Chris Carrel

I fell in love with Arsenal FC, in 2004, as they began an incredible run of 50 unbeaten games. They were a team that was easy to appreciate. Hornsby tells the backstory of a team that wasn't so lovable, the “boring, boring Arsenal” of the 1970s and how as a boy, Hornsby came to love the unfashionable Arsenal FC.
A great football book, and an intriguing bio and period piece.

Robert Charles Wilson is one of my favorite sci-fi writers, and while I enjoyed Spin, the sequel Axis, left me a little flat.

It's a decent read, but the characters are just not that engaging and ultimately, the story of the Hypotheticals - the mysterious alien force that enclosed the Earth in a time bubble in Spin - is pretty pedestrian.

Child murders are grim enough, but when set against a very stark, very real Stalinist Russia where even spouses can denounce (and send to their death) each other, it makes for a novel that is not for the faint of heart. Yet, the story of Leo Dimidev, one of Stalin's secret policemen, as he tries to find the truth about a serial killer in a society that doesn't want to acknowledge such crimes, is a story of redemption. The characters are full-fledged and nuanced, the narrative tautly paced. This is a thriller with its share of surprises, not the least of which is how redemption and some level of optimism is found in such a grim, dangerous place.