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Currently reading: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
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The Fields by Kevin Maher
Review: A fresh and brilliant debut novel which tells the colourful story of a young teenager growing up outside Dublin in the 1980s. The book starts almost as a coming-of-age tale as lead character, Jim Finnegan, narrates the exploits of his family, friends and first love as he develops a strong attraction to the older…
Read More »Book of the Month - March 2013
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Review Life After Life follows the premise of living life over again and again and reveals the trickery of fate on the main character Ursula Todd. Set against the historical backdrop of the First and Second World Wars, the writing vividly evokes the social and political atmosphere of the times. It is a sublime read…
Read More »Book of the Month - February 2013
Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
Review: An unnerving yet compelling read and a refreshing variation on the crime fiction genre. Belinda Bauer has created an incredibly disturbing and intelligent thriller that will keep you up all night. Her use of Patrick as unreliable narrator has obvious echoes of Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident, but this is decidedly darker and more gruesome….
Read More »Book of the Month - December 2012
The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth
Review: The Horologicon – or book of hours – takes the reader on a journey through a day in the life of unusual, beautiful and forgotten words of the English Language. Following the runaway success of The Etymologicon, Mark Forsyth has done it again with a hugely entertaining and informative book. Not only is it…
Read More »Book of the Month - November 2012
Shakespeare’s Local by Pete Brown
Review: Pete Brown writes with an easy going style, blending wit and fact to produce an entertaining social history spanning six centuries and set against the backdrop of The George Inn, near London Bridge, London’s last surviving galleried coaching inn. The book features a great cast list of those who have drunk there, from Chaucer…
Read More »Book of the Month - October 2012
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
Review: Kate Morton is a natural story-teller and with her latest book The Secret Keeper she does not disappoint. I was immediately drawn into the winding story which mixes past and present revealing a long forgotten family secret. It was wonderful to meet Kate at our recent Afternoon Tea to launch her book. She is…
Read More »Book of the Month - September 2012
The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price
Review: A poetic work of fiction on the one hand, an autobiography on the other, The Life of Rebecca Jones is a powerful, meditative work on one family’s passage through the twentieth century. In the early years of the last century, Rebecca is born into a rural community in the Maesglasau valley in Wales; her…
Read More »Book of the Month - August 2012
Tigers in Red Weather
Review: A simmering debut novel brilliantly told by five family members, cousins Nick and Helena, Nick’s husband Hughes, their daughter Daisy and Helena’s slightly strange son Ed. Set predominantly in the summer of 1959, the family have gathered at Tiger House when Daisy and Ed make a sinister dicovery. Full of glamour, passion, addiction and…
Read More »Book of the Month - July 2012
The Light Between Oceans
Review: The story of lighthouse keeper Tom and his wife Isabel who longs for a child. Her wish comes true with a malestrom of consequences for two families. Beautiful, accomplished and compelling. Louisa
Read More »Book of the Month - June 2012
Gold
Review: Having enjoyed The Other Hand so much, I was genuinely excited to pick up a proof copy of Gold when it arrived in the shop earlier this year and beat off others just as keen to read it first. With such high expectation, I’m pleased to say I was not disappointed. Gold is a…
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