Some books need more of an exercise in imagination than others. A bigger suspension of disbelief. An unborn narrator, for example, is one such. And not just unborn in a metaphorical sense but literally foetal. The narrator of McEwan's most recent book - recently serialised on Radio 4 - is a third-trimester Hamlet, set in modern London, recounting… Continue reading Nutshell, Ian McEwan
Category: Book Reviews
The Girl of Ink and Stars, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
This certainly has a distinctive and gorgeous cover on it, which has graced the window front of local bookshops for weeks! But they do say that you shouldn't just a book etc etc etc ... The book is narrated by Isabella, a young girl on the island of Joya, who has been brought up on… Continue reading The Girl of Ink and Stars, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
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The Risk Of Darkness, Susan Hill
This will be a fairly brief review for two reasons: firstly, I thought I'd already reviewed it and only realised when I tried to link my review of The Vows of Silence to it that I'd not; and secondly, it is very much a continuation of the second novel, The Pure In Heart. Serrailler is… Continue reading The Risk Of Darkness, Susan Hill
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Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
It's a Dresden File. It's Harry Dresden; it's Jim Butcher. Even after reading only the previous two novels, I already know what to expect. It's also a step up from the previous two novels in the series: the prose is still very, well, prosaic; Dresden is still a wise cracking hard boiled detective with magic;… Continue reading Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
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The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith
You know when you hope you got a book series wrong? Other people are telling you it's great but you just don't get it? You end up offering excuses for the writer: maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind; maybe I was too tired; maybe I read it too quickly. Sometimes, it is… Continue reading The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith
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The Vows Of Silence, Susan Hill
Susan Hill is, without doubt, a fantastic writer. The Woman In Black is an exquisitely crafted horror; Strange Meeting is exceptional. so I am persevering with these detective novels hoping for ... well something. But I've not found it yet. I really don't know what it is that's missing but something is. The plots are decent enough: this… Continue reading The Vows Of Silence, Susan Hill
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The Trees, Ali Shaw
This book might win the most striking cover award this year: the stunning autumnal russets and reds are gorgeous! But you know what they say about judging books by their covers? As a parent and as a teacher, we trot out that truism time and again but on what else are you going to judge… Continue reading The Trees, Ali Shaw
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The Voyage Of The Basilisk, Marie Brennan
Still trying to catch up on my reviews which have been delayed thanks to writing a whole bunch of schemes of learning for work and a delightfully full-on three year old daughter, I realised I'd missed this one. The third installment of the Lady Trent memoirs - set in a fictional but faintly vwiled and… Continue reading The Voyage Of The Basilisk, Marie Brennan
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Etymologicon and The Elements of Eloquence, Mark Forsyth
These are not worth separate blog posts: same basic book written in the same basic style about the same basic themes. Which sounds terribly dismissive but shouldn't: as a self-confessed language geek who's alert to the absurdity and beauty of our mongrel mother tongue, these books were a delightful treat.and a little like talking to… Continue reading Etymologicon and The Elements of Eloquence, Mark Forsyth
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Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Max Porter
Wow! This book is extraordinary. It is strange and bizarre and wild. And has the vividness and opacity of a nightmarish dreamscape. It is literary and visceral, erudite and scatological, mythic and domestic at the same time. Death and grief are such massive topics that you expect a weighty tome to contain them. Yet this… Continue reading Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Max Porter
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H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald
I mostly read fiction: an escapist flight from the same rigours of the real world - work, a beautiful but demanding three-year old - that have kept me from keeping up-to-date with my reviews! So this book has languished on my kindle to-be-read pile for a while. A pretty long while. Which just goes to… Continue reading H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald
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The Reader On The 6.27, Jean Paul Didierlaurent
How can you review a book like this? I mean, seriously? It was just so incredibly sweet and heart-warming and just delightful and you can't review that, just enjoy it! The book is set in Paris and follows a few weeks in the life of Guylain Vignolles, a lover of books whose job is to… Continue reading The Reader On The 6.27, Jean Paul Didierlaurent
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Fool Moon, Jim Butcher
Book Two of the Dresden Files. Pretty similar to book one, really! Special Investigations, Karrin Murphy, Bob the Skull, potions brewed, magic used. This time around, we have werewolves! Seriously, there's not much more to say: it's smart and sassy, it's got magic and werewolves. It is not high literature! It's a decently written, fast… Continue reading Fool Moon, Jim Butcher
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Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
Another detective fiction novel - and another still to review, albeit with a paranormal twist - and this shares many similarities with The Cuckoo's Calling but is done so much better. Kate Atkinson - whose more explicitly literary offering of Life After Life was divine and possibly one of the best books I have ever read - is… Continue reading Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
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The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
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
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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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