Archive for September, 2010
Review: ‘Murder with Peacocks’ by Donna Andrews
Title: Murder with Peacocks Author: Donna Andrews Published: St Martin’s Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 311 Genre: Contemporary mystery Blurb:So far Meg Langslow’s summer is not going swimmingly. Down in her small Virginia hometown, she’s maid of honor at the nuptials of three loved ones — each of whom has dumped the planning in hercapable hands. One [...]
Review: ‘Sophia Scrooby Preserved’ by Martha Bacon
Title: Sophia Scrooby Preserved Author: Martha Bacon Published: Puffin Books, 1971, pp. 220 Genre: Children’s historical fiction Blurb: ‘My little panther’, Nono’s father called her, but he didn’t get the chance to say it for long. Her African village was destroyed and she first lived in the bush then was sold as a slave, given [...]
Review: ‘The Little Stranger’ by Sarah Waters
Title: The Little Stranger Author: Sarah Waters Published:Virago, 2010, pp. 501 Genre: Historical gothic fiction Blurb: In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, [...]
Review: ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ by Arthur Golden
Title: Memoirs of a Geisha Author: Arthur Golden Published: Vintage, 1998, pp. 434 Genre: Historical Fiction Blurb: This story is a rare and utterly engaging experience. It tells the extraordinary tale of a geisha – summoning up a quarter century, from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan’s dramatic history, and opening a window onto [...]
In my mailbox
“In my mailbox” is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren in which people share the books that they have acquired that week. This week was a little worse than last week in terms of book acquisition, and I’m feeling rather guilty. All the other books are looking down at me from the shelves [...]
A chilling challenge
Ever since first reading Jane Eyre and then writing my GCSE coursework on the gothic elements in the novel (I’m impressed that I can remember that) I’ve been a fan of gothic literature. Going on to read The Italian by the famous Mrs Radcliffe at university reminded me how much I enjoy these books. After [...]
Review: ‘A Lion Among Men’ by Gregory Maguire
Title: A Lion Among Men Author: Gregory Maguire Published: Headline Review, 2009, pp. 426 Genre: Fantasy Blurb: While civil war looms in Oz, an oracle named Yackles prepares for death. Before her final hour, the Cowardly Lion arrives searching for information about Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Yackles, who hovered on the sidelines [...]
Review: ‘The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear’ by Walter Moers
Title: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear – Being the biography of a seagoing bear, with numerous illustrations and excerpts from the ‘Encyclopaedia of the Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs’ by Professor Abdullah Nightingale Author: Walter Moers, trans. John Brownjohn Published: Vintage, 2001, pp. 704 Genre: Fantasy Blurb: [...]
Review: ‘The Last Time They Met’ by Anita Shreve
Title: The Last Time They Met Author: Anita Shreve Published: Abacus, 2001, pp. 360 Genre: Fiction Blurb: When Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes meet at a writers’ festival in Toronto, it is the first time they have seen each other for twenty-six years. Theirs is a story bound by the irresistible pull of true passion [...]