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Category Reviews

Book Review: Ties, by Domenico Starnone (translated by Jhumpa Lahiri

Ties is a story of a marriage. Like many marriages, this one has been subject to strain, to attrition, to the burden of routine. Yet it has survived intact. Or so things appear…. Ties is a clever, classy book. There… Continue Reading →

Book Review: Release The Bats, by DBC Pierre

“Part biography, part reflection and part practical guide, Release the Bats explores the mysteries of why and how we tell stories, and the craft of writing fiction. DBC Pierre reveals everything he learned the hard way.” I haven’t read Vernon… Continue Reading →

Book Review: The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Set in Victorian London and an Essex village in the 1890’s, and enlivened by the debates on scientific and medical discovery which defined the era, The Essex Serpent has at its heart the story of two extraordinary people who fall… Continue Reading →

Book Review: Giving Up the Ghost, by Hilary Mantel

Giving Up the Ghost is Hilary Mantel’s relatively short memoir, published in 2003 before she became a prize-winning writer. Her decision to write her memoir, she writes, was to escape the ghosts of the past. In writing you hope for… Continue Reading →

Review: 2016 Reading Challenge

Did I complete the 2016 Reading Challenge? Strictly speaking, no. I failed in the one category of reading a book previously abandoned. I did think about this a lot, but I don’t really think that it counts. In my defence,… Continue Reading →

Book Review: The Many by Wyl Menmuir

Timothy Buchannan buys an abandoned house on the edge of an isolated village on the coast, sight unseen. When he sees the state of it he questions the wisdom of his move, but starts to renovate the house for his… Continue Reading →

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