The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski Doc by Mary Doria Russell The Bertie Project by Alexander McCall Smith (many spoilers)
One Minute Book Review – Doc by Mary Doria Russell
I am generally not a reader of American fiction set in the Old West; however, this review of Doc piqued my interest. This is a thoroughly researched engaging novel where even the minor characters, most of whom are based on real people, are well drawn and multifaceted with small vignettes rounding out their characters. The … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Doc by Mary Doria Russell
One Minute Book Review – Endless Night by Agatha Christie
Endless Night by Agatha Christie is a standalone novel first published in 1967. The narrator is Michael Rogers, a young working class man with grand dreams and ambitions. He meets Ellie Guteman, a lonely but wealthy young woman, in Gypsy’s Acre, a scenic ruin with stunning views which appears to have a curse hanging over … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Endless Night by Agatha Christie
One Minute Book Review – The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
The Beauty and the Sorrow is subtitled 'an intimate history of the First World War' and comprises a collection of letters and diary entries from twenty people who lived through the First World War. The diaries and letters are interspersed with narrative which traces the war, year by year. The individuals followed come from a … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
One Minute Book Review – The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton by Diane Atkinson
The starting point of The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton by Diane Atkinson is the legal case brought by George Norton against William Lamb, Lord Melbourne, in 1836 for compensation for illegal use of his property, Norton’s wife Caroline. Norton was, in essence, suing Melbourne for adultery. Norton lost the case, Melbourne remained as Prime … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton by Diane Atkinson
And Then Mine Enemy by Alison Stuart
This is the latest swashbuckling 17th century historical romance from the pen of Alison Stuart - the first book in a two book series (FEATHERS IN THE WIND) spanning the years of the English Civil War from 1642- 1645. AND THEN MINE ENEMY A family ripped apart in a country divided by war . . … Continue reading And Then Mine Enemy by Alison Stuart
My Reading for 2016
This year I have done reasonably well with the number and spread of books I have read - mainly historical fiction, some classic fiction, a few non-fiction and some literary fiction including a handful definitely outside my comfort zone. This list, naturally, does not include the number I have started but not finished which were … Continue reading My Reading for 2016
My Reading – December 2016
A Bluestocking in Patagonia by Anne Whitehead Habits of the House by Fay Weldon By the Sword by Alison Stuart
The Feast of the Holy Innocents
On 28th December, in the midst of Christmas and New Year celebrations, sits the Feast of the Holy Innocents, also called Childermas. This day commemorates the massacre of boys aged under two ordered by King Herod to ensure the death of the newborn King of the Jews whose existence he had been made aware of … Continue reading The Feast of the Holy Innocents
One Minute Book Review – Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
This is the book which, in my opinion, should have won the Man Booker Prize in 2016. The story begins in Canada in 1991 with the daughters of two musicians, Marie raised in Canada and Ai-Ming who has arrived from China in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The story weaves back … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Catherine Meyrick 