Simon has resurrected an old meme – in which you pick 10 random books from your library and use them to tell readers about yourself. Here are Simon’s original rules: 1.) Go to your bookshelves… 2.) Close your eyes. If you’re feeling really committed, blindfold yourself. 3.) Select ten books at random. Use more than Read More
Month: May 2017
Meanwhile at Shiny…
An English Guide to Birdwatching by Nicholas Royle I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Professor Nicholas Royle through reading and reviewing his second novel for Shiny New Books, and then the Q&A we did. An English Guide to Birdwatching is in essence a novel exploring (English) human relationships through ornithropomorphic means – the Read More
Blog Tour – All the Good Things by Clare Fisher
Today, it is my turn on the blog tour for Clare Fisher’s strong debut novel – see the banner at the bottom for all the other ports of call. Fisher’s debut is an interesting take on a story we’ve all heard before in which a vulnerable young woman, who has been bounced from foster home Read More
“More rabbit than Sainsburys”*…
Fluffy by Simone Lia You might think that a comic about a little bunny rabbit who thinks a chap called Michael is his father is going to be a piece of fluff. Well, you’d be wrong! Simone Lia was going to be a children’s illustrator, but she met Tom Gauld (whose graphic novel Mooncop I Read More
Opening the doors of perception…
Deviate by Beau Lotto You’d be forgiven for thinking that the improbably named Beau Lotto was a surfer dude from his photo (left). But, perceptions, and assumptions made from them are rarely what you think. Dr Lotto is a renowned neuroscientist attached to UCL in London and Berkeley in the US. He specialises in perception. Read More
Getting ‘the day that went missing’ back
The Day That Went Missing by Richard Beard Earlier this month I wrote about an evening with Richard Beard at my local indie bookshop, it was a very special experience for an author event. I went away from the evening with my signed copy of his new book of memoir and started reading it there Read More
Book Group Report: Medicine
Our topic for discussion this month was medicine. Two months ago, when we were choosing which medical book to read, the nominations were varied – from real surgeons and psychiatrists or psychologists to fictional surgeons and psychiatrists or psychologists… Saturday – Ian McEwan Outbreak by Robin Cook Not a red hair in sight – Read More
How I’ve Read – Revisited
Nurturing my reading habit I’ve been adding old book reviews that failed to transfer over from my old blog to this one in the hope that I can finally erase the old blog. I came across a post which I wrote in March 2010, which I felt was definitely worth revisiting, so I’ve edited my Read More
Two books about Learning to Drive…
While reading the first of this pair, I was perusing my shelves and found another book that was nominally about starting late in ‘learning to drive’ so the obvious thing was to read both and review them together. These books were especially appropriate to my own situation – I didn’t take my car driving test Read More
Meanwhile, at Shiny…
Here are links to my recent posts over at Shiny New Books… Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh This is one of my most-loved TV programmes ever, and the original play is now 40 years old. Penguin have reissued it with a new intro by Leigh – and it still holds up today! Little top up? Read More
The Six Degrees of Separation Meme: The Slap
Hosted each month by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, the Six Degrees of Separation meme picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. This month’s starting point is: The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas I’ve not read this book, but shall go with nationality of the author as my first link. Read More
An evening with Richard Beard at Mostly Books
Last night I was at a rather special author event at my local indie bookshop Mostly Books with local(ish) author Richard Beard. Mark in the shop had long ago persuaded me to buy Beard’s last novel, Goldsmith Prize shortlisted, The Acts of the Assassins, but sadly I’ve not read it yet – I know I’ll have a Read More
