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… Continue reading Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
Category: Genre
My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
Next up, from the Women's Prize Longlist came Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, the Serial Killer, an interesting parallel to Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater. It is an intriguing little novel - a mere 240 pages, for those for whom that is relevant, not much more than a day or weekend's read - and remarkably effective in the… Continue reading My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
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Spring, Ali Smith
Look what arrived this week: an ARC of Spring, the third in Ali Smith's gorgeous Seasons Tetralogy, following Autumn and Winter. Autumn being hailed as the first post-Brexit novel - and it is so much more transformative and lyrical and funny and tragic than that! - the timing of this novel's release at the end… Continue reading Spring, Ali Smith
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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.
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The Mitford Murders, Jessica Fellowes
What a classy cover! Don't be judging a book by its cover, but even so... classy! I want to describe it as being in an art deco style but I'm not entirely sure what that term means... Similarly classy is the pedigree of the author: Jessica Fellowes is a well renowned journalist and editor; she… Continue reading The Mitford Murders, Jessica Fellowes
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The Soul of Discretion, Susan Hill
Trigger Warning: child sexual abuse and rape. Ah, Susan Hill, you seemed to have taken a different direction with this book from the rest of the Serrailler series. Had the gentility of Lafferton started to wane for you? Was there only so much you could do with the cloistered - and I choose that metaphor… Continue reading The Soul of Discretion, Susan Hill
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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 year… Continue reading A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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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… Continue reading Rotherweird and Wyntertyde, Andrew Caldecott
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day 20!
Heading - finally - into the last ten entries with A book with an unreliable narrator I do love me an unreliable narrator since reading Poe. Oh The Tell-Tale Heart! You know you've made it when your novel is restaged by The Simpsons! I love that shifting uncertainty of these narrators: how are they misleading… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day 20!
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day 19!
Taking advantage of a rare quiet moment, let's throw another entry into the 30 Day Book Challenge, namely today An audiobook you like because of the narrator's voice. Now, before selecting a book, I'm going to relate a terrifying incident from my student days. My early student days. Imagine, if you will, a young and… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day 19!
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day 18!
Returning to this Book Challenge - I fear optimistically as the prospect of returning to work looms! - we meet Day 18 and A book you like by an author no longer living. Now, as I've said before, I've had to read widely and enjoyed a huge variety of books written by people who have… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day 18!
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Melmoth, Sarah Perry
Look! It is winter in Prague: night is rising in the mother of cities and over her thousand spires. Look down at the darkness around your feet, in all the lanes and alleys, as if it were a soft black dust swept there by a broom; look at the stone apostles on the old Charles Bridge, and at all the blue-eyed jackdaws on the shoulders of St. John of Nepomuk. Look!
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2019: A Year in Books
Thanks to Melany Parker at meltotheany's review of her year in books - which looked so much fancier than mine: oh, we teachers do love a colour coded spreadsheet and pie charts! - and led me to Brock Roberts' 2019 Book Tracking Spreadsheet. Reading. Books. Spreadsheets. Charts and Graphs. What's not to love? I'm still… Continue reading 2019: A Year in Books
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The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
The Greek epics seem to have had a resurgence - dare one say a renaissance? - or a reimagining recently. On my to-be-read list are Stephen Fry's Mythos and Heroes, Madeline Miller's Circe, and Song of Achilles and now this by Pat Barker. I don't know what the appeal is of these narratives, nor why they are… Continue reading The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
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Normal People, Sally Rooney
Normal People. Are people normal? I don't think so. I think we are weird and strange and contradictory and self-contradictory and life primarily in delusions and bubbles of pretense and make-believe. But maybe that's me! "Normal" seems like a slur... So the point is, I'm not entirely sure what drew me to this book: it… Continue reading Normal People, Sally Rooney
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Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
Oh well, having set down my best intentions earlier, to review Washington Black before finishing Sally Rooney's Normal People, and to complete the 30 Day Book Challenge by Christmas, I have failed on all accounts and now have Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls to review as well! But, I have had a lovely Chrsitmas… Continue reading Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
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The Sentence is Death, Anthony Horowitz
Why do we read detective stories? It is a strange genre. Every piece of advice is that tension and conflict are the driver of a narrative and, with this genre, unlike the thriller genre, the most significant conflict - the one which traditionally culminates in murder, as it does with this one - occurs significantly… Continue reading The Sentence is Death, Anthony Horowitz
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day 14!
Heading towards the half way point. Slowly. I'm aiming to finish by Christmas, possibly on Christmas Day which gives me 20 days in which to complete the final 16. Still a little bit of leeway! Anyway, today's challenge is A fairytale retelling. And there are a lot of these to choose from, even if we… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day 14!
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day 11!
So moving on with this, the challenge has shifted to characters for today rather than novels with the challenge to find A literary character you want to have dinner (or drinks) with. Can I not just ask for all of them? Not together. Obviously. I don't have enough chairs! It's my blog and my rules,… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day 11!
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Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch
I have thoroughly enjoyed the Rivers of London series as a fresh urban fantasy - and all the freedoms and inventiveness which comes with that - merged with the familiar structures and language of a police procedural. In the previous book, The Hanging Tree, Aaronovitch finally reveals the identity of The Faceless Man, the antagonist… Continue reading Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day Nine!
Today's category - I'm going to be upfront and honest - is one I don't understand and I am confused by. The category is Favourite book to give as a gift. And I do give books as gifts. Frequently. I've given Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine by Gail Honeyman, Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day Nine!
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day Eight!
So, week two and day eight roll around and we're still going... And the challenge today is to name A series everyone should read. Now I struggle with this concept. Why should everyone read the same thing? Why would one series - which is a massive investment of time - be something everyone should read? Why should anyone read… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day Eight!
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day Seven!
Okay, day seven and I've managed not to miss any yet! The joys of having almost a whole week off work because the heating there packed up! God bless the Health and Safety gremlins! So today's category is Best audiobook to listen to on a road trip. Fortunately, I do listen to audiobooks, almost on… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day Seven!
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day Six!
Today's challenge is to identify A book that broke your heart. There is only one contender in this category and it is Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls. I have read this novel a dozen times: initially as simply a book for myself; later as a class read for work. I have read it in my head… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day Six!
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30 Day Book Challenge: Day Five!
Day Five is such a strange strange week at work! Surreal does not begin to cut it! Anyway, back to the challenge and, today, we are looking for Favourite classic novel. Oh Lord! Again, just one? One? And what exactly is a "classic"? Ask a thousand readers and you'll probably find a thousand definitions, but… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day Five!
The Book Lovers' Sanctuary 
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