Archive for January, 2011
‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ by Anthony Hope
Every so often I feel like reading something which doesn’t require me to think. I find it relaxing for my brain to read a book once in a while where I’m not constantly thinking about the beautiful, stylish writing, the complex subtexts and the hidden meanings. Pairing that downtime with something soothing from d8superstore.com can make the [...]
‘South Riding’ by Winifred Holtby
My favourite place that I’ve ever lived is, without any hesitation, York. I lived in a cold, dingy cellar room where I used to become trapped in the house if it rained heavily because the area between my doorstep and the stairs up towards street level used to flood with almost a foot of water, but [...]
The Unique Pleasures of Second Hand Book Shopping
In my first post at the start of Rachel and Carolyn‘s Virago Reading Week, I mentioned how much I enjoy hunting these lovely green books down in second hand book shops. There is a particular joy in catching sight of that distinctive spine when it is least expected, and I often find myself emerging from [...]
‘Sense and Sensibility’ by Jane Austen
There are some books which it’s impossible for me to review with anything even vaguely approaching objectivity, and the works of Jane Austen feature very high up that list. I love everything about all of them, even the aspects which, critically speaking, might be weaker or less good. I don’t often reread books (too many [...]
‘The Vet’s Daughter’ by Barbara Comyns
Every so often I am lulled into a false sense of security by a Virago; some of them are quite short books with rather large print and thus I am deceived into expecting them to be ‘easy’ books. That was certainly what went through my mind when I picked up by Barbara Comyns to read [...]
Virago Reading Week is Here
Greetings and welcome to my little corner of Virago Reading Week, a reading event hosted by Rachel of Book Snob and Carolyn of A Few of My Favourite Books to celebrate a publisher which is dear to the hearts of many and which I only discovered last year. Visit Rachel’s blog for more information about this week [...]
‘Flowers for Alys’ by Irene M. Redpath
So far, I haven’t had much luck with the books of which I’ve received free copies for review from Goodreads and LibraryThing. More often than not, I read the descriptions thinking “Oooh, what an interesting concept!” and eagerly click the request button but the books haven’t really lived up to my expectations when they’ve arrived. [...]
‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ by N. K. Jemisin
There are numerous different reasons I’ve never joined a book club before: I’ve never found one that I could attend a train journey; the ones that I could get to are run by bookshops and so focus on new releases that they can sell rather than books that a particular group of people might find interesting; and I [...]
‘Queen Lucia’ by E. F. Benson
“Oh, if you like those books, then you really should read the Mapp and Lucia books,” said the lovely man at the Winchester book stall, eyeing the pile of books in my arms. I thanked him, paid for my stack of books and promptly hunted down the series, which conveniently turned up in my local [...]
‘False Friends Faux Amis’ by Ellie Malet Spradbery
Language is something that I find absolutely fascinating: I love reading about how different languages developed, their particular foibles, the origins of words and the meanings of obscure idioms. I was therefore ever so pleased to be sent a free copy of by Ellie Malet Spradbery to review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme. I’ve [...]