My thanks to Pushkin Press/Steerforth Press and NetGalley for a review copy of this book. ‘Loss and grief is part of life…we cannot forget the dead’ The Hungry Ghost is a children’s/middle-grade story set in Singapore, and is a story of adventure and ghosts, of family and relationships, of remembering and forgetting, of the past…
Shelf Control #153: Inspector French’s Greatest Case by Freeman Willis Crofts
Wednesday, the 29th of September, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it--what…
Book Review: The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene: Actress, Writer and Rebel Victorian by Helen Batten
My thanks to Allison and Busby and NetGalley for a review copy of this book. The Improbable Adventures of Emily Soldene: Actress, Writer and Rebel Victorian is an entertaining and very readable biography of a rather extraordinary woman—Emily Soldene who was a singer, actress, director, writer and much much more—a woman who wanted fame but…
Book Review: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
My thanks to Canongate and Netgalley for a review copy of this book. The Book of Form and Emptiness is certainly a strange book, a story about loss and coping, about depression and mental illness, about friends and support systems, and of course, about books, for it is a book that tells us the story,…
Book Review: Light Rains Sometimes Fall by Lev Parikian
My thanks to Elliot and Thompson and NetGalley for a review copy of this book. ‘Stop and smell the roses’ we are sometimes told or tell ourselves. Slow down, look about, and take in the beauty and wonders of life around you at all times—it isn’t just flowers, but birds, insects, bees and butterflies, trees…
Shelf Control #152: This Is Not That Dawn by Yashpal
Wednesday, the 22nd of September, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it--what…
Book Review: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
My thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for a review copy of this book. The Man Who Died Twice is the second book in the Thursday Murder Club (the Agatha Christie/Marple allusion just struck me when writing my review) series by Richard Osman. Set in a retirement village, Coopers Chase, the Thursday Murder Club comprises…
Interesting Facts: Richard Gordon: Author of the ‘Doctor’ Books
Gordon Stanley Benton or Richard Gordon, best known for his comic novels around the medical profession, or the 'Doctor' books was born on 15 September 1921, and thus turns 100 today. Gordon was a surgeon and anaesthetist and worked at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and also as a ship's surgeon, and assistant editor of the British…
Shelf Control #151: The Salzburg Connection by Helen MacInnes
Wednesday, the 15th of September, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it--what…
Book Review: Dr Wortle’s School by Anthony Trollope
Dr Wortle’s School (1881) is a standalone and the fortieth book written by Victorian author Anthony Trollope and focuses on themes of morality, justice, social propriety, and gossip, with an incidental thread of romance. Dr Wortle is the proprietor of a boys’ school which prepares students to go on to Eton and eventually Oxford. He…
Literary Potpourri 