Category Archives: Book

Book Review: Hanya Yanagihara’s To Paradise

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara My rating: 2 of 5 stars It’s always difficult, that second book, after the one you fell in love with. Can you read it on its own merits and try not to compare the two? … Continue reading

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Book Review: Byron Katie’s Loving What Is

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie My rating: 4 of 5 stars In November 2015, I seemed to have marked this book as being on my shelf, and having read it, and I … Continue reading

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Book review: A.M. Homes’s Jack

Jack by A.M. Homes My rating: 3 of 5 stars I remember, back in the days, being very impressed with A.M. Homes’s short fiction, but I lost track of her. In any case, I recently came across ‘Jack’, her first … Continue reading

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Book Review: Jeanette Winterson’s Lighthousekeeping

Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson My rating: 3 of 5 stars For many years, Winterson’s ‘The Passion’ was one of my favourite books. There was a perfect melding of myth and history, poetry and a sweeping romanticism that appealed to the … Continue reading

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Book Review: Bernhard Schlink’s Flights of Love (short fiction)

Flights Of Love by Bernhard Schlink My rating: 4 of 5 stars What I like about a collection of short stories, over, say, a novel, is that the landscape is wider, if not necessarily as deep. So, with these stories, … Continue reading

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Book Review: Armistead Maupin’s Mary Ann in Autumn

Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin My rating: 3 of 5 stars I loved the original Tales of the City series. As a much younger man, they made me imagine San Francisco, and what it might be like to … Continue reading

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Book review: Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney My rating: 4 of 5 stars I watched ‘Normal People’ and loved it but hadn’t read any of Sally Rooney’s work until just recently. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I found … Continue reading

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2021 in lists: concerts & shows, theatre, books, movies, TV

Movies (seen in the cinema) Bonjour Tristesse. Read some grumpy words about this here.  La Dolce Vita. Read some grumpy words about this here.  Possessor. A movie from David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon, I brought husband because it was described as … Continue reading

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Book Review: David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell My rating: 2 of 5 stars I’d heard buzz about Cloud Atlas, both the book and the movie, and I can see that some of my (goodreads) friends loved it, but I found it a … Continue reading

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Book Review: Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen My rating: 4 of 5 stars I loved The Sympathizer. I found the story of the duality and duplicity of the half-French, half-Vietnamese counterspy original and irresistible, and it was one of my favourite … Continue reading

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