Translated by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw Alerted belatedly to Dolce Bellezza’s Norway in November reading month, I was able to find a novella to fit in, thus fitting #NovNov24 too. Back in 2014, I read Loe’s Lazy Days, a novel about a family on holiday, although Bror is meant to be writing. Instead he Read More
Category: Title begins with D
Shiny Linkiness – Despentes and Ayoade
I’ve two recent reviews at Shiny to share with you here too. Both are lockdown books, such is the length of the publishing cycle. Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes Translated by Frank Wynne I would never have predicted that Virginie Despentes, creator/director of the 2000 rape-revenge novel and film Baise-moi, author of the superb ‘State of Read More
Dark as Night by Lilja Sigurðardóttir – blog tour
Translated by Lorenza Garcia This was the first novel by Lilja Sigurðardóttir that I’ve read, and it won’t be the last. Dark as Night is actually the fourth in her ‘Áróra Investigation’ series, but having encountered Áróra, boyfriend Daníel and the other supporting characters I need to know more. Áróra isn’t a police officer, which Read More
The Divorce by Moa Herngren – blogtour
Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies If you’re going to write a novel about a long marriage and its demise specifically, wouldn’t you want to hear both sides of the story? I say this with caution, speaking as a divorcee after a long marriage who now tries not to think about her ex’s story! Read More
Dark Clouds Bring Waters by I.R. Ridley – blogtour
It’s my turn today on the blogtour for this touching novella. While it would be true to say that I’ve read other novels that cover similar ground, I can’t think of one that has done it so poignantly and succinctly; Ridley covers a lot of ground in just 136 pages. The book begins with a Read More
The Dancer by Óskar Guðmundsson
Translated by Quentin Bates Corylus Books are certainly keeping Icelandic translator Quentin Bates busy. There’s another Stella Blómkvist in the works soon after last year’s Murder at the Residence, amongst others he has translated for Corylus and other publishers. This novel is Guðmundsson’s fifth, the second to be translated, and the first in a new Read More
Divide by Anna Jones – blogtour
It’s the last day of the blogtour for this thought-provoking book and I’m delighted to be closing the tour. Anna Jones is a journalist specialising in country affairs, working out of Bristol. She’s also a farmer’s daughter, and her book is her analysis of the relationship between town and country as its sub-title says. On Read More
Deadly Autumn Harvest by Tony Mott – blogtour
Translated by Marina Sofia I should state at the outset that Marina (who blogs here) and I have been blog-friends for many years now, but despite living not so far from each other have never quite managed to meet up – yet! She and her colleagues are the brains behind Corylus Books, crime translation specialists Read More
Dirty Geese by Lou Gilmond
It’s nice to be able to support a local publisher. Fairlight Books is based in Oxford, and Dirty Geese is being published under their Armillary Books imprint. Dirty Geese is a political thriller, set in the very near future. The Tories are in power, but the Whigs are now the main opposition and beginning to Read More
Ira Levin and Jeff Vandermeer – #20booksofsummer23 nos 3 & 4
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin Decades ago, I first encountered Ira Levin when I read The Boys from Brazil, published in 1976, which was also the first time I’d ever heard of Nazi Josef Mengele – and what a chilling experience that was – and then to see Gregory Peck playing against type in Read More
Dead Man’s Creek by Chris Hammer
A Cross-Generational Australian Thriller Chris Hammer’s first three thrillers featured journalist Martin Scarsden; full of complicated, twisty plots that get tied up in the end. All good reads, if a little long, I reviewed the second one, Silver, here. With his fourth novel, Opal Country, Hammer introduced two new protagonists, police investigators this time. Experienced Read More
Dirt by Sarah Sultoon – blog tour
I must confess, I know very little about the kibbutz movement at all. My knowledge is coloured by the media portrayal in the 1960s and 1970s of Utopian communes of hippy farmers which belies the hard work that farming actually is. Wikipedia tells me that the kibbutz volunteering phenomenon took off in the mid-1960s, peaking Read More
Dashboard Elvis is Dead by David F Ross – blogtour
Anyone who knows me, knows I love a book with rock’n’roll at its heart. Dashboard Elvis is Dead is such a novel, but it is also a lot more too. This novel may have started out as the story of a Texan runaway who met a Scottish band on tour in the USA, but the Read More
Deceit by Jónína Leósdóttir
Translated by Sylvia and Quentin Bates I’m delighted to be today’s stop on the blogtour for yet another new to me Icelandic author. Deceit is the first of Jónína Leósdóttir’s books to be translated into English, brought to us by Corylus Books and translated by veteran Icelandic translator Quentin Bates with Sylvia Bates. Deceit is Read More
#TDiRS22 – The Dark is Rising Sequence Book 2: The Dark is Rising
If you joined in the readalong last month thank you and welcome back, and hello to any new readers. If you need to nip back – here’s the link to my post on the first book – Over Sea, Under Stone … The second novel is where things really begin for many people, it’s the Read More
Seamus Heaney – Book Group Jubilee Read & #20BooksofSummer22
Seamus Heaney – Death of a Naturalist My 7th book of 20 Books of Summer, but reviewed out of order because I wanted to wait until after Book Group. Last month, we started on our journey through some of the BigJubilee Reads, one from each decade of the Queen’s reign from all around the Commonwealth. Read More
20 Books of Summer 21 nos. 18-20 – Le Carré, Sallis & Shaw
I’m going to finish off the reviews of my 20 books in one go today. Here goes… Call For the Dead by John Le Carré Having read many of Le Carré’s early books over the years, I was slightly surprised to discover I’d never read his first book, the novella Call For the Dead, published Read More
20 Books of Summer 21 nos. 14-15 & a second for #WITMonth
Gosh! I’ve read 16 out of #20BooksofSummer21, so with a fortnight to go, there’s a definite probability of beating my previous best of 17, and a possibility I might just make the full 20 – it’ll have to be novellas or easy to read thrillers though. Bring it on! Meanwhile here are reviews 14 & Read More
20 Books : Paris in July : Euro Reading Challenge
Today, two more reviews for you that fit into multiple challenges, namely: 20 Books of Summer 21 hosted by Cathy, Paris in July hosted by Tamara, and the European Reading Challenge hosted by Gilion. Maigret’s Madwoman by Georges Simenon Translated by Siân Reynolds My 8th book reviewed for 20 Books, and 2nd for Paris in Read More
Review catch-up!
