I’m honestly a little impressed that Atkinson managed to take a novel about World War II and Cold War espionage and make it downright forgettable. It’s one of those nested novels, taking place in three distinct time periods and each one flashing back to the other. If you’re anything like me, you’ll soon lose the ability to tell the various characters apart. Also, thanks so much all y’all for the congratulations 🙂 I’m still firmly ensconced in cloud nine and I’m afraid my reading and […]
I might have been ten, eleven years old–I cannot say for certain–when my first master died. No one grieved him
Washington Black – 4/5 Stars This novel just recently was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and by all rights, it should win. It also is possibly the front runner given that a Canadian author has not won in some time…possibly since Margaret Atwood for The Blind Assassin, but I’d have to check. It’s also quite simply the best book on the list that I’ve read and while I was worried it was going to be a little whimsical or odd, it’s actually nearly perfect. It’s […]
“What are you, Jackson, the last good man standing?”
Bingo Square: And So It Begins Case Histories is the first in Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series. He’s a former police inspector turned private eye (with a stint in the army to boot) and there are three main cases he’s involved in within this book. Case 1: The disappearance, over thirty years before, of a three year old girl from her back garden. Case 2: The seemingly random killing of a solicitor’s daughter. Case 3: The murder of a husband by his wife with an axe. […]
“A Canadian kind of ‘eh?’ rather than a Yorkshire one”
Bingo Square: Home, Something, Home Ruby Lennox narrates the story of her life from the moment of conception – “I exist!” and invites the reader into her family. There’s cold matriarch Bunty, barely there father George, oldest sister Patricia (not much of a sense of humour), and attention-seeking middle child, Gillian. Along with this main story there are ‘footnotes’, chapters that follow Ruby’s that add a little more history and backstory to her family, often centred on specific events or objects (a button in a […]
Jackson Brodie, P.I.
I love British crime novels, I love Jason Isaacs, and the one time I’ve read anything by her, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Kate Atkinson’s work – so, when Case Histories was a deal of the day for Kindle not long ago, I jumped on it. Case Histories introduces the world to Jackson Brodie, a former soldier and police inspector turned private detective. I first came across this in either Masterpiece Mystery or some Netflix perusal, as it was made a series starring Jason Isaacs as Jackson […]
The black bat night approached and enfolded her in its wings
For the past 15+ years, I’ve been the target audience for the Man Booker awards: literary fiction snob leaning to British Commonwealth authors. Though I have been branching out into other genres over the last few years, I still look to the Booker long- and shortlists for recommendations and usually pick up at least a few each year. For some reason, I haven’t looked much into other prizes until this year when I realized the Baileys (formerly Orange) prize lists would be a great resource […]
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