved it and am sad it was the last in this series so I will have to find other DC set books to read…

Rated 7

Made me want to learn more about the rare book field.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I first read of this book in the Guardian newspaper in an article about books nominated fora new book award ( cant remember the name of the award) . Anyway I reserved a book at the library and when I got it…WOW! I could not put this book down. SO incredibly well written with characters so real you feel for them. The best thing about this book has to the new world that Chimamanda opens up. I felt transported to all the places she wrote of to the lives lived by Ifem and Obinze. Their young love so powerful and authentic. Its tragic in turns but there is always a comedic observations written in a stylish prose. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be recommending it highly. I read it a solid 2 days.

It makes me want to read Chimamanda’s other works as well as some of the book that one of the books character’s referes to.

Rated 9

The Adventures of Sally by P G Woodhouse

Picked on a whim without ever having read Woodhouse at all. This book was a long read but this was absolutely lovely.The story was set in 1920s America and England. The characters were well developed, I especially loved the hapless Lancelot ‘Ginger’ Kemp. Woodhouse excelled at giving insight (for me at least) into the mind of the upperclass Englishman via the loathful Bruce Carmyle. My only gripe is the seemingly hurried way in which he was dispatched. One would have thought that after having chased Sally all the way to America (again) that he would have at least tried harder to understand what happened.

It makes me want to read more Woodhouse stuff and I shall certainly do so.

Highly rated although the ending seemed rushed

Rated 7