Stardust by Neil Gaiman

This is an adult fairy tale', with sex, deaths, and  swearing.

  The book contains wonder, enchantment and mystery.
  It contains medieval times, fairies, unicorns, witches, castles and a quest.
  It is full of details and a fast-moving plot.

 However, it lacks thrills and any sense of real danger.

Me, Myself and Us by Brian Little

 

This book provides a well-grounded introduction to the "Big Five" personality dimensions (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. Openness and Extroversion). Understanding these tendencies in ourselves and others can provide valuable insights into behaviour, helping us to be realistic in our expectations, to avoid misinterpreting the behaviours of others, and to recognize that environments and settings interact with personality to influence actions.

 A good introduction to the subject of personality subject.

There was a number of  anecdotes and examples used to illustrate the personality factors. 

It allows for reflecting, questioning, and learning about ourselves and others we interact with. 

There’s no groundbreaking research, and the book is not a self-help manual.

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

This books describes a mystery written from the perspective of Maud, a woman with dementia.

It is very sad at times, as Maud gets no longer being listened to and people around her get irritated.
The author writes brilliantly with the thoughts, feelings and limitations of a person losing their memory. It feels like a first-hand experience of what it would be like to lose your memories - although I am not sure how realistic it is.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

   

 This is the second instalment of JK Rowling's, writing as Robert Galbraith, private detective Cormoran Strike.  He is solving a mystery of a missing husband.

This a great detective story, full of twists and turns.
It is fast and highly entertaining.
You can see her love of underdogs/disadvantaged people.
 
I got fed up with Strike's assistant Robin suffering from angst about her relationship with her fiancé, which carried on from the first book.

Cold Blood: Adventures with Reptiles and Amphibians by Richard Kerridge

 Richard Kerridge writes about his boyhood and his adventures collecting toads, frogs, slowworms, lizards and snakes. He intertwines his childhood adventures with his relationship to his father and scientific facts.

Inspiring for those of us who can't afford to go off and see wildlife round the world -because there are some amazing fellows here in the UK.
I loved his writing on our relationships with nature, eco-criticism, anthropomorphism etc.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I was drawn to this book in the book shop because its edges are black!  It is a fantasy story of love and magic set in a travelling circus. Having talked to people about it this book seems to be like Marmite - you either love it or hate it.

I was captivated by the beautiful descriptions of the circus. 
I couldn't see where it was heading which I love in a book, although I was a little disappointed by romantic subplot.

The first couple of chapters have some cruelties in and I would have liked some more later in - to give it more of an adult feel.

Queen Lucia by E. F. Benson

Having watched Mapp and Lucia over Christmas I wanted to read one of the books. This is the first in the series, describing Miss Elizabeth Mapp, the socialite of the small town of Tilling.  I look forward to reading some more.

"The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the time which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other."
 

Hilarious - life in "backwater" England with a flair unmatched...from yoga to opera to seances, the jockeying of the village's inhabitants to hold onto (or pilfer) their "next great thing" is well worth reading.
I loved the flamboyancy of the characters and just how funny E. F. Benson’s writing is.
It has a very dry sense of humour.

There are some things that grated at first; for example how Lucia speaks baby to her friend Georgie but you quickly get over it.
There is the description of the mysterious Indian Guru which is the talk of the village.  It is un-pc by today’s standards but written in the 1920’s and set very much in that era, people did have such prejudices.