Hi pals! Over the past couple of weeks, I have received a number of emails asking for summer reading recommendations. Optimistic for those of us in the UK perhaps (and particularly inappropriate given that it has rained all day), but these emails did get me thinking. As you may have noticed from my reviews, I … Continue reading My Summer Reading Recommendations: Challenge Accepted
This review has been a while in the making. When details regarding Dan Brown's newest book Inferno began to leak out a few months ago, I found myself growing increasingly excited at the prospect of returning to Robert Langdon's world of symbology. Having anxiously awaited its release on 14 May, my main concern was the … Continue reading Review: Inferno by Dan Brown
Charles Dickens and I have only become recently acquainted. Having avoided him like the plague for a number of years, I finally gave in two summers ago - largely the result of his connections with Knebworth House and my inability to talk with any kind of authority about his life and work. A close friend … Continue reading Review: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Refer back to this week's What I'm Reading Wednesday post and you will remember my simultaneous feelings of fear and excitement at the prospect of this review. I have little reluctance in stating that Strange Bodies is one of the most astonishing books of its literary generation - a fact that, when combined with its multiplicity … Continue reading Review: Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux
For the perceptive among you, I am sure you have noticed a slight discrepancy between my What I'm Reading Wednesday lists, and the latest batch of reviews. Much of this has to do with my exam-induced reduction of 'reading for happiness' hours, making two reviews of new-to-me reads per week super ambitious. However, it was … Continue reading Review: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
One of my more frequently pursued habits is the tendency to over-purchase books, largely a consequence of my visits to the various local charity shops (Oxfam Bookshop, you stand guilty as charged). For a bibliophile on a budget, the pull of a pile of £2 books is almost too much to bear. So it is … Continue reading Review: Chocolat by Joanne Harris
As a genre, crime fiction is perhaps one of the most divisive. For those who relegate their murder mystery volumes - likely acquired through the generous condescension of an ancient relative - to the darkest and least-visited corners of the bookshelf, understanding a love for the genre is problematic. I avoided crime fiction with an … Continue reading Review: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
" 'This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, … Continue reading Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Hello friends! Welcome to another instalment of What I'm Reading Wednesday. I hope that you all enjoyed last week's guest post by Isabella from LOVE and WARdrobe. It certainly gave me an excuse to dip back into my Jeeves and Wooster collection (not that I needed one). With some more guest posts booked in over … Continue reading What I’m Reading Wednesday – 01/05/13
After tackling the emotional imbalance brought about by completing Suite Francaise, I was in desperate need of something relatively light and plot-driven as a break for my tear ducts. Having heard some great things about Michael Grant's dystopian series, and finding myself bombarded with WH Smith adverts to the effect of 'buy this book right now', I … Continue reading Review: Gone by Michael Grant
The Book Habit 