One of the curses of being a Brit and living in America is that many people assume you have a great interest in, or knowledge of, the Civil War. I have to admit that prior to moving here, the most time I had spent engaged in anything to do with this piece of US history, […]
As with a silent companion, this book snuck up on me. I finished it two nights ago and have been thinking about it ever since as, just like a Henry James novel, I’m not entirely sure what I just read. Was it a descent into madness, was it a ghost story, a betrayal? What? What […]
Sometimes you read a book and you just aren’t sure why you didn’t enjoy it more. Perhaps other things were going on in your life at the time or maybe you were just too tired. It’s hard to say. Sadly this is where I am with The House Between Tides by Sarah Maine. The more […]
Three Things About Elsie, by Joanna Cannon, made one thing very apparent to me and that’s how seldom we read about the elderly. There are of course many stories where a elderly person looks back across their life and reminisces about things past, but largely the action is set in those memories, during a time […]
I am very fortunate to have a family filled with readers. We may not live in geographical proximity to each other and our preferences may at times be wildly different, but we are able to hit each other up for a good book recommendation from time to time. My sister-in-law, Dr A, often enjoys a […]
I love the way The Drowned Detective, by Neil Jordan, is written. It just feels so incredibly oblique and dreamlike, which works well in the confusion of the story itself and our inability as reader to tell the difference between what is real and imagined. Does the title of the book refer to the fact […]
There are times when we have all toyed with being terrible parents, tempted to do the wrong thing. For most of us however, the angel on our shoulder kicks in, reminding us of our parental obligation and ensuring beyond a shadow of a doubt that our child or children are taken good care of. Not […]
The Husband knows all too well that the words ‘science fiction’ and ‘fantasy’ are like a like a death knell for me. Nothing fills me with greater dread than stories set in a different world or in the future. Something in me dies a little when asked to make a leap into a story about […]
It’s very seldom that I bother to finish a book that I don’t think is any good. I’ve never been a believer in persevering with things you don’t enjoy and I’m not clear why people take an attitude towards books that they wouldn’t take towards a meal or a movie. For example I’ve never known […]
If you have pesky commitments like a day job, mortgage, kids, then picking up The Widow by Fiona Barton, is probably not your best idea. Some books, the best kind, demand to be read from the second you pick them up and The Widow is one such novel. Jean Taylor is the kind of woman […]
Nutshell Book Reviews 