I’m afraid this month’s reading update is rather meagre. Not in quality – the opposite, in fact! – but because I haven’t been reading very much, skipping from one book to another. The reason? Tiredness. Reading Matters is almost here! (FYI: there are only tickets left for the Public Day). I began The Dispossessed and…
Hello, I’m back! It feels like ages! Three weeks is a long time, at least for me. It’s been a great month for reading too, so I’ll get straight to business. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman is exactly what I’d expected: accessible without being simplistic, these tales are lovingly (re)told by one of the world’s…
One of my favourite books over the past decade is Born To Run, so I was very keen to read its follow-up-of-sorts, Natural Born Heroes. Christopher McDougall is one of those non-fiction writers with such a flair for telling engrossing stories that it’s not surprising they find fame and acclaim, but I think he stretches…
Read / February 27th, 2017
I set myself a pretty ambitious reading target for 2017 over at Goodreads: 60 books. This is part of the reason, I’ll admit, for picking Three Stories by JM Coetzee off the library bookshelf. 70-something pages long, I was able to read it over a train trip into the city. There are writers that are harder to…
Read / January 30th, 2017
I’d only read one Patricia Highsmith novel before picking up Carol, and as soon as I started reading this I thought to myself, Why haven’t I read more? The other novel was The Talented Mr. Ripley and both times I’ve admired her style – intelligent, observant, dark. If you’re unfamiliar with the story surrounding Carol‘s publication,…
Read / December 15th, 2016
When we went away recently, I brought along Creative Intelligence: How to Build Creative Confidence, Capacity, and Capitalism by Bruce Nussbaum thinking that I wouldn’t get through it. Turns out it was the only book I finished. (I’ve done much better this year for non-fiction than fiction and I’m not sure why.) Business books which delve…
Read / December 5th, 2016
The Good People by Hannah Kent ($22.95) Kent’s second novel has already shot to the top of the best-seller lists and I think this is a good testament to her talents as a writer and her significant fan base. Here is the synopsis: Nóra Leahy has lost her daughter and her husband in the same…
Read / November 30th, 2016
Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi ($37.95) It wouldn’t be Christmas without a glut of gorgeous cookbooks on offer and if that’s your kind of thing then you’ll already know about Ottolenghi’s brand of iconic, gorgeous fare. This is a reprint of the classic 2008 cookbook and recovers those 140 recipes along with a…
Read / November 28th, 2016
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J K Rowling ($27.95) Now the theatrical release of the movie is out, it’s no surprise to see the screenplay as well. Written by Rowling herself, adapted from her own text. Like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child earlier this year, which I have written…
