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 →
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 →
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 →
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 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 →
The first 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 →
An interesting book but I haven’t got anything insightful to say about it that hasn’t been said by others — see for example this review in The Guardian.
Continue reading →A journey is not always a challenge, nor is a challenge always an adventure. An episode in a life can be none, one, two, or all three of these things. In his previous book “The Man Who Cycled The World” … Continue reading →
John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California and grew up near the Pacific coast where many of his earlier successful novels and stories are based. He later moved to New York and by 1960 had been living there for some … Continue reading →
This is a compilation of short essays by a variety of people – comedians, philosophers, Ben Goldacre – who have one thing in common: they are atheists. That doesn’t mean they don’t like Christmas, just that it means different things … Continue reading →