Okay. I'm putting my hands up to this. I did not like this book. Yes, I know that Robert Galbraith is J. K. Rowling and the sainted J. K. can do no wrong in the eyes of many... but this did not work for me. The plot was decent enough: the death of Lula Landry,… Continue reading The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
Author: The Book Lover's Sanctuary
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The Vegetarian, Han Kang
This is a very difficult book to review, to consider, to - for wont of a better analogy - digest. It is also a book which I think will haunt and follow me. And, Heaven forfend, make me think. What an appalling concept! The plot, such as it is, is devastatingly simple: Kim Yeong-hye is… Continue reading The Vegetarian, Han Kang
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Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All, Jonas Jonasson
I've not read anything by Jonasson before, although I am aware of the acclaim that The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared attracted. And it had appeared in Waterstone's May Book recommendations so I had pretty high hopes. Social satire, I thought; comedy, I expected; characters, I looked forward… Continue reading Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All, Jonas Jonasson
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Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
This was ... not what I expected. A band of travellers in the England of 1348, travelling and telling tales to each other over the course of their journeys. The reviews and comments on it make an obvious but - to my mind - highly suspect assertion that this somehow a re-imagining of The Canterbury… Continue reading Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
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Gift of Stones, Jim Crace
Hmm mmmmmm. Some books I'm glad I read before reading any reviews. What would I have learned? It's set in the Stone Age. Instantly, I'd be put off. I'd be imagining Raquel Welsh in a fur bikini - not a bad thing in itself - and all the other nonsense from one Million Years BC… Continue reading Gift of Stones, Jim Crace
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The Bands of Mourning, Brandon Sanderson
I tend to have three books on the go simultaneously most of the time: an audiobook for the drive to and from work; a thoughtful, dare I say literary, book for when I'm at home; and a just-entertain-me book for when I don't actually want to think too much. We all need a just-entertain-me book… Continue reading The Bands of Mourning, Brandon Sanderson
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The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge
I am coming to adore Frances Hardinge! I've only read this and Cuckoo Song to be fair, but there's something about her imagination and her writing which chimes with me: dark, intensely personal, yet somehow mythic at the same time. She captures a sense of wonder, of terror, of awe which is simultaneously so childlike… Continue reading The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge
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Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
This book - a Booker Prize shortlisted book from a Booker Prize winning novelist - has been sat on my book shelf since forever. I was convinced I'd read it. I am sure I've had lengthy and enthusiastic discussions about it. Heated debates. Yet, having downloaded it from Audible as a re-read, expecting something familiar… Continue reading Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
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The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu
What the hell was that? There is this much fuss over ... this? Now, I suppose I should confess: I'm not a great science fiction reader. Especially not hard science fiction. And I'm neither a scientist nor a historian of the Cultural Revolution in China. But this was not a good book. I didn't dislike… Continue reading The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu
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The Pure In Heart, Susan Hill
I'm genuinely unsure of what to make of this book. Don't get me wrong. It's not a bad book; listening to it as an audiobook was a pretty pleasant way to spend my journeys to work. But it didn't seem to be what it was packaged as and marketed as: a crime mystery. It felt… Continue reading The Pure In Heart, Susan Hill
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The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion
There are some great books that I've read over the years. Neither this, nor it's predecessor, The Rosie Project, belong in that category. There are, however, other mental categories into which I file books and this did fall into one labelled silly-books-I've-read-extracts-of-to-my-wife and this does fall into that category. It is predictable; it follows an… Continue reading The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion
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Library Of Souls, Ransom Riggs
I'm not going to dwell long on this review: it concludes the story begun in Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children and continues in Hollow City from which this book continues directly. It is also my last book of 2015, and Miss Peregrine was my first book of 2015 so it gives my year a… Continue reading Library Of Souls, Ransom Riggs
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Hollow City, Ransom Riggs
