This year, in November, I set myself the task of writing a book. It had been germinating in my mind for a while, and I needed to get it down on paper. The story itself has aspects of Victorian Englands obsession with death and greiving, and the phenomenon of Spiritualism that rose up in that …
Continue reading Lily Dale: The Town That Talks To The Dead by Christine Wicker
I was sent this book for review by the author, and I was curious about it because he's a local London writer. It's always nice to read the words of someone who lives in your city. The book is a slim volume, and explores some interesting themes about right and wrong, Hadron colliders and religion. …
Continue reading Book Review: No Rest For The Wicked, A Novella by Dane Cobain
Set in the last four years of the Jewish occupation of the Masada fortress in ancient Israel in the time of the Roman occupation, this book tells the events of the lives of four women there who work together in the Dovecotes. I suppose most of you who have an interest in the history of …
The designs on the covers of this book (there are two, one for the character Bea and one for Peter) are very beautiful, and having read the authors incredible book The Crimson Petal And The White, I expected big things. When Peter is selected by the mysterious company USIC to be a minister on the colonised …
Continue reading The Book Of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
One of Hoffman's shorter novels, this fairytale-like story is of a girl whose impulsive wishes can curse those around her to die, and whose wrteched heart has turned to ice.Her first wish was as an eight year old girl, when she wanted her mother to stay home instead of go out to a birthday dinner, …
In this compelling and violent Young Adult novel, Kincaid has managed to create a world that imaginatively different, but in some ways scarily similar to our own. In a Dystopian future, technology has ground to a stand still, with a religious dark age enacted by the ruling elite who use religion to keep the massive …
When Nora Silk, a recently divorced mother of two, moves into a small suburb in Long Island in 1959, her single unmarried state upsets the delicate balance. It's a town where emotional mess is kept hidden and everyone is expected to keep their lawn perfect. But Nora is a beautiful carefree spirit, and though she …
I couldn't put this book down, curling up with hot chocolate and reading it in one sitting! One of Hoffman's earlier books, it follows three generations of a family, from the strong Russian matriarch that has managed their lives and finances with an iron fist, to the grandaughter who longs for freedom and to follow …
In this classic novel from the Columbian author of A Hundred Years Of Solitude, the story of a love triangle that lasted over fifty years is told. Set in the political unrest of South America, sharp tempered Fermina Daza is married to Dr Juvenal Urbino, a well respected man, who is nearing the end of his …
Continue reading Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A loose, modern retelling of Wuthering Heights, Alice Hoffman brings her magic touch to another book. March Murray returns home for a funeral with her teenage daughter in tow, leaving her loving husband behind. But her old life casts a spell over her, returning her to former days, and most importantly, old loves. When she …
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