I have written a short poem about Barak Obama. In AMerica, the day prior to the Inauguration was Martin Luther King Day. I thought the two things went together well. I read on the internet about Obamas young speech writer, who had studied the speeches of previous American Presidents and Martin Luther Kings' Speeches, before writing the Inauguration Speech.

I knew I had a Martin Luther King book that I had bought from a Charity Shop for 30p some time ago. I had read it. Re-reading it over the last couple of days, WOW what a powerful man he was. The book I have is called "Strength to Love", a collection of his Sermons from the early sixties, it was published first in 63.

The "I have a Dream" Speech, I checked out on the Internet, it says this is probably the best speech ever written and delivered. I think I agree. It is well worth having a look at.

I was intending to write a poem about "I have a Dream", but now I think there is too much in it, I may try is a short piece.

This is the third part of Lukyanenko's Night Watch Trilogy set in the supernatural underworld of post Soviet Russia and I was quite pleased to be back with the first person narrative of Anton Gorodetsky after the brief excussion into the world of the Day watch in Book two.

I will keep this brief as I don't want to spoil the fun of any potential readers. Once again the book is made up of three parts. In part one Anton investigates the occupants of a half abandoned luxury apartment block looking for the individual who wants to become an other, in part two a powerfull witch threatens the balance of the Watches and in part three we are thrown into a race against time to find out who has acquired a powerfull grimoire the use of which use threatens the whole of humanity. The events covered in the story are so important that Anton is forced into an uneasy working relationship with Dark Watch vampire Kostya and the Inquisition magician Edgar, who we first encountered in The Day Watch . Constantly inventive and very evocative of contemporary Russian society, everything moves along at a breakneck pace, plus we get to meet lots of old friends like Gesar, Zabulon and Sveta again.

Hats off to both the author and whoever translated this from the Russian as its a really gripping read.

Lutyanenko has recently published a fourth Watch novel the Last Watch which is set in Edinburgh, I'm really looking forward to reading that . 

A woman accused of poisoning her husband is condemmed to be hung and murderer is a loose in London, his crimes so horrible that he is given the name the Limehouse golem. Tracking back through the years we are introduced to Elizabeth Cree, the poisoner to be as she ascends from sail maker's assistant to music hall star alongside the great Dan Leno while in parallel we read the dairy of the murderer and follow the interaction of those on the sidelines with the main narrative, including Karl Marx and George Gissing.

Ackroyd has obviously done his homework about the lives of the music hall artists, but I have to admit I found the twist in the tail of this novel completely predictable and would have expected something a bit more original from an author of Ackroyd's standing. Don't let that put you off though its still an entertaining read.

I have just finished reading "The girl who married a Lion". The title grabbed me, will it grab you?

It is by Alexander McCall Smith, who wrote The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency - well, it's nothing like that, other than it is abook that the No1 Detective has on her desk.

The book is almost Aesops Fables, but with Africa for the country, and the stories about African People and African Animal.
Every story has it's moral content. I am not sure if the book were intended for children or adults.Both would get equal enjoyment out of it. The stories came out visulally in my head, and were colourful.

Will read more by this author.

Plot: Ka, a poet, returns to Istanbul after many years in exile in Germany. He is persuaded by an old friend to travel to Kars, way over in eastern Turkey, to report on the elections and a spate of teenage suicides. Also because a recently single, beautiful former school friend lives in the town.

When he arrives the snow blocks the roads out of Kars, and he's stuck in the town with militant young Muslims, militant secularist officials and intelligence people, and a secular theatre group who aim to provoke the Muslim population. Oh, and he's staying at the hotel owned by the father of the old school friend (Ipek), which makes the eventual romance very difficult to put into practice.

My thoughts: I quite enjoyed this book. Okay, Pamuk does go off on tangents and you don't realise until the end that they might have some relevance. At the time you wish he'd just get on with the story, but that's only a minor annoyance. The love scenes between Ka and Ipek seem rather clumsy, but they were enjoyable nonetheless.

The interesting thing about the characters was they all have a very black and white view of the world. That is, you're either religious or an atheist. An educated, westernised person or a primitive, simple person from the sticks. There is no middle ground, and certainly no grey areas for the characters. Maybe they reflect attitudes of people in Turkey, or the rest of the world. I'm not sure, but this planet does have a lot of people who think it is all black and white, rather than green, blue and various shades of grey!

Ka is an infuriating character. Claims not to be interested in politics, despite being in Kars to cover a political event and becoming deeply involved in the political drama of the book. He is also primarily concerned with saving his own skin, no matter who he betrays or how big a lie he tells. He seems to enjoy being unhappy, even sabotaging potential happiness with Ipek. Maybe it's the tortured artist syndrome, maybe he is pathological unhappy. However, like Ipek, we want to believe he is a good guy.

If I was to rate this book, I'd give it an eight out of ten. Pamuk probably puts a little too much into the story, but it doesn't prevent it from being a good book.

This writer is red hot - in excellent story teller.

She has written a series of books about the aftermath of The Turn - when half the human population of the world gets wiped out by a mutated virus, and the 'Inderlanders' (witches, vampires, weres, pixies etc) are revealed as living among us.

The stories are based around a witch called Rachel Morgan who gets herself in loads of scrapes and near-death experiences, getting caught up in all sorts of situations in an effort to stay alive. She lives in a church with her business partners - Ivy the living vampire and Jenks the pixie (along with his wife and 54 children).

The books are :

Dead Witch Walking
A Fistful of Charms
Every Which Way But Dead
The Good, The Bad and The Undead
For A Few Demons More
and the latest one : The Outlaw Demon Wails, which I have just started.

Every one is as riveting as the next and just when you think she has gone thru as many permutations of 'Rachel in deep shit' as you think can happen without losing the plot, something else happens and you are walking the streets of The Hollows again in kick arse books and leather trousers.

So im really getting in to this book, im only on page 97 of 437 but still im finding myself trying to get a few pages in at every chance. For most people chick lit is dull but when you have a young child its heavenly to read about someone elses stupid dramas and not have to really think hard about it or figure out who the bad guy is.

I think 2009 will be a good reading year for me and i hope i can read more than my one a month target. More excuses to shop for books!

I will keep you all updated on how im doing next week if i get to finish it.

Found it in the Library. A book by the Dalai Lama, I had know idea he had written a book. When I got it home I found out that he has written several. It is a self-improvement book. A "How to" - Bhuddist meditation.

There are some quite difficult to grasp concepts, but I am now half way through the book.

Had a look on the Internet at at the list of other books he has written, it is quite a long list.

I started my book last night and after 20mins my eyes died and i dropped the book. I did manage to read the prologue and the first chapter (dont ask what happened cause i cant remember athe the moment. Im glad i chose a light book to train my brain again, i am so out of practice if that is possible? I once did nothing for a whole day but read a book my husband bought me for my birthday (chick lit) and since then im hooked on them but just cant really do a day of reading at the moment!

wish me luck. im goning to try for two chapters tonight.....yeah right!

I used to read up to 4 books a month when i was pregnant but since having my son last july i havent finished 1 so i am setting myself a target to read at least 1 a month so tonight when im wrapped up in bed im going to start "Glitz" by Louise Bagshawe, so wish me luck fellow readers