As I’ve been very busy this week, and I’ve let myself get bogged down in a short novel of only 165 pages, I’m writing about something else again today… One of the nicest parts of working as a lab technician in a school is when you get to help the children in the classroom during Read More
I’m not going out on Tuesdays now (unless I get back early!)…
Last night saw the return of one of my favourite TV series from last year – the second season of Mad Men started, and it looks just as good as ever. Everything about this show is so stylish, they put an immense amount of research into getting it exactly right for the period at the Read More
Stevenson Under the Palm Trees by Alberto Manguel
An odd little novella about Robert Louis Stevenson; this edition is lushly produced with posh covers and illustrated with some of Stevenson’s own woodcuts (at 105 pages of big text it needs to justify its £7.99 price tag!). It’s a story based on Stevenson’s last days in Samoa as he is dying of tuberculosis. After Read More
I was a ’70s teenager!
As I’m currently reading a real chunkster with some way to go, I thought I’d post about music today. I was born in 1960 (I don’t feel that old mind!), so my teenage years spanned the whole of the ’70s. I can’t help but look back on the decade through rose-tinted glasses, and will forever Read More
My new rules for keeping books once read & GIVEAWAY!
It’s no good, my book mountains seem to be more and more like the Himalayas every day, new piles thrust up from spare bits of floor in the study, and existing ones seem to get higher and higher. I’ve probably got about fifteen years worth of reading if I can manage a hundred or more Read More
Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope
Recently I saw Joanna Trollope talk about her latest novel Friday Nights and wrote about it here. She was a great speaker and we had fun listening to her talk about her new experiences in researching for this book, and I had no hesitation in getting a signed copy. Now I’ve read the book, and, Read More
A Life’s Music by Andrei Makine
Translated by Geoffrey Strachan Last week I wrote here about Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith, a thriller set in Stalin’s USSR, with train tracks on the cover. Well I followed it up with another book set in Stalin’s USSR some years earlier during the war, which also has a railway line on the cover, Read More
John Martyn R.I.P.
Just heard that one of the greats of jazz-folk John Martyn has died. He was only 60 and was made an OBE in the New Years Honours just recently. I never got to see him live, and only really discovered his music in 1991 when he released The Apprentice as it featured Dave Gilmour, but Read More
An armchair traveller’s delight
The Travel Book by Lonely Planet Here’s my full written review… This is the new smaller format edition of Lonely Planet’s previous coffee table giant, but it’s still a doorstoppingly thick brick of a book! It has to be 900 pages to give even the tiniest snapshot of every country in the world, (plus a Read More
My Radio Oxford Experience!
I’ve just come off the phone to BBC Oxford having done my radio review for them as part of their monthly Book Club feature. Phew! For my part, I felt it went really well – although in reality I probably talked far too much! Sitting waiting for the phone to ring was nervewracking, especially as Read More
My first book reviewing gig!!!
I kid you not – I’m so excited! – I’ve managed to get a ‘book reviewing gig’ on Radio Oxford tomorrow afternoon. Actually I’m exaggerating, but after someone said they’d read in Oxfordshire Life magazine that Radio Oxford wanted people to review books. I sent an email and they said OK and gave me a Read More
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
This book comes with a bit of baggage. A debut novel, and thriller no less, set in Stalinist Russia. Its publishers gave it a massive publicity campaign, and got it longlisted for the 2008 Booker. Instant controversy – thrillers can’t be literary can they? Well yes they can, you only have to think of John Read More
An evening with Joanna Trollope
We had a real treat in Abingdon last night. Around 200 of us spent an evening in the company of best-selling author Joanna Trollope in the superb surroundings of the hall of the School of St Helen & St Katharine. This was the first event organised by our local indie bookshop Mostly Books (link on Read More
My Tango with Barbara Strozzi by Russell Hoban
This was my first visit to Hobanville – why it’s taken me so long I don’t know, but I’m keen to go again really soon. Underlying My Tango with Barbara Strozzi is a traditional boy meets girl romance, cleverly told by the two would-be lovers’ voices alternating chapter by chapter, but on top are layers Read More
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Written as an intimate diary in letter form to an unknown addressee, this novel chronicles the first year in High School of Charlie. Charlie has a tendency to be rather passive, introspective, and prone to burst into tears; well – his best friend has recently committed suicide! Though quiet, Charlie is clever which is recognised Read More
The Pianist’s Hands by Eugenio Fuentes
This is a crime novel with a difference – where the crime itself, or rather the investigation, doesn’t play much of a part. Instead it’s all about getting under the skin of the main characters, finding out all their foibles and weak points, until the murderer’s identity can be divined. It starts out telling us Read More
A musical Lego interlude …
Back to books next post, but found this sweet little film on YouTube whilst browsing for the “R Whites Lemonade” advert to show my daughter. There’s loads of these Lego animations, (there’s a great Python/Holy Grail one), but this one was the sweetest we found …
Do the Hustle
The new series of Hustle started on the BBC last night, and as always it began with style, panache and tongue in cheek. Mickey Stone (Adrian Lester) was in Sydney being chased so he dives into the opera house, picks up a naval Commander’s costume and finds a limo waiting outside waiting to take him Read More
Three from the archives …
Let me introduce you to three books I particularly enjoyed reading back in 2006 … Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen Life in a travelling circus was hard, and when anything happened to upset the equilibrium it became brutal, as this well-researched novel details. These crises come one after the other here making this book Read More
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
I was so looking forward to reading this book. I was hoping it would dish some dirt on Star Wars, working with Belushi in The Blues Brothers, being married to Paul Simon, writing four fab novels and script-doctoring, what it’s really like to be bipolar …. What a life Carrie Fisher has had! Unfortunately we Read More
One down ….
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell I’ve just finished my first book in 2009, although started in 2008. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is an immensely readable analysis of what makes epidemics happen. However its not really about nasty diseases, although they do feature, but more about business and marketing. It is not just Read More
Reading Resolutions
HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s a grey day here in Abingdon and the anticipated hard frost didn’t materialise, so I’m hoping that it is not quite so cold as the past few days have been. This means a good brisk walk to start working off all those chocolates. I’m not good at making, or keeping, New Read More
A Great Year of Reading
I’m so pleased with my reading this year. I’ve managed to read 114 books – the most I’ve read in a year since my commuting days (when I could easily polish off 3 or 4 books a week in a hour each way journey). I’ve reviewed them all on Librarything and the full list of Read More
The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
I have my Secret Santa to thank for reading this book – it was unputdownable, a wonderful choice – thank you! The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman is a quirky, modern fairy tale taking its inspiration from the Brothers Grimm. A young girl wishes her mother dead, and then when it happens, she lets it Read More
The Island at the End of the World by Sam Taylor
This book is definitely one of those love it or loathe it novels. You’ll either love it – for the clever plotting and gradual reveal of what has happened to its family, or loathe it primarily because many chapters are written in eight year old Finn’s phonetic speaking voice, where things like changing an ‘a’ Read More
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Just in case the jokes in your crackers are awful, here’s some more … Q: What is an ig?A: An Eskimo house without a loo Q: What’s orange and smells of carrots?A: Rabbit sick Q: What’s yellow and stupid?A: Thick custard Q: What do you call a girl with a shrimp on her head?A: Barbie! 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
Book Bloggers Secret Santa
I signed up for the Book Bloggers Secret Santa last month, and chose and sent my gift. This morning the postlady brought me a packet of joy! My present from my Secret Santa had arrived. I couldn’t wait to get inside the jiffy, nice purple wrapping paper (gets the thumbs up from Juliet who is Read More
My best books of the year
I can’t resist it! Being a bit of an inveterate list-maker (how sad is that!), and as everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t I – I feel compelled to share my best reads of the year with you. To add a little interest, I’ve created some categories to put them in. I’ve had Read More
Love In A Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Set between the wars, this novel follows the lives and loves of an impossibly rich and aristocratic family – the Montdores, seen through the eyes of Fanny, a childhood friend of their daughter Polly. Being from a less well-to-do family, but in demand by the Montdores as a sensible friend, Fanny is ideally placed to Read More
