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
Category: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
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.
Share this:
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
Share this:
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
Share this:
The Miniaturist, Jesse Burton
It is Sunday night. Today was warm, sunny, a little humid on the south western coast of England. And yet, standing in that sun, warmed by it, with this book open I am transported to a frozen canal sides of Amsterdam over the winter of 1686. And, as I write this, I'd love an olie-koecken.… Continue reading The Miniaturist, Jesse Burton
Share this:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Jay Fowler
Why are so few book covers yellow? This looks gorgeous! Like a literary bumblebee. I have to confess, the only reason I picked this up was the cover - despite the advice parents give their children the world over. That and Waterstone's promotions. But I'm really glad I did because it's a powerful, haunting, human… Continue reading We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Jay Fowler
Share this:
Blood On Snow, Jo Nesbø
This was not what I had expected from Nesbø. And I'm saying that in a good way. Nor is it what the sticker on the front proclaims it to be, "The Brand New Thriller" from the author of The Snowman. Well, it obviously is from the author of The Snowman, which is the only other Nesbø… Continue reading Blood On Snow, Jo Nesbø
Share this:
Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
This is a remarkable novel. Of the three CILIP Carnegie nominees I've read, this is my clear front runner. And I'm saying that having read Patrick Ness! Before I review it, however, I'm going to play a game with my sixteen year-old stepson, whose birthday it is today. Despite his protestations, he is going… Continue reading Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
Share this:
Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones
Many things about being a teacher vex me: longer hours than the public realise, pay, governmental meddling. Paperwork. Ofsted. As a teacher of English though, the lack of imagination in exam boards' choices for set texts is pretty high on the vexing-list. Really, Of Mice And Men, again? An Inspector Calls as modern drama? Don't… Continue reading Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones
Share this:
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
Share this:
A Tale For The Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
I have an opinion. Just the one, but an opinion nonetheless. And my opinion is this: that most writing is, at least in part and at least tangentially, about the writing process itself. Books about books, about creation, about reading, about interpretation. How much reading do we come across in books? Ozeki seems to share… Continue reading A Tale For The Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
Share this:
The Testament of Mary, Colm Tóibín
I was hugely looking forward to this novel - although at 100 pages, novelette may be a more apt title - which failed to win the Man Booker prize last night. It is the story of Mary. That Mary. Mother of Jesus, Bearer of God, Theotokos, the Madonna. Of all figures to try to give… Continue reading The Testament of Mary, Colm Tóibín
The Book Lovers' Sanctuary 
You must be logged in to post a comment.