Reviews
Book Review: Slow at Work, by Aoife McElwain
There are few tag-lines more attractive to me than this one: ‘How to work less, achieve more and regain your balance in an always-on world’. With her book ‘Slow at Work’, Aoife McElwain is writing for our generation, the one with plates so full we’re in danger of bringing the whole Greek wedding down. She […]
Book Review: Delightful Dublin by Emily Westbrooks
* Full disclosure – Emily Westbrooks is a dear friend so if I come across all Kanye West-ish (it’s earth-shattering / history-changing / work of a modern god) you know why. But apart from that, it really is fabulous. Honestly. Arriving to our shores some six years ago, Emily Westbrooks will admit that she wasn’t […]
Book Review: That Part Was True by Deborah McKinley
I described this on Twitter as being an easy, light-hearted summer read, and I still think that’s the most accurate, albeit concise description I can come up with for ‘That Part Was True’ by Deborah McKinley. Set over a short period, this is very much a brief snapshot of two lives, told partly through letters […]
Book Review: ‘Sisterland’ by Curtis Sittenfeld
Well, I just finished ‘Sisterland‘ and if – and it’s a big ‘if’ – I ever run a marathon, I’m pretty sure I’ll feel the same way. Exhausted. It’s essentially a book about twin sisters who have a vague ability to predict the future. One becomes a flaky hippie, hawking her ability as something of […]
Book Review: ‘Life After Life’ by Kate Atkinson and ‘The Edge of Tomorrow’ feat. Emily Blunt & Tom Cruise….
**Possible Spoilers** It’s not a sentence I thought I’d ever type, but the recent Emily Blunt / Tom Cruise film ‘The Edge of Tomorrow’ reminded me hugely of Kate Atkinson’s prize-winning novel, ‘Life After Life’. Imagine that you could re-live your life over and over again, learning to avoid dangerous obstacles and people, so that […]
Book Review: ‘Kiss Me First’ by Lottie Moggach
‘Kiss Me First’ is a thoroughly modern book centring on a girl called Leila, who is convinced by an internet cult leader to take over the online life of Tess, a suicidal woman who wants to disappear from the world without hurting her family. This might sound relatively fanciful, but in the skilled hands of […]
Book Review: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Unusually, I listened to this book instead of reading it. Actually, this was the very first book I ever listened to. I had taken Audible.com up on their free introduction, and having downloaded this book, promptly cancelled my membership, quite convinced I’d never have time to listen to an entire book. I was wrong. It […]
Book Review: Labor Day by Joyce Maynard
This is a short, snappy book – more a long short story, if such a thing exists. The book hurtles along at pace, partly because of the author’s easy, flowing style and partly because it captures a short, furtive period of time. Based in New Hampshire and centred on a blistering hot bank holiday weekend […]
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