The Lives of the Surrealists by Desmond Morris Surrealism was originally more than an art movement, it was a philosophical code – a way of living that rebelled against the establishment. Originating in 1920s Paris, following the Dadaists in WWI, it spread world-wide. The term ‘surrealism’ was coined by Apollinaire a few years before two Read More
An understated but moving novel with the cutest cover ever!
If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura Translated by Eric Selland I think the little kitten on this book must rank amongst the cutest cats ever to grace a cover. What you can’t see from the picture above is that his eyes are highlighted with gold, glinting at you, and daring you to Read More
A standalone thriller that’s far from Slough House…
This is What Happened by Mick Herron This is going to be a short review… Mick Herron is the author of the utterly brilliant Jackson Lamb series of spy novels, following the workers of Slough House, where agents get put out to pasture. (If you haven’t read them, see here, here and here!) He’s taken Read More
A Decade of Blogging
On September 15, 2008 I asked a question, “Is there anybody out there?” I wondered. Amazingly, there was, and ten years later, I’m still here. Thank you for reading, visiting, commenting. I always appreciate it. … The Wordle above is made up of my most used and favourite tags and categories over the ten years. Read More
Shiny Linkiness: Aug into Sept
Over the past few weeks, I’ve reviewed three cracking new novels for Shiny New Books… … Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale Gale’s latest is just lovely. This novel is a wonderful blend of coming of age story, small-town childhood, friendship and finding oneself, bound up with a love of music, cello music in Read More
Book Group Report: Purple
The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel Continuing our Book Group selections inspired by colours. At our June meeting it was time to nominate ‘purple’ books to read in August and discuss at the beginning of September. Our initial shortlist was: The Colour Purple by Alice Walker Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg (Wioletta being Polish for Read More
Fake or Fortune? Rachman takes on the art market…
The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman Engaging from the first page, this is a story with two main themes. Firstly, art and the art market – if this book were to have a subtitle, Fake or Fortune’ couldn’t be more apt, as in that BBC TV programme where art dealer Philip Mould with sidekick Fiona Read More
One challenge ends, another begins: RIP XIII
The RIP Challenge is now in its thirteenth year! I’ve never signed up before, but the basic premise of this one should be a doddle for me given my penchant for dark books as autumn gets into full swing. Find out the full details and participation levels of the challenge here. The purpose of the R.I.P. Read More
20 Books of Summer: wrap-up
It’s September, and not only was it back to school yesterday for INSET – more of which to come on Monday (groan!), but it’s the end of the 20 Books Of Summer Challenge hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. My original 20 are pictured on the right – all pre-2018 acquired books from my TBR. Read More
Heresy? !!!
Back in July, I was collating all things Booker at Shiny. One thing I did was to try to obtain a copy of every single Booker Prize winning novel for photos – I scoured the local charity shops and bought cheap copies online, and of course, I already had a goodly number of them on Read More
A London Day Out
On the last of our London days out these summer holidays, my daughter and I experienced several real treats (at half-price entry thanks to our Art Fund Passes, which have got a lot of use this summer)… Stop 1 – The House of Illustration – John Vernon Lord and Enid Marx The House of Illustration Read More
Très charmant! J’ai adoré ce roman
With You in Paris by Clémentine Beauvais Translated by Sam Taylor After the excess of English whimsy (thanks for that phrase, Liz!) of The Brontes Went to Woolworths, I needed a palate-cleanser of a read. Usually, I turn to thrillers, but this book on my bedside shelf caught my eye, and it was just the perfect Read More
A kind of surgical history
Under the Knife by Arnold Van de Laar Translated by Andy Brown I love reading books about medicine in all of its many disciplines, and books about surgery are often amongst the most fascinating. Subtitled “The History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations”, this book promised a interesting take on the subject. In the introduction, Read More
20 Books of Summer: 8 & 9 – St John Mandel & Ferguson
The Singer’s Gun by Emily St John Mandel After the brilliance that was Station Eleven (reviewed here), I’ve been keen to read more by the Canadian author, finally managing it with this one, her second novel from 2010. While The Singer’s Gun differs thematically from Station Eleven, Mandel’s style of writing, with its elegant observational Read More
Winterson’s powerful debut novel
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson I don’t know how I’ve managed to escape reading Winterson’s debut – I’ve read (and loved) her autobiography Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, (reviewed here), and I very much enjoyed the TV adaptation of this book with Geraldine McEwan playing the fearsome mother. Read More
Shiny Linkiness
I don’t always have time to link to my reviews over at Shiny New Books, but I have to share this one far and wide. Viv Albertine’s second volume of memoir was published in April. I saw her talk about it at the Faber Spring Party, and she was funny and lovely, and through writing, Read More
Can you cheat fate?
