Reviews of Books
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Jul 25th, 2010
From extreme to other; Janet Evanovich and then Charles Dickens! I read this because it was the book for my Victorian Literary Society meeting. I had recently watched the latest BBC adaptation (with Clarie Foy) and so was quite keen to read the novel. It is very long – my copy went to 900 pages. [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Jun 29th, 2010
I picked up a copy of this novel from a second-hand book store while on holiday. Here’s the blurb Rickie Elliot, a sensitive and intelligent young man with an intense imagination and a certain amount of literary talent, sets out from Cambridge full of hopes to become a writer. But when his stories are not [...]
Posted in Serious on May 9th, 2010
Solaris Ian McEwan’s latest novel. It is the story of Michael Beard a physicist who in his youth discovered the Beard-Einstein conflation for which he was awarded the Nobel prize. Since receiving the prize he has done little physics choosing instead to use his fame to receive grants and positions. One of which is at [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Apr 22nd, 2010
I read about this novel on Cornflower Books – I can’t find the reference now it might even be in a comment somewhere – anyway I thought if I see it around I’ll grab a copy and then, on the very day, I find it in a second hand book store. I had no idea [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Apr 20th, 2010
I read a review of this novel in The Australian and simply had to have it. Here is the description from Harper Collins … What has happened to Ingrid? Beautiful Ingrid inherits a fortune and leaves Australia, and her friends, and Ralph who loves her, to marry Gil Grey and set up home amid the [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Feb 9th, 2010
I picked this book us from the library (in large print! – I quite like large print I wonder if that means I need reading glasses?). I liked Anne Tyler. I like how her novels focus on more domestic themes – everyday life with all of its complexities. Here is the book description … In [...]
Posted in Serious on Feb 2nd, 2010
Atwood is one of my favourite authors. I was amazed I found one of her novels that I hadn’t read. This is one of her earlier works – her second novel first published in 1972. Plot summary from Wikipedia … The book tells the story of a woman who returns to her hometown in Canada [...]
Posted in Serious on Feb 1st, 2010
I got this book from the library – I’m not sure why I chose it. I think I felt that she was a novelist that one should read. A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an order of sequestered nuns. A new bell is being installed when suddenly [...]
Posted in Serious on Jan 25th, 2010
I received this novel as a Christmas gift. I’m a keen Kingsolver fan so I did suggest it as a present idea. From the publisher … In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Dec 31st, 2009
While reading this novel I got the feeling that I’ve read it before, but I couldn’t remember what happened so I kept going. This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God’s elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she [...]