Nobody reads anymore. A wild exaggeration perhaps, but it is true that the amount we read, collectively, is on a slow and steady decline. Not that this will shock anyone. In a world where Netflix marathons have all but become an Olympic sport it is no wonder that reading time is squandered. In fairness there is so much good stuff on the small screen these days it’s hardly surprising that we are all culpable of this armchair sport (which pairs so well with a nice glass of red). It is sad though. Studies have shown that reading a good book has…
Category: <span>READING</span>
~Beasts Of Extraordinary Circumstance Ruth Emmie Lang If a little bit of happy is what you’re in need of then you’ll enjoy reading this enchanting book. It’s warm and inviting and light and charming, without ever being silly. On the day Weylyn Grey was born, the doctor knew there was something special about him when it started to snow…in the middle of June. Years later when Weylyn’s parents die in a car crash during a snowstorm, he grabs the emergency money from underneath the mattress and runs away to the woods where he is taken in and raised by a pack…
~Fates and Furies Lauren Groff A story told in two halves. Lotto – 6’6″, privileged and blessed with a charm and charisma that draws people to him, marries Mathilde a mere few weeks after they meet. They move to New York where Lotto struggles to make it as an actor and Mathilde works in an art gallery to make ends meet. They are poor but happy, with a marriage that’s the envy of their friends. The years pass until one New Year’s Eve in a drunken stupor, Lotto writes a play about his family and goes on to become a successful playwright.…
I know summer is just a distant memory at this point with the holidays just around the corner, but I’m finally getting around to posting what I read over the summer. ~Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death M.C.Beaton I had heard rumblings that people who had read this Agatha Raisin series were not happy with the screen version (see my review of that here). Curious, I decided to read the first book, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, and make a judgement call for myself. As a self-confessed lover of the so called “cosy” English mystery, I thought this was…
~The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid At 79, Evelyn Hugo has spent her adult life as a Hollywood darling. Now that everyone important to her is dead, she has decided to put a tell-all memoir of her life out into the world… to be published posthumously. Evelyn knows her story will be a hot commodity: after years of her life playing out in the media she then chose to hide herself away in relative anonymity. It is something of a surprise then that she hires an unknown journalist to write the book. Evelyn grew up poor and trades her…
~Killers Of The Flower Moon David Gann A true crime story that makes your blood boil and stuns you into stony silence at the potential for human depravity. In the 1800’s the Osage Indians were run off their reservations several times by the US government, in the end being forced to hand over nearly a hundred million acres of their ancestral land. In the 1870’s they found land in Kansas that was so hilly and rocky they deemed it of no interest to the white man and decided to purchase it. Then, in an amazing twist of fate, it turned out that…
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley opens with the line “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” which is considered to be one of the best in literature. It is a quintessentially British story, evoking a bygone era with its country house setting and people who spend glorious summer days lounging, swimming and partaking of tea on the lawn. It is a classic coming- of- age story which embodies the confines of class structure and the rules and manners of Edwardian England while also encompassing themes of power, forbidden love, memory, lost innocence and the impact of the past on the future.…
By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews! This is where I must confront my apparent obsession with books featuring elegantly dressed women on the cover. See here and here. Somewhere I read a phrase that this book was a “substantive beach read” which I thought to be an excellent turn of phrase and one which describes this book perfectly. It’s an easy to read page turner grounded in good writing, excellent dialogue (really, that can make or break a book) and a decently complex…
~All The Ugly And Wonderful Things Bryn Greenwood A provocative story of the love that develops between Wavy and Kellen. When the two first meet Kellen is twenty-four and Wavy just eight but there is an instant connection between the two. Wavy, who speaks very little and refuses to be touched or eat in front of anyone, so deeply scarred is she by years of abuse, immediately attaches herself to Kellen like a leach, clinging on for dear life. And Kellen feels the need to protect and care for this fragile and delicate child who hides a fierce intelligence and resilience…
By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book based solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews! Ben Ziskind, former child prodigy, recently divorced and feeling very sorry for himself is at a cocktail party in a museum that his twin sister has all but dragged him to. When he spies a painting of an old man hovering above a city which he recognizes from the wall of his childhood home, he steals it. Just takes it off the wall and waltzes out the door with a million dollar Chagall.…