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Close Encounters of the Furred Kind by Tom Cox You can’t read this book, the fourth in the quartet of Tom Cox ‘catoirs’, without feeling a poignant weight of sadness that it is nearing the end for The Bear aka @mySADcat who…
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J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan: The Story of the Play by Eleanor Graham, Edward Ardizzone It has been a bit of a woeful embarrassment that I’ve never actually read Peter Pan, even more so because I’ve been in possession of this gorgeous volume for…
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La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust, #1) by Philip Pullman ** Caution: this post may contain spoilers ** This is the long-awaited and much anticipated companion to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, and after the 17 year wait, I have been apprehensive…
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The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman This is the book that concludes Philip Pullman’s epic trilogy, and it is the most complex of the three. In Northern Lights we are introduced to the recognisable but different Oxford of Lyra Belaqua’s world with a self-contained,…
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Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman I’m going to get pilloried by the Gaimanites out there, but this book falls a little flat for me. Neil Gaiman has an authoritative voice and clearly knows the stories in and out, but this I fear…
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Friend Request by Laura Marshall The book that is, from the title on, all about Facebook this is a psychological thriller for the FriendsReunited generation. It concerns our protagonist, Louise (I am loath to say heroine as Laura Marshall deliberately paints her…
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The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman This is the second book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materialstrilogy and has such it does exist in that slightly awkward middle-book-between-the-beginning-and-the-end way. It starts though, in scenes that is as vivid a beginning as it’s predecessor, Northern…
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The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce Everyone knows the power of music to transform lives don’t they? It’s why music is so important. It’s why it’s so sad that when governments through the ages look for things to cut they cut the…
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The Explorer by Katherine Rundell After Rooftoppers any book by Katherine Rundell was going to face a tall order. Where here last book, The Wolf Wilder, delved into the dark and mysterious world of the Russian forest and a history…
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Northern Lights by Philip Pullman With the publication of book one of the long-awaited The Book of Dust in October, and 22 years after I first read, and was blown away by, this book, I decided it was time for…
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Last night I began to reread Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. Even though this is one of my favourite books I think I’ve only read it the once, and I can remember that time like yesterday. I can remember discovering the…
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Imaginary Friends by Philip Pullman This is a short volume, published both in celebration of Independent booksellers, and also as a teaser of the Dæmon Voices that is to follow later this year. A collection of essays about writing, this…
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The Forever Ship by Francesca Haig What is there more to say about to this book other than it is the explosive finale to the Fire Sermon trilogy of books. For a world where everyone is born with a fatal…
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The Gifts of Reading by Robert Macfarlane The woodcut cover of this short essay on gifting the pleasure through books hints too at the other theme of the book, that of journeys trodden on foot – a subject that Robert…
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling It is scarcely credible to think that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is 20 years old this year. It is just as incredible to realise that in all that time…
Continue readingToday I have discovered my new favourite bookshop and it’s going to take some beating! For somewhere so local, it is criminal that I have never been to Banbury’s Books and Ink before – they’ve been there for 12 years…
Continue readingOur Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas This is at its heart the book about a writer, Meg, who is (unsuccessfully) writing her novel. She’s a successful ghostwriter for an author who doesn’t exist, and occasional journalist, but she is her…
Continue readingCoot Club by Arthur Ransome If Swallows and Amazons is the childhood classic to remember, Coot Club is its equal. We first encounter Dick and Dot in the book that comes before it when they are with the Swallows and…
Continue readingBest Murder in Show (Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries Book 1) by Debbie Young Debbie Young’s debut novel (she is the author already of various anthologies of short stories and non-fiction) is billed as a cosy-mystery – I would suggest the…
Continue readingThe Fossil Hunters by Betty Salthouse Who didn’t have a fascination for a fossils and dinosaurs as a child? This is a delightfully traditional tale of childhood adventure. Andy and Darren are two boys who dream of making a big…
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