Book news, reviews and recommendations
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 »
Romain Slocombe’s epistolatory novel, Monsieur le Commandant, is the most difficult novel I’ve read in some time. It’s published by Gallic Books whose wonderful feel good The President’s Hat has been top of my list of books to press upon other readers this year. Monsieur le Commandant also deserves a wide audience but for entirely
Monsieur le Commandant by Romain Slocombe (transl. Jesse Browner): A wartime confession Read More »
I’ve been looking forward to J. Robert Lennon’s new novel having been a fan for some time. This one has a particularly daring premise and a very startling opening. As scientist Elisa Macalaster Brown makes her way home from her annual visit to her son’s grave in their old home town she experiences something strange
Familiar by J. Robert Lennon: Same, same but different 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 »
With an ironic nod to Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, food writer Anya von Bremzen and her mother set about recreating a series of meals emblematic of ten decades of Russian and Soviet cooking rather like Julia Powell’s tribute to her (almost) namesake in Julie and Julia. Von Bremzen and her mother