Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
by Fannie Flagg
This was a book club pick and I thought somehow that it would be light and fluffy and girly, possibly because that’s how I remember the film (though on rewatching the film this week I discovered it’s not really those things either). It’s certainly an easy, enjoyable read, but it covers a lot of issues without labouring the point and has some very interesting things to say…
Penguin Lost
by Andrey Kurkov
translated from Russian by George Bird
When I began this book, the sequel to Death and the Penguin, I was mostly a little lost and puzzled. I ended it engrossed and near tears (happy-sad ones). Which is a pretty good review in itself, I think…
The War of the Wives
by Tamar Cohen
I was intrigued by this book from the synopsis and I am left feeling very smug that I know myself well – because I loved it. It isn’t perfect but it is gripping and thought-provoking, and story and character are equally strong…
I Remember Nothing and other reflections
by Nora Ephron
I wasn’t planning to read this. I visited my good friend H last weekend and saw it on her shelf and remembered H had said good things about it. So I read it…
Ariel
by Sylvia Plath
This was Plath’s final volume of poetry, published two years after her death, and I could not separate the knowledge of what shortly followed these writings from the words themselