Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’d love to board a train at my local station and travel all the way to the Dolomites by rail but that would entail a good deal of time, organisation and probably money so we did the next best thing and flew from our local airport to Munich where we spent our first evening having […]
Walking in the Dolomites, the pleasures of the pudding buffet and a few books Read More »
Time was when September and October were the big publishing months – part of the pre-Christmas fanfare – but I’ve noticed over the past four or five years that several big names have spilled over into other months. There are two in my pick of the August bunch that fall into that category kicking off
Books to Look Out For in August 2014 Read More »
It’s that time of the month when I begin to look forward to what’s on offer a little further down the line. Not so greedy this month – May really was a feast for gluttons – but there are some very tempting looking titles in the early summer publishing schedules here in the UK. Harriet
Books to Look Out for in June 2014 Read More »
As promised last Monday, here’s the second post trailing the bumper bundle of novels published in May that have found their way onto my wish list. Tom Rachman’s The Rise and Fall of Great Powers was always going to be there because it’s about a bookseller – not just any old bookseller but one with
Books to Look Out for in May 2014: Part Two Read More »
I wrote four posts like this before Christmas, trailing novels to be published in the first quarter of the year that I was particularly looking forward to. Time’s been marching on – and I enjoyed doing them enormously – so I thought I’d write one about books to be published in May that take my
Books to Look Out for in May 2014: Part One Read More »
Recently James Daunt announced that Waterstones had finally turned the corner of the long and winding road leading back to a healthy business. Operating losses have been halved – no mean feat in the economic climate that has stymied business since 2008. I know there are many out there who see Waterstones’ ubiquitous High Street
Why we need a healthy Waterstones Read More »
Today is Blue Monday, the day when we’re all at our lowest here in the UK, apparently: the weather is grim, there are several months to get through before spring, the post-Christmas credit card bills are in, and the New Year’s resolutions are probably broken. Traditionally in the book trade it’s the time of year
Reading is Good for you 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 »
More loafing than walking was done this holiday thanks to temperatures in the high twenties. We were staying just outside Ferreirola, one of the Taha villages of the Alpujarras, at a smallholding run by the warm and very welcoming Surya. Part of the deal was a gorgeous garden complete with a hammock from which H
Seven days in Spain and Two Books Read More »
Cynthia Ozick’s The Puttermesser Papers was one of those books that made me think I’d hit gold – an interesting author with a nice long backlist – so I was delighted to see that Atlantic were reissuing The Messiah of Stockholm, dubbed her masterpiece, particularly as it’s about literature. Lars is the Monday book reviewer
The Messiah of Stockholm by Cynthia Ozick: A shortish post about a short book Read More »
After a disappointing start, it seems I’m back on a reading roll this month – What in God’s Name, Lamb, The Small Hours, The Last Banquet and now, Ethan Hauser’s The Measures Between Us, have all hit the spot. Set against the backdrop of a storm-hit small town just outside Boston, it opens with a
The Measures Between Us by Ethan Hauser: An impressive, eloquently melancholy novel Read More »