Me Cheeta by James Lever This year’s oddball choice on the Booker longlist is a satire on Hollywood as seen through the eyes of Tarzan’s long-lived chimp companion. When it was published last autumn as an autobiography, the book had Cheeta listed as its writer, but it didn’t take long for the real author to Read More
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – were they really desperate?
In the same way that I adored watching Rome and am enjoying The Tudors, I also loved Desperate Romantics which recently finished screening on the BBC. All of them are generally utter tosh historically, but great entertainment to watch – and of course everyone looks marvellous; (Rome also wins prizes for being the most creatively potty-mouthed programme Read More
An eloquently written misery memoir, long but loaded with nuggets of the author’s wit and bite
Closing Time by Joe Queenan I have enjoyed all the Joe Queenan books I’ve read, particularly The Unkindest Cut: How a Hatchet-Man Critic Made His Own $7,000 Movie and Put It All on His Credit Card. Queenan is a journalist and author, having written for the New York Times and The Guardian amongst others, where his Read More
Gaskella goes walkabout on Bookmunch
I was delighted when Peter at Bookmunch invited me to review a book for them. So you can now see my review of Fists by Pietro Grossi here. I really enjoyed it.
My Life According to Books I Have Read
I got this fun meme from Kay at The Infinite Shelf. Using only books you have read this year (2009), cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think! * Describe Yourself: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo * How do you feel: Cloud Busting * Read More
A book with mischievious intent, that doesn’t entirely live up to its promise
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith If you look at all the reviews, you’ll see that this monster mash-up of the beloved novel has totally split opinions of those who have read it. I’ll tell you mine after a bit of explanation. Zombies have been plaguing the English countryside for Read More
Rude Awakenings!
Maybe it’s my current reading (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith), but I’ve been having vivid dreams. The latest of which consisted of a science experiment at school involving woodlice which transmogrified into giant maggots (remember the Pertwee vintage Dr Who with maggots – but not quite so big and Read More
She sells sea shells by the sea shore
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier This is the story of two women in the early 1800s – fossil hunters who played an important part in the beginnings of the evolutionary debate. Elizabeth Philpott and her younger sisters have to move after their brother marries; not being able to afford to live in Brighton, they choose Read More
What my cricket-mad brother is reading and listening to …
After my Mum obliged my request to make some remarks on the blog about her recent reading, I asked my brother if he was interested in doing the same some time. Within an hour or two he had supplied me with the paragraphs below – not keen at all! As you will see, three out Read More
Good Clean Spy Fun – with a spot of murder, and a good dose of drugs …
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler When I saw that Penguin were reissuing five of Ambler’s novels in their Modern Classics series, the choice of which to read first was easy – I picked The Mask of Dimitrios. Apart from having been published during the same year as Chandler’s The Big Sleep, this novel Read More
What my Mum is reading
Being between books to review at the moment, I asked my 70-something Mum what she’s reading. She probably reads more books than I do, and every time I see her she borrows a bagful or two. She always returns them with sticky notes on telling me what she thought. She reads widely, and dare I Read More
My new cult faves have arrived – WooHoo!
I’m now the proud owner of two new cult faves – which to read first? The Booker longlisted Me Cheeta, the ‘autobiography’ of the Hollywood star chimp. Our book group has chosen this for our October book, but I can’t wait that long to read it. Or should I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Read More
Griff does Abingdon!
I’ve just got back from a very entertaining evening in Abingdon in the company of Griff Rhys Jones, along with half the town it seemed. It was a sell out event and the Guildhall was absolutely full. Brits need no introduction to Griff – he’s been on our telly screens for about three decades now Read More
Powerful prose wrought from chemistry and music…
Solo by Rana Dasgupta I read Dasgupta’s first novel Tokyo Cancelled back in 2007 and it was one of the most original debut novels I’ve read in recent years; it has really stayed with me. A modern take on the Canterbury Tales, Tokyo Cancelled is really a linked story cycle in which a group of Read More
A solid and enjoyable police procedural
Spider Trap by Barry Maitland Barry Maitland is the author of a series of nine crime novels so far featuring the detective team of ‘Brock and Kolla’. Some years ago, I remember reading one of the earlier ones, The Chalon Heads, which was set in the world of stamp collecting. A plot involving gangsters and forgers Read More
From Wilson to Thatcher – what a decade!
