Tag Archives: 2022 book reviews

Thoughts: The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Bradley

Posted on 10 September 2022 by Dove

Warning before we start – there’ll be mentions of real life crimes in this one, involving children. Some explanations are in order. I know we’re all meant to be living in a Death of the Author world but some things … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: Mothering Sunday, by Graham Swift

Posted on 29 August 2022 by Dove

I have my soft spots, like anyone, and one of my guiltiest ones is life in stately homes and fancy old estates, despite my dislike of the British class system. I also like quiet stories where not much happens, but … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton

Posted on 25 August 2022 by Dove

Another one off the backlog pile! Annoyingly it’s been so long since I read it that most of my very specific feelings have faded with time, but eh, we press on. Spoilers though. I deliberately didn’t read the Introduction till … Continue reading →

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Thought: June Fourth Elegies, by Liu Xiaobo (translated by Jeffrey Yang)

Posted on 23 August 2022 by Dove

More dissident poetry! It was a rough early June in 2017 when we lost Irina Ratushinskaya and Liu Xiaobo in quick succession. This one felt a little bit like the baddies won though, if I can use such simplistic/childish language. … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: Mind of the Raven, by Bernd Heinrich

Posted on 14 August 2022 by Dove

Slightly embarrassing admission, I picked this one up as story research (for a story that I haven’t finished or touched in a while – indeed, the same story I read Gifts of the Crow for – but still). The tempting … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: Grey is the Colour of Hope, by Irina Ratushinskaya, translated by Alonya Kojevnikov (with poems translated by David McDuff, Richard McKane and Helen Szamuely)

Posted on 12 August 2022 by Dove

Grey is the Colour of Hope is Irina Ratushinskaya’s prison memoir, written in 1987 after her release from the Small Zone in the Barashevo camp, but before the dissolution of the USSR. This gives it both a very particular angle … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: Der Hundertjährige, der zurückkam, um die Welt zu retten, by Jonas Jonasson, translated by Wibke Kuhn

Posted on 30 March 2022 by Dove

This was our latest German Skype session reading, and now we have only one more Jonas Jonasson left to read, so I guess he’d better get cracking on the typewriter before we run out! Not a huge amount new to … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: The Bride Price, by Buchi Emecheta

Posted on 16 March 2022 by Dove

I’ve read a little spread of postcolonial African literature, including some set in Nigeria, but I’ve never read anything like The Bride Price. Partly because the older ones were in French and some nuance was inevitably lost as I read … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: Falling Awake, by Alice Oswald

Posted on 15 March 2022 by Dove

This was a slightly strange reading experience, devoured from beginning to end in a hospital waiting room before an appointment I was pretty nervous about, heavily pregnant, wearing a mask for three hours and hating it. So a moment very … Continue reading →

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Thoughts: Zennor in Darkness, by Helen Dunmore

Posted on 8 March 2022 by Dove

I absolutely picked this one because of the title, because “Zennor” is a pleasing word to me. I didn’t realise it was a real place in Cornwall! I also didn’t really have any idea what the book was about. It’s … Continue reading →

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