Okay. I confess. I only read this and the next book (Library Of Souls) to complete a trilogy for my 2015 Reading Challenge. And because I was running out of time. I did complete them by 31st December... just a little slow blogging about them. Due in part to a busy Christmas and also to… Continue reading Hollow City, Ransom Riggs
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Shadows of Self, Brandon Sanderson
Opening with a murderous rampage at a party held by a corrupt politician, once again, Sanderson plumbs the possibilities of his Mistborn universe in Scadriel extending the reach of the characters Waxillium Ladrian, Wayne and Marasi, whom he had introduced in The Alloy Of Law. The feel of this novel is distinctly Industrial Revolutionary with… Continue reading Shadows of Self, Brandon Sanderson
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Michael Rosen’s Sad Book
I'd not normally blog about picture books. I know there are some wonderful ones out there in the world and I love The Gruffalo as much as the next guy! Possibly more. Read it most days to my daughter. And Where The Wild Things Are. And We're Going On A Bear Hunt - also by… Continue reading Michael Rosen’s Sad Book
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Storm Front, Jim Butcher
literary lineage going back to Sherlock Holmes and Sam Spade and Philips Marlowe. Dresden is in that line of hardboiled detectives; however, Butcher is not a writer of the same calibre as Hammett, Chandler or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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The Collectors, Phillip Pullman
This is an absolute gem of a read - or more likely a listen, as Pullman wrote it for Audible as a free giveaway at some point. That's how I collected it - see what I did there? - and it's been lurking in my library ever since and today I thought I may… Continue reading The Collectors, Phillip Pullman
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2015 Reading Challenge
Before I lose myself tonight in the world of my novel again, I thought I'd quickly update the world on my progress on the 2015 Reading Challenge. I'm beginning to lose hope that I will complete it in the year (having lost the time that Summer Holidays would normally have given me) but I've been… Continue reading 2015 Reading Challenge
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The Martian, Andy Weir
This review is going to be controversial. There is a lot of hype about this book with the movie and Matt Damon and the Hollywood machine in overdrive. I didn't like it. Don't get me wrong: I didn't hate it. I just didn't like it. It wasn't well written. Clever, credible and smart, yes;… Continue reading The Martian, Andy Weir
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The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett
My first Discworld novel was Carpe Jugulum which is still my favourite, so it seems very fitting for me that my last (new) Discworld novel takes me back to Lancre, the redoubtable Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Tiffany Aching. Pratchett never finished this novel - not the half-dozen other novels which he appears to… Continue reading The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett
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The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness
Ahhh... a new Patrick Ness publication is like a new China Miéville publication: an event to be savoured. Chaos Walking. A Monster Calls. More Than This. He writes science fiction, fantasy, dystopian fictions with drama, true emotion, real depth so well! So it's difficult with this book. It's fabulous. It really is. But it's… Continue reading The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness
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Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
The second Thursday Next book picks up immediately after the end of The Eyre Affair and is a fun and joyful thing! A bit of lovely fluff: light, quick and just fun. It does perhaps suffer from its role in the series: The Eyre Affair was pretty self-contained; it has spawned a series of - I… Continue reading Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
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In The Woods, Tana French
This is my second Tana French novel, and it was her debut with the Dublin Murder Squad series. And I do enjoy her writing style. We have here, ostensibly, a crime novel. A twelve year old girl, Katy Devlin, is discovered dead on the altar stone at an archeological dig. Detective Rob Ryan and… Continue reading In The Woods, Tana French
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Three Moments Of An Explosion, China Miéville
Okay, so short stories. Part of me loves short stories. The precision, the concision, the economy of language within them - read The Dead by James Joyce. Part of me, however, longs for the lengthy, relaxed familiarity you get with the characters in a novel, even in the best of the genre. In the worst collections… Continue reading Three Moments Of An Explosion, China Miéville
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The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
Oh I'm in two minds about this book. I so wanted to like it. A alternate history world in which the borders between reality and books is flexible and malleable. Who would love to pop to Wuthering Heights for a cup of tea with Nelly Dean? Or stroll through the 100 Acre Wood? Or play hide-and-seek… Continue reading The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
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