Read 26/10/2016-27/10/2016
Rating: 3 stars
For such a short novel, Austen packed a lot into Lady Susan. I saw this year’s film adaptation of it, Love & Friendship, so knew what the crux of the story was. Although I really liked the film, and thought Kate Beckinsale was great in the role of Lady Susan, I found the book different to the adaptation in a number of ways, and preferred the book. Continue reading
Read 31/08/2016-02/09/2016
Rating: 3 stars
Read for The Reader’s Room Olympic Challenge
I like short stories. In the right hands, they are mini masterpieces, giving you just enough to feel satisfied but not outstaying their welcome. Some short stories give the impression that they want to be something more, but the author has run out of steam. My favourite short story writers are Margaret Atwood, who has the best grasp of the form, and Haruki Murakami, who offers up interrupted insights into his ongoing world, like snatches of conversation overheard on the bus.
Other Carnivals is a collection of a dozen short stories put together to coincide with a South American literary festival in 2013. Some of the stories are better than others, but as an introduction to Brazilian writers, it works well. I’ll certainly be looking for more by Tatiana Salem Levy, Adriana Lisboa and Bernardo Carvalho. Continue reading
Read 25/07/2016-28/07/2016
Rating: 4 stars
I’ve been waiting to read this book since it was shortlisted for the Bailey’s prize. The review on The Reader’s Room gave me pause, but when it came back into my local library a couple of weeks ago, I brought it home. I was reassured by the review on Words and Leaves. It didn’t disappoint. Continue reading
Read 11/06/2016-12/06/2016
Rating: 4 stars
Alan Moore and Ian Gibson’s sci-fi comic about a future everywoman trying to find her place in the world first appeared in 2000AD in the mid-80s. I was a teenager at the time and more interested in Tolkien, literary fiction and listening to pop music, so I’d given up sneakily reading my older brother’s copies of 2000AD. What an error of judgement, because I missed out on Halo Jones first time around. Continue reading
Read 09/06/2016-11/06/2016
Rating: 4 stars
Read for The Reader’s Room March Madness Challenge (substitution for I Capture The Castle)
This was a hoot. Dodie Smith was one of my mum’s favourite authors. She read all the volumes in her autobiography, urging me to do so too, although that hadn’t happened yet. She borrowed I Capture The Castle from the library and passed it on to me when she’d done. I loved it. I don’t remember her mentioning The New Moon with the Old, though. I hope she read it. She would have loved it.
On the surface, it’s an old fashioned romance, but it has a knowing wit to it, too. Nothing truly bad happens, just a bit of financial misconduct that forces a family of ill prepared people to engage with reality. Except it’s a magical kind of reality, populated by actors who marry into property, a vastly wealthy and eccentric woman, and an ex-king. It’s escapism of the purest kind, but certainly not trashy. Continue reading
Read 24/04/2016-26/04/2016
Rating: 3 stars
Read for the Reader’s Room March Madness challenge.
I haven’t read The Merchant of Venice. I suppose this might have put me at a disadvantage in reading Howard Jacobson’s retelling of the play.
I’ve also not read any Howard Jacobson before. When I opened the book, I didn’t know what his style would be. I ended up enjoying it, despite initial misgivings. It’s a cheeky chappy style, but with depth. He put me in mind of Michael Frayn. I enjoyed the way he peeled away the layers of the issues with which he concerned himself in the book. Continue reading
Read 16/04/2016-19/04/2016
Rating: 3 stars
Read for the Shelfari 1001 group Group on Goodreads – an April BOTM
This was my first encounter with Nancy Mitford. I’ve meant to read this novel for years. Continue reading
Read 25/03/2016-26/03/2016
Rating: 4 stars
Read 27/07/2015-29/07/2015
Rating: 4 stars
I had a blip with Stewart Lee a few years ago. I loved Fist of Fun and TWRNJ in my 20s, but when I saw two minutes of the first series of Comedy Vehicle in 2009, I hated it so much that I decided I hated Stewart Lee. I don’t know why I hated it. Stuff going on, the start of worrying that things weren’t right with mum, being distracted from my usual appreciation of cynicism as an art form. Perhaps too much hummus and Guardian reading.
Happily, I agreed to watch the first episode of the second series of Comedy Vehicle and remembered that I didn’t hate Stewart Lee. I’ve seen him live twice since then and he gave me face ache from laughing too much.
I picked this book out from my husband’s bookcase because I wanted to find out what had happened in the years between TWRNJ and Comedy Vehicle. Continue reading
Read 23/07/2015-26/07/2015
Rating: 3 stars
I’d like to advise that you don’t read this book* if you have an amount of isotonic sports drink (or any other liquid, for example tea) in your mouth (a small amount or a large amount, it doesn’t matter).
What I Think About When I Think About Reading 