The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here's an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,500 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many… Continue reading 2014 in review
Author: The Book Lover's Sanctuary
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Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Ahhhhhh..... Some books are like taking a duvet day in December with a warm fire burning in the corner. And hot chocolate. Even though I don't like hot chocolate, the idea of hot chocolate. And in the arms of someone who loves you. These books are comforting. Warming. Safe. And so it is with Good… Continue reading Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
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Foxglove Summer, Ben Aaronovitch
I've been reading some weighty books recently. Miéville. Ali Smith. Haruki Murakami. All brilliant. But sometimes, just sometimes, a slightly lighter read is called for: fun, engaging, escapist. And Aaronovitch delivers exactly that in his Peter Grant novels. An authentic police procedural with an engaging first person narrator whose wit is warm and genuine. With… Continue reading Foxglove Summer, Ben Aaronovitch
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Embassytown, China Miéville
Hmmm... where to start with this one? It's a book on which I am still ruminating and which is still rattling away inside my brain after a couple of days. Nagging at me. Gnawing at my consciousness. And Miéville's writing does that: it dwells and lingers and questions and challenges you. That is why Miéville… Continue reading Embassytown, China Miéville
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The Strain, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Oh dear. What a let down. I was really looking forward to this one. And now I feel just... let down. I've read some great books recently: emotional, lyrical, beautiful. I wasn't expecting any of that from The Strain. I was looking forward to an enjoyable, rollicking horror vampire fantasy in the style of del… Continue reading The Strain, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving
I feel as if I've known of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for ever. The Headless Horseman. The midnight ride. The pumpkin. I knew that - however much I loved it - the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp film took massive liberties... And even more liberties in the Fox network series Sleepy Hollow which was… Continue reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving
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The Scar, China Miéville
Miéville is one of my favourite authors: acutely political, wildly imaginative and linguistically sparkling. I discovered him through Perdido Street Station and adored the sprawling city of New Crobuzon: mercantile, rapacious, brutal but utterly compelling. It is a city populated by renegade scientists, scarab-headed khepri, eagle faced garuda, the amphibian vodyanoi, the cactacae and brutally… Continue reading The Scar, China Miéville
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The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters
There is so much to admire about this book that I feel almost guilty that I didn't love it. And I feel I might struggle to explain why without losing sight of the fact that it is a great book and beautifully written in places. As you'd expect from Waters, The Paying Guests inhabits a… Continue reading The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters
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The Rehearsal, Eleanor Catton
Some books just blow you away. This one is absolutely in that category. One of those books that I struggle to find an adjective to describe the experience of reading it. Astonishing. Scintillating. Experimental. Complex. Extraordinarily sensuous. I can understand why many people might not like it. It is written in a non-linear way -… Continue reading The Rehearsal, Eleanor Catton
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History Of The Rain, Niall Williams
Books appeal to me in a variety of different ways.Some are intellectually challenging; some have intricate or gripping plots; some tug on the heart strings; some create whole worlds inside me; some create characters who live on inside my mind and imagination.And some sing to me. They breathe under my fingers. They live. And this was one… Continue reading History Of The Rain, Niall Williams
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More Than This, Patrick Ness
I am a huge Patrick Ness fan! Let me put that out there at the start of this. I hugely admired his Chaos Walking Trilogy but was utterly blown away by the visceral emotion and mythic scope of A Monster Calls. There are few books that dig inside you as much as that one. This… Continue reading More Than This, Patrick Ness
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Half A King, Joe Abercrombie
I've been meaning to get round to reading Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy for a while but haven't managed to find the time recently. Work. Children. Babies. Goatee growing. You know: the things that take up your time. But with the summer holidays coinciding with a new book, Half A King, I thought I'd… Continue reading Half A King, Joe Abercrombie
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The Long War, Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett
I do not like wars. If you cast your eyes over my posts, I think the only war related entries you'll find are books I've had to teach: Strange Meeting by Susan Hill. I groan audibly when the kids try to put on war films. Much to their annoyance! So The Long War... I was… Continue reading The Long War, Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett
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Summer Reading
