Category: Books
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut – Book Review
Sometimes it’s worth reading a book twice. My first go at this darkly satirical novel with shades of science fiction was a mighty struggle, but then I really enjoyed it on a re-visit.
Top Ten Tuesday – Book Covers with Umbrella
This week’s topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is April Showers. I hate to be caught out in a shower without a sturdy umbrella, so this is my spin on the topic. Whether discreet or punchy, an umbrella can really add some visual interest to a book cover.
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton – (abandoned) Book Review
I very rarely abandon books, but after struggling through more than three hundred pages of this exquisitely written yet unengaging historical mystery, I thought it was fair to call it quits.
The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey – Book Review
Few books grabbed me as instantly as this post-apocalyptic thriller. It doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its striking opening and strays into over-familiar genre territory, but it remains a riveting read and, like all good science fiction, raises some intriguing moral conundrums.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie – Book Review
I did it: after five and a half years, and eighty novels and short story collections, I’ve finished my Agatha Christie re-readathon with the Poirot mystery that started it all.
Top Ten Tuesday – Book Covers with Apples
I happened to be eating an apple (a nice and juicy Jazz apple to be exact) while thinking about this week’s topic from That Artsy Reader Girl, Covers/Titles with Things Found in Nature. A supermarket apple is hardly a product of nature, but hey there are wild apple trees as well!
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case by Agatha Christie – Book Review
The Queen of Crime brings down the curtain on life and work of Hercule Poirot in this melancholy finale that does give her most famous creation a dramatic and memorable send-off.
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King – Book Review
I felt like re-visiting this collection of four dark and disturbing novellas of varying quality, all centred around the themes of justice, complicity and retribution.
Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish Goals for 2024
It’s the beginning of a new year, and Bookish Goals for 2024 is this week’s topic from That Artsy Reader Girl. Generally speaking I’m no longer into the New Year’s resolutions, but it was fun to pause and really think about my book-related resolutions for the year.