Book news, reviews and recommendations
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. Regular readers may have gathered that I’m fan of Colm Tóibín’s writing. His name appears on my About […]
Blasts from the Past: The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín (1999) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. I still remember the delight at hearing the news that the quietly brilliant Larry’s Party had won what
Blasts from the Past: Larry’s Party by Carol Shields (1997) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. Those of us who witnessed the scenes of the Berlin Wall being torn down in 1989, albeit on
Blasts from the Past: Stasiland by Anna Funder (2004) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. I’ve read several novels by Penelope Lively plus her lovely memoir, Ammonites and Leaping Fish, all of which
Blasts from the Past: The Photograph by Penelope Lively (2003) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. A rare non-fiction blast from me, this time reprising Lorna Sage’s Bad Blood, her wonderfully eloquent, witty, heart-wrenching
Blasts from the Past: Bad Blood by Lorna Sage (2000) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. If you’re a regular visitor to this blog you’ve probably twigged that I’m a fan of Irish writing,
Blasts from the Past: The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor (2002) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. Stephen Sherrill’s debut was much talked about just after I started work as a reviews editor. I wasn’t
Blasts from the Past: The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Stephen Sherrill (2000) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. Barry Unsworth’s Morality Play is set in the late fourteenth century, a time of calamitous upheaval. The country
Blasts from the Past: Morality Play by Barry Unsworth (1995) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea is a slim novel but it made quite an impression on me, perhaps
Blasts from the Past: By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah (2001) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. Friends are the new family has become something of a contemporary cliché. Perhaps its origins lie in the
Blasts from the Past: A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham (1990) Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. Hard to imagine a time when Kate Atkinson wasn’t a literary household name, albeit one seemingly doomed not
Blasts from the Past: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (1995) Read More »