With the way this year started out, I figured some light, heart and wisdom would go a long way. It has taken me this long to go back to Sir Terry Pratchett’s books after his death, but I was feeling melancholy and in need of a lift. Witches Abroad is a fish out of water/fairytale nod that features Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick (who shall always be known as Magrat the wet hen). The titular witches do indeed travel abroad, and I absolutely […]
Hand the carbs over and no one gets hurt
I was a bit nervous renting this one from the library. Unlike what seems like every other reader on the planet, I reallllly despised Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. I didn’t like the plot, the incessant talking about boobs and Google, or the characters. And yes, I realize I’m a curmudgeon. However, it bothered me how the female character in that book was portrayed which meant that picking up Sourdough, featuring a female protagonist, was a bit of a gamble. Was I going to end up […]
Good in little bites
Charlotte Stein is a must read for me. So I grabbed this when Kindle told me it was available (all hail my amazonian overlords). Stein’s books are not kissing books, they are fucking books. So there is the usual dance of making sure no one is likely to be reading over my shoulder on my commute train because I like to think my porn is at least mostly private. Her short story collections, of which this is one, are really short tone poems. Like kink […]
Life is a Cabaret, old Chum
I can’t believe it’s taken me 40 years to read Christopher Isherwood. Ok, maybe it’s only been 34 years because there’s no way I could have read this when I was 6. But I digress. The Berlin Stories is a combination of two of Isherwood’s novels – The Last of Mr Norris (Mr Norris Changes Trains in this edition) and Goodbye to Berlin. In Mr Norris, instead of Christopher Isherwood, the narrator is William Bradshaw (Isherwood’s middle names). Norris and Bradshaw meet on a train. […]
Forensic science of the whole person.
I had a revelation after reading this book. In mystery novels, the problem that needs to be solved is never as interesting to me as the problem solvers. Winspear’s first in her “Maisie Dobbs” series splits problem and problem solver in a way that made that clear to me. Is that common? I’m pretty sure that is why, when asked if I enjoy mystery novels, I generally say no, but my read list on Goodreads tells a different tale. Maisie Dobbs is the only child […]
I’ll never look at a snowman the same way again!
Wow! I have just read “The Snowman” by Jo Nesbo and what a read it was! I basically read the whole thing in one night because I could not put the book down. It took me a little bit of time to get into the book, as it required some concentration at the start with the Norwegian names and a variety of characters. However I quickly got my head around that and enjoyed the thrill of the ride. Firstly, I loved the characters. Harry Hole […]
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