It had to be a Fitzgerald for August’s Book of the Month.
Category Archives: Book of the Month
Summer Reads 2015
Need something enthralling to read on the beach / plane / park / stay-cation? Here are my favourite books for the Summer: gripping storylines filled with balmy sunshine that are suitably lightweight for July and August.
The Most Popular Word for School Children in Surrey
This is amusing.
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The Turn of the Screw
A Fin de Siècle novella. By Henry James. One of my favourite authors. And favoured book length (viva la novella!) The story starts round the fire with people exchanging various ghost stories.
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Mother’s Day Gift Guide
Treat your mum this Mother’s Day with a thoughtful gift. What would she like?
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Etta and Otto and Russell and James Review
Etta has never seen the sea. So early one morning the 82 year old leaves her husband, Otto, and their farm in Canada with a note explaining that she is walking 2000 miles to the water and that she will try to remember to come back.
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
I love short stories unutterably but reviewing them can be a challenge.
Christmas Book Gift Guide 2014
Books make the most thoughtful presents. Here are some of my favourites I’ve read this year, either before I started this blog, or books I couldn’t squeeze into the running ‘Book of the Month’ feature.
Short Stories
Short stories are my absolute favourite form of literature (and writing – joint with poetry!). Utterly cluttered are the marginalia of every short story I consume/inhale. The gentle and explosive rhythm of the narrative; the way the plot unravels in the story; the twist potential; the preoccupation with time and the ability to give the impression of time expanding as the story is contracting; the heavy, heady significance of every carefully chosen word; the fact that you can be absorbed in several stories within an hour of reading…
‘Lists of Note’ Review
Marilyn Monroe was frequently very late to arrive when filming on set. So it may come as a surprise that she explicitly told herself, in her list of New Year’s Resolutions for the year 1956, that there are ‘No excuses for ever being late’. She was 29 years old at the time and had starred in many successful films (The Seven Year Itch for example) and she had just been accepted as a student at a renowned drama school in New York called the Actors’ Studio. Judging by her other resolutions (‘Work whenever possible’) she was clearly very driven and committed to try and continue her success as an actress.