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A Man In Full by Tom Wolfe |
Charlie Croker appears to be a very wealthy entrepreneur with everything a man can possibly desire: huge houses, private jets, second trophy wife...but he has huge debts and is about to lose everything, until a friend of the Mayor comes to him with a strange proposal to free him of his debt on a certain condition. I highly recommend reading this voluminous book about Atlanta and its rich people and politics. It's gripping.
(bwl 25 August 2004) |
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A Special Relationship by Douglas Kennedy |
Sally Goodchild, a 37-year-old American foreign correspondent in Cairo, meets and falls in love with Tony Hobbs, a famous British journalist. She becomes pregnant and, as they seem to be happy together, they marry and return to London. And they don't live happily ever after! It's much more the beginning of hell . . . a good read for a grey and cold winter weekend.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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A Widow's Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates |
This book is especially interesting In these days when divorce has become so common. It tells movingly of Oates' puzzlement, loneliness and raw suffering when her not so young husband dies. What is it that some people seem to know, which enables them to share their life, nourishing one another? And then they are lost when they're left alone by the death of their spouse. And in Oates' case her writing doesn't seem to help her.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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About a Boy by Nick Hornby |
This is a book about today's life: broken relationships, single-parent families, difficulties of growing up in such contexts but it's written in a casual sort of way, which seems effortless but it's probably not so effortless to write. And it's funny and sweet.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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About Face by Donna Leon |
Commissario Brunetti meets a woman, Franca Marinello, who once must have been beautiful. Now, although she is still young, she has been disfigured by what seems to have been a bad facelift. Brunetti is troubled by her appearance but charmed by her very good taste in books (Virgil and Cicero). In the course of an investigation, he will learn a great deal more about her. . . as usual with Donna Leon, a very good read.
(bwl 51 May 2009) |
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Adam and Eve and Pinch Me by Ruth Rendell |
The last Ruth Rendell and not a Wexford; so maybe it's the reason why I found it a bit disappointing. Jerry Leach is a despicable man, using women to get money and it will be by the most stupid and naive that he will be cruelly punished...
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend |
Adrian Mole is back! This time he's writing to Tony Blair, asking for confirmation about Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction. His aim is to retrieve his holiday deposit from a stubborn travel agent's adviser! And by the way, could Tony's wife come to their writing group's (3 people) Christmas dinner? And the worst is to come when he lets the terrible Marigold Flowers become engaged to him. So funny!
(bwl 29 April 2005) |
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An Almost Perfect Moment by Binnie Kirshenbaum |
I enjoyed this unpretentious book about a naive Jewish girl, whose mother seems to have only two occupations: playing mah-jong with her female friends or cooking Jewish meals. It is set in Brooklyn in the age of disco, an age from which these two women are almost completely alienated. Very touching.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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Atonement by Ian McEwan |
A drama and a great book: thirteen year old Briony tells a lie and in doing so she dramatically changes the lives of her sister Cecilia and her lover Robbie. Her lie will make her an artist, a writer, but will she be able to find atonement? Probably never...
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler |
Fifty-three year old Rebecca lost her husband years ago but brought up their child and his three teenage daughters as well as looking after a lot of his family. One day, she thinks she has become a wrong person. If only she had married her teenage boyfriend would life have been much better or not? Rebecca is a real character and she doesn't know it. It's a great book and would make a great movie.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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Ben, In the World by Doris Lessing |
In this sequel to 'The Fifth Child', Ben becomes the main character and we don't learn anything new about his family. Ben is very lonely, not equipped to deal with life in general: he's very strong physically but very naïve, more an animal than a human being. It's a quick but deep read.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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Blood from a Stone by Donna Leon |
An African street vendor is killed in Campo Santo Stefano, shortly before Christmas. He was a nobody, so who's going to bother to find his murderer? Commissario Brunetti of course, and even when warned by his superior not to! A good one by Donna Leon.
(bwl 31 September 2005) |
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Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell |
The new Cornwell is here and because of its content she can guarantee we'll want her next one too! Scarpetta, no longer Virginia's most famous Chief Medical Examiner, is no longer a happy woman. Marino becomes really worried about her when Jean-Baptiste Chandone, (the vicious French wolf-man who nearly killed her) asks to see her from his cell on death row. And he's right to worry, because some people are coming back from the dead . . .
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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Blue Nights by Joan Didion |
Following the loss of her daughter, Joan Didion looks back on her life, remembering and reflecting on the past. It's so well written, she makes you feel envious of her unique talent.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham |
Set in Manhattan, a mid-forties couple, Peter and Rebecca seem to have everything: the career, the money, the loft in Soho and the happiness. But then Rebecca's younger brother, Mizzy, shows up - just back from rehab - and everything changes for them. A very good read.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Chameleon by Mark Burnell |
This is a chilling story about the world of international terrorism, much more chilling when you read it after the 11th September 2001...You follow its two main characters without really understanding who is or are behind them. And it makes you wonder...
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger |
Three thirty-something Manhattan girls are all chasing Harry Winston with each of them ending up with much more or much less than they expected. By the author of The Devil wears Prada - not serious but very entertaining . . .
(bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope |
If you have, or perhaps had, a difficult mother-in-law, this is an interesting read and more profound than it seems at first. Basically it raises the obvious question: why is it so difficult for so many newly married women to get along with their mothers-in-law? Because if you have fallen in love with her son, why do you find his mother so bad?
(bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs |
If you like to be terrified, checking all your doors and windows when reading, this is the book for you. P D James says it's great, critics say it's better than Patricia Cornwell and both are right. But don't read it when you're alone...
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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Death in Holy Orders by P D James |
We find again and with the same pleasure Commander Dalgliesh. He has to return to the theological college he visited when he was a boy to re-examine the verdict of an accidental death. As usual there are many deaths and we're lost till the end. This time, it's going to be more difficult to wait for the next book, because at last Dalgliesh may have found love and we want to know more about it!
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Disordered Minds by Minette Walters |
Anthropologist Jonathan Hugues joins forces with councilor George Gardener (an elderly woman!) in an attempt to uncover yet another miscarriage of justice in England. In the 70's, Howard Stamp, a retarded 20-year-old, committed suicide in prison after having been convicted of brutally murdering his grandmother. It's a good read and it's interesting to note how skillfully, book after book, Minette Walters is able to paint such an assortment of different characters.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Elizabeth Costello by J M Coetzee |
Elizabeth Costello is a famous, elderly Australian writer whose life has become a series of conferences throughout the world. But she's become a bore! She compares the killings of the animals we eat with the holocaust, for example. Definitely not a good book, a disappointment by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(bwl 28 February 2005) |
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Four Blondes by Candace Bushnell |
I found this novel by the famous author of 'Sex and the City' really entertaining. It gives you consolation that you don't live in Manhattan and are not one of those beautiful, rich (even if through a husband or different lovers) stupid blondes. Because they may think they have it all - especially Manolo Blahnik shoes and Designer clothes - but what they miss (and you probably not) is a love life and funny reads!
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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Freedom by Jonathan Franzen |
This is a great American novel - moving, depressing, and hilarious at the same time. Wait till you're reading when Walter Belgrund is trying to convince his neighbours that their cats should stay indoors at all times for the sake of one species of birds he really cares about! It makes you think: Is this planet becoming really crazy? A very good novel.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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From Piranha to Scurfy and Other Stories by Ruth Rendell |
I usually don't like short stories but these are so good that you cannot forget them! There's a funny one 'Computer Séance' where a psychic fails to predict her own murder or 'The Wink' where a country girl takes her revenge on her rapist thirty or forty years later! Very good reading.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureshi |
It's the story of a talented teenager. He lost his twin brother when he was two but he still 'communicates' with him. His parents, old hippies are artists and failures at the same time and they separate at the beginning of the book. All Gabriel's efforts are devoted to bringing them back together. Will he succeed? I'm not going to tell, but Kureishi's book is moving and well written.
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Good Faith by Jane Smiley |
Joe Stratford has a very ordinary life selling houses in a beautiful part of America. But one day Marcus Burns arrives from New York with big ideas on how to become very rich. And they start to play Monopoly for real. It's very interesting and you learn a lot about buying and selling houses and of course Joe inevitably will end rather poorer than richer!
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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Hour of the Wolf by Haken Nesser |
Chief Inspector Van Veeteren has retired but when his son is murdered, he can't resist assisting his former colleagues. As usual a very good read by this Swedish author.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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How to Be Good by Nick Hornby |
It starts well with a sentence like 'I've thought about divorce before, of course. Who hasn't?' and you think you're going to learn some useful information about how to stay married for forty years or more! But no, the doctor heroine Katie Carr doesn't find any answers and finally stays with an unbearable husband because it's what a woman vicar told her to do! A bit disappointing.
