Book Review - The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel tells the story of a Native American tribe via a varied cast of characters and their fight to resist eviction from their ancestral homeland, and the problems they faced during the 1950’s.
Book Review-Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is an wonderfully immersive work of fantasy, set inside a world of halls and vestibules, water and statues, that soon grabs you with its strangeness. Wonderfully compelling.
Book Review - Grand Hotel Europa - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
A book which uses the faded glory of the Grand Hotel Europa to tell a story of how the continent trades on it’s past but at the expense of what? Also looks at populism and tourism, it’s a long book but informative and readable.
Book review - Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
After the world collapses following a devastating pandemic, this book follows the lives of some of the survivors and how their lives intersect. A moving and thought provoking book that contains moments of real beauty.
Book Review - Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart
‘Shuggie Bain’ was an immersive reading experience, set in the Glasgow in the 80’s. ‘Young mungo’ takes place in the 90’s, but in the same setting. How does it compare?
Book review - Songbirds - Christy Lefteri
‘Songbirds’ tells the story of Nisha, a migrant worker who leaves her homeland to work as a nanny and maid in Cyprus, but who vanishes one evening. A book about the plight of the vulnerable and invisible in society.
Book Review - The Law of Innocence - Michael Connelly
The latest instalment in the Mickey Haller series is an engrossing legal thriller, with ‘The Lincoln lawyer’ finding himself on the opposite side of the law, facing a desperate fight for his freedom.
Audiobook Review - The end of the affair - Graham Greene, read by Colin Firth
Graham Greenes story of a love affair in Post War London is masterfully narrated by Colin Firth.
Book Review - The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley
From the bestselling author of ‘The guest list’ comes another mystery thriller, this time set in a Paris apartment block with some of the residents trying to prevent dark secrets being revealed. How does it compare to Lucy Foley’s previous effort?
Book Review - Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro’s dystopian novel about a Artificial Friend called Klara is beautifully written, as you’d expect, but is it up there with previous books by the Nobel Prize winning author?
Book review - Winterkill - Ragnar Jónasson
Ragnar Jónasson’s final book in the Dark Iceland series finds Ari Thor investigating the death of a nineteen year old student - was her death murder or suicide? Another entertaining, claustrophobic tightly plotted thriller that takes place in the middle of a blizzard.
Book Review - No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood
Patricia Lockwoods book bristles with energy, and is both sharp and funny. What starts off as somewhat ironic take on the online lives we lead gives way to a story that is genuinely moving, with wonderfully lyrical prose. Haven’t read anything like this all year.
Book Review - To Paradise - Hanya Yanagihara
Hanya Yanagihara’s latest spans two hundred years and 720 pages. It’s large in scope and at times unwieldy and this is my attempt to review it. Is it any good? As long as it is, best not to read if you are entering isolation……….
Book Review - Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen
Franzens brilliantly written saga, set in the seventies, is a warm, deep and funny exploration of the family dynamics of the Hildebrandt clan and the choices they make in their lives and their relationship to each other and God.
Book Review - Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
In this superb novella by Edith Wharton, a man arrives in Starkfield, Massachusetts and is intrigued by the figure of Ethan Frome, a man of whom the townsfolk say little. Later, the man is forced to spend the night in the Frome household and learns more about his earlier life…...
Book Review - The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Nora Seed has had enough and wants to die. She then finds herself in the midnight library, where she can access all the lives she could have had. It could have been incredibly twee, but instead Matt Haig has written a book with empathy and hope at it’s heart.
Book Review - The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
The story of two twin sisters born in the strange town of Mallard, with its own system of racial purity. They escape, but their lives take two very different courses.
Book Review - The Black Angel (Charlie Parker #5) - John Connolly
The fifth outing in the Charlie Parker Crime/supernatural series is fast paced and incredibly dark, taking in New York, Eastern Europe and WW2.
Book Review - Five Little Indians - Michelle Good
Five First Nation children and how they survive in the years after they have been released from the Canadian residential school system.
Book Review - Billy Summers - Stephen King
A Sniper decides to take on a final job for a big payday in this superior thriller from Stephen King.
