Why Join?

  • Add New Books

  • Write a Review

  • Backpack Reading Lists

  • Newsletter Updates

Join Now

The author "Alexander%20McCall%20Smith" was not recognised, please select one from the drop-down menu when typing.

A Conference in Stockholm

A Conference in Stockholm
  • Author(s): Kathy Harter
  • Location(s): Stockholm, Eastern Europe, New York City (NYC), Oxford, Washington DC
  • Genre(s): Mystery, Thriller
  • Era(s): Contemporary

A noted climate activist is about to name names at a symposium in Stockholm. CIA agents Joshua Daine and Valerie Rhodes are sent on a simple retrieval mission to pick up classified information. She is kidnapped, he is shot,...

A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome

A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome
  • Author(s): Alberto Angela
  • Location(s): Rome
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 115AD

The year is 115 AD and Imperial Rome is at the height of its power. The reader wakes in a rich patrician home and discovers frescoes, opulent furnishings and richly appointed boudoirs. Strolling through the splendours of the Roman...

A Death in the Medina

A Death in the Medina
  • Author(s): James von Leyden
  • Location(s): Marrakech
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

Death stalks the medina of Marrakech . . . Marrakech, August. It is the start of Ramadan, the hottest in memory. Among the few foreigners left in the sweltering city are a riad owner, her French boyfriend and an...

A Devil Comes to Town

A Devil Comes to Town
  • Author(s): Paolo Maurensig
  • Location(s): Swiss Alps
  • Genre(s): Gothic, Suspense
  • Era(s): Modern

Wild rabies runs rampant through the woods. The foxes are gaining ground, boldly making their way into the village. In Dichtersruhe, an insular yet charming haven stifled by the Swiss mountains, these omens go unnoticed by all but the...

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding
  • Author(s): Jackie Copleton
  • Location(s): Nagasaki, United States (USA)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Modern looking back

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 Amaterasu Takahashi has spent her life grieving for her daughter Yuko and grandson Hideo, who were victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Now a widow living...

A Dragon Apparent: Travels in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam

A Dragon Apparent: Travels in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
  • Author(s): Norman Lewis
  • Location(s): Cambodia, Indochina, Laos
  • Genre(s): Travelogue
  • Era(s): 1950s

This book is set in French Indo-China as the Viet Minh are embarking on the guerrilla war against their colonial oppressors. Lewis travels around the area and recounts his experiences in a tender, insighful and well written way.

A Fort of Nine Towers

A Fort of Nine Towers
  • Author(s): Qais Akbar Omar
  • Location(s): Afghanistan
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Modern

Qais Akbar Omar was eleven when a brutal civil war engulfed Kabul. For Qais, it brought an abrupt end to a childhood filled with kites and cousins in his grandfather’s garden: one of the most convulsive decades in Afghan...

A Free Man of Color

A Free Man of Color
  • Author(s): Barbara Hambly
  • Location(s): New Orleans
  • Genre(s): Mystery
  • Era(s): 1833

Benjamin January, an African American musician tries to help a woman who has gone into a ball to confront her late husband’s mistress. When the mistress is found murdered, he is scapegoated for the murder and must work to...

A Girl Returned

A Girl Returned
  • Author(s): Donatella Di Pietrantonio
  • Location(s): Italy
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Modern

“I was the Arminuta, the girl returned. I spoke another language, I no longer knew who I belonged to. The word ‘mama’ stuck in my throat like a toad. And, nowadays, I really have no idea what kind of...

A Gladiator Dies Only Once

A Gladiator Dies Only Once
  • Author(s): Steven Saylor
  • Location(s): Rome
  • Genre(s): Short Stories
  • Era(s): BC

This is 11 in Steven Saylor’s Roma Sub Rosa series of novels, set in the later Roman Republic (BC), featuring Gordianus the Finder. High calibre writing, and wonderfully illuminating descriptions of the ancient world.

Would you like to add a book or a review or create a reading list? Join Today – It's FREE

Register Now