Thirty-first book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Yet again, I have taken up a play by Oscar Wilde and yet again, I’m amazed by the layer upon layer of depth and meaning that the satirical work contains. You wouldn’t think that a comedy of errors would have anything to offer in the way of moral commentary or philosophical meanderings, but when you’re reading Wilde, you better expect profundity in his most trivial statements. This is a play about two men who pretend to […]
A Time Traveler’s Homage to Jerome K. Jerome
If you are a fan of Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) or PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels, this novel is sure to please. Willis is a well known and “decorated” sci-fi author, having won multiple Nebula and Hugo Awards. She discovered JKJ through reading Robert Heinlein and gives him a tip of the hat in an amusing, clever and thoughtful work that combines time travel, mystery, and comedy of manners. It’s 2057 London and Ned Henry, an […]
Ms. Hempel Chronicles
Well this is just a charming little book. Ms. Hempel is a twenty-something schoolteacher who lives a pretty normal, almost mundane, life. She attends the school talent show. She muses on the odd relationship between student and teacher, and sometimes teacher and teacher. She gets engaged. She breaks up. She takes kids on field trips. She wants to be the young cool teacher but she also feels that she ought to learn how to be a disciplinarian. The book is a novel, sort of, in […]
Who could ever say you’re not simply wonderful?
So here’s a funny thing. I have a book by Matt Haig on my “to read” shelf over on Goodreads. It’s called The Dead Fathers Club and it’s on there because a) I am always up for reading modernised novels based on Shakespeare plays (I’m already beside myself about the Hogarth Shakespeare project, but that’s another story) and because b) my father died all too recently. That’s not really the funny thing. The funny thing is, since I bang on about books pretty much all the time […]
This is what happens when you covet
A female teacher engages in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student. This is not exactly a topic that lends itself to humor, but in the hands of Zoe Heller, readers will find biting humor along with social commentary that provokes and makes one squirm. Although the novel (shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize) is over ten years old, its topic is still relevant and the writing is superb. The novel is told from the point of view of Barbara Covett, a friend of […]
“And I should tell him all my pain,…”
And I should tell him all my pain, And how my life had droop’d of late, And he should sorrow o’er my state And marvel what possess’d my brain; (Tennyson, In Memoriam XIV.13-16) Mad About the Boy, the third Bridget Jones book, is confusing. But then, Bridget Jones herself and her narratives are confusing; there’s the original Bridget Jones of the Independent newspaper columns, there’s Bridget Jones of the films, and there’s Bridget Jones of the books. I’m pretty sure that Bridget Jones of […]
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