When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies by Andy Beckett The 1970s were my formative years. I was ten years old in 1970, so I was a Seventies teenager. My 1970s were full of being a teenybopper with my beloved David Cassidy, girl guides then the youth club, and the hard graft of 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
Playing with my Penguins (books) …
Whilst I was ‘playing’ with my books today (i.e. moving them around in their piles or on their shelves, looking at covers, blurbs etc), I found a pair of old Penguin books catalogues from 1955 and 1958. I think I got them via a book swap some time ago, put them aside and forgot all Read More
It’s a mug’s game!
Most of us probably have a shelf full of unmatched mugs. I’m no different, but I am gradually managing to replace all the odd ones with these lovely Penguin ones which do look lovely together. They make quite a large range of titles and styles now … which to go for next? If I only Read More
Griff in Abingdon – Tickets on sale now!
I’m doing my bit to help publicise a local event on behalf of Mostly Books, as it all came together at rather short notice. On Thursday August 13th, at 7.30pm in the Guildhall, we’re delighted to welcome Griff Rhys Jones – comedian, author, presenter, sailor and heritage champion. Griff’s latest TV series started on the Read More
Hard to grasp the plot in this confused novel
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi A few years ago, Helen Oyeyemi was hailed as one of the future stars of UK contemporary literature, having written her first novel The Icarus Girl to great acclaim whilst studying for her A-levels. Now she’s in her twenties and this is her third … There’s a lot Read More
Book Two of the Chaos Walking Trilogy
The Ask & the Answer by Patrick Ness Warning: If you haven’t read the first book in this trilogy The Knife of Never Letting Go, (reviewed here) – don’t read this, rush out and get a copy Book One, then read the second. Book two starts immediately where the first left off; teenagers Todd and Read More
A novel of archaeology, food, pandemics and ghosts
Cold Earth by Sarah Moss This novel, published by Granta, is lovely to behold. What you can’t see are the beautiful turquoise blue page edges, and the glossy white fibrils of grassy roots insinuating their way through the bones of the skeleton curled up underneath the title. Luckily I enjoyed reading the book as much Read More
Moviewatch – Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince
Yesterday was our first available day to go and see the new Harry Potter film. I checked out the times, and asked my daughter “Shall we go for the quarter past one showing, or go earlier?” … So there we were at the cinema for the 10am showing along with just ten other people in Read More
Art for art’s sake?
The Bellini Madonna by Elizabeth Lowry There have been many novels about the search for missing art masterpieces, but few so convoluted as this. It’s written totally in the first person as a confession by Thomas Lynch, a randy old professor of art history who is an expert on the renaissance masters, Bellini in particular. Read More
In praise of secondhand bookshops
I’ve just come back from a week in Northumbria. It is a lovely county, full of outstanding castles, glorious beaches, fantastic fish, wonderful gardens, pretty villages, rolling hills and beautiful countryside. It wasn’t overcrowded either, and you are within easy driving distance of both Newcastle and Edinburgh for rainy day entertainment. In Northumbria, the town Read More
The Meme of 4
I haven’t done a meme for ages, so this one from Margaret at Booksplease seems fun. It’s an adaptable meme as long you do it all in fours … 4 Places I’ve lived in:1. Purley, Surrey – Prime suburbia where I was born. 2. South Kensington, London – I went to Imperial College, part of Read More
In life, everything counts …
Addition by Toni Jordan This is another very unconventional love story, (see also Something Beginning With a few posts down). Grace has a form of OCD that makes her count everything and ritualise her life in numbers. This makes doing anything out of the ordinary worrying, and Grace is no longer able to work as Read More
We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather ?…
Turbulence by Giles Foden Do you remember the old poem ? Whether the weather be mild or whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot, We’ll weather the weather whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not. This definitely wasn’t the case in the planning for Read More
Moviewatch – Clint growls – a lot!
Gran Torino starring the one and only Clint Eastwood Newly out on DVD, we watched this on Saturday. I’ve always loved Clint and his films, from those where he was young and so handsome to his later ones where he is grizzled but still steely underneath. He’s been in the business for over five decades Read More
