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So, the book that most people have lied about reading is not War & Peace (it is at #4 in the Top 20) but Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As I have actually read he most-lied about book – if actually…
Continue readingSo this year is the year that I shall finally read War & Peace. Spurred on by the current BBC TV adaptation that is currently showing, its going well. Not that I haven’t read part of it before. After several…
Continue readingAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll Hard as it might be to believe, but I don’t think I have ever read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland before. It is one of those books and those…
Continue readingThis was my second full year of getting the bus to work and reading lots, and lots – another 45 books in all. That said, I also did a 100-day walking challenge with work during the summer which shortened my…
Continue readingOld Pakefield and Kirkley by Elizabeth Freeman and Jason Freeman I may have been born in the peaks of Derbyshire, but I spent my whole childhood growing up in the east coast town of Lowestoft, and in particular the former…
Continue readingSlade House by David Mitchell Narrow, tall-sided alleys are made for stories, and it is in just such a narrow, tall-sided alley that this dark fantasy/magical realism story starts. Don’t be put off by the ‘horror’ label that seems to…
Continue readingA Winter Book by Tove Jansson This book is impossible not to like. The only reason why I gave it four stars and not five is because, being a collection of short stories, whilst there are many that are outstanding,…
Continue readingThe Summer Book by Tove Jansson This was one of those unexpected finds. I had seen Tove Jansson’s A Winter Book advertised in a bookstore window, and enticed by the promise of the cover and a collection of short stories…
Continue readingThe Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell This is a beautiful book by just about any measure that you look at it. In a generation of ebooks and audiobooks there are some stories that deserve to be read in their printed…
Continue readingThe Girl Savage by Katherine Rundell I loved Katherine Rundell’s Rooftoppers with its simple genius and originality. I remember looking at her debut book, Girl Savage and not being sure about it. Indeed I only bought it when I did…
Continue readingThe Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer “It didn’t really come from nowhere. Nothing comes from nowhere.” I didn’t so much as pick this book because of the cover, but because of the cover designer, who I know. The…
Continue readingThe Asylum by John Harwood John Harwood novels are things of beauty that come only every few years and so are things to saviour. I first encountered his gripping, unputdownable, style with his second novel The Seance and quickly devoured…
Continue readingCatching Fire by Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games books are definitley compulsive, if deeply, deeply disturbing reading. I must be virtually alone in only having seen the first movie, and so I have been able to read this as book…
Continue readingMay Queen Killers by Lorna Dounaeva With May Day celebrations and small village life, you might think that this was going to be a Midsummer Murders-esque cozy mystery, but a cozy mystery this is not. The village in question is…
Continue readingIf, nine years ago, you had told me that my second published book would be about a man who marries his imaginary friend then I think I would have laughed. If you had gone on to say that the idea…
Continue readingA Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon I almost only gave this book four stars down to the physical and audible queaziness that I felt whilst reading four pages exactly halfway through this book (I say reading, but it was…
Continue readingThe Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge This is a book about secrets and lies, and the truths they both can conceal. Set in Victorian England, on a remote island, this is a dark mystery that concerns science, academic research, and…
Continue readingThe Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan This is a book of big, powerful themes told through lilting, poetic language, but at its heart its a family struggle of thwarted ambition and family heritage. The story is set in a world that,…
Continue readingJonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke I like this book, but it is not a page turner. It reads like a Dickensian, Victorian drama, but Dickens it is not. I feel bad for not loving this book from…
Continue readingOnce Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner This is a must read for anyone and everyone who loves Fairy Tale. Published as one of Oxford University Press’ brilliant and incredible Short Introduction series of…
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