Book news, reviews and recommendations
Channel 4 News has been running a story about Amazon’s working practices based on an investigation at their Rugeley warehouse. It’s shocking stuff. An old mining town, Rugeley has long had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country so the announcement that Amazon were to locate a huge distribution centre there was met […]
Three Strikes and You’re Out Read More »
J. Courtney Sullivan writes the kind of long involving books into which you can comfortably sink, surfacing now and again for a cup of tea or whatever you fancy. I thoroughly enjoyed her previous novel, Maine; intelligently written and completely absorbing. The Engagements is structured around the idea of the engagement ring, a ‘tradition’ apparently
The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan: A brightly polished gem Read More »
This is not a post about lascivious, sensual reading matter: instead it’s the title of a list of books many readers have given up put together by Goodreads. Given my recent disappointments mentioned in Friday’s post I headed off to have a look and found many all too familiar titles – Moby Dick, Gravity’s Rainbow
The Most Abandoned Books Read More »
I’ve given up a lot of books recently. It used to feel like a moral failing leaving a book unfinished but I’ve finally realised that it’s a complete waste of time hoping that something which hasn’t gripped you by page 50 will eventually blossom. I’ve already confessed to giving up Flight Behaviour in Monday’s post
What in God’s Name by Simon Rich: Short, sweet and very funny Read More »
Back from my Sussex hols the highlights of which were undoubtedly two gorgeous gardens – Great Dixter and Charleston Farmhouse – both the kind that look as if they’ve been causally thrown together although anyone who knows anything about gardening, and I know very little, understands that this kind of planting is the product of
Holiday reading ups and downs Read More »
A gloomy weather weekend, a suddenly free Sunday and no Scandi-crime distractions on TV resulted in more reading this weekend than I’d expected. We did manage to meet a friend for lunch at the Pythouse but the lovely gardens were a bit too soggy for any prolonged wandering. A slice of their Ginger Beer and
A World Elsewhere by Wayne Johnston: An unexpected treat Read More »
Yesterday the ICA hosted a conference for the Independent Alliance of publishers, a get together to devise a creative strategy for the tricky future which faces the book trade. I’m sure that they will have come up with some imaginative ideas. Rather like Foyles who reached out to all manner of people including other booksellers,
Hurrah for independent publishers! Read More »
Catching the train home after Philip French’s fascinating Fifty Years as a Film Critic talk on Saturday we had ten minutes to spare at the station. I walked into W H Smiths and H gave a barely audible sigh. Now that I’m no longer a reviews editor I think he’d got it into his head
What’s in a genre? A reprise Read More »
I’ve been circling warily around Andrew Miller’s Costa Prize winning Pure for some time now. Miller’s first novel, Ingenious Pain, is one of my favourite books. Set in the 18th century, its main protagonist, James Dyer, is conceived on an icy night as a result of an adulterous coupling with a stranger. James cannot feel
The second novel conundrum Read More »