The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster – #AusterRW25

My original plans were to read this book and Oracle Night this week alongside Baumgartner, which would have left only Sunset Park of Auster’s novels unread, but I was enjoying his 2002 novel The Book of Illusions so much, I took it a little more slowly to savour the text. Now I have the hard Read More

Echoes of Eco II: Foucault’s Pendulum – Parts 2 & 3

For my introductory thoughts as I began re-reading Foucault’s Pendulum, click here. We ended the short first part of the novel with Casuabon hiding in the periscope chamber, waiting for a mysterious event to happen in the museum. HERE BE SPOILERS… Hokhmah – the second Sephirot – embodying wisdom from nothingness! In part two ‘Hokhmah’, Read More

The Translator by Harriet Crawley – blogtour

Anyone who visits my blog regularly will know that spies and secret agents populate my favourite thrillers, and there are plenty in Harriet Crawley’s splendid new novel The Translator. Crawley, fluent in Russian, lived and worked in Moscow for twenty years – but in the energy sector. Who knows if she knew anyone from Moscow Read More

Review of the Year #2 – 2022 – Time for Book Stats!

I always say this, but this post really is my favourite of the year! The master spreadsheet is still going strong. I love playing with all the data, mining it for nuggets of information that will tell me if my reading habits have changed. In truth, they bobble along generally, but there are some general Read More