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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I Feel Bad About My Neck - And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron |
Nora Ephron is an American writer famous for the script of "When Harry Met Sally" and is also an American woman of more than sixty. And even with all the American tricks (beauticians, personal trainers, coaches and/or botox) she knows the grief of the sagging neck against which apparently there's nothing you can do. . . but she manages to be as hilarious as she is profound.
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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I'm Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe |
771 pages of pure delight. The perfect, thick book in which to immerse oneself when on holiday. Meet Charlotte Simmons - a very high I Q, a sheltered childhood in the small town of Sparta, North Carolina - and see how she struggles with the difficult process of growing up when she arrives at Dupont University on a full scholarship . . .
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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If I Stay by Gayle Forman |
One morning, a happy family of four in Oregon takes the car to see friends. There's the father, the mother, their seventeen year old daughter, Mia, and their 7 year old son, Teddy. A few minutes later only Mia is still barely alive. Based on a true story, it's an intensely moving book.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Imperium by Robert Harris |
I loved this book about Cicero, the great writer and brilliant Roman lawyer, as it is told by his faithful slave, Tiro. So much better than a history book and twice as interesting.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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Invisible by Paul Auster |
This is a strange novel, strange because it has three different narrators telling the same story. The main protagonist is Adam Walker, whose life - from 1967 until his early death from cancer in 2007 - is chronicled in the disturbing and unfinished manuscript he leaves behind. A very profound and interesting read indeed.
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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Little Black Book of Stories by A S Byatt |
Five short stories, all of them very strange and very black (as the title of the book suggests). In 'Raw Material', a teacher of creative writing discovers among his ungifted pupils a Writer, but when he goes to see her, he makes a dreadful discovery... Very disturbing.
(bwl 28 February 2005) |
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Marry Me by John Updike |
It's so perceptive and honest. It's the story of two couples, Ruth and Jerry and Sally and Richard. One day Sally and Jerry begin an affaire. They think they're in love, they want to marry each other but they are already married to other people! It's a book every person on the verge of divorce should read. It shows the mess it brings to them, to their other halves and to their children.
(bwl 27 December 2004) |
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Martin Bauman by David Leavitt |
Not the best from Leavitt but very absorbing. Set in literary Manhattan of the eighties, it depicts the formative years of a young writer very similar to Leavitt himself. It's a good read for a rainy spring weekend.
(bwl 29 April 2005) |
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Middle Age by Oates Joyce Carol |
Another novel for those long winter evenings! It shows the changes that the death of Adam Berendt makes to his friends, wealthy middle-aged inhabitants of Salthill-on-Hudson: before it was all business, dinner parties and shopping but afterwards . . . well it's a lot more surprising!
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore |
Mourning Ruby is a very moving book about the loss of an only daughter and the tragic effects it has on her parents, although it does have some failings. For example, I found that when it digressed about the mother's life, it didn't seem to be going anywhere and was disappointing.
(bwl 25 August 2004) |
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My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey |
Sarah Wode-Douglass is the editor of 'The Modern Review' and when a friend of her family, John Slater, invites her to follow him to Kuala Lumpur, she accepts only because she thinks he was once her mother's lover. But there she discovers the brilliant writing of a 'fake' writer. What is a fake writer? Read this clever book from a master writer to find out...
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell |
Once again, a very thick but very good read from the author of Sex and the City. Of course it's Manhattan, of course it's the right part of Fifth Avenue, of course the people are very rich but what she reveals about her characters is full of life's lessons.
(bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Oracle Night by Paul Auster |
Another very good book by Paul Auster. It's nine days in the life of a writer, Sydney Orr, who is recovering after a near fatal illness. And this book gives us an insight into what it is like to lead a writer's life: how do real life and imaginary worlds mix together? You see the writer beginning a story then unravelling it; fascinating!
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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Our Lady of The Forest by David Guterson |
Ann is a runaway teenager who earns her living by picking mushrooms in the woods and deals with her asthma and many allergies by swallowing too many pills. So when she receives visions from the Virgin Mary, the Catholic Church is very dubious. But thanks to the internet Ann has two thousand followers supporting her! The story sometimes loses momentum but the way Guterson writes and describes life's many subtleties is superb.
(bwl 26 October 2004) |
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Out by Natsuo Kirino |
A sensational Japanese thriller and more! It's the story of four very ordinary women in the Tokyo suburbs, where they all work the night shift at a boxed-lunch factory. Finally one of them cracks and kills her unfaithful and gambling husband, and one of the others is there for her! You can't put it down!
