This is another entry in the occasional series where I own up to not having read something. Today I am owning up to not having read the literary quarterly ‘Magazine of New Writing’ Granta. Nothing wrong with that you may say – literary quarterlies are often an acquired taste. The shocking thing is though that Read More
This great book will mess with your mind!
The Juggler by Sebastian Beaumont Last year one of my favourite new books, and really deserving of five stars, was Sebastian Beaumont’s debut novel, the marvellous Thirteen. Framed around the strange life of a depressed night-cabbie, it was multilayered, darkly surreal and edgy. It played tricks with your mind, (which with hindsight reminds me of Read More
Like Mother Like Daughter?
I’ve just read another two books about mothers and daughters. These short novels are rather different to the mother and daughter story in my last post though … Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante … is the first novel by one of Italy’s most acclaimed contemporary authors, a Neapolitan, who shuns publicity and is rather an Read More
Songs of Blue and Gold by Deborah Lawrenson
A few weeks ago the author of this book Deborah Lawrenson, having followed a trail from a comment I’d left on dovegreyreader scribbles to my blog, sent me a note to ask if I’d like to read her latest book. I was absolutely delighted, as once I’d visited Deborah’s website her books sounded very much Read More
To star or not to star …
Opinion has always been divided about whether or not to give ratings for books – be it points out of ten, stars out of five, or any other system you choose. When all is said and done, the words written about a book reveal far more than a mere rating. So why bother with the Read More
Spread the Word – World Book Day – The Shortlist
The Spread the Word shortlist is out. This is part of World Book Day, and the 100 books to talk about have been whittled down to the last ten as voted for by vistors to the site. You can vote until Feb 27th for the winner. One of the books on the longlist that didn’t Read More
Great title, great cover …
Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog by Paul Robert Smith Could the second book I’ve read in the past few months to feature the word ‘hedgehog’ in the title possibly be as good as the first here? Sadly, no – Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Read More
Probability Angels by Joseph Devon
I won a copy of this book on a giveaway over at Me and My Big Mouth. Based on the snippet of blurb it sounded quirky and intriguing. I was surprised when it arrived on the doormat, as a) it was sent out from the USA, and b) it turns out that the author Joseph Read More
Bring on the revolution?
The Courilof Affair by Irene Nemirovsky The Russian Minister for Education, Courilof, is notorious for his cold-bloodedness and brutality and has been selected to be liquidated publicly to send a message to the masses that the revolution is coming. It’s 1903 and Leon M is assigned to the task. His initial job is to become Read More
Kitchen chemistry
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
