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Apologies for imposing an asterisk - but, the Daily Post and Echo is a family newspaper and we don't condone swearing - you could say bad language smacks of a lack of imagination and we're above all that!

Still, life is about freedom of speech and Frankie Boyle can call his book what he likes.

Now being an innocent and entirely virtuous 'young' woman, I couldn't possibly review this book myself...

I always read the comments people make about books.

India Knight (Sunday Times) said the A-Z Guide to Perfumes was "dazzling" and one of the best books she had ever read.

John Lanchester (of the New Yorker, one of my many weaknesses) said it was "ravishingly entertaining"

Did we read the same book? 

There is no doubt the people who read this blog read books - otherwise it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.

But I wonder how many of you have a half finished novel, short story or scratched out feature languishing at home?

With that in mind, I thought help should be at hand - perhaps to give you the motivation to carry on and complete what you've started...

Do you remember the storm created when Tesco launched its pole dancing kit for young girls?

What about the news a trendy young designer had started producing thongs for 10-year-olds?

What, if anything, does this have to do with child sex trafficking in Asia?

Here Liverpool Daily Post and ECHO intern Charlie Byrne reviews feminist professor M G Durham's take on the matter...

It's always nice to receive a present - particularly one you're not expecting.

But when the boyfriend bought me a copy of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall recently I have to say I gave a small, inward groan.

Yes, I've heard it's fabulous. Yes, I am extremely fond of the Tudor dynasty - what with my A-Level in history and my box set of the HBO series.

But... have you seen the size of it?

Just returned from holiday and, of course, I stashed a few books in my luggage!

I grabbed The Piano Teacher at Manchester Airport, concerned the three I'd packed (Outliers, Everything is Illuminated and The White Tiger) wouldn't be enough.

It was lucky I did, I finished the last book the day after we landed home so I judged it exactly right.

Soooo, why choose it? ...

I love a good race and the race to release Michael Jackson's biography was always going to echo the madness of the past week.

Apparently, according to this story in The Guardian anyway, the Chinese are leading the way with a book completed in just 48 hours.

Now the various criticisms of the Chinese and their attitude to human rights and terrifying work ethic is not something we need to discuss in a book blog. 

Here's a first.

Me suggesting a book I haven't actually read.

But Marilynne Robinson's novel Home has just won the Orange Prize for fiction ... so I figure there must be something in it.

So now I'm throwing the floor open for reviews... if anyone has finished it yet?

Everyone's got those books. You know, the ones you thumb through in the bookshop and think about buying - you're so familiar with the cover and sypnosis - but you never quite get around to it?

I was like that with British author Kazuo Ishiguro - which is probably why it took me so long to read his 2005 Booker Prize shortlisted Never Let Me Go.

If you haven't done so, I urge you to read it. It's fabulous, stretches the mind and makes you feel faintly chilled...and you might want to read it before the film comes out.

Apparently Keira Knightley started shooting last month.

But more importantly...