I have never read Megan Abbott before, but the critical acclaim for her new novel drove me back into the 746 to pick up one of her earlier works, her third novel The Song is You. This is a brilliant slice of neo-noir crime fiction, taking a real life story as inspiration to turn the…
I have been sick this week and while flicking through the book library on my iPad came across Every Last One by Anna Quindlen. I have no recollection of buying this and no knowledge of plot or author. This is not unusual when I look through the 746, but in this case, it worked to…
I know that the RIP Challenge always takes place in October, but there is something about January – the short, dark days – that I think lends itself to a good creepy read. Ira Levin’s novel is a modern horror classic, probably so well-known because of the expertly executed film adaptation, but even if…
Lost Memory of Skin is the first book I have read by acclaimed author Russell Banks, my only previous experience of his work being the film adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter (which I loved). Lost Memory of Skin is, in some respects, a strange book and one that I think is may be not the…
Given that Christmas is now mere days away added to the fact that I have twins who will be turning eight on the 23rd, I’ll be signing off now for a while and will be back at the end of the month with my Books of the Year (if I ever decide on them!) For…
First published in 1968, Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of essays, largely about California and published mainly within the pages of The Saturday Evening Post across the previous decade. Fifty years on, what is most striking about the collection is the writing, which is vivid and alive. The style of New Journalism…
I first discovered Elizabeth Smart at the age of 17 when I read her classic novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept a fictionalised account of her affair with the poet George Barker. At that age I was completely taken with the relationship between Smart and Barker. When Smart, a Canadian poet,…
Read more No 546 The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals by Elizabeth Smart
