Although watching my son explore our local SureStart Centre can be fun, there is definitely a finite amount of time I can bear to spend watching him play with cars. Recently, that time having long since expired, I found myself browsing the centre’s bookshelves and spotted Sally Goddard Blythe’s ‘What Babies and Children Rally Need’. […]
After spending a day at home with my eleven month old son, it’s very easy to look around me and wonder what I’ve achieved. So I’ve tidied away the toys that made the living room look like a branch of the Early Learning Centre, cleaned on, around and under the high chair for the third […]
I like narratives with a distinctive voice. That said, I find narrators with a truly distinctive voice can take a bit of getting used to. My first perusal of the opening pages of Ken Bruen’s ‘Purgatory’ didn’t inspire me to read further and I let most of the month slip by, reading other things, until […]
I’m always interested in the reasons writers choose to adopt pseudonyms. Crime novelist Agatha Christie published six “romance” novels as Mary Westmacott; adult sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov wrote a series of YA novels as Paul French; and, of course, Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling was recently unmasked as Robert Galbraith, author of ‘The Cuckoo’s […]
Until very recently, I refused to join Twitter; I didn’t understand the point of it but knew that I already lost enough precious time to the lure of the Internet. Now, I’m a convert. Not only is it a great source of book-related links, but it turns out that it can be a source of […]
Sometimes, I deliberately read books I suspect I will disagree with. Why would any sane person do this to themselves? Two reasons: it’s important to know what arguments the ‘other side’ are using and it’s important to check the validity of these arguments. After all, you could be wrong. If so, better to know it […]
When I learned that Maggie O’Farrell would be speaking at my local library I immediately resolved to reread her debut novel, ‘After You’d Gone’*. What’s it about? Alice Raikes randomly boards a train from London to Edinburgh, thinking she will visit her family. Almost as soon as she arrives, she sees something that stuns her […]
This is why I love book groups: they draw your attention to books you might otherwise never have discovered. What’s it about? Jenn Ashworth’s debut novel, ‘A kind of Intimacy’, stars Annie, a lonely, obese woman who narrates her increasingly awkward attempts to build a new life and get to know her new neighbours – […]
Why are libraries constantly having book sales these days? Once upon a time I’m sure they had sales bi-annually or every quarter, but these days – much like the high street – the sales seem to be on constantly. This means bad things for my overcrowded bookshelves which this week became reluctant hosts to another […]
Visiting my lovely local bookshop, Chapter One, during Independent Booksellers week meant that they kindly provided me with free coffee, cake and the opportunity to chat with local poet A.F. Harrold. Of course, all free things have their price and so I duly felt obliged to buy a book. ‘I Don’t know why she bothers’ […]