Archives by Tag 'Fiction'
‘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 [...]
‘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 [...]
‘The Poisonwood Bible’ by Barbara Kingsolver
I’ll be honest: I don’t know very much about Africa other than that it is quite hot. Nor, for that matter, have I read many books set there other than those thrust upon me at university. I don’t actively dislike Africa as a setting for literature, I just tend to gravitate more towards Victorian and [...]
‘The Last Battle’ by C. S. Lewis
One of my aims for 2010 was to read all of C. S. Lewis Narnia books, so it seems appropriate that my final book for 2010 was The Last Battle (I apologise for being so behind with reviews; Christmas and New Year are not terribly convenient times for spending time on the computer). Although I [...]
‘The Silver Chair’ by C. S. Lewis
The Narnia series has a great many things to recommend it to readers, but their chief appeal for me at this particular moment in time is how small and compact they are, thus making them the perfect books to read on the tube. I’ll soon be looking for some new light reading (both literally and [...]
‘Baudolino’ by Umberto Eco
first came into my possession when I was helping a friend sort through some of his books at university when he moved from a large room into a much smaller one. When I unearthed this book, he expressed surprise that I hadn’t already read it and then insisted that I rehome it as naturally, being [...]
‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ by C. S. Lewis
Back in June of 2010 it came to my attention that, although they may be firmly embedded in my consciousness, I had never actually read all of the Narnia books. This struck me as something of an oversight and I resolved to rectify the situation as soon as possible and read them all before the [...]