Pure by Andrew Miller
As my recent experience of prize-winning books has been a bit mixed I’m glad to say that I enjoyed this 2011 Costa Book of the Year. Set in late 18th century Paris it tells the story of a young engineer … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Book Reviews
New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani
Quite a few people rate this book highly but I am not one of them. It’s tedious, dull, unconvincing and verging on pretentious. Trying to understand the enthusiasm, I even tried to see it as allegory but failed there too. … Continue reading →
The Lost College and other Oxford stories by Oxpens (various authors)
The assistant in the charity shop recommended this collection of Oxford-based short stories by Oxford-based writers (collectively Oxpens – geddit?). It was a good suggestion. It reminded me why the short story, done well, is a very pleasing genre. Inevitably … Continue reading →
The Story of the Tour de France (vol. 1) by Bill & Carol McGann
In the introduction to this book the authors, themselves American, explain that most Americans don’t understand the significance and depth of feeling the European cycling Grand Tours generate in their fans. They set out to explain through the history of … Continue reading →
Cycles of Time by Roger Penrose
This isn’t really a review of “Cycles of Time”: I’m not going to discuss the structure of the book or the quality of the writing. Instead I’ve tried for my own benefit to summarise what I learned from reading it. … Continue reading →
Snowdrops by A D Miller
This novel is set in present-day Moscow and evokes a believable atmosphere of smouldering and pervasive corruption. Some reviewers have found the plot dull and predictable, but I prefer to say that the story develops with slow inevitability as the … Continue reading →
White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
I regret to say that I don’t think this book is worthy of the Man Booker prize it won in 2008. I can only think it superficially ticked enough boxes to persuade the judges – first novel, non-white, non-English author, … Continue reading →
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
I was given this book in an Italian restaurant and Pizzeria in Oxford on World Book Night. It’s not easy to write a book convincingly in the first person, but Mark Haddon has managed to do it well in this … Continue reading →
The Good Life by Dorian Amos
Subtitled "Up the Yukon Without a Paddle" this book is one of those "We wanted to get away from it all and although we hadn’t a clue what we were doing we somehow managed to survive" stories. And frankly it’s … Continue reading →
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
The second of two Nesbo books I read this month. Both are airport fiction in the Scandinavian noir genre. The characters are rather uninterseting and the main character (the detective) is unattractive. They are both a quick read but don’t … Continue reading →