The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch Review by Amanda Read Charles Arrowby retires from life in the theatre to seclusion in a barely-habitable residence by the sea. He intends to write his memoirs but life has a habit of interrupting. His dreams of a rural-maritime idyll, where he can Read more…
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes Catherine has been enjoying the single life for long enough to know a good catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic, spontaneous – Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his Read more…
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami Reviewed by Amanda Read In high school, Tsukuru Tazaki had four close friends. The friends did everything together. So concerned were they to maintain the status quo, they studiously avoided splintering into smaller groups. Yet, while each of his Read more…
The Fall River Axe Murders – Angela Carter Reviewed by Amanda Read This short story takes place in the moments before the Borden family awake on that fateful day when: Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done She Read more…
Clay by Melissa Harrison A boy tiptoes from a high-rise block in the half-light of dawn to see the neat prints left by a fox on the frosty grass. He is TC, eight years old and skipping school to spend his time exploring the city’s waste ground and forgotten wild Read more…
Life after Life – Kate Atkinson Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in life’s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Read more…
I’ve just finished an OU English module (E301, The Art of English) which references a number of books I determined to read once the module was over. Listing them here in case you are in need of suggestions…and please feel free to make suggestions yourself. Alex Garland (2004) The Coma Read more…
The book selected for June is Spare Brides by Adele Parks New Year’s Eve, 1920. The Great War is over and it’s a new decade of glamorous promise. But a generation of men and women who survived the extreme trauma and tragedy will never be the same. With countless men Read more…
This month we will be reading ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Tracy Chevalier. Girl With a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in Read more…
This month we will be reading Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson (1919). The book is a collection of interrelated short stories about the various inhabitants of the fictional small Midwestern town of Winesburg. Anderson was in the vanguard of American writers Read more…