Swedish Crime, neither genre nor nationality that I am particular familiar with but when the brilliant Christopher MacLehose (he who built the Harvill list) urged me to read this book at the Independe…
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Ghost Knigi – by Benjamin Sommerhalder Ghost Knigi is a little, but friendly ghost child that’s handed a book on his birthnight. However the pages are blank and he can’t read them, nor any other books…
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Buy this book: To The End of the Land David Grossman’s son fought in the Gulf War and was eventually killed. Although this book was not written as a reaction to that loss it is made more poignant by t…
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Invisibles – Ed Siegle Joel is born is Brazil to an English mother, Jackie, and Brazilian father, Gilberto. Gilberto gets caught up with another woman and ends up in jail. From there Gilberto’s life c…
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The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman This is an unusual book, billed as a novel it’s actually a collection of short stories around the central character of an international newspaper run out of an offic…
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Me Before You – Jojo Moyes Read this book! If you want to be moved, read this book! If you want to swept up in a love story and get reminded what love is all about, read this book! If you want to reme…
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The Paris Wife is about Ernest Hemmingway’s relationship with his first wife Hadley Richardson. Hemmingway was a notorious womaniser, and this account being told from Hadley’s point of view helps us t…
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50 Shades of Grey – E L James This was the first adult fiction book I’d read. I’d heard about them of course as a genre, but not a specific contemporary title in the mainstream. However as I think it’…
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The Personal History of Rachel Dupree – Ann Weisgarber The Personal History of Rachel Dupree tells the story of a negro woman’s struggle to better herself in early 20th century America. She moves out…
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Tideline – Penny Hancock Tideline is a very creepy book and a real page turner. Sonia’s marriage is falling apart and she is reluctant to leave her childhood home a Greenwich house that backs onto the…
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The Art of Fielding – Chad Harbach There’s been a lot of publicity surrounding this book, notably reports of a $650,000 advance and comparisons to Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. I’d seen a lot…
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A Sense of An Ending – Julian Barnes Julian Barnes has finally won the Booker with this book, so I had some expectation that this might be a great read. It wasn’t, it’s OK, it’s an easy interesting re…
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Fold – Tom Campbell I’ve been reluctant to review this book. I went to one of Tom’s readings in Kentish Town and met some of his friends, some of which I’d met before. We had a great evening. He told…
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Snowdrop – A D Miller Our main protagonist, Nicholas, is told by his best friend Steve, that, ‘In Russia… there are no business stories. And there are no politics stories. There are no love stories….
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Annabel – Kathleen Winter I rushed home to read this book, it’s that good. Set in a remote village in Labrador Canada a child is born with both male and female parts, and only one close friend knows…
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Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend – Diana Athill Instead of a Book is collection of letters Diana Athill wrote to her friend the New York poet Edward Field. The collected letters are from 1981 un…
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To buy this book click on the following link: The Poisonwood Bible Set mainly in 1960s Congo, The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of an American missionary, his wife and four daughters who go out to…
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Ordinary Thunderstorms – William Boyd US resident, but British born, climatologist, Adam Kindred comes over to London for a job interview after splitting up with his wife. After the interview he witne…
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Super Sad True Love Story – Gary Shteyngart When 39 year old bibliophile Lenny Abramov falls for the youthful Eunice Park, you can tell that there’s going to be trouble. Set in the near future in an A…
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