Notes on Books & Life
An isolated island, an enormous drafty house, a dark and secret past: these are the makings of a perfect Victorian-esque ghost story. They also comprise the setting for The Tale of Halcyon Crane, coming at the end of March from Wendy Webb. The Tale of Halcyon Crane is the sort of book you reach for …
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I just finished the most beautiful book. I picked up Half Life by Roopa Farooki because it was compared, on the back of the galley, to Jhumpa Lahiri and Slumdog Millionaire. But after reading the book, I don’t think it’s quite fair to hang its success on its similarities to other famous Indian authors; this …
Well, my slow journey through Sandra Gulland’s trilogy of novels about Josephine Bonaparte has finally come to an end. What a lovely journey it was! They are the epitome of great historical fiction: engaging, rich with true details, full of familiar figures brought to life. They were so good I ordered a biography of Josephine …
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Well, I bit the bullet and finished Suite Francaise on audio today. When I’d stopped the day before, I had a feeling that something terrible was about to happen, and I just couldn’t bear more suffering to be inflicted on the poor characters. It did not go the way I feared. On the contrary, I …
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I’ve fallen behind on my audiobook reporting! When last I posted on the topic, I was listening to The Graveyard Book, written and read by Neil Gaiman. The story is quite good; intriguing, with those odd bits that make it Gaimanesque. There were a few parts that made me say, “Huh?” But most of his books …
