Category: reviews

My July reading

I got waylaid this month by a friend going to see the Harry Potter play so I started re-reading them all. (There’s no re-reading option on Goodreads so my reading challenge figures are wrong…) I’ll talk Harry at the end. Otherwise… Rowan Coleman – We Are All Made of Stars I wrote last month about… Continue reading My July reading

In May I read…

This has been a good reading month, an interesting and absorbing reading month. Here’s my review: Shamim Sarif – Despite the Falling Snow I only realised when I got this home that it’s a film cover; I picked it up because it sounded intriguing. A spy-love story from Krushchev’s time, interspersed with some modern day reminiscences,… Continue reading In May I read…

In March I read…

The return of the monthly reading round-up. And I must say, aside from the first book, this month’s reading all appears to be themed around childbirth, pregnancy, and the consequences of both. This month I read: Melissa – Jonathan Taylor I reviewed this earlier on the blog so I won’t repeat it here but if… Continue reading In March I read…

Review: Melissa by Jonathan Taylor

It’s not a spoiler to tell you that the Melissa of the title dies at the beginning of the book – everything that follows is a result of this tragic occurrence. As she does so, all her neighbours experience a musical hallucination – most find it beautiful if perplexing, only a few dislike it. The… Continue reading Review: Melissa by Jonathan Taylor

Review: Between Here and Knitwear by Chrissie Gittins

Anyone who knows me will realise that a book with the word ‘knitwear’ in the title was bound to pique my interest. But Chrissie Gittins’s book has so much more to recommend it than just its name. The book is a memoir of Chrissie growing up, and then as an adult who has to deal… Continue reading Review: Between Here and Knitwear by Chrissie Gittins

Review: Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud

How I long for the days when I could spend a long afternoon curled up on the sofa in a book. These days, 20 minutes of snatched bus journey or late at night with a book torch are  more likely reading situations. The quality of reading is necessarily affected by having to check where you… Continue reading Review: Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud

Review: Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

I was walking to work through a university campus the other morning, wearing a tatty pair of sandals I can’t be bothered/ can’t afford to replace and listening to my ipod on shuffle. On came Britpop favourite Nice Guy Eddie by Sleeper and I sang to myself as I made my way down the road.… Continue reading Review: Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

Review: All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Here’s a warning: if you are close to your sister, you may find parts of this book upsetting. Well, I did anyway. (I always cry at books in embarrassing places – usually public transport. It was the case here.) Anyway… Yolandi, our narrator, and her sister Elfrieda, grow up in a Canadian Mennonite community where… Continue reading Review: All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Review: Whatever Happened to Billy Parks? Gareth Roberts

It’s perhaps fitting that I sit to read this as England’s current crop of lacklustre footballing heroes disappoint the nation again. For the pivotal moment of ‘Billy Parks’ is a what if. What if England had scored against Poland to qualify for the World Cup in 1973? What if they’d brought Billy Parks on? Football… Continue reading Review: Whatever Happened to Billy Parks? Gareth Roberts