This spring into summer period is shaping up to be a huge publishing push, as publishers catch-up with COVID-19 delays. It’s nice to see new books spread out over several months too, which I hope means that more will get the attention they deserve. Will they revert to form in September and October though? Woe Read More
#BanksRead2021 : 5 The Shock-Jock Thriller One
Dead Air by Iain Banks Phew! Life turned out to be busier than anticipated this week, but I managed to finish reading my third Iain Banks book for my #BanksRead2021 this morning. Now for a quick review! Dead Air, alongside The Steep Approach to Garbadale was one of the two mainstream novels by Banks that Read More
More Indies and Japan – Porter and Tanizaki
Today I have a Shiny link and another Japanese cat for you, both from indie publishers … The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter In his third short novel, (my review of his first here), Porter gets even more experimental, presenting a series of imagined word pictures as the tortured artist lies dying in Read More
Review Catch-up: Delacourt, Emery & Yates
The Woman Who Didn’t Grow Old by Grégoire Delacourt Translated by Vineet Lal Back in 2015 I read Delacourt’s first novel, The List of My Desires, which was a heart-warming French charmer of a novel – if you enjoy the books of Antoine Laurain or Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, you’d probably enjoy Delacourt too. The Woman Who Read More
20 Books of Summer #3-4 – Simenon & St Aubyn
I’m speeding up, currently reading my 7th Book of Summer as hosted by Cathy. Yes, I’m cheating again – but only a little bit. I’m on the second of the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn, but reading from an omnibus edition of the first four – but counting them as 4 books rather Read More
Review Catch-Up
I’ve built up rather a pile of books to catch up on reviewing – it’s all the lovely fault of getting stuck into my Shiny archiving project. So here are some shorter takes to reduce the pile somewhat. Dan Leno & the Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd This was our book group choice this month, Read More
German Literature Month: A Black Forest Investigation III
The Dance of Death by Oliver Bottini Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch I’m late to German Literature Month, hosted by Caroline and Lizzy, but have just made it with the third crime novel in Oliver Bottini’s ‘Black Forest Investigation’ series. Louise Boni is a Chief Inspector with the Freiburg ‘Kripo’. She’s in her Read More
Book Group report: The All Souls Trilogy: volume 1
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness I have a confession to make. When this book was first published in 2011, I was sent a proof copy. I think that back then, I was a bit ‘vamped’ out, so I put it on the shelf – and forgot about it – until we managed to Read More
20 Books of Summer: #7 & #8 – a Barnes duo
When I picked my 20 books, I managed to include two by Julian Barnes, for I forgot that Julian Barnes wrote a series of crime novels in the 1980s under a pseudonym – Dan Kavanagh, (Kavanagh being the maiden name of his wife). So I read the two back to back – which worked very Read More
20 Books of Summer #1 & #2: Rooney & Torday
Red Joan by Jennie Rooney You may remember the case of Melita Norwood, a British civil servant who passed secrets to the KGB for around 30 years after 1937. She wasn’t uncovered until 1999, but wasn’t prosecuted, dying in 2005, aged 93. Red Joan, Rooney’s 2013 novel was inspired by Norwood’s story (the recent film adaptation directed by Read More
Blogtour – Deadland by William Shaw
I’m delighted to be one of the stops today for the Blogtour celebrating the publication of Deadland, the second Alexandra Cupidi crime novel from William Shaw. I read the first novel, Salt Lane reviewed here, in this series last summer. Set mainly in the Kent marshes near Dungeness, not only did Salt Lane fully introduce the Read More