(bwl 26 October 2004) |
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Possession by A S Byatt |
Subtitled 'A Romance' this is more of a detective novel. Roland Michell, twenty-nine, is a graduate of Prince Albert College. He is studying the life of Randolph Henry Ash, an austere 19th century poet, when he finds two letters from him. After a lengthy search and a lot of help from an attractive professor at Lincoln University, he discovers a long hidden and tragic love story. Gripping.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton |
Kinsey Millhone is back with another adventure and some romance. . . . The story may not be of great significance but Sue Grafton's work never disappoints. An ideal read if you want to spend a nice afternoon forgetting about the real world.
(bwl 27 December 2004) |
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Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher |
Carrie Fisher has the knack of being amusing even when telling the most outrageous facts. It's not completely her fault. With parents like Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor as a step-mom and a friendship with Michael Jackson, well it does help!
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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Snow by Orhan Pamuk |
This is the story of Ka, a Turkish Poet and the three days he spent in a city cut off from the outside world by continuously falling snow. Turkey is depicted as a scary place, not because of bird flu, but because of its politics and the power of the military. It's all so different to our western culture but this deep and complex book leaves you with an understanding of the Turkish modus operandi.
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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So Much for That by Lionel Shriver |
This is a book - not only a very good novel, one of those you can't put down - but a book that makes you think. Gladys' illness (cancer) is frightening, as is the amount of money Shep, her husband, has to spend in order to do . . . what? Give her a few more painful months to live? It asks all the good questions about life, death, love and what is worth it. Read it.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham |
I started Cunningham's new novel with great expectations - I must admit I'm a fan - but I was puzzled at first: this book is so different from his previous ones. And then I was captivated by his old charm. The section 'In the Machine' haunts you a long time after you finish it and the difference to his previous books is the unease and horror that characters experience. There may be hope but it's far away.
(bwl 31 September 2005) |
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State of the Union by Douglas Kennedy |
It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a novel so much. It tells the story of Hannah Buchan from the Sixties to the present day. She is the very sensible daughter of not so sensible parents who, to their utter disappointment, chose to marry at the age of twenty a nice future doctor and to become a teacher. But one night something happened, something for which she'll be punished but not until decades later . . .
(bwl 32 November 2005) |
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Sunset Park by Paul Auster |
Mike Heller, a Trash-out worker in Florida during the dark months of the 2008 economic collapse, falls in love with Pilar, an underage teenager. When her sister threatens to report him to the police, he flies back to New York, his past and his divorced parents, where he settles in a squat with other young people in Sunset Park, Brooklyn . . . but he wasn't meant to end well . . . a good Auster.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Swann's Way - A la recherche du temps perdu - Volume 1 by Marcel Proust |
Unlike most of us, Proust was an acute observer: an observer of himself when recalling how as a boy he tricked his mother to come and kiss him good night over and over again; an observer of human behaviour when describing Swann and his love for Odette, 'a woman who was not even his kind'! and lastly an observer of nature as is revealed in his depiction of the countryside and the world around him.
(bwl 13 April 2002) |
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The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak |
The bastard is nineteen-year old Asya. Her mother, Zeliha, will only tell her who her father was on the day of his funeral. Zeliha lives with her three sisters and their mother in Istanbul. Their brother left for America nineteen years ago and has been living with American Rose and her daughter from her marriage to an Armenian. Rose's daughter comes to Istanbul to discover her roots. She discovers much more and so do we.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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The Bay of Angels by Anita Brookner |
Zoë's mother, an early widow, is one of those women who never worked and Zoë, despite a university degree, is not very successful in her professional or social life; so what's going to happen to mother and daughter? In fact nothing much, but the book makes us ask: what makes life worthwhile? What is an interesting, happy or full life? And that's where the interest of the book lies.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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The Body by Hanif Kureshi |
Amazing reading! Amongst these eight short stories, the longest and the best is 'The Body' in which a writer learns from a casual acquaintance that there is a hospital where mysterious doctors can transfer your brain into a younger body of your choice. Being a writer he is tempted to try it, as an experiment just for six months. Unfortunately, he's going to find himself trapped!
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster |
When I read the very good reviews here and there about Auster's latest book, I thought: "a story about a Vermont professor writing about a comic genius of the silent cinema, no way!" And then I bought it and read it and urge you to do the same. Do the same because of Auster's talent!
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly |
A trial is a contest of lies. Yes, everybody lies in a trial and that's what is fascinating. Recently out of rehab, lawyer Mickey Haller inherits the clients of an old colleague and finds himself defending Walter Elliot, a Hollywood mogul, accused of murdering his wife and her lover. Connelly's famous cop is here, too, Hieronymus Bosch, and he and Haller are about to be linked in a surprising way. A very good read.
