Always have one or more books on the go, but I tend to only read them in bed or travelling. So quite slow progress.
This link opens in a pop-up window
Jordy Rosenberg: Confessions of the Fox (2018, Atlantic Books, Limited)
Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows …
Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (also known as The Fall of Berlin 1945 in the US) …
A vivid account of the Red Army's attack on Germany and victory in Berlin - told from Soviet and German accounts of senior staff, soldiers and civilians.
A very compelling read. Just two small gripes:
- with so many personnel to keep track of it would have been nice to have a glossary of the main characters.
- the maps sometimes didn't include the places that were being referred to in the text.
A vivid account of the Red Army's attack on Germany and victory in Berlin - told from Soviet and German accounts of senior staff, soldiers and civilians.
A very compelling read. Just two small gripes:
- with so many personnel to keep track of it would have been nice to have a glossary of the main characters.
- the maps sometimes didn't include the places that were being referred to in the text.
I am interested in the Netherlands and was given this as a present by friends resident in NL.
I read the 2006 edition and was struck by the contrast between what the authors thought was funny and me cringing as I read it.
What the authors pass for humour is racist, ageist, homophobic and misogynistic and not acceptable in 2006, never mind 2021.
The Corrections is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the …
Is this Updike for the early twenty-first century? I loved the backbone of the corrections that the individual family members tried to make in their lives, against the background of the market 'corrections'.
A richly moving, yet very amusing, chronicle of a family dealing with the vicissitudes of old age and trying to make a mark in early middle age.
Is this Updike for the early twenty-first century? I loved the backbone of the corrections that the individual family members tried to make in their lives, against the background of the market 'corrections'.
A richly moving, yet very amusing, chronicle of a family dealing with the vicissitudes of old age and trying to make a mark in early middle age.
Boyd has very diligently researched stories from a cross-section of visitors to Germany and successfully pulls them together into a fascinating, educational and horrifying narrative.
GOD IS DEAD, his corpse hidden in the catacombs beneath Mordew.
In the slums of the sea-battered city a …
I enjoyed this second volume of the 'Fractured Europe' series and found it weird to be reading in the context of the current pandemic.
A spy novel set in a milieu with parallel universes and multiple mini-countries, it's quite a rollicking read. But it gets very confusing with the number of characters who appear and abruptly disappear or get killed.
Looking forward to Europe in Winter.
I enjoyed this second volume of the 'Fractured Europe' series and found it weird to be reading in the context of the current pandemic.
A spy novel set in a milieu with parallel universes and multiple mini-countries, it's quite a rollicking read. But it gets very confusing with the number of characters who appear and abruptly disappear or get killed.
Looking forward to Europe in Winter.
Born with ocular albinism, small-town eye doctor Sam Hill must finally face a past tragedy …
This review sums up my own views of this book.
It was sold to me as' John Irvingesque' and started off with promise: the story of a boy born with ocular albinism with a strong-willed mother who has great faith.
However, the characters never really filled out for me and I felt uncomfortable with the rather simplistic 'God's Will' plot.
This review sums up my own views of this book.
It was sold to me as' John Irvingesque' and started off with promise: the story of a boy born with ocular albinism with a strong-willed mother who has great faith.
However, the characters never really filled out for me and I felt uncomfortable with the rather simplistic 'God's Will' plot.
The Balkan Trilogy has been on my reading list for a long time, but it has been a slow read. I found the descriptions of life in Bucharest and Athens fascinating - and I was, to my shame, ignorant of the Allied incursions in the Balkans at that stage of the war.
It is, of course, a view of expat life and mainly of huge entitlement. I soon came to like Harriet, but Guy is an incredibly annoying character - a dilettante who is politically naive and gets his kicks from providing entertainment and bathing in the attention of students and friends rather than his wife.
I'm intrigued to read the next trilogy - but I do need a break!
The Balkan Trilogy has been on my reading list for a long time, but it has been a slow read. I found the descriptions of life in Bucharest and Athens fascinating - and I was, to my shame, ignorant of the Allied incursions in the Balkans at that stage of the war.
It is, of course, a view of expat life and mainly of huge entitlement. I soon came to like Harriet, but Guy is an incredibly annoying character - a dilettante who is politically naive and gets his kicks from providing entertainment and bathing in the attention of students and friends rather than his wife.
I'm intrigued to read the next trilogy - but I do need a break!
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist is a 2017 non-fiction book by Oxford economist Kate Raworth. …
Mrs Creasy is missing and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, ten-year-olds Grace and …
