For some reason I had it in my mind that Euphoria by Lily King was a first novel, so I went online to see if she had published a second. Much to my delight I found that she had published not one, but three novels previously of which I was unaware. Choices! Choices! I promptly […]
I’ve made no qualms of telling you previously how much I enjoy Lisa Jewell and The Third Wife is no exception, but as with The House We Grew Up In, it’s a sad book and one that really makes you ponder the meaning of love, marriage and ultimately forgiveness. Adrian is loved by all, but […]
I’ve been reading a lot of Lisa Jewell books lately and they have made me realize that the reasons that I loved Lisa Jewell twenty years ago are different to why I enjoy her today. Upon reflection, I think that she has grown with me, with my own sensibilities. As I’ve aged and matured, so […]
I used to think that Jane Green understood me, personally. It’s the one foot in England and one foot in the US thing, that gives her a comforting transatlantic reliability in my mind. I know that the stories will be good and that she writes about what I know, namely the cultural and emotional differences […]
Like finding a good man, you sometimes need to meet the right book at the right time. In retrospect and due to a misunderstanding with my good friend Mrs P, I found this book at the wrong time. The House We Grew Up In isn’t really the kind of book that you read when you […]
I at once loved Dept. Of Speculation by Jenny Offill and had to acknowledge that I had never read anything quite like it. It’s so beautiful and well done that frankly it has rendered me bereft of words to describe it. To tell you what this story is about, hardly seems to do it justice […]
Years and years and years ago, a book was published called Ralph’s Party. It was chick lit and I just loved it. The writer was Lisa Jewell and in very quick succession I demolished whatever she wrote. I remember my old boss and friend, Mrs N, who always seemed to be invited to the best […]
The idea of a story centered around a perverse concept of ageing or death is not in itself new. Certainly in recent years the film industry has shown us Brad Pitt ageing backwards in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Blake Lively frozen in time in the beautiful Age of Adaline. Clare North gave […]
Reach for that box of tissues. You are going to cry. I fully acknowledge that I was late to the party with this book. For what seemed like years, I had seen it in Bookshop Santa Cruz and mentally labeled it ‘another war novel’. I approached The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah, somewhat jaded after the […]
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 […]
Nutshell Book Reviews 