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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The Brave by Nicholas Evans |
This story of big lies and family secrets spans the years between the late 1950's and 2007. It begins when Tom, an 8-year old English boy, is living in rural England then switches to America, where he eventually becomes reconciled with his adult son. A moving, well written book.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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The Courage Consort by Michael Faber |
The Courage Consort, (what a strange name) is a capella vocal ensemble, 'possibly the seventh best-known in Britain'! The characters are given two weeks in a Belgian château to rehearse their latest commission. This two weeks rehearsal is perhaps a summary of their lives and relationships. It's very subtle and very well written.
(bwl 26 October 2004) |
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The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber |
This is an 834 page hardback novel, the story of Sugar - a nineteen-year-old whore - who falls, rises and ...... The setting is 1870's London but it's not simply a Victorian novel, it also has a very modern feel. Read it as quickly as you can and beg Michel Faber with me to give us a follow-up very soon!
(bwl 17 February 2003) |
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The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown |
This 454 page thriller is an absolute pleasure. Robert Langdon, an American symbologist, and Sophie Neveu, a French cryptologist, meet in the Louvre at the scene where her curator grandfather has been murdered. Suspected by the police, they escape and, using their unique skills to decipher the gruesome clues he has left, turn detective to try to find not only his murderer but the much sought after secret which led to his death. Brilliant.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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The Dangerous Husband by Jane Shapiro |
This is a book about a marriage, an American marriage. The couple meet at a Thanksgiving party, fall in love and marry a few weeks later. Then, they try to live together. How do you live with a man who shares his flat with a frog in a bucket, a messy dog in his bed and a burnt cat hidden in a cupboard? How? I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to read it.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl |
A story set in Boston in 1865 among a group of elite scholars who call themselves The Dante Club. They're busy finishing what will be America's first translation of The Divine Comedy. When a series of murders occur they soon realise that they are based on the description of Hell's punishments from Dante's Inferno! It's a fantastic thriller that will make you want to read Dante!
(bwl 24 June 2004) |
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The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters |
The new Minette Walters is gripping because it brings into it much of our contemporary troubled world. It's the story of Connie Burns, a Reuters correspondent who is used to a dangerous life. But she knows too much about a serial killer and something terrible happens to her in Baghdad, so terrible that she gives up her job and flees to rural England to hide, until . . .
(bwl 32 November 2005) |
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The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly |
Connelly gets better and better and so does his lawyer, Mickey Haller. In fact if DSK goes to trial, he should hire him! American justice is fascinating because so different from ours. A very good read.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson |
Forget the story (though it's an interesting one) but get to know Mikael Blonquist (disgraced journalist and ladies' man) and Lisbeth Salander (psychic case but brilliant hacker) because there are two more books to be published soon. And then you'll understand that unhappily for us this author died prematurely. . .
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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The Mark of the Angel by Nancy Huston |
The heroine is Saffie, a young German woman with a troubled past: she arrives in Paris in 1957 and becomes maid, then wife to Raphael, a privileged French musician. She never loves him but she's grateful for what he gives her: security. One day she falls in love and drama follows... I discovered a great writer.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides |
Meet Madeleine Hanna, an American student in the eighties, madly in love with charismatic, manic-depressive Leonard Bankhead, while at the same time Mitchell Grammaticus (a brilliant but withdrawn student) is sure that she is destined to be his future wife. You follow the beginning of their promising lives with interest. It's a very pleasurable thick read, funny and sad.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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The Moment by Douglas Kennedy |
I used to be a Kennedy fan but I disliked this over-sentimental pseudo love story! You just don't understand the mid-life crisis of the narrator. Yes, his life is a failure but not because he gave up the love of his life when he was young but simply because he was afraid to fully live. You can really skip it.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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The Photograph by Penelope Lively |
An interesting book that shows how a man, years after his wife's suicide, realises how far he was from knowing and understanding her. It's constructed like a detective novel: he finds a photograph of his wife with a lover, and he becomes involved in searching for what really happened.
(bwl 25 August 2004) |
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The Pyramid by Henning Mankell |
Both for fans* of Inspector Kurt Wallander and a fascinating introduction to those new to this character. These 5 short stories - by filling in the gaps from the beginnings of his career and chronicling some interesting cases - uncover the reasons that led to his divorce with Mona as well as what lay behind his difficulties with his father (an incredible trip to Egypt). It's an essential!
