Goddess by Kelly Gardiner
I came across a mention of Julie d’Aubugny when Oisin McGann retweeted a Quite Interesting fact about her Has anyone written a biography or fictionalised account, cause I'd so read that!...
23 February 2019
Fudoki by Kij Johnson
Princess Harueme is dying. She can feel it, a great weight inside her, so she is preparing for death. Emptying out old trunks, burning the notebooks she has spent a lifetime...
23 September 2014
Oblivion [based on book by] by Arvid Nelson, Joseph Kosinski dir. by Joseph Kosinski
Jack is a drone repair man. Before his assignment on earth his memory, and that of his communications officer, was wiped, to protect the mission. 60 years ago, or so, the...
14 April 2013
The Lantern (group read, week 2) by Deborah Lawrenson
For week 2 we read parts 3 & 4. If you haven’t read these bits of the book then there are spoilers ahead. Questions this week are from Kailana; The title...
17 October 2011
Touch by Alexi Zentner
Stephen has returned home to take up from his stepfather as pastor. He has also returned in time to sit at his dying mother’s bed side. He knows she is dying and is writing her eulogy, but at the same time remembering his past, as well as the stories and legends that grew up surrounding his grandfather Jeannot.
Zentner’s debut novel is a slow, atmospheric retelling of those childhood memories interspresed with Stephen’s musings on his current situation and relationships with his family members.
10 July 2011
The man who lives with wolves by Penny Junor, Shaun Ellis
ISBN: 9780007327157 I first heard of Shaun Ellis when I watched the Natural Geographic documentary on him and his theories about how playing recordings of wolf packs can stop wolf attacks...
30 August 2010
Fun home : a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Like many father, mine could occasionally be prevailed on for a spot of ‘airplane’.
This is the memoir of Alison Bechdel, her recollections of growing up in an emotionally-distant family, the role of literature in her, and her father’s, life, her identifying as a lesbian at college and coming out, by letter, to her parents. It is the story of growing up in a house that can seem more like a museum than a home. Of living in a funeral home. Of trying to connect with her father. All told in graphic form.
26 June 2010
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Author: Brunonia Barry
When I first started reading this book I’ll admit to being a little bit confused. It was group read, for HistoricalFavorites, where was the history aspect. I kept waiting for flashbacks to old Salem and witch hunts. But instead I got the story of Towner Whitney and her family, and how the past is always around, especially when you try to ignore it.
Many of the Whitney family have the gift of reading lace, they can tell a lot about a person and their future, but ever since her sister committed suicide Towner has tried to escape that life. She herself suffered so much from the trauma of that experience that she felt she needed electro-shock therapy in order to overcome her anxieties. But that treatment ripped away many of her memories; now, back in Salem after her aunt’s disappearance Towner is forced to reconnect with people; friends and enemies from her past.
4 May 2010
When we were orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
ISBN: 057120516x ; Other Reviews The narrator of this book, Christopher Banks, is a renowned detective in the 1930’s. One of England’s most famous detectives. Yet one case has always troubled...
22 November 2008
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
My name is Kathy H. I’m thirty-one years old, and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years. That sounds long enough, I know, but actually they want me to go on for another eight months, until the end of this year.
I picked this upon impulse. At home, looking for something for the train, I recognised the author’s name and thought that I may as well give it a go. And I’m so glad I did because I loved this book. The narrator is Kathy H., a 31 year old woman, and the book is her memories of life at boarding school. She and other students lived at Hailsham where they were taught by the “guardians” and brought up in a privileged manner. But all is not as it seems and throughout the novels there are hints at something darker.
9 October 2007
Songdogs by Colum McCann
Sondogs is the tale of seven days in the life of Conor, he has come home to see his father while getting a visa for his return to the states. He...
26 April 2005
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