Archive for June, 2011
TBR Lucky Dip: June
As I explained in my post about reading plans for the new year, each month I’m going to be using a random number generator to select a book from my TBR pile for me to read, to help me read more widely from my shelves. This month, the deities of www.random.org have ordained that I should [...]
Review: ‘The Circle Cast’ by Alex Epstein
Stories of King Arthur and the characters around him have been a large part of my reading diet for as long as I can remember. I’ve read classic retellings, obscure retellings and a desire to discover the early retellings is what led to me becoming an unemployable medieval English postgraduate. They’re stories that have become [...]
Review: ‘Dawn Chorus’ by Joan Wyndham
Reading Perfume from Provence reminded me that reading non-fiction is nowhere near as hard or as serious as I think it’s going to be when it comes in the form of an engaging memoir. I decided to carry on the theme by reading another thoroughly English memoir which I picked up, this time one of [...]
Virago Book Club Event: Winifred Holtby
Last Thursday evening saw the second gathering of the Virago Book Club to discuss the second book selection, Winifred Holtby’s masterpiece South Riding. I instantly fell in love with the book when I read it back in January so I was looking forward to an evening of discussion with a group of people who all, it transpired [...]
Review: ‘Perfume from Provence’ by Lady Winifred Fortescue
You might remember my mentioning by Lady Winifred Fortescue back in my March Review when I confessed to having broken my Lent book buying ban due to an unexpected train delay. Whilst I felt a little bit guilty at the time (not least because I also picked up the two companion books by the same [...]
May Summary
Another month gone by already and still I’m not caught up with my review backlog. I am, however, much closer to being up to date than I was this time last month, so perhaps June will be the month that I finally get there. May has been yet another very busy month in the non-reading [...]