A book that seems to be positioned as crime fiction, but turns out to be a suffocating family drama with a murder thrown in. A story of complex family relations, seemingly resolved when the family dispersed, but brought back to life when everyone had to once again come together in a small Derry house. Once …
This book is one of the examples why I love reading crime fiction. There are many authors that I could describe as dependable, we know what to expect when we pick up their books and usually it’s very decent entertainment. But every once in a while you come across a book that refreshes the whole …
It's one of the books I ordered from The Book People before the coronavirus madness started for real. They took their time fulfilling my order, so long that my company decided we should work from home before the books arrived. The bulk of my order was the discounted Man Booker Shortlist 2019, but I added some …
Continue reading Pet Subjects: Animal Tales from the Telegraph’s Resident Vet – Peter Wedderburn
When I started reading this book I quickly forgot that it is written by the Graham Norton, he of The Graham Norton Show. Which definitely is a good thing, for as much as I love the show the book is very different. And as much as I love his happy chuckling it would be completely out …
Welcome to week four, you can find links to the previous three posts at the bottom. We continue on the emotional merry-go-round. Last week focused on the wise and calming books, so this week we’re turning to darker topics. Books about death, dying and grieving. Surprisingly some of them actually offer a lot of consolation …
Continue reading Books for the Lockdown – Death, Dying and Grieving
And another reread from my mother's library. I've read Eureka Street several times and always loved it. This time I read it as a part of Ireland related reading-spree. Since I moved to the UK I was saying I should learn more about The Troubles, as the only thing I remember is vague mentions of IRA on …
The book is a story of Nell who throughout her life had to fight for herself. She gets married to escape her parents tight control. She tries to find her happiness by being a good wife and mother, but it doesn't seem to work for her. Her husband is very possessive and controlling and abuses …
I do not know the truth, or I do not know how to tell the truth. All I have is stories, night thoughts, the sudden conviction that uncertainty spawns. All I have are ravings, more like. She loved him! I say. She must have loved him! I wait for the kind of sense that dawn makes, when …
This book starts with an emotional earthquake and from then on keeps the tension all the way to the end. Veronica Hegarty has to tell her mother that her brother, Liam, is dead. Veronica is shocked and grieving herself and now she has to inflict this news on her mother, but at the same time …
were we so blind to the world teetering on the edge that we never straightened up from what we were doing to consider things more clearly or have we lost completely that brute instinct for catastrophe, that sensitivity now buried too deep beneath reason and manners to register but which, once upon a time, was …
