Book news, reviews and recommendations
Before writing this, I thought I’d check the definition of gothic literature of which, naturally, the internet being what it is, there are many to pick from. There seems to be general agreement that a gothic novel includes terror, the macabre or the bizarre which fits the five novels below, all written in recent years, […]
Five Modern Gothic Novels I’ve Read Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – Beach Read to A History of the World in 10½ Chapters Read More »
Finding links between novels in the first part of February’s paperback preview was hard enough but it’s even worse with the second, I’m afraid. Best start off with what I’ve already read. Daniel Khelmann’s Tyll was one of my books of last year, an uncharacteristic choice for me but I’m a huge fan of Kehlmann’s
Paperbacks to Look Out for in February 2021: Part Two Read More »
Strange to remember writing my books of the year posts for 2019 last December, blissfully unaware of the surreal year that lay ahead for us all. I’ve been one of those fortunate people whose concentration didn’t take too much of a pandemic hit instead burying myself in reading and blogging, finding solace in books and
Books of the Year 2020: Part One Read More »
Walking is the thing that’s helped keep me sane – so far – throughout the pandemic. That and blogging with its virtual community, still there when I can’t see my other friends. I’ve resisted using the term ‘lockdown’ because, for me, that would have meant the end of the permitted daily exercise outside the house
I’ve read all of Daniel Kehlmann’s translated novels, each very different from the others but all witty and smart. His last book, You Should Have Left, was a short, gothic number, both chilling and riveting. In comparison Tyll is a lengthy, historical novel set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years War which raged across
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (transl. Ross Benjamin): Telling truth to power Read More »
This second batch of February’s new titles begins with one I’m eagerly anticipating although a novel set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years’ War wouldn’t usually appeal. Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll is based on the German legend of the eponymous trickster, born in an ordinary village but destined to expose the folly of kings and
Books to Look Out For in February 2020: Part Two Read More »
Readers of a certain age may remember Midge Ure moodily singing ‘Vienna’ on Top of the Pops way back when. So embedded in our consciousness did it become for H and me that whenever one says ‘it means nothing to me’ the other pipes up ‘Oh, Vienna’. We both managed to keep it under control
Four Days in Vienna and One Book Read More »
I’ve reviewed all but two of the June paperbacks that have caught my eye so forgive me if I cram the lot into a single post and let the reviews speak for themselves. I’ll start with one that I haven’t got around to reading although I’ve had a copy for some time: Sarah Waters’ Baileys
Paperbacks to Look Out For in June 2015 Read More »
The last of my ‘books of the year’ posts begins with one of my two September favourites, Steven Galloway’s The Confabulist which tells the story of the man who killed Houdini not once, but twice. Far from a straightforward reimagining of the Houdini story Galloway’s novel is a very clever bit of business which didn’t
Books of the Year 2014: Part 3 Read More »
I don’t read as much fiction in translation as I should but when I see a novel translated by Carol Brown Janeway in the publishing schedules I sit up and take notice. It was through her that I first discovered Daniel Khelmann’s fiction, beginning with the very fine Measuring the World about two eighteenth-century German
F by Daniel Kehlmann (transl. Carol Brown Janeway): A match made in heaven Read More »