Whatever else, this book is an amazing achievement. It is really three stories, separate but intertwined; each could be a book in its own right. Set between 1867 and 1909, the Stone of the title is a powerful and wealthy … Continue reading →
As you’d expect from Julian Barnes, an intriguing story which explores memories and how we interpret them. How can we tell true memories from false ones, and how does our interpretation change as time passes and other information comes to … Continue reading →
It’s not a casual coincidence that The Simpsons contains some quite geeky maths stuff – several of the writers are mathematicians and they’re well up to sneaking in mathematical references and jokes. Whether in the main story or in freeze-frame … Continue reading →
"It’s the new Sherlock Holmes book.""Really?""Yes, really! Well, not by Conan Doyle obviously but written by Dr Watson. Or rather, Anthony Horowitz pretending to be Dr Watson.""So is it any good, or some kind of joke thing?""Well …." It’s a … Continue reading →
A story about story-telling and the butterfly effect. Lively’s tale about the effects of a single random act on her half-dozen or so characters lifts them off into a chaotic swirl before subsiding and setting them back down in circumstances … Continue reading →
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 →
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 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 →
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 →
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 →