Tag / Book Review

 

Disappointed with Indiscretion

Book review of “Indiscretion” by Charles Dubow

  This book began well. I was instantly taken with the style: it had an immediacy and an intimacy that made me feel I was part of the action. After only a few pages, though, I began to find the characters irked me. They were all a bit too good to be true: the beautiful Claire with her perfect face and figure and “silver bells” laugh; the equally stunning Maddy with her rippling red-gold hair, looking like a Boticelli Madonna, an Olympic standard swimmer who, without ANY training,...

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Tyler’s Latest

Book Review “The Beginner’s Goodbye” by Anne Tyler

  If there’s one thing Anne Tyler does exceptionally well it’s to write with a “voice”. “The strangest thing about my wife’s return from the dead,” the book begins, “was how other people reacted.” Instantly we feel we know this person. The style is conversational, intimate. It’s as if he’s right here in the room chatting to us. “We were strolling through Belvedere Square,” he continues, “When we met our old next-door neighbour.” It’s...

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A Taste of Bates

Review of  "Love for Lydia" by H.E.Bates

I remember watching the TV series “Love for Lydia” in the late 1970’s. Though I remembered little about the plot and even less about the actors or the acting, I do know I was absolutely bowled over by it. I always meant to read the book but never got around to it. Then, a few years ago, I heard the odd part read on Radio 4. Again, I thought I must read it. Again I forgot about it. I’m not sure what brought it back into my mind. I believe the book may now be out of print. The 2007 edition I found on Play.com is an excellent...

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Tyler at her best 

Review of “The Ladder of Years” by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler is one of my favourite authors. She has a way of getting under her protagonists’ skins like no one else I know. We scarcely need a physical description, we know these people inside and out, know what makes them tick, practically know when they clean their teeth and what they like for breakfast.

From the start I could tell “The Ladder of Years” wasn’t written...

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Loving "The Proof of Love"

Book Review "The Proof of Love" by Catherine Hall

  I bought this book in Grasmere, in the Gift Shop attached to the Wordsworth museum. I had never heard of the author, but I was attracted by the blurb on the back and the first few lines drew me in. This book is an exploration of love. Told mainly from the perspective of Spencer Little, a young man we know very little about, it examines the difference between infatuation and desire and true lasting love, the kind that inspires loyalty and trust. As the book progresses we learn...

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Unfavourable Five Days

Review of “Five Days” by Douglas Kennedy

This is the third Douglas Kennedy book that I have read. I particularly enjoyed “The Woman in the Fifth”, it was refreshing and different. “The Pursuit of Happiness” was not quite such a good read. Indeed, I remember so little about it that I must have been very unimpressed. Nonetheless, I do know I enjoy Douglas Kennedy’s writing style and the blurb on the back of the book made “Five Days” sound intriguing. I liked the conversational style and the introduction to the main character...

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Rowling Unleashed- A review of The Casual Vacancy by J.K.Rowling

J.K.Rowling’s first foray into adult literature is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Freed from the shackles that have bound her to children’s literature, it is almost as if she is going out of her way to be shocking. The worst of life is here in graphic detail: bullying, self-harming, domestic violence, heroin addiction and under-age rape. It is not an easy book to read, on many levels. It involves many different characters and different families and right from the start I had to keep checking back...

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“Morality for the Modern Man” Review of “The Book Lover’s Tale” by Ivo Stourton

  This is one of those books I didn’t want to stop reading, the sort you wish could go on for ever, the sort you go on thinking about long after you’ve finished it. The prologue has an odd sort of conversational tone, which I found slightly disconcerting but this was dropped in the first chapter, replaced by a pacey, narrative style. The story moves fluidly and easily, allowing the reader to look back on the past whilst moving forward with the action at the same time. The...

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Reading Resolution- Book Review of "Resolution" by John Cole

John was a personal friend of mine, and although he published his book a year ago, I have to admit, rather guiltily that I have only just found time to read it. I feel especially guilty, in fact, because John offered to allow me to read his "unpublished manuscript" about a year before he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and subsequently died. What an opportunity missed.

The book starts shakily. As a writer myself I know how hard it is to start a story. The first few chapters...

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