Professor Andrew Griffiths has just made a grand mathematical discovery (far beyond anything I could even begin to understand) but he has also been replaced by an alien. An alien whose mission is to destroy the evidence and to ‘take out’ any other humans Andrew has told of his discovery. This ‘alien’ is confused and …
Mary V Dearborn: Ernest Hemingway
Mary is an expert on all things Hemingway and this biography takes a deep dive into his life. From his childhood to his death this book benefits from extensive lifting from Hemingway’s personal letters and published works as well as containing a variety of photographs of key people and places. These elements serve to illustrate …
Zadie Smith: NW
NW leads the reader into the personal history of NW London through the lives of a colourful cast of characters. Their lives cross as neighbours, friends, lovers and enemies. Author: Zadie Smith Title: NW Press: Penguin Date of Publication: Date of Purchase: March 2019 RRP: £8.99 Price of Purchase: Thank you library card Reading Time: …
Caitlin Moran: How to Build a Girl
Johanna lives in Wolverhampton with her once upon a time musician father, post-natal depressed mother and her four brothers. She has to get out. She has to reinvent herself and build herself into a girl she thinks she’d like to be. This journey takes her into music criticism, sex, love and more sex. But once …
Joan Lindsay: Picnic at Hanging Rock
The year is 1900. The young ladies of Appleyard College, Australia set off on a picnic. Five young women disappear that day and only one is ever heard of again. The lives of those closest to these mysterious events are changed forever. The question remains… what happened? Author: Joan Lindsay Title: Picnic at Hanging Rock …
Anna Burns @ The Tabernacle
Small gloating moment, allow me it. I got to hear Anna Burns read extracts from her Booker Prize winning novel Milkman on Thursday evening. She was brilliant. The passages aloud came alive with her control of the cadence and tempo of the language. Although familiar to me in writing they took on a whole new …
CJ Tudor: The Chalkman
A girl is dead by the end of the year. This novel follows the childhood and middle age of its narrator, Eddie, as he comes to terms with his role in the mysterious murder of a seemingly innocent young woman and the persecution of the supposed killer. The fair marks the start of it the …
Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London
Peter Grant is disappointed when assigned a desk job after completing his police training. However, a strange encounter with a ghost while out on patrol opens him up to a world of magic and mystery beyond anything he could have imagined. His first case relates to a rampaging spirit which he must overcome while brokering …
Max Porter: Grief is the Thing with Feathers
Grief is the Thing with Feathers: Max Porter (Faber and Faber) Photo by Tom Swinnen from Pexels A father, his two sons and the crow narrate the experience of grief after the sudden death of a wife and mother. This was beautiful, moving and only made my cry once… (ok twice). I’m in no way a poetry buff. In …
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Michael Ondaatje:The English Patient
Author: Michael Ondaatje Title: The English Patient Press: Bloomsbury Date of Publication: 1992 Prizes: Winner of the Man Booker Prize 1992 Date of Purchase: January 2019 RRP: £8.99 Price of Purchase: £2.50 Reading Time: 6 days Rating: 6 I probably didn’t read this correctly. I found myself distracted and skimming, having to go back and …