Archives by Tag 'Fiction'
Moby Dick Part 3
So, finishing Moby Dick didn’t quite go according to plan. I should have had it all done by 2nd February, but that deadline made a whooshing sound as it flew by (Douglas Adams would have approved) and I found myself almost at the end of February still with a quarter of the book to go. [...]
Review: ‘Country of the Pointed Firs’ by Sarah Orne Jewett
Back in January I wrote a bit about Sarah Orne Jewett, author of . She was such an interesting woman that I almost feel a bit guilty for not liking this book more than I did; Jewett’s critics complained that her stories lacked plot, something of which she herself was well aware, and (while I [...]
Review: ‘Wildwood Dancing’ by Juliet Marillier
For the past few years, the Old English Thorn and I have spent New Year staying with some lovely friends of ours in Edinburgh. We play lots of games, eat lots of food, drink lots of dubious concoctions and generally have a marvellous time. Even so, there are always times when you just want to [...]
Moby Dick Part 2
After two weeks of devoted evening reading I reached the halfway point of Moby Dick at the weekend! It’s taken me till now to organise my thoughts and write them down. It feels like a real achievement because I have to admit that, despite my best efforts to like it, this is not a book [...]
Review: ‘Liza of Lambeth’ by W. Somerset Maugham
If you were, hypothetically, to have your train delayed by over four hours one evening, taking your total journey home time from a little over two hours (which now seems almost reasonable by comparison) to six and a half hours, you’d definitely need a book or two with you to keep you sane. Ideally, you [...]
Review: ‘American Gods’ by Neil Gaiman
When I came to select a book to read after finishing Anderby Wold, I don’t think I could have picked something much more different than Neil Gaiman’s had I been trying deliberately to do so. The former is provincial, understated, realistic and oh so English, while the latter is sweeping, outrageous, mythological and (despite its [...]
Moby Dick Part One
Moby Dick may be a classic of American literature. It may (apparently, so I’m told) have one of the most famous opening lines of any novel. None of that prevented me from coming to this book knowing almost nothing about it and from being faintly baffled when I opened it to the words ‘Call me [...]
Review: ‘Anderby Wold’ by Winifred Holtby
When I was sent a copy of the beautiful new edition of South Riding by Virago at the beginning of 2011 and was introduced to the writing of Winifred Holtby, it didn’t take me long to fall in love. I was fascinated by the dextrous way she handled such a large cast of characters, making all [...]
Review: ‘Black Butterfly’ by Mark Gatiss
I don’t often stray into the world of mystery stories. In our (reasonably extensive) library, there is only one shelf of mystery novels tucked away in a corner. It’s not that I don’t like them per se, it’s just that there are other genres that I prefer. However, I can occasionally be tempted by a [...]
Review: ‘Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man’ by Fannie Flagg
Sometimes an author is known for one book more than any other, and this is certainly true of Fannie Flagg, best known as the author of . Whether it’s because this is her best book or whether it’s because of , I don’t know as, though I’ve had that book on my shelves waiting to be [...]