This is a deliciously quirky trilogy of novels! Many many things in the books, Rotherweird and Wyntertyde should not work, and yet they somehow do. Gosh! Wyntertyde had left us on a cliffhanger: a second mixing point was discovered; Bolitho was revealed as Fortemain and then dispatched; the vile Calx Bole had succeeded in resurrecting…
Category: Intertextuality
The Pisces, Melissa Broder
Why is it that the words of female sexuality – and of female anatomy – are either rendered taboo or fetishised in our society ? Vagina. Clitoris. Vulva. Menstruation. Compared to “cock”, there is a different quality in these words. A frisson of shock and challenge. And that is a frisson which Broder does not…
Lanny, Max Porter
Lanny Greentree, you remind me of me.
Circe, Madeline Miller
Divine days fall like water from a cataract, and I had not learned yet the mortal trick of counting them.
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
There are some books you want to love so much, but which – for some reason – you cannot. There’s a barrier between you and what you think you should feel about the book. And this is one of those books. There is so much about it that chimed wonderfully with all the things I…
Freshwater, Akwaeke Emezi
I have lived many lives inside this body.
I lived many lives before they put me in this body.
I will live many lives when they take me out of it.
A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? The Sign of Four, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I often find – as I mentioned in my previous post – a post-Christmas lull in my reading. The cold dark days of January, which this…
Rotherweird and Wyntertyde, Andrew Caldecott
Of coracles and crosswords… You know what they say about judging books by their covers? Well, I did with these because they are lovely lovely covers! I was also aware of Caldecott, a respected QC in media law with a string of high profile cases to his name – and what appeared to be a…
Home Fires, Kamila Shamsie
With two stories in the news today – Safir Boular, at 18, being the youngest girl to be convicted of terrorism offences; and Alia Ghanem speaking of her son. Osama bin Laden – about terrorism and the legal system and family, the importance and relevance of a book like Home Fire is painfully apparent. The…
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…