*Editor's note: And there will soon be millions more as Kenneth Branagh is starring in a new BBC series based on this character.
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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The Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert |
This book is going to become a classic! It's the story of Alma Wittakers, a very wealthy American girl and a self-taught brilliant botanist in the 18th century. And that's the thing: Gilbert makes the study of moss interesting while at the same time telling the story of Alma's life. You have to read it.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans |
If you liked 'The Horse Whisperer', you will like this one as well. There is the tragic love story, a woman torn between two best friends, the beauty of the wild countryside of the American West. Of course, it's very romantic and predictably it ends well, but who cares? It's perfect for a rainy autumn weekend.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing |
This is a classic novel, perfect for the long winter evenings. It is a tale of two strong women's lives - Frances and her mother-in-law Julia - and their many relatives.
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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The Whore's Child by Richard Russo |
These short stories are like wonderful small novels. Each time you don't want the story to stop as you do want to know more about his characters' lives. It's the kind of book you want to have with you all the time and read it and re-read it as often as you can.
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion |
Joan Didion was far from being a young girl when her husband died suddenly in front of her of a massive heart attack. It was already a very difficult time for her because their only daughter was lying unconscious in hospital. She, who has been writing words all her life, finds herself utterly at a loss as to how to express her feelings. A very simple and very moving book.
(bwl 43 December 2007) |
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Thirteen Steps Down by Ruth Rendell |
Mix Cellini is a superstitious failure, obsessed with the life of John Christie, a famous murderer of the1950s. When he himself has a go at murder, you really want to help him because he's so inept! Despite being extremely well-read, his very old landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer, is also a complete failure when faced with love, life or simply reality. One of them is going to kill the other. . . Happy reading!
(bwl 30 June 2005) |
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Time to Be in Earnest by P D James |
This book is really interesting because the author has seen a lot of changes in England in about 70 years. For example, she explains that the idea behind the NHS was that once everybody had access to care, then, they wouldn't need the service anymore! On the other hand, when we see what a social life is expected of a successful author, we can only regret that she doesn't write more for our selfish pleasure!
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Villages by John Updike |
A disappointment. I was looking forward to Updike's latest book but was irritated by Owen Mackenzie's lack of willpower! Here is a man at the end of his life trying to convince you that it was never his fault he was unfaithful to his wife but it was always the 'other' women who initiated the affaires. Who is he kidding?
(bwl 27 December 2004) |
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We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver |
Eva Khatchadourian writes to her estranged husband her version of their sons Kevin's upbringing till that fatal day when he killed nine people just three days before his sixteenth birthday! It is constructed like a thriller and often you gasp at what you learn. It makes you think hard: what makes a monster - his parents? his upbringing? himself? A very interesting read indeed.
* Winner of this year's Orange Prize.
(bwl 29 April 2005) |
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What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt |
Siri Hustvedt's book is not a happy one. As we follow the lives of two friends, Leo 'the art historian' and Bill 'the painter', and that of their wives - two for Bill, one for Leo - we experience the many ups and terrible downs of life. We see how easily the course of someone's life can be altered for ever simply because of what happens to someone you love. It's very unsettling but gripping.
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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What Remains - A memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love by Carole Radziwill |
The author grew up in a small suburb. She married her prince - Anthony Radzivill - and became friends with his cousin, John Kennedy Jnr, and his wife Carolyn who were killed in a famous plane crash three weeks before her husband died of cancer. What struck me is the way that she illuminates - probably despite herself - the huge gulf between her simple world and the 'aristocratic' world of her husband's family. Moving and interesting.
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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When we were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro |
It could have been a detective novel: you have the clever detective, international settings (London and old Shanghai) and the 1930s. The clever detective is going back to China to try to discover the truth about the long ago disappearance of his parents and he will discover it but then the book ends in a poignant tragedy. This is a classic, beautiful and moving.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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While England Sleeps by David Leavitt |
Leavitt didn't fight Franco in Spain nor was he a young, upper-class English writer in the 1930s but his talent, and he's got plenty of it, is to make us believe that he really took part in all that! A very convincing book.
(bwl 13 April 2002) |
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Worth Dying For by Lee Child |
When Jack Reacher stops for a night at the Apollo Inn, in Nebraska, he doesn't expect that he will have to stay for several more difficult days. Without intending to, he encounters the Duncans, the local clan which is terrorising the county. So true to form, he does some cleansing and resolving and then resumes his solitary journey. A very good read as usual.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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