by Eric Hazan
Subtitled A history in Footsteps this a great book covering the history of various quarters of Paris and how it has developed into today's city. From the broad sweep to the intricate details this is a great book that makes you want to get back to the city and start exploring immediately. One word of advice. Unless you know the city really well it is useful-and will probably add to your enjoyment-if you have a map/street atlas close by. 8/10
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan
The Goon Squad is time and this is a novel about time and its passing and it deals with time in the way that time deals with us. That is, moving at different speeds -sometimes fast sometimes slow. I felt the technical skills in this book outweighed the story at times but a thought provoking book. Didn't enjoy the last chapter. 6/10
The Goon Squad is time and this is a novel about time and its passing and it deals with time in the way that time deals with us. That is, moving at different speeds -sometimes fast sometimes slow. I felt the technical skills in this book outweighed the story at times but a thought provoking book. Didn't enjoy the last chapter. 6/10
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
by Peter Hoeg
I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this book but feel that it then started to lose its way. Probably all that snow! Still an enjoyable read 6/10
I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this book but feel that it then started to lose its way. Probably all that snow! Still an enjoyable read 6/10
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The Invisible Woman
by Clare Tomalin
This was a fascinating biography and commentary on how history can be manipulated. It leaves many questions unanswered, not least being what did Ellen Ternan think of Dickens and her relationship with him, but this in itself is comment on how difficult this book was to write. 8/10
This was a fascinating biography and commentary on how history can be manipulated. It leaves many questions unanswered, not least being what did Ellen Ternan think of Dickens and her relationship with him, but this in itself is comment on how difficult this book was to write. 8/10
Sunday, March 20, 2011
When God was a Rabbit
by Sarah Winman
This is a first novel and it sometimes showed in the lack of character depth and some of the descriptive passages. However, this book made me laugh (out loud belly laughter) and it made me cry and it made me think. What more can you ask of a novel. I really enjoyed it. 8/10
This is a first novel and it sometimes showed in the lack of character depth and some of the descriptive passages. However, this book made me laugh (out loud belly laughter) and it made me cry and it made me think. What more can you ask of a novel. I really enjoyed it. 8/10
The Museum of Innocence
by Orhan Pamuk
What can I say about this most exasperating of books. One it is very long. Two, it focusses on one man's pain following the break up of a relationship, and when I use the word focus I mean with the intensity of a magnifying glass on a hot summers day. This is painful at times and there was more than one occassion I wished our hero narrator dead so we could all move on with our lives.Having said that this is beautifully written and leaves me longing to visit Istanbul. The ending is signalled from page 1 and yet still surprises when you get there. I slated this book for all the time I was reading it and yet I think it will live with me for longer than other books I have read. 7/10
What can I say about this most exasperating of books. One it is very long. Two, it focusses on one man's pain following the break up of a relationship, and when I use the word focus I mean with the intensity of a magnifying glass on a hot summers day. This is painful at times and there was more than one occassion I wished our hero narrator dead so we could all move on with our lives.Having said that this is beautifully written and leaves me longing to visit Istanbul. The ending is signalled from page 1 and yet still surprises when you get there. I slated this book for all the time I was reading it and yet I think it will live with me for longer than other books I have read. 7/10
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Faceless Killers
by Henning Mankell
An early Wallender and a good crime novel. I felt the linking of the two seperate plots was a bit contrived but the Wallender character is deliciously seedy! 7/10
An early Wallender and a good crime novel. I felt the linking of the two seperate plots was a bit contrived but the Wallender character is deliciously seedy! 7/10
Squirrel seeks chipmunk
by David Sedaris
A very mixed bag. Some of these are very funny, some are very dark and ssome are just not very good. It is a great bedside book though. 5/10
A very mixed bag. Some of these are very funny, some are very dark and ssome are just not very good. It is a great bedside book though. 5/10
Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
This is a very gentle book but with an underlying tension. It is a melancholic look back at a man's early life and how it is shaping and impacting his later life. We learn nothing, or very little of the bit in between but it does not matter. I enjoyed it very much 8/10
This is a very gentle book but with an underlying tension. It is a melancholic look back at a man's early life and how it is shaping and impacting his later life. We learn nothing, or very little of the bit in between but it does not matter. I enjoyed it very much 8/10
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Seraphita
bu Honoré de Balzac
If this was the first Balzac novel I had ever read it would be my last. There is no plot to speak of and is actually just a religious pamphlet in praise of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Utter crap 1/10 no make that 0/10
If this was the first Balzac novel I had ever read it would be my last. There is no plot to speak of and is actually just a religious pamphlet in praise of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Utter crap 1/10 no make that 0/10
Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen
This was a great book and one of the few that left me close to tears at the end. It is a story of modern life I guess and how personal lives intrude on our ideologies 9/10
This was a great book and one of the few that left me close to tears at the end. It is a story of modern life I guess and how personal lives intrude on our ideologies 9/10
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The General
by Jonathan Fenby
A very good biography of Charles de Gaulle with a great balance between the personal, private man and the statesman. 8/10
A very good biography of Charles de Gaulle with a great balance between the personal, private man and the statesman. 8/10
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The Finkler Question
by Howard Jacobson
Very amusing in parts, boring in others and fascinating in others. He is as in touch with the human condition as any writer I have come across 8/10
Very amusing in parts, boring in others and fascinating in others. He is as in touch with the human condition as any writer I have come across 8/10
Our Kind of Traitor
by John Le Carre
Le Carre on good form but with an ending that seemed inevitable for a Le Carre hero. Enjoyed it though 7/10
Le Carre on good form but with an ending that seemed inevitable for a Le Carre hero. Enjoyed it though 7/10
Friday, September 24, 2010
The Elephant's Journey
by José Saramago
Written by a nobel prize winning Portuguese writer this is a fantastic story of an elephant's journey from Lisbon to Vienna in the 16th century. I loved it, especially the narrator's quirky asides. 9/10
Written by a nobel prize winning Portuguese writer this is a fantastic story of an elephant's journey from Lisbon to Vienna in the 16th century. I loved it, especially the narrator's quirky asides. 9/10
The Glass Room
by Simon Mawer
The story of a house, based on a real house in Brno, this is a fascinating story of the Czech Republic from the mid 1920's to the 1960's which I found really absorbing. 8/10
The story of a house, based on a real house in Brno, this is a fascinating story of the Czech Republic from the mid 1920's to the 1960's which I found really absorbing. 8/10
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Death in the Latin Quarter
by Raphael Cardetti
Set in Paris this is a fast paced mystery thriller involving book restorers and shady secret service personnel from around the world. A great holiday read that is fun and not too taxing. 6/10
Set in Paris this is a fast paced mystery thriller involving book restorers and shady secret service personnel from around the world. A great holiday read that is fun and not too taxing. 6/10
Ordinary Thunderstorms
by William Boyd
Enjoyed the premise of this book of a man who has his identity taken from him by being in the wrong place at the wrong time,. However it seemed to lose its way and the ending was disappointing. 5/10
Enjoyed the premise of this book of a man who has his identity taken from him by being in the wrong place at the wrong time,. However it seemed to lose its way and the ending was disappointing. 5/10
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Silence
by Shusaka Endo
This story of a missionary priest in the seventeenth century going off to Japan did not do a lot for me. 4/10
This story of a missionary priest in the seventeenth century going off to Japan did not do a lot for me. 4/10
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