Reviews

Aug 19, 20231 min read

1087. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey

Haven’t read this since I was at school, but P now has the collected works. Austen does write perfect prose, which is a joy to read. I...

Mar 22, 20221 min read

958. Colm Toibin - Brooklyn

I found this very slight. An Irish girl, struggling to find work in her hometown, goes to New York at the instigation of her local...

Feb 18, 20221 min read

948. Henry James - Washington Square

A serious and classic novel in response to the above thoughts; I am not sure if I have read this before, although we bought it in 1978!...

Aug 21, 20211 min read

886. Charlotte Philby - The Second Woman

I didn’t think much of this; following the plot(s) with all the time shifts was pretty hard work. The third part of a trilogy (might have...

Aug 11, 20211 min read

883. Nick Hornby - Just Like You

Quite enjoyed this. A romance between a 40 year old white woman, divorced with two kids, and a 20+ old black man, who works in the local...

Nov 16, 20201 min read

827. Roddy Doyle - Love

Never read any Roddy Doyle before, but listened to bits of this on Radio 4 and enjoyed it. Good, but quite hard work. Shades of both...

Oct 9, 20201 min read

819. Charles Dickens - Our Mutual Friend

Not being a big Dickens fan, I thought I would try one yet again and took this on holiday. Deliberately chose a book I knew nothing...

Jul 24, 20201 min read

801. Jojo Moyes - The Girl You Left Behind

A real curate’s egg, if that is the right expression. Half (or less page wise) is set in France in 1916 and reminded me a lot of...

May 5, 20201 min read

773. Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This is a lovely book. Saw the film on the TV last week and discovered that our next door neighbour had given the book (twice) to Paddy...

Apr 1, 20201 min read

761. Elizabeth Gaskell - Mary Barton

We bought this in Lymington in September 1978 and if I have read it before, it won’t have been since shortly after then. Gaskell is a...

Dec 1, 20191 min read

732. Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre

Never read this before and I thought it was really good. She writes clean, strong, prose and there were lots of bits of plot that are...

Oct 21, 20191 min read

724. Tracey Chevalier - At The Edge Of The Orchard

I didn’t enjoy this as much as the previous ones. The theme/motif here was trees, apples early in the book and sequoias, towards the end,...

Oct 17, 20191 min read

723. Tracey Chevalier - Girl With A Pearl Earring

This is a wonderful book by a wonderful writer. A real discovery for me. The theme is very obvious from the Vermeer reproduction on the...

Oct 8, 20191 min read

720. Tracey Chevalier - The Lady And The Unicorn

Remarkably, there was another book of hers in the house, which obviously belonged to my Dad. This was totally different, although the...

Oct 5, 20191 min read

719. Tracey Chevalier - A Single Thread

One of Paddy’s and this was brilliant. Set in the early 1930’s and about a 38 year old spinster whose intended had been killed the 1st...

Sep 30, 20191 min read

717. Jessie Burton - The Muse

This is by the author of ‘The Miniturist’ which I have seen on television if not read. Not in the George Eliot class (well what would...

Sep 5, 20191 min read

710. David Nichols - Sweet Sorrow

Quite good. I had heard bits on the Radio 4 book of the week slot a month or so ago. A young, class-crossed love story set against the...

Sep 3, 20191 min read

709. Julian Barnes - The Only Story

An odd book, by a writer I am not sure I really like. About a love affair between a 19 year old chap and a 48 year old woman, set...

May 26, 20191 min read

686. John Fowles - The French Lieutenants Woman

Bought 1977, so probably haven’t read for 40+ years! Brilliant, hasn’t aged at all and I had minimal memory of either the book or (I am...

May 11, 20191 min read

681. Ian McEwan - Sweet Tooth

The only one we had in the house; I had read before but had no memory of it, perhaps a bad omen. I felt quite cheated by this; an...