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin I’ve been itching to read this novel due to its clever premise since I first got my hands on a copy. I’ve finally made time for it. How long would you live your life if you knew the day you were going to die? This is the central question, emblazoned Read More
20 Books of Summer #6 & #7 – Gavalda & Bourdouxhe for #WITMonth
A double-pronged duo today. I can cross off books 6 & 7 from my 20 Books of Summer list and they are both translated from the French by women translators and thus perfect for Women in Translation month, which is hosted by Meytal at Biblibio every August. Billie by Anna Gavalda Translated by Jennifer Rappaport Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Atonement
Hosted each month by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Our starting book this month is … Atonement by Ian McEwan Shocking, I know – but I’ve not read it! I have seen the film though – and one Read More
Agatha Christie meets Harry Potter in a fantasy whodunnit…
The Last Chance Hotel by Nicki Thornton I knew that this debut novel for 8-12-year-old children would be something special, as Nicki won the Times Children’s Fiction Competition in 2016 with this book. Part of the prize was to be published by children’s book specialists, Chicken House, run by Barry Cunningham (who used to work Read More
Silly Season: The ABC of Amazon (Aug 2018)
Back in 2009, I did a silly post looking to see what came up in Amazon’s predictive text when searching books for each letter of the alphabet. Having come across this post during some blog maintenance, (rather than writing reviews!) I thought I’d try it again nine years later… Here are the results: A is Read More
Review catch-up:
Playing review catch-up, I have three rather different books for you today… Don’t Skip Out on Me by Willy Vlautin It’s ages since I read this book which I got from the Faber spring party where Vlautin, who is in a band too, sang and played his guitar for the audience. Since then, the film Read More
Paris in July 2018 take two: Simenon & Laurain
Two short reviews for my second contribution to Paris in July – an annual tag hosted by Thyme for Tea which I love doing each year. A Man’s Head by Georges Simenon Translated by David Coward A Man’s Head was the ninth Maigret novel, originally published in 1931, I read David Coward’s 2014 translation in the new Penguin Read More
Last words, big secrets…
The Last Thing She Told Me by Linda Green After a brief prologue, an aside by an unnamed narrator, that tells of shame and secrets and warns that they’ll come to the surface, we join Nicola in her grandmother’s house just before Betty will pass away. They have one last, strange conversation before Betty takes Read More
20 Books of Summer #4 & #5 – Hamid and Miralles
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Hamid’s 2017 Man Booker Prize and Rathbones Folio 2018 shortlisted novel is difficult to categorise. At face value it is a classic boy meets girl, boy loses girl variant, a fable-style romance set in a contemporary Asian city that is not yet at war. On another level, it is about Read More
Paris in July 2018 – Vernon Subutex returns…
Paris in July is an annual tag hosted by Thyme for Tea which I love doing each year. Here’s my first contribution… Vernon Subutex 2 by Virginie Despentes Translated by Frank Wynne This is a sequel to Vernon Subutex 1, which was a real discovery for me in 2017 – you can read my review here. Read More
I Spy…
Despite the big pile of books I have to review, I can’t resist a tag/meme/challenge (whatever you prefer to call them), and I found this one by Chris at Calmgrove via Helen at She Reads Novels. The I Spy challenge is very simple: Find a book that contains (either on the cover or in the title) an Read More
Is it raining yet?
I originally published parts of this post on my old blog back in 2014. Our UK weather this year has been changeable to say the least; unusually wet back in May and early June, but then July came in blazing. I’m not a lover of the heat and as I write this, St Swithin’s day is Read More
20 Books of Summer #3 & #4: Young protagonists
What a Way To Go by Julia Forster I couldn’t resist the cover of this book – it was the ghetto blaster (as we called boomboxes then) on the front and cassette tapes on the back that took me right back to around 1979 when I bought one with my holiday job pay from the Read More
Events with Books
Back to normal posting soon – I’ve lots of book reviews to catch up on! But here are the bookish events I’ve been at recently… The Last Chance Hotel Book Launch Firstly – the launch party for friend, former bookseller, and now published author Nicki Thornton, whose book for older children (8-11) The Last Chance Read More