Read: The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner ★★★★★ 📚
Super book, full of small incidents, ageing, illness, deaths & disappointment in a 14th century nunnery. The Black Death, a phoney priest, riot, rape & murder. A really sense of time passing, & quite a few laughs.
Category Archives: Book
Read: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch ★★★☆☆ 📚
Pretty good 🦠 recovery material. Light on character, mad plot, very fast moving.
Read: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler ★★★★★ 📚
A re-read, from 9 years ago. I love the narrator’s voice, funny & smart. A tricksy telling that worked even though I knew the twist.
Read: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead ★★★★★📚
Lighter than The Nickel Boys.I was expecting something akin to Chester Himes but this was gentler, more thoughtful & a more absorbing read. Politics handled lightly. I hope Ray, keeps out of trouble, if not I want to read about it.
Read Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal ★★★★☆ 📚
An introduction, for me, to a strange artistic world painting trompe-l’œil. Lovely long sentences. The heroine has a ‘lazy’ eye looking two ways at once. The eye recalls Dory Previn – The Holy Man on Malibu Bus Number 3
Read: Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd ★★★★☆ 📚 This 1946 novel is a lot of fun. Miss Ranskill Returns from a desert island to war time Britain. Confusion and poking fun ensue.
Read: Birdsong in the time of silence by Steven Lovett ★★★★★ 📚a metaphor filled recount of bird listening in lockdown along with many diversions into memory & natural history. Like many I spent a bit of time with birds during the first lockdown. This is a deeper dive.
Read: The President’s Last Love by Andrey Kurkov ★★★☆☆ 📚 life story of Ukrainian President Bunin. Simultaneously recounting three different time periods. Slightly surreal, satirical with hints of Bulgakov with out going the full “Heart of a Dog”. Gentleness too.
Read: Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★ 📚
“Never let me go” comes to my mind regularly, wonderful book & film. This is a gentler take on the same territory. Crystal clear storytelling.
Read: The Sea Is Not Made of Water by Adam Nicolson ★★★★☆ 📚
Somewhat about the life in 3 tidal pools the author made. Shoreline nature, history of Argyll, sea & planet. I particularly enjoyed the ecology of the shore, the relationship between limpets, winkles crabs & seaweed.