Thoughts on books and reading, book recommendations, writer profiles and litereary trivia
The premise of this book is that Heaven is a company, and that God is the CEO. Heaven Inc is involved in many activities, only one of which is managing and directing the activities of human beings. The book opens with God, sitting in his plush office, watching TV. He's monitoring the war in Venezuela, …
This is an adaptation of a book that I genuinely loved, so I approached it with all my usual trepidation. There is so much in the book that I didn't think could be translated to the screen - so many long conversations, talk about faith, the complex relationships between the different people in the village, …
This is is book one of the Canon Clement mystery series. It's set in 1988, in the fictious village of Champton, which is in many ways a fairly typical English village. Canon Daniel Clement is the rector of the parish. He is a kindly, thoughtful man in his forties, he loves books and music and …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles"
Smallbone Deceased is a classic crime novel from the 1950's. It's a remarkable book with an excellent plot, well-written characters, clever dialogue and a baffling mystery at the heart of it. The story begins when a new member joins the staff of the law firm of Horniman, Birley and Craine. We see the members of …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert"
This has to be one of the best science fiction series that I've ever read. It features a protagonist who is fascinating and utterly unique, and it is this character, the murderbot in the title, that makes the books so worth reading. The Murderbot is an AI, what the people in this world of the …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells"
This is a play, and I don’t usually read those, but I saw The History Boys, the movie and I liked it so much, that I wanted to read the play that it was based on. This play got under my skin in a way that little else has done in all my years of …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: The History Boys by Alan Bennett"
Antoine Laurain is one of my favourite writers. I pick up every one of his books expecting to love it, and he almost never disappoints. French Windows has all the elements that I associate with his writing. It's charming, quirky, and interesting. But this book has the added element of murder and mystery. You never …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: French Windows by Antoine Laurain"
Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite writers. I have loved every book of his that I've read so far. They are all brilliant, and Unseen Academicals is right up there with the best of them. This is book 37 in the Discworld series and the seventh and final book that features characters from the …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett"
This is the story of a couple, a Mr and Mrs Ransome, who find their sedate and predictable lives disrupted by a completely unexpected event. They go to the opera one evening and they come back home to find that they have been robbed, or so Mrs Ransome says. "Burgled," Mr Ransome says, because people …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett"
A few years ago, I discovered that Georgette Heyer, who I had long associated with regency romance, wrote murder mysteries as well. I came across a few of her books in the crime section of my local bookshop. I picked one up, read it and loved it. She’s an excellent writer. I’ve read a few …
Continue reading "Book recommendation: Behold Here’s Poison by Georgette Heyer"
This is an unassuming, but charming book. It’s about a middle-aged man, Tim Gandy, with grown children who’s just retired and is finding life rather flat. He and his wife have grown apart over the years. He finds that he has somehow, become a spectator in his own life and now that he no longer …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: Mr Gandy’s Grand Tour by Alan Titchmarsh"
As detectives in fiction go, Lord Peter Wimsey is unique. He’s an aristocrat, a gentleman-scholar, and a lover of rare books. He’s a literary expert who can quote at will from Catullus, Shakespeare, Donne, Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and a host of others. He’s a fine musician who plays Bach, Scarlatti, and the Beggar’s Opera, among …
Continue reading "In Focus: Literary Detectives: Lord Peter Wimsey"
This is the second book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series and it is one of the best. Lord Peter is off on vacation with his manservant, Bunter when this story begins. They have just left Corsica after a month there, and landed in Paris when they learn that Lord Peter's older brother Gerald, the …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L Sayers"
“I came here eight years ago as a renter of this farm, of which I soon afterward, become the owner. The time before that, I like to forget. The chief impression it left, upon my memory, now happily growing indistinct, is of being hurried faster than I could well travel…” So begins this account of …
Continue reading "Book Recommendation: Adventures in Contentment by David Grayson"
between the pages 