One of last year’s big publishing hits was Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap. It won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and author John Boyne called it “one of the three or four truly great novels of the new millennium”
The Confession
30 August 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Confession is John Grisham’s latest legal thriller for adults and is currently riding high in the paperback chart. Fans of Grisham’s work are in for a treat when they buy it.
The Plot Against America
25 August 2011 by Leave a Comment
One of fiction’s most fascinating questions is What If? What If a character didn’t exist? What If a lie was discovered? What If history was different? Many books and films have explored this question from different viewpoints ….
The World’s Wife
22 August 2011 by Leave a Comment
A female perspective on some of history’s most enduring stories
Ever since I was an eager young English student trying to emulate older friends I’ve tried to convince myself that I love poetry. I bought vast collections which still sit unread on my bookshelves and nodded sagely whenever people spoke about poetry.
Room
18 August 2011 by Leave a Comment
The harrowing story of a child born into horror
Like lots of people there’s part of me that believes that I could write a best-selling novel. I read the papers or watch the news and get inspiration for stories but I never actually seem to get anywhere with writing them. That wasn’t the case for novelist Emma Donoghue ….
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
11 August 2011 by Leave a Comment
An evocative portrait of a marriage and a country in crisis – but an unsympathetic cast of characters
A colleague once told me that whenever he travelled he read a book by a local author or set in the area he was visiting ….
Burly & Grum and the Secret City
8 August 2011 by Leave a Comment
A children’s book with a good message – but not a good book
One of my passions is animal welfare. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve found zoos utterly repellent and the recent debate in Parliament on banning the use of wild animals in circuses sent me into a frenzy. A charity very close to my heart is the Born Free Foundation which campaigns to free animals from captivity and return them to their natural environment. Founded by actress Virginia McKenna they do a lot of great work and I urge you to find out more about them.
On Friday Born Free invited supporters to read the children’s ebook Burly & Grum and the Secret City by Kate Tenbeth. I was immediately intrigued – a book I could read in a couple of hours which had a strong animal welfare message seemed like my idea of Monday morning fun (no – really it did)…
When God Was A Rabbit
2 August 2011 by 2 Comments
A good book – but not the great one I was expecting
Sarah Winman’s debut novel When God Was a Rabbit has been big news in literary circles. It was one of the Richard & Judy bookclub picks for Summer 2011 which virtually guaranteed it bestseller status and received a number of good reviews. Unlike some book snobs I know, I quite like the Richard & Judy choices so with their endorsement, the reviews I had seen and a positive vibe on Twitter I was really looking forward to When God Was A Rabbit.
To say the book was disappointing is a bit too much of an overstatement. I enjoyed the book, I just didn’t love it and with all the hype I had seen about it I was really expecting to fall head over heels for this great new author.
The heroine of the story and narrator of the book is Elly, and that’s where the problem lies. Winman has created a cast of fascinating characters from the lesbian film star to the abused but defiant child, the victim of kidnap and torture to the elderly teacher. Unfortunately the least interesting character is Elly, and yet it is only her voice and her point of view that we hear in any real detail and that’s where the book really does fall down…..
The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
31 July 2011 by 3 Comments
A delicious bakery book with amazing photography
I thought I’d do something a little different with my book review today. Instead of a novel or autobiography or the usual kind of books I review I’m going to share one of my hobbies with you – baking. I’m not a great baker, for that you have to visit my friend at Annie Bakes Cakes, but I find it relaxing after a stressful day and I love the end result. When I was a student my specialities were macaroons and biscuits, now I’m much more of a cupcake girl and my favourite recipe comes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.
For those not in the know, The Hummingbird Bakery is a trendy London cake shop with branches in Notting Hill, Soho, Kensington and Spitalfields. Celebrities flock there including some you would swear had never seen a cupcake in their microbiotic lives like Gwyneth Paltrow. To capitalise on the success of the bakery and its PR positioning as a luxury lifestyle brand, The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook was launched in 2009, sharing recipes and hints from company founder Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird Bakers.
The first thing you notice is the fantastic appearance of this book. The photography by Peter Cassidy is more than simply an illustration of the recipes, it is the hook that makes you want to make your own versions of these delicious creations….
Kill and Cure
26 July 2011 by Leave a Comment
A run of the mill thriller with too many characters and not enough character development
One of the basic laws of crime thrillers is that they must have a flawed hero – the rule breaking detective, the alcoholic journalist or the idealistic doctor. We’ve all read the novels and recognise the standard characters, some are great, some are woefully cliché ridden. Stephen Davison’s addition to this rolecall is the hero of Kill and Cure…