A Short Cut to Paradise – Teresa Solana

I’m no literary expert or critic, so I can’t say whether A Shortcut to Paradise is or isn’t a good novel. But the fact was that if Borja and I hadn’t agreed to take on this case, I’d have put it back on the shelf at page thirty, and gone for a stroll. It got [...]

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Short Treatise on the Joys of Morphinism – Hans Fallada

When I first browsed the Penguin Mini Modern Classics List, this one called the loudest. For many reasons: 1) Translated from German 2) I have heard tremendous things about Alone in Berlin and Wolf among Wolves, both of which languish in the TBR, terrifying me with their size (576 and 816 pages respectively). 3) This small volume of [...]

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Reading the mini modern way

Take one box of 50 mini modern classics published to celebrate 5o years of Penguin Modern Classics ….. Count how many authors in that set are still undiscovered  (35!) and so begins a new reading project,  perfectly designed to facilitate mini-reads between the many chunksters sitting in the TBR.  A project which got off to a flying start [...]

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Chocolate Wars – Deborah Cadbury

This book should come with a health warning …. particularly for chocoholics!  It is totally impossible to read its pages charting the history of Cadbury’s from its humble beginning in urban Birmingham to the rather acrimonious takeover by Kraft in 2010 without indulging in a parallel chocolate binge.  The good news is that it is [...]

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TSS: Celebrations

Yesterday I was four and there is still time to join in my party game …. Last week also saw me successfully complete the six week TBR dare, during which time I read 11 books from my TBR stack and one book group read (ironically the one I enjoyed least).  Aquisitions were somewhat greater.  Publishers have been [...]

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Giveaway: Next World Novella – Matthias Politycki

Pereine has kindly donated a copy of her fourth publication for a book giveaway. Perfect, particularly as it is my 4th blogiversay today. Let’s play a party game.   I can’t work out how to play pass the parcel on the blog,  so book battleships it will be.  However, you must  be gentle  No pushing or shoving.  The nymph [...]

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Everything and Nothing – Araminta Hall

I’m not sure I should admit this but somewhere in the pages of Araminta Hall’s debut novel Everything and Nothing there are echoes of my own life.  I’m not going to tell you where exactly, though you will have fun guessing, particularly as this is a novel about a patched-up marriage, a working mother who is totally copeless at home, a [...]

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TSS: Ambivalence

A quick word about my star-rating system or rather the 2.5 rating in particular.  In shorthand it means worthy but not for me.  This can be due to beautiful prose which fails to engage me.  I start reading but my eyes skim the words.  Before 10 pages are through, I’m longing to read something else.  The good news is that I’m [...]

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The Credit Draper – J David Simons

I do splurge at literary festivals (it’s near enough the only time I’m in a bookshop) and then the books take their chances amongst the TBR mountains at home.  With the 2010 AyeWrite festival (and more impulse buys)  only a month away, I thought it was time to pick up some of those neglected literary festival purchases. Enter The Credit [...]

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