Scarecrow the Fourth

Eagerly awaiting the launch of Matthew Reilly's fourth Scarecrow novel "Scarecrow and the army of thieves".
Marine Captain Shane 'Scarecrow' Schofield battles a large and secretive terrorist group of evil villains - the Army of Thieves who have seized control of an island in the Arctic (sorry it's not the Antarctic) and apparently are about to destroy the planet, the US government are unable to prevent them, so the President has no alternative but to call in Scarecrow and his team.
Apparently it is typical Matthew Reilly - white-knuckle suspense and page-turning adventure and non-stop action!

So roll on October .

Bunkers new & old

Still dealing with serendipity, what are the chances of us discussing bunkers (the local one from World War Two) and the same day WebUrbanist having Bunkers Ours: the safe house is an open & shut case?


The Safe House located just outside Warsaw in Poland, is a shape-shifting, monolithic, urban bunker which adjusts its exterior to meet all your security needs from pesky tool-borrowing neighbours to a full-on zombie apocalypse. It's practically a fortress with an open, spacious interior with a huge living space spread over 2 floors with an adjoining swimming pool annex that's accessed via a neo-medieval retracting drawbridge. Huge, 2.8 metre flush-fitting shutters open up to 180 degrees or lie flat against the walls letting in light and relieving any sense of claustrophobia.
And our local bunker? The concrete bombing observation posts of the Air Navigation & Training School below.

Unshelved serendipity

I've posted before about the people at 'Unshelved' having a hot-line into our organisation, now someone from outside has recognised it too and emailled me the following - "You know when the car went through the wall. Maybe some talked...They are so close to truth its hard to believe. They have good sources for things that happen in libraries."

Under the Underground

Peter Ackroyd's London Under is a study of underground London, its original springs & streams, Roman amphitheatres, Victorian sewers, gang hideouts and modern tube stations.
In extending the Underground Rail system, engineers have found a 12th century quay, an Iron Age settlement, a 13th century gatehouse, a 900-year-old Cistercian monastery, sites which have been hidden for thousands of years.
As a long established city, there's heaps of history piled layer upon layer beneath London - the bodies, the buried rivers, the sewers all preserved in mud and clay.



While the book is a history, Peter also tells the stories that parallel this history - there are 44 'dead stations' abandoned by the Tube ; 'Toshers' the scavengers who prowled the sewers looking for item to sell ; the folly of the Thames Tunnel.
The book is only a slim 182 pages, and could have benefited from some colour photographs, but it is already popular with local borrowers already placing Holds on our copy.

Alone too

A bit excited that the new James Phelan book "Survivor" arrived today, especially as I finally finished the 660th page of Jean M. Auel's "Land of the painted caves" last night.
This is the second book of the "Alone" trilogy - 12 Days Later, chaos reigns in New York, pursued by the predatory Chasers Jesse finds unexpected friendship in three other survivors, but it comes at a price in a world where nothing can be relied upon...
If it is anything like "Chasers" will be a good read!