The Overstory, Richard Powers

“Let me sing to you, about how creatures become other things” I was brought up – and still live – very much in the countryside. A safe, British countryside. I know my oak from my elm for my yew. I am currently harvesting apples and blackberries from the garden, looking forward to the walnuts being…

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Weekly Round-Up: 26th August 2018

Ah the Summer Holidays. Every year I begin it with ambitious plans to catch up on the blog, the housework, the gardening, my TBR list – pile – mountain, planning for next year…. Every year, those six weeks stretch out with the promise of that most elusive thing: time, opportunity, leisure. And every year, it…

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Faithful Place, Tana French

Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series is a delight, but has sometimes only vague connections to the eponymous Murder Squad. In The Woods, the first novel, centred on it; but the follow-up The Likeness, centred on Cassie Madox from the first book who is now in Domestic Violence rather than murder and being supervised by…

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Weekly Round Up: 30th July 2018

It is here at long last! The summer holidays! We – and all other teachers – survived! And golly it has been a heck of a year! So, the upside: more time to read! Insofar as a five year old will let me! Less issues for reading past my bedtime! The downside, and it’s a…

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Touch, Claire North

Poor Claire North. She brought out The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August as I read Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life; I pick up Touch just after reading A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge. And both times, she comes a slight second in similar and comparable fantasy scenarios. Imagine being able to switch your…

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Weekly Round Up: 17th July 2018

One more week until the Summer holidays and a real chance to get stuck into my TBR pile – and my To Be Reviewed list too! I’m sure I’ve missed some things off somewhere! Wasn’t there a Dresden File I read and haven’t reviewed yet? Blood Rites? I have this week posted my first Netgalley…

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The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet came to my attention through the Booker Prize: I loved his His Bloody Project novel with its multiple voices and setting, evocatively recreating the brutality of life in Scottish crofting communities. It was on the strength of that that I picked up this, the first of his Detective Gorski novels and –…

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Weekly Round Up: 10th July 2018

This week sees a coupe of books finished and taken from my TBR pile! Jessie Burton’s The Muse grew on me as I reached the final sections and anticipated some of the revelations. I did find her language to be beautiful and sensual but her more contemplative moments a little awkward. I was, though, sad to…

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The Sleeper and the Spindle, Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell

There are times when I love my job. Some. On rare occasions. One of those times came today when I spotted a copy of The Sleeper and the Spindle on the side in the library and I was asked to have a read of it over night and see whether I thought it was suitable….

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The Muse, Jessie Burton

I adored The Miniaturist! It was one of those books which had stayed with me: the cold of her repressed Amsterdam, the sweetness of marzipan, the claustrophobic house. The hint of the supernatural. The difficult, prickly bond between the women. So it was with pleasure and anticipation that I began The Muse and it took…

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