Reviews 

Published in the mid -1950s, this is very different. Re-published by a UK imprint called Persephone Books (to which P subscribes) it is...

Quite enjoyed this. Particularly the opening scenes set in rural Kansas, reminded me of Patrick White on the Australian outback. The plot...

Interesting to read this following no.1035. This is about a contemporary black American woman, married to a white man, who is dragged...

Very different and quite strange. A fictionalised documentary history of a singing duo, Nev a brummie who escapes to the US to pursue...

Never read any by this guy before, but from the bibliography, at the start, I should; he sounds a bit like Antony Burgess, mixing fiction...

Never read any before, but she is obviously a well established author. Despite a slow start, I thought this was very good. Set in the...

I found the first 200 or so pages quite dull, but loved the last 150. Middle class girl, becomes woman and mother with quite a boring...

This was good, but not that good - I think the publicity has over-egged it. I struggled with a couple of aspects; were the 3 central...

I think he is quite patchy and this is not one of his best (which are very good). A fictionalisation of the Kennedy assassination in (I...

Another recommendation from Paddy. This was very good, but maybe a bit thematic for a novel. Three main characters through whom the story...

Heard an extract on Radio 4. This is a shocking book about slavery in the deep south in the 19th century, but it is not a very good book....

Always try to read one big chunky classic novel on holiday and chose this, for some reason this year. A big and difficult novel, about...

I had never read this and really enjoyed it, although probably a holiday/beach read. Written with great power, anger and a lot of...

Ellory is possibly my 2nd favourite thriller writer, unlike Herron which has bits of the best of Dickens and Le Carre, Ellory is an...

I have tried (I don’t think successfully) to read this is the past, but it is brilliant. The themes are all Henry James, but the cultural...

As above. I didn’t do this justice, but didn’t enjoy it enough to want to re-read. Quindlen is obviously quite a well known and classy...

Haven’t read one of these for years. I used to love James Lee Burke, but that was in a different place and this now seems pretty...

Best book of the holiday. Strange, quite hard work, as I understood it's a book basically about a place in the Nevada desert and it's...

This is a lovely book, totally different and beautifully constructed. A lonely young Swedish woman arrives in the run down Iowa town of...

Bought in February 1977 from the 2nd hand book store in the town where we then lived, but never as far as I can tell, read until now. One...