You’d think that by my nearly mid-fifties I’d have grown out of not finishing books, wouldn’t you? Life’s too short, the TBR’s too big and all that. Yet generally I desperately still want to finish reading any book I start. There’s no ‘owing it to the author to give their book a fair read’ duty Read More
Month: June 2014
Authors & Book Groups – an event with Kate Clanchy and Louise Millar
On a balmy evening, we were out in the courtyard at Mostly Books for a precursor evening to Independent Booksellers Week (28th June to 5th July – find out more here). Mark and Nikki had managed to get not one but two lovely authors, Kate Clanchy and Louise Millar, to discuss the topic “What makes Read More
Today's post is brought to you by the letter…
Simon T of Stuck in a Book has started off a new meme… he will assign those wanting to take part a random letter, and you then choose your favourite things beginning with that letter in these categories: Favourite Book Favourite Author Favourite Song Favourite Film Favourite object. … and I got a D So Read More
Half bad? Not at all … it’s all good!
Half Bad by Sally Green This is the latest teen crossover fantasy hit that everyone’s reading, The Hunger Games is so last year dahling! At first I was resistant, but when it was picked for our book group choice, I grasped the mettle and am really glad I did read it. If you read the blurb which Read More
The Savages are back …
American Savage by Matt Whyman Last summer I had the pleasure of reading one of the funniest YA novels I’ve yet encountered in Matt Whyman’s The Savages – don’t you just love that cover? Although it was written as a standalone novel, so many people wondered what happened to the family in it, that Matt Read More
An evening with Nick Harkaway
On a sunny Wednesday evening, I headed into town to the newly refurbished barn at the Crown & Thistle in Abingdon to hear author Nick Harkaway talk about his novels and more. (Beer and books make a nice mixture in the sunshine). Nick is now the author of three novels and one non-fiction book. His Read More
Not reading about The Beautiful Game!
Brazil 2014 – The World Cup starts today! Oh woe, woe and thrice woe on the telly front for the next month! I come from a family of fanatic Crystal Palace FC supporters who will all be glued to their TVs watching the World Cup. Admittedly, if England were to get into the knock-out stages, even Read More
Hitch’s last essays
This post was republished into my blog’s timeline from my lost posts archive. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens I’m a long-term fan of Vanity Fair magazine for it’s in depth articles, photo portfolios and reportage, (OK, I don’t read the bits about obscure US politicians). One of the highlights most months though was to read the Read More
This novel is buzzing!
The Hive by Gill Hornby It must have been quite daunting for Gill Hornby to publish her first novel – for she is the sister of the more famous Nick, and wife of best-selling author Robert Harris. Now The Hive is out in paperback, she must be getting fed up of these facts being mentioned, Read More
A's HoB Q&A – Part Two 'the science bit'
I challenged you to ask me questions and you did … see the previous post for a variety of bookish and Oxfordian answers. Today it’s time to answer the science questions that you asked me – and I shall go in reverse order. Simon T (Stuck in a Book) asked: What is your favourite chemical Read More
A's HoB Q&A – The Answers – Part one!
Thank you for asking some great questions – some of which required a lot of thought to answer! I’m splitting my answers into two posts – the specific science questions will get their own treatment in a day or two, but here are my answers to all the rest – and do feel free to Read More
Riding the slipstream …
The Adjacent by Christopher Priest Today I shall direct you to another review I wrote for Shiny New Books:- The Adjacent by Christopher Priest, now out in paperback. Priest is one of those authors who defies genre, yet routinely gets categorised as a science fiction author. True his books often have some SF elements in, and The Read More
A's HoBks Q&A
I blame Simon for this! 😀 Just over a week ago, my pal and co-editor of Shiny New Books decided to ask his readers if there were any questions that they wanted to ask him in a post here. A few days later, he published his answers here. It was fascinating reading, and Simon’s answers Read More