With a week to go before the summer holidays, my reading list is starting to grow. Currently queued up on the ereader I have the following: These are crime thrillers penned, under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, by John Banville who wrote The Sea. I was particularly intrigued by The Black-Eyed Blonde as a new Raymond… Continue reading Summer Reading
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The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
Ahhh, Eleanor Catton's Man Booker winning The Luminaries. It's certainly not a quick read! It took such a time to read it - and admittedly my reading coincided with a stroppy baby and a hectic few weeks at work - that the beautiful cover started to wear off! The M of LUMINARIES on the front… Continue reading The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
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Room, Emma Donoghue
This book had been on my to-read list since it was listed for The Booker Prize. The copy I had was electronic and just stopped about 20 pages in... And I never got round to replacing it. Until it cropped up whilst I was browsing on Audible. This was a perfect book for an audio… Continue reading Room, Emma Donoghue
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Words Of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson
Fantasy is a difficult genre to keep fresh. Tolkien looms as an edifice; George R. R. Martin, similarly. Sanderson is a fresh voice within that genre: like Martin, he eschews the vague mystical nature of Tolkien's magic and fantasy races; unlike Martin, the magic is a central facet of his world-building and he eschews the… Continue reading Words Of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson
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Roof Toppers, Katherine Rundell
It's that time of year again: the Carnegie Medal Shortlist is announced! Much joy! Genuine excitement! Much fretting over how to juggle reading the Shortlist with doing work, marking, planning ... and, this year, entertaining the baby! And Roof Toppers was a lovely way to start the Shortlist ... Which I finished today by reading… Continue reading Roof Toppers, Katherine Rundell
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Strange Meeting, Susan Hill
I do not generally choose war books. In all honesty, had I come across this book with this cover in a shop or library I would probably have skipped over it. I like Susan Hill; I dislike war. I am particularly hesitant about The Great War novels written recently: I'm uncomfortable with the glorification of… Continue reading Strange Meeting, Susan Hill
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Harvest, Jim Crace
I loved this book, for so many reasons!! It is the story of a week in an unnamed village in an unspecified part of England at an unspecified period. And I loved the timelessness of Crace's prose: his narrator's language is lyrical and deeply informed by the landscape but not archaic or faux-authentic. If we… Continue reading Harvest, Jim Crace
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Blackout, Mira Grant
I'm not going to write much about this book: it doesn't really warrant it! This is the third in Mira Grant's post-zombie-apocalypse political thriller Feed trilogy - so I have that glow of satisfaction of completion having read it - but it is a trilogy that should never have been. The first book, Feed was,… Continue reading Blackout, Mira Grant
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The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker
There are some books - most books probably - which I read, finish and review pretty much straight away. They are like those meals which are fine, tasty and enjoyable but which you move on from. Some, however - stretching the metaphor perhaps to breaking point - I like to savour more, to digest, before… Continue reading The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker
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Worst Reads of 2013
I suppose to have not enjoyed three books all year isn’t too bad…
So this is the corollary of the post 2013 in books. Not the best books I’ve read this year but the worst.
Those books you read and think
Well, that’s a week I’ll never get back again.
Or those books you finish with a “meh” sound as you reach for the next.
Or those you finish, look at and and file next to Twilight on the “Too Embarrassing Even To Give Away” shelf.
These books don’t need promoting, just a health warning! Click on the book names to read my reviews of them. If you think they deserve it. Or you have too much time on your hands.
So first and definitely least enjoyable book of the year: The Shakespeare Curse by J. L. Carrell. Do you like Shakespeare? Or thrillers? Or characters? Or a plot? If you answered yes to any of these, this is not…
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The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
Well, that was a quick read! I was browsing various book lists with a view to spending some Christmas money and The Guardian's Independent Bookshop review of 2013 cropped up with this book. It is, at heart, a romance novel which is certainly not a usual genre for me. The main character, Don Tillsen in… Continue reading The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
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2013 in books
My pick of books from those I’ve read in 2013
2013 drags itself damply and limply to an end this week. Unlike Dr Who, whose Matt Smith incarnation went out on Christmas Day with a bang, the final days of 2013 remind me of the lines from Eliot
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Anyway, I thought that I would bring the year to a close with a review of 2013 in books. And, to preface, this is books read by me in 2013 rather than written in 2013. There are still some 2013 books I’ve not got round to reading yet: The Luminaries and Jim Crace’s Harvest among them.
So. Here goes.
Top of my list is the Man Booker shortlisted A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.
Utterly compelling and intriguing narrative voices, engaging…
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