Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Our book group read this month was one of those archetypal earnest stories featuring real events that can generate great discussions. This novel takes place in 1960s Nigeria before and during the Nigerian-Biafran war which started in 1967. It follows the lives of two sisters, their Read More
Category: Title begins with H
The Hopkins Manuscript by R C Sheriff
Chicken Licken was right in this dystopia! Last weekend was Persephone Reading Weekend hosted by Claire and Verity. I did start my Persephone reading at the weekend, but didn’t finish until yesterday. But what a book I chose – one of the few by male authors, and a dystopian bit of science fiction to boot – yet it fits Read More
Twins & Ghosts – a complex combination
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger There was an awful lot written about this book around the time of its publication last year. I generally prefer to miss all the hullaballoo, to let things settle down for a bit and read books at the time of my choosing. This autumn, I decided to include it in Read More
There’s a whole Hydden world out there …
Hyddenworld: Spring by William Horwood Back in the early 1980s, I read Horwood’s bestselling animal fantasy about moles – Duncton Wood. I remember enjoying it immensely, but never read the sequels, and I can’t remember what it was really about apart from religion and war in mole-dom. But it was remembering the enjoyment of the former that Read More
Live for the moment – forget everything
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa translated by Stephen Snyder When I spotted this book, with its quote from my literary hero Paul Auster on the cover, I was hooked. Having read it, I’m delighted I chanced upon it, for I loved this gentle tale of the Professor, his Housekeeper and her son. Read More
A delightfully quirky children’s adventure
The problem with getting into your forties and beyond is that you inevitably need reading glasses. I managed to lose mine for a whole day this weekend, but luckily I found them this morning – phew! So yesterday I had to read with my old glasses (which are now perfect for computer work, but no Read More
All Angst and No Action
The Hollow by Jessica Verday I liked the fact that The Hollow doesn’t have vampires or angels. Instead, it is linked to the ghostly apparitions of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the book itself being set in the same town. Then I started reading, and was immediately irritated by Abigail aka Abbey, who emphasises Read More
An evening with Sara Paretsky
Sara Paretsky, the creator of Chicago private investigator V.I.Warshawski, was in town yesterday to coincide with the publication of Hardball, her P.I.’s thirteenth outing. Arriving, she cut a cool figure, clad in gold and skinny trousers with a trendy leopard-print cap and her short, cropped silver hair. The audience immediately warmed to her, with her Read More
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien Now – considering that I last read The Hobbit, aged around twelve, many, many years ago – before starting to re-read the book, ask me what I remember of it apart from Bilbo and Gandalf? I would answer, “Gollum and the ring, and Smaug the dragon, but particularly Read More
An influential book from an influential writer …
Howards End is on the landing by Susan Hill That pesky Susan Hill! She’s managed to set the book-blogging world alight with her latest – a memoir about reading the books in her house and the stories they are associated with. HEIOTL, as I shall abbreviate it to, has become a blogging hot topic – Read More
Power Games in Puritan New England
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent To be honest, I wanted to get this book out of the way. I didn’t warm to the cover at all, particularly as when you see it in a stack it stares at you; it gave me the willies one morning when I woke up to see it looking Read More
A slow-burning yet rewarding novel
How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall I hugely enjoy reading all the buzz about the Booker Prize, but I normally don’t indulge in any deliberate speculative reading, preferring to pick and choose a select few short/longlisted titles after the event. Today though I can say I’m totally with it just this once, Read More
The real King Arthur …
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve Arthurian myth and legend is one of my favourite reading themes. If asked about my favourite movies, Excalibur [1981] comes 2nd (after The Blues Brothers). I saw that film the week it came out at the Odeon Leicester Square and was immediately smitten with the Arthurian bug. A few years Read More
Hearts and Minds by Rosy Thornton
The British campus novel is generally a cosy thing (unless there’s a murder involved). Often they can be rather claustrophobic too, peopled with backbiting dons, scheming students, and inscrutable college servants, all of which give opportunities for creating high comedy – naturally I’m thinking David Lodge here, or the funniest of all, Porterhouse Blue by Read More
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews
This was a lovely showbiz memoir to read – Julie has the ability to see the good in everybody and make friends wherever she goes. This first volume of memoirs stops at the point Walt Disney was poised to make her an Oscar-winning megastar, but is no less interesting for that. I hope there will Read More
Rebus #2
Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin Ian Rankin’s second Rebus novel is not quite as good as the first, but is still very enjoyable. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, this time the doughty inspector investigates the death of a junkie with possible satanic overtones, while his super involves him in Read More
