I feel like I’ve just spent the last 10 days wrapped in a priceless Italian tapestry. A heavy but lavish carpet of Dukes, Duchesses, frescos and treachery. Set in Italy the mid 1500’s, the story is based on Robert Browning’s poem about the short life and marriage of the 16-year-old Duchess of Ferrara. Married […]
Category Archives: All
September
15
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
posted by Ms A
I don’t know if I’ve just finished a book of fact or fiction but I do know that that’s exactly what Graeme Macrae Burnet intended. It’s London in the 60’s and a quirky young woman makes an appointment with the charismatic yet unqualified psychotherapist of the day, Collins Braithwaite. She wants to see him because […]
July
04
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
posted by Ms A
Geraldine Brooks’ first novel, Year of Wonders, remains one of my favourite books of all time. She has written plenty of other rippers too, including March and People of The Book. Horse is her latest, and I’ve just finished it at warp speed with the smile of a happy reader on my face from beginning […]
May
28
An Odyssey – A Father, Son and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
posted by Ms A
Did you know that the word “odyssey” derives from Odysseus, the central character of Homer’s epic Greek poem? Or that the word mentor derives from the character “Mentor” who Odysseus chose to watch over his infant son during the many years he was away? Before you worry, no I didn’t read Homer’s Odyssey (or pay […]
May
27
The Furies by Mandy Beaumont
posted by Ms K
If, for some strange reason, you happen to see me in real life and you think I look decidedly like someone who has been dragged through a hedge backwards, I haven’t. I’ve just read The Furies. This book is ferocious and in the words of Elvis Presley, I am all shook up, still, having finished […]
April
01
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
posted by Ms K
Cute title but there’s a word missing because this one’s much more My INDULGENT Year of Rest and Relaxation. And it is kind of a trick title because I’m anything but relaxed having read it. There were a lot of ‘are you kidding me’ faces pulled as I ploughed on, but the most important bit […]
March
27
Catch Us the Foxes by Nicola West
posted by Ms K
Well hi there Readheads, long time no blog. It’s been quite the year already right, so while my dedication to reading hasn’t suffered, my time to blog about it has. Tell me, is it June already because for the love of Rapid Antigen Tests, it sure feels like it. Anyhoo, I’ve been seeing this on […]
January
10
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
posted by Ms K
I may be slow sometimes but praise-be, I catch up eventually. Who knew The Midnight Library was a ginormous best seller? Not me. This was another random selection but I learnt quickly everyone else has been in a conniption over it and rightly so. It’s one of those fabulous jewels built from great writing and […]
January
08
A Theatre For Dreamers by Polly Samson
posted by Ms K
Because overseas travel is still rather iffy right now, for those of us desperately longing for a sun-drenched jaunt to Greece, here’s some good news. Reading A Theatre for Dreamers you can almost feel the sun on your skin, hear the lapping of turquoise water on the pebbled shore and taste the sticky ouzo. Truly […]
January
05
Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto
posted by Ms K
Wild Abandon is right. I really hate to say it but I nearly abandoned this book 431 times. That’s how many pages long this book is. It was so disappointing but because I thought it was more me than Emily Bitto, I persevered. I realised on page 431, it was definitely the author and 100% […]
