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Back to the classics. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is probably one of the most famous stories of english literature. The story follows the eponymous heroine as she is coming of age. She is seduced and ruined by one man, rejected by another when she discloses her shame and then further manipulated by…
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I bought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson on the strength of the marketing, the fact that I saw everyone reading it and loads of people said it was good. Normally, I ignore that sort of mass trend but something about this book made me buy it despite its popularity. It was…
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As it’s been a while since I was posting regularly, I’ve gotten a bit out of order with the books I’ve read and for several reasons it’s been a non-fiction heavy month. Other books read in April include: The Reason of Things by A. C. Grayling. This is a collection of philosophical essays about values…
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I was going to leave Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris, the second Sookie Stackhouse novel, until True Blood Season 2 was on but I forgot until I was actually reading it. No matter, from what I’ve read about season 2 I think True Blood is going in a different direction. Which is good…
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April’s Book Club book was Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. It wasn’t my cup of tea. I was bored reading it and it felt like a chore. But that wasn’t because of the skill or talent on display, both of which were impressive. It was more about the subject matter. The novel is about a young…
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Phew, it’s been a while. Partly it’s because I’ve been travelling and partly it’s because I’m sick. The travel is a short term thing. I went to Athens on holiday. That was lovely. I really liked Athens and the Acropolis was amazing. Then I ended up in Abu Dhabi because of erupting volcanos. The sick…
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Target by Simon Kernick is an easy read. It’s a fast-paced thriller and is fairly typical of the genre. There were a few noteworthy things about it. Firstly, loads of people died. I know it was a thriller about a psychotic hitman, but still. It did feel like there was a bit of red-shirt syndrome…
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Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh is a delight. It follows the activities of the ‘it’ crowd in the late nineteen-twenties. They are the sons and daughters of the rich and famous. It’s funny and in places it’s tragic. In contrast to The Left Hand of Darkness, the writing was quite terse and restrained, but it…
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I put The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin up for my book club to read. There was a point before I’d read it where I was getting worried that it would be really hard going, because two people had given up on it only a few pages in. But I have two…
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Yesterday I spent the day on the work-in-progress which now, for the first time ever, has an ending. It also has a new front-runner for the title. I’ve been writing quite a bit of new material and had reached a point where I needed to get organised and put all my stuff in order. As…
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Boudica Marginalia 