Philip Pullman at the Oxford Literary Festival

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ It was Palm Sunday today, and off I went to the hallows of the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford to see the first full talk by Philip Pullman on his new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, which is published tomorrow.  It’s the latest volume in the Read More

Mar 2010 – A Lit List – 5 Favourite Novels set in Venice

Venice is a location that I adore in books.  We visited Venice in 2005, and it’s just as fascinating in real life. The picture, above, was drawn by my daughter (who had just turned five), after experiencing crossing the canal on a traghetto ferry gondola.  For a five year old she nailed the perspective didn’t she!   Read More

Heatwaves can be murder!

August Heat by Andrea Camilleri Translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is the third of Camilleri’s novels that I’ve read, the tenth in the popular series featuring Inspector Salvo Montalbano, and it was the most enjoyable yet. It’s nearing the middle of August and the heat in Sicily is getting unbearable.  Montalbano’s girlfriend Livia is arriving Read More

A Science Fiction Noir Classic from 1942

Donovan’s Brain by Curt Siodmak When I was writing my post the other week about my reading history I tried to remember my favourite Science Fiction books from my teens. John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids was one, Asimov’s Fantastic Voyage was another, but my absolute favourite from back then was Donovan’s Brain by Curt Siodmak.  This Read More

LOTR Readalong Month 3 – Midway through the Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers Vol 2 by JRR Tolkien It’s month 3 of the LOTR Readalong in which we’re reading vol 2 – The Two Towers. (here are links to  my posts for month 2, month 1 and introduction) This month the readalong is hosted by Teresa at Shelf Love and she has Read More

Evolution goes mad in this YA horror tale

Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish The cover of this book attracted me – it’s not black for a start, and the green combined with autumn leaves is a winner.  The taglines suggest something nasty… but combined with romance, and the figure on the cover, you could be forgiven for expecting a rather soft supernatural tale.   Read More

An evening with Roma Tearne

Brixton Beach Book Group I went to an author event with a difference last night. Roma Tearne, author of  Brixton Beach which I reviewed here agreed to join in a book group discussion at Mostly Books and I was able to join in with the regular book group.  We all met and discussed the book for Read More

Entirely bonkers! But all the best people are.

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland As you would expect of a Tim Burton film, this was such a visual treat, spectacular to look at from start to finish. We begin with young Alice having nightmares, then cut to nineteen year old Alice on the way to a garden party, where the toothsome fop Hamish will ask Read More

Smoke and Mirrors?

The Illusionist by Jennifer Johnston Jennifer Johnston is Dublin-born, and won the Whitbread prize for her novel The Old Jest in 1979; The Illusionist was published in 1995.  It tells the story of Stella and Martyn who meet on a train, fall in love, get married, have a child, fall out of love, then Martyn Read More

A Favourite Author – Michael Connelly

Weekly Geeks, the bookbloggers community website, posed an irresistible task for this week’s topic – to tell us about a favourite author and why you love their books. I’ve raved about Paul Auster who is my real literary hero before, so thought I’d talk about another very different author whose books I love today. I’ve Read More

Book Group Report – The Death of Grass

The Death of Grass by John Christopher A while ago I reviewed The Death of Grass by John Christopher (click here for the review. On Monday we discussed it at our Book Group, and it was a big hit. Unusually, everyone really enjoyed it, and although this meant no arguments, we did have a lively Read More

Lizard Kings, Pirates & the Mechanical Turk

The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar Steampunk is a difficult category to get to grips with sometimes with its spec fiction take on Victorian England with added fantasy elements. Tidhar’s The Bookman has a great premise – a terrorist is setting off bombs in London hidden in books and unfortunately one of them blows up Lucy, the Read More