The book group I belong to doesn’t have a name – we’re all just mates. Membership varies with a core of about eight, then half a dozen or so occasional visitors, whom it is lovely to see when they can make it. Here’s what we read this year (the scores are my ratings, not group Read More
Short Takes
I’d like to introduce you to a couple of books that I particularly enjoyed earlier this year before I started my blog … Gold by Dan Rhodes. This is a gently humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer Read More
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa 1997 Nobel laureate Saramago was born in 1922 and is considered to be Portugal’s top living writer. He wrote this novel in 1995 and what a book it is! This was our book group choice for December, and we all found it an intense and compelling read. When an epidemic Read More
Oliver Postgate R.I.P.
I was so sad to hear of the death on Monday of Oliver Postgate. My childhood TV viewing was full of gems from him. Sadly, I was just beyond the age for the ‘Watch with Mother‘ lunchtime slot when Bagpuss came along, but I have always loved the Clangers … Some years ago, when my Read More
Transmission by Hari Kunzru
This is a novel of globalisation and alienation, set in a world in which electronic communication and understanding is instant, but that between humans remains a mystery. Arjun, a naive young Indian thinks he is about to achieve the American Dream. He lands a job in the US, but finds he’s signed up for a Read More
Santa Claus is comin’ to town …
I just got back from my daughter’s school Christmas concert which was lovely. I was amazed though to find out that the perennial favourite Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (preferably the Springsteen version for me), has some introductory verses: I just came back from a lovely trip along the Milky Way, I stopped off Read More
This had me in fits …
Browsing in my super-local-indie-bookshop Mostly Books yesterday, my eye was drawn to this sitting by the till… Wendy: The Bumper Book of Fun for Women of a Certain Age by Jenny Eclair and Judith Holder. It’s a girl’s type annual for grumpy old women by one of the sharpest comedians on the planet. I only Read More
The Pets by Bragi Olafsson
Translated by Janice Balfour Last year I read some Halldor Laxness, and found the Icelandic humour distinctly hard to get. This contemporary novel by Bragi Olafsson (formerly in the Sugarcubes with Björk) was much less oblique, but despite its relative brevity took some time to get going. When it did though, it became the stuff Read More
Christmas Competition
It’s the first day of advent, and it was Cadburys for breakfast for daughter Juliet. When I was little, there was no chocolate involved in advent calendars. But enough of that humbug! … My blog’s first competition closed yesterday and tis time to find out who won. Firstly thank you to everyone who entered. I Read More
Mummy, what’s your favourite song? …
… asked daughter Juliet, who since her Dad bought some noise cancelling headphones has been glued to the family iPod. Well, where to start? I couldn’t possibly choose just one song, so in time-honoured Desert Island Discs fashion will try to limit it to eight! Here they are, in no particular order: Everybody knows by Read More
Victory for the little guy over bureaucracy!
This was one of those books that once spotted, had to be purchased. A new author to me with an intriguing name and equally interesting book title, a great cover, plus it was an American import that shouted ‘quirky’ at me. There’s nothing I enjoy more than a novel with a bit of quirk in Read More
It’s a beautiful day
I’m sitting looking out over school playing fields, the early morning frost has melted leaving the grass glistening. A few trees stubbornly hang onto their last leaves, and the church spire points heav’nward, contrasting against a hazy blue and cloudless sky. All is perfect except for just one thing … Blooming leaf blowers!!! I can Read More
The Sonnets by Warwick Collins
This is an ambitious novel. The author has taken Shakespeare’s sonnets and created a novel around them, selecting those that fit this narrative – 32 in all, reproduced in full within the text. Although I love Shakespeare’s plays, I’ve never read the sonnets, just knowing a couple of the famous quotes. This novel was a Read More
Alan Coren – 69 for 1
In spare moments after lunch for the past couple of months, I’ve been dipping into the humorist Alan Coren’s last book of columns. I can’t believe it’s over a year since he died, but reading these mini-masterpieces of wit, I can hear his voice, in turns mocking and exasperated, but always with tongue firmly in Read More
By Dickens! …
… I’m enjoying the Beeb’s Little Dorrit. I watched three episodes back to back last night and loved every minute. I have to admit I nearly shed a tear when Little Dorrit left the Marshalsea looking back to lovely, nice Mr Clennam. Talking of Mr Clennam, I definitely prefer Matthew MacFadyen here to his turn Read More
Desert Island Books #2
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Some may consider choosing an encyclopaedic dictionary a bit of a cheat, but I maintain that if you were on a desert island with no internet – there is no better book than Brewer’s for frequent dipping into for little nuggets of information. It is simply the original and Read More
Synchronicity & Serendipity
Sometimes in the book blogosphere we’re all looking at books of the moment – several reviews will be posted about a new book or a title in the news – there’s a synchronicity about it all … Take the book I’m reading now for instance – Warwick Collins new novel The Sonnets which puts Shakespeare’s Read More
Moviewatch – Stardust
One of the best films I’ve seen recently on DVD was Stardust. It’s a truly magical comic fantasy adventure for all the family. Neil Gaiman’s fairy tale has been realised beautifully for the screen and features an all-star cast that goes all the way down into some of the smallest parts. The only one who Read More
Le Manoir comes to Abingdon
There was great excitement in Abingdon on Saturday. Raymond Blanc was coming to Mostly Books to do a signing – one of only a handful around the country for his autobiography A taste of my life . I got there half an hour early and was about 15th in the queue. By the time he Read More
Christmas Prizes!
Two of my biggest hobbies, when not reading or blogging, are compiling quizzes and sewing. So I’ve combined both into my blog’s first giveaway with a little festive quiz. Yes, I know it’s only November, but so I can get prizes to wherever they need to go to in time to be useful on a Read More
I’m a Hardy convert!
Back in September on this blog I confessed that I had never read any Thomas Hardy. As this admission coincided with the recent BBC adaptation I chose Tess of the D’Urbervilles to read. I only watched the first two episodes on TV though, and can honestly say I didn’t know the second half of the Read More
The only problem with bookswapping …
… is that you end up with the same number of books. Maybe I should have joined one of the other forums – there are quite a few now. The most radical is Bookcrossing (http://bookcrossing.com/) where the basic principle is that you release books into the wild for people to discover. Each book gets an Read More
Proper Showbiz Memoirs …
I love good showbiz memoirs and biographies. None of that celebrity trash – I like proper life stories of people in any aspect of showbiz with distinguished and/or interesting careers. In particular, I always find the behind the scenes stories of the creative process are fascinating, be it on stage, on film or in the Read More
Oct-Nov Book Group Report
Nine of us met at the new Ask? Italian in Abingdon last night for our monthly meeting. We had 2 books to discuss as October’s was cancelled. A nice place to eat, although slightly pricey for what you get, Ask? was not the ideal venue for a discussion as the high ceiling with gallery (it’s Read More
Guilty Secrets #2
This time here are two books that everybody in the whole world seems to have read except me. I actually own them both, but they’ve been in the TBR (to be read) mountain for years. Should I promote either? First is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Up until earlier this year, I’d not read any of Read More
Short Takes
The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark The 100th book I read this year. It was a delightful short novel about a young man who arrives in a slightly posh bit of South London, stirs things up rather devilishly bringing this staid bit of town to life, and then he disappears. Is Dougal Douglas Read More
My best bits of Paris
We’ve just come back from a few days in Paris – after a gap of ten years for me and Peter, and the first time with daughter Juliet. We did the obligatory pilgrimage to Eurodisney – Juliet enjoyed it – we just felt totally ripped off! But, it was lovely to be able to show Read More
Moviewatch: In Bruges- It’s effing hilarious!
This film was absolutely fantastic from start to finish. Wildly original, quirky, very violent yet wickedly funny with some brilliant sick jokes. Oh, by the way, it happens to show off Bruges quite beautifully. Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes I knew, but couldn’t quite place Brendan Gleeson at first – then it dawned on me Read More
What did you do in the war Mum?
War Crimes For The Home by Liz Jensen The things normal people got up to in the war. Good girl Gloria falls for a GI and learns to be bad with disastrous consequences. Told in flashback, Gloria is now an old lady and installed in an old folks nursing home, as her son Hank thinks 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
