This is a very important book. It changes the lens of history and turns a story we all know well into one we have never heard. The Five Hallie Rubenhold’s meticulously researched tome tells the stories of the lives of the five canonical victims. Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane… Continue reading The Five
Category: Books & Literature
Psycho – Pulp Fiction, it’s complicated
I picked up a copy of Psycho because I was intrigued to find out what the original story was behind one of the greatest films of all time. The answer is complicated. Is it a great book? No. But it does have moments. If you are one of the eight people on the planet who… Continue reading Psycho – Pulp Fiction, it’s complicated
Jurassic Park – First Class Trash Fiction
A relentless romp through a Costa Rican island inhabited by unpredictable prehistoric creatures? Why not! Quite a few leaps of faith are required for the science and nature elements of this story but if you can leave what you know (or think you know) at the door then you’ll enjoy this, quite frankly, remarkable book.… Continue reading Jurassic Park – First Class Trash Fiction
Pride and Prejudice and …
… the complete lack of any character development. I recently listened to the audiobook of P&P (as my sister and mother affectionately call it). I had found an audiobook collection of Penguin Classics in a charity shop and decided to use it to make my commute more productive filling in the gaps in my classic… Continue reading Pride and Prejudice and …
The Vesuvius Club
Review – The Vesuvius Club, Mark Gatiss If you want a suavely written and slightly cheeky period crime novel then you might want to check this out. Set in Victorian England, Gatiss has created a world of secret agents operating under the radar. Our main character is Lucifer Box (every name is a treat in… Continue reading The Vesuvius Club
The Historical Surrealist Fiction of Aira
Browsing Slightly Foxed Books, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, UK. On a high shelf, right at the top corner, the first book in the historical fiction section is a small paperback with a landscape painting on the front. An Episode in the Life of a Landscape PainterCÉSAR AIRA“Astonishing – turns Don Quixote into Picasso”-Harper’s I’m interested. It is barely… Continue reading The Historical Surrealist Fiction of Aira
Specialization is for Insects: Heinlein’s Competent Man
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook… Continue reading Specialization is for Insects: Heinlein’s Competent Man
Dead Zone – The Best King?
I’m going to start with a bold statement. This could be the best book King has written. I haven’t made my mind up yet. But it could be the best. The story is a perfectly constructed web of interconnecting stories which come together at the end in a moment of desperation and terror. Our hero,… Continue reading Dead Zone – The Best King?
Ivan the Anarchist
Reading Ivan The Fool by Leo Tolstoy one can’t help but wonder about the broader opinions of Tolstoy himself. Ivan the Fool Ivan The Fool is an interpretation of a traditional Russian folk tale figure. Ivan is the youngest of three brothers (Tolstoy adds a younger sister too), the 2 older brothers pursue ambitions and… Continue reading Ivan the Anarchist
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
The Snows of Kilimanjaro A typical Hemingway work full of nostalgia and grief for a life not lived to its fullest. One assumes nothing was good enough for Hemingway as, by most people’s standards, he lived a very full life. But a great deal of his work is pre-occupied with a sense of a lack… Continue reading The Snows of Kilimanjaro