Book news, reviews and recommendations
There’s been a lot of talk about long books over the past ten days: the Man Booker-winning The Luminaries weighs in at 832 pages and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, for which many of us have been waiting for a decade, stretches to 784 pages. My heart always sinks a little when a big book comes […]
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert: Not one unnecessary page Read More »
The Novel Cure is an absolute treat for bibliophiles, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Compiled by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin who set up what must be the first bibliotherapy practise in 2008, it’s a set of literary prescriptions for ailments, worries and all that life throws at us, from coping with
The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin: Good for whatever ails you Read More »
With its puff from J. Courtney Sullivan, Ann Leary’s The Good House looked a promising choice for my cold-befuddled brain – absorbing but relatively unchallenging. Set in the kind of small New England seaside town where families have lived for so long that there are coves named after them, it’s narrated by Hildy Good, successful
The Good House by Ann Leary: Secrets and lies Read More »
Forgive me if this review is not the best you’ve ever read here: I’m sliding down the same slippery slope H did last weekend and my head is full of cotton wool but having just finished Diane Setterfield’s Bellman & Black I need to get my thoughts down before my brain is entirely sodden. It
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield: A right gothic tale Read More »
Poor H was afflicted with a nasty cold this weekend, sliding into a runny-nosed heap late Saturday afternoon fit only for sitting in front of the TV watching Gladiator. We have the kind of open plan house in which it’s difficult to get away if one wants to watch what the other doesn’t so I
We are Here by Michael Marshall: Which turns out to be far better than expected Read More »
Those of us who read a lot of fiction have reason to feel a bit smug after The Guardian‘s piece based on research suggesting that reading novels develops empathy. Easy to feel pleased with yourself for doing something which for many of us is an enormous pleasure but I do read fiction to find out
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri: My Man Booker favourite: Read More »
Humans look for patterns in everything: we seek the reassurance of predictability in a world which is chaotic and random. It helps to keep us sane rather than face a future in which a chance accident may rob us of all that is dear to us. At least that’s what I think. You, of course,
I’ve just started Joe Moran’s Armchair Nation. Only a few chapters in but I can tell that it’s going to be both entertaining and enlightening as well as a treasure trove of factoids, as H likes to call them. I’ve already stashed away one eye-popping nugget: Anthony Burgess was apparently such a passionate fan of
Armchair Nation by Joe Moran: Life in front of the gogglebox Read More »
It’s been a while since a new Jonathan Coe novel has lived up to my, admittedly, high expectations – they’ve been too far into ‘state of the nation’ territory, lacking the humour that made What a Carve Up! and The Rotters’ Club so appealing – but Expo 58 is a return to form. Set in
Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe: A romp that reads like an Ealing Comedy Read More »
Paul Harding’s second novel is set in the same small Massachusetts town as his first as those who’ve read Tinkers will recognise from its title. It begins with the death of Charlie Crosby’s 14-year-old daughter in a road accident and ends a year later. Shortly after Kate’s death, Charlie’s wife Susan leaves to visit her
Enon: A year of grief and madness Read More »
I don’t read very much non-fiction, something of a yawning gap I know but there are always so many excellent novels lined up ready and waiting. When I do it tends to be short bursts of travel writing or biography and novelist Sarah Moss’s Names for the Sea neatly combines the two. Circumstances seemed to
Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss: Adventures in Iceland Read More »