Stardust by Neil Gaiman 'She was one of the folk from Beyond the Wall, he could tell at once from her eyes, and her ears which were visible beneath her curly black hair. Her eyes were a deep violet, while her ears were the ears of a cat, perhaps gently curved, and dusted with a …
Category: Book Review
Curtain
by Agatha Christie How do you end a successful run? At some stage, an author tires of her characters, runs out of steam or perhaps decides that it's simply time to end it. " 'I can visualize him, developing this hobby of his .... And little by little developing a morbid taste for violence at …
Third Girl
by Agatha Christie Fast forward three decades from the colourful world of Death on the Nile! We're now in the sixties, a time I remember quite well, the age of the Beatles, Beatniks, miniskirts and tight trousers, of long hair, Purple Hearts and angst. " 'Yes, I've killed him.... The blood got on my hands …
Death on the Nile
by Agatha Christie For my second post this week on the Hercule Poirot novels, I've chosen this novel from 1937, one of my favourites. '[Poirot's] glance softened as it rested on one particular couple. A well-matched pair - tall broad-shouldered man, slender delicate girl. Two bodies that moved in a perfect rhythm of happiness. Happiness …
Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie An interesting lecture on the 'Queen of Crime' during our recent cruise inspired me to re-read some of Christie's stories featuring her cerebral Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Murder on the Orient Express, published in 1934, is one of her best known works, having been popular also as a drama for cinema …
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Wolff The British Library describes Wolff as 'one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century. Judged on To the Lighthouse, it isn't a description I would deny. Innovative she certainly was, but having read the novel - recommended to me as one of her best, and typical of her style, I …
E=mc2 and all that jazz
Relativity by Albert Einstein Considering the number of books I've read about Einstein's theories of Relativity, and about Einstein himself, it's surprising I didn't acquire this one until quite recently. As so often happens, I was probably browsing the shelves for something else. In case anyone doubts, this is THE book about Relativity, the original, …
'Kill them all; God will know his own.'
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse A Review History attributes those chilling words of the title to Arnaud Amaury, the papal legate who led the massacre at Beziers in 1209 CE. Whilst the records tell that the French Crusader army spared no one, the real targets of Catholic hatred were the Cathars, a pacifist and gnostic …
Why bother with sex?
Adam's Curse by Bryan Sykes 'The human Y-chromosome is a graveyard of rotting genes, whose corpses are still sufficiently similar to active counterparts on the X-chromosome to be recognisable by their DNA sequence, but whose festering remains contain the evidence of their own demise.' I seem to have a talent for picking up books with …
Tigers, Dragons and Whales
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch Long-listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, Jamrach's Menagerie is an absorbing story, a sort of cross between The Life of Pi and The Ancient Mariner. [at any rate it has a tiger and a cursed ship.] Jaffy Brown is eight years old. He runs away from Bermondsey with …
Magda Green Books 