lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: Go Set a Watchman
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2015/07/go-set-watchman.html
Saturday, 25 July 2015. Go Set a Watchman. WARNING: There are potential spoilers in this review. I recommend you do not read it until you have read the book. As a book lover, how could I not wade in on this one? Not only did I study To Kill a Mockingbird. Myself when I was young, but as a high school English teacher, I have also taught it many times, and it never, never grows tired. So I was nervous when the news came that this missing manuscript had 'turned up', and that Go Set a Watchman. Floated throu...
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: Fidelity
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2015/07/fidelity.html
Monday, 20 July 2015. Persephone number 4 is a strange book. I enjoyed it immensely and yet, at the same time, I found it rather boring. How can this be? Well, to start with, it follows a well worn plot path: woman is shunned by society after social misdemeanour. This is not enough to bore me, however. Indeed, far from it. I love books that fought for the position of women to be better understood in times when the female voice was little more than a whisper. Is the book well-written? Are frequently used)...
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: Behind the Scenes at the Museum
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2015/07/behind-scenes-at-museum.html
Sunday, 19 July 2015. Behind the Scenes at the Museum. I read this purely on the strength of Life After Life. Which I read last year and absolutely loved. I was declaiming its virtues in work one day, when a colleague asked if I'd read Behind the Scenes at the Museum. At my negative response, she raved lyrical for a good while, and I was convinced. Having now read it, however, I'm not quite. As convinced as I was. But then, it's not the over-arching plotline in Behind the Scenes. Whilst in Life After Life.
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall.html
Sunday, 19 July 2015. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I love Victorian Lit. I love stories with female protagonists. I love female writers. I love Jane Eyre. And yet, an ill-timed - and ultimately deeply unsuccessful - attempt to broach Villette. Whilst on a road trip through Andalucia a few years ago prevented me, until recently, from attempting any of the other of the lesser known of the Bronte oeuvre. A schoolgirl error, I now concede. Anne uses, rather clumsily, it has been said (and I'm tempted to agre...
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: July 2014
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2014_07_01_archive.html
Friday, 4 July 2014. The adjective most applied in publicity for and reviews of this novel is "timely", which in some ways does it a disservice. It is about the First World War, and so, in this centenary year, is indeed auspicious, but there is a richness to Wake. That raises it above the average. I could easily see this as a BBC drama, and if you want to see how it would look, check out the YouTube footage of the procession of the coffin; you can almost see Ada and Ivy laying wreaths at the cenotaph.
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: March 2015
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2015_03_01_archive.html
Monday, 9 March 2015. I do not allow myself to gorge on Murdoch. I am pacing myself, leaving time between each book I read so that I can fully digest it; to read them one after another might taint them, I might attach a character to the wrong book, they might bleed into each other. No, better to separate and to always know there are more to come. This particular book is up there with the best of the Murdochs I have read so far. I absolutely. The novel rather than being part of it. I also question whe...
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: The Jewel in the Crown
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-jewel-in-crown.html
Saturday, 25 July 2015. The Jewel in the Crown. Every so often, I crave a book about India. I think that subconsciously I'm trying to re-live A Suitable Boy. For me the most perfect novel ever written. I loved. That book, from the opening scene to the last. And it gave me a thirst for more about that extraordinary country, although I have yet to find another novel that comes even close to Vikram Seth's. I remember my mother watching the television series of The Jewel in the Crown. The second chapter, how...
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: March 2013
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html
Sunday, 17 March 2013. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness. Many years ago, I read Alexandra Fuller's first book, Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight. Her beautiful way with words stayed with me - I remember her descriptions of Africa's smells. Hot, sweet, smoky, salty, sharp-soft. It is like black tea, cut tobacco, fresh fire, old sweat, young grass."). And how she contrasted that with her first visit to England:. The damp wool sock of London-Heathrow.". So, I was quite excited to finally get r...
lampandbook.blogspot.com
At night - my little Lamp - and Book: August 2014
http://lampandbook.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html
Wednesday, 20 August 2014. A couple of classics. I intend to build a lovely big library of these classics. Not only does the design appeal to me, but the books themselves are gorgeous to read - I'm in love with the paper, the typeface, the complete package. This series really enhances the whole reading experience. And as for the content. Well, it's tried and tested, isn't it? I'm not sure I've ever read a novel as unputdownable as The Woman in White. The Mill on the Floss. The Woman in White. In its favo...
