General
The Lives of Animals by J.M. Coetzee
The last of my reviews for the books I read for the recent 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, features The Lives of Animals by J. M. Coetzee.
Synopsis (from the back cover)
Elizabeth Costello, a distinguished novelist, has been invited to the United States to give a university lecture on animal rights. She meets with reactions that run the [...]
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
The recent 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, provided the opportunity to read a bunch of shorter novels, and this was one of them. Translated in to English from the original Italian, it also completes the Orbis Terrarum challenge for me.
The year is 1861. Hervé Joncour is a French merchant of silkworms, who combs the known world for [...]
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
Another one of the books I read for the recent 24 Hour Read-a-Thon and while not by favourite (The Graveyard Book take that title by a country mile!) it was certainly one of the most enjoyable.
The French Riviera - home to the beautiful Cecile, a precocious 17-year-old, and her father Raymond. The duo are dedicated [...]
Murder in the Dark: Short Fictions and Prose Poems by Margaret Atwood
From the back cover:
These short fictions and prose poems are beautifully bizarre: bread can no longer be thought of as wholesome comforting loaves; the pretensions of the male chef are subjected to a loght roasting; a poisonous brew is concocted by cynical five year olds; and knowing when to stop is of deadly importance in [...]
Digital Fortress - Dan Brown [A Weekly Geek Style Review]
Mrs S | Blue Archipelago
Welcome to the WGs!
I’ll ask about Digital Fortress.
Why did you decide to read it?
Would you recommend it to a girl who enjoyed Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code?
Why did I decide to read it? Well i was just looking for some lightweight page-turning stuff that wouldn’t need much brainwork. Would [...]
The Tomorrow Series ~ John Marsden
It has been a while since a series has held me in its thrall, quite as much as The Tomorrow Series has done, (I’m not going to include Harry Potter here, because I read that over six years or so) there is nothing quite like finding a new series and just “having” to tear though every book as quickly as you can…
Sky Burial - Xinran
In the interests of honesty I should admit, the only reason I picked up this book to read was the A to Z Challenge, because, well, they’re not that many authors out the whose names start with “X” are there!
It’s not to say I didn’t want to read the book, I’m not going to choose [...]
The End of Mr. Y ~ Scarlett Thomas
When Ariel Manto uncovers a copy of The End of Mr. Y in a second-hand bookshop, she can’t believe her eyes. She knows enough about its author, the outlandish Victorian scientist Thomas Lumas, to know that copies are exceedingly rare. And, some say, cursed.With Mr. Y under her arm, Ariel finds herself thrust into a thrilling adventure of love, sex, death and time-travel.
Boy A ~ Jonathan Trigell
‘A is for Apple. A bad apple.
‘Jack has spent most of his life in juvenile institutions, to be released with a new name, new job, new life. At 24, he is utterly innocent of the world, yet guilty of a monstrous childhood crime.
To his new friends, he is a good guy with occasional flashes of unexpected violence. To his new girlfriend, he is strangely inexperienced and unreachable. To his case worker, he’s a victim of the system and of media-driven hysteria. And to himself, Jack is on permanent trial: can he really start from scratch, forget the past, become someone else? Is a new name enough? Can Jack ever truly connect with his new friends while hiding a monstrous secret?
The Uncommon Reader ~ Alan Bennett
Led by her yapping corgis to the Westminster travelling library outside Buckingham Palace, the Queen finds herself taking out a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett. Duff read though it is, the following week he choice proves more enjoyable and awakens in Her Majesty a passion for reading so great that her public duties begin to suffer. And so, as she devours work by everyone from Hardy to Brookner to Proust to Beckett, her equerries conspire to bring the Queen’s literary odyssey to a close.
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