The Fever by Megan Abbott When I read Megan Abbott’s previous novel Dare me (reviewed here) last year, I knew she was an author to watch, moving into psychological thriller territory with her tale of High School cheer-leaders, having previously concentrated on 1950s noir. She seemed to get into the brain of these sporty girls perfectly Read More
Month: July 2014
Now you see it …
My daughter and I got up at 2.15am for the scheduled demolition of the three cooling towers of Didcot A power station sometime between 3 and 5am this morning. We, along with hundreds of others parked in Milton village nearby and had a vantage point across the fields from about 1km away as the crow Read More
“We gotta get out of this place…”
This post was republished into my blog’s timeline from my lost posts archive. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran I’ll start up front by saying that this book is one of the sweariest, wankiest, shaggiest stories I’ve ever read, and it’s narrated by a teenager who is just fourteen at the outset. The Read More
"…good to get out of the rain."
You all know how I love to use a good quote from a song lyric to introduce a review. There are just so many songs about rain though… but I have two oft-used favourites that always seem to yield an appropriate phrase for me – one is Hotel California by the Eagles; the other, as Read More
We followed our men to Los Alamos …
The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit This is not a novel about the development of the atom bomb, but rather the development of the community surrounding the laboratory which produced the bomb. Most of the scientists who worked at Los Alamos were seconded to the military from all over the country in 1943 Read More
5-4-3-2-1…
The bulk of this post is just a bit of fun for the start of the silly season – but the theme happens to coincide with the title of one of classic UK R&B band Manfred Mann’s greatest hits. The Manfreds as they are now known, are still going strong – still with Paul Jones Read More
Are there dark days coming? I don't think so …
Apocalypse Next Tuesday by David Safier A bestseller in Germany, Safier’s novel, translated by Hilary Parnfors, got me interested within a few words of the press release in which it told how Satan, who has come back to Earth as a dead ringer for George Clooney, is recruiting horsemen for the apocalypse next week. Gorgeous, Read More
Books of the year … so far
As we’re just past halfway through the year, I thought I’d take a quick look back at my favourites so far – all books getting 10/10 from me… I’ll start at the top – my book of the year, so far, is one I’ve recently reviewed for issue two of Shiny New Books. Tigerman was Read More
So bleak – thoughts about the Carnegie winner
The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks (republished into its original place in the time-line from my lost post archive) I’d been too busy lately to get involved with reading any of the Carnegie shortlisted books this year until the results were announced. The Carnegie Medal for 2014 was recently awarded to Kevin Brooks’ latest novel The Read More
What is an accident anyway?
Accidents Happen by Louise Millar I used to work for one of the world’s major chemical companies whose mantra was that there is no such thing as an accident. After too many ‘accidents’ making explosives in the 1800s, the company became intensely safety focused, and remains so today. They believe, and naturally it rubbed off Read More
Thank you!
A quick little post to say thank you. I hope you don’t mind if I blow my own trumpet a little, but just now I was scrolling down my sidebar and I came to my ebuzzing stats bar – and it told me that the June blog stats were up, and then I saw the Read More
Celebrating IBW with the Inky Fool & a Giveaway
Last night I was at my local indie bookshop and spiritual home Mostly Books for an event to celebrate Independent Booksellers Week. Each year the IBW people commission an essay to be sold as a little booklet only in indie bookshops. Previous authors have been Julian Barnes and Ann Patchett. Mark Forsyth, author of The Etymologicon, The Read More
A new brand of WWI spy …
Jack of Spies by David Downing Some readers may already be familiar with David Downing; the six books of his ‘Station’ series of spy thrillers set in WWII Berlin are highly regarded. Now he has set his sights back to just before the First World War to start a new series of spy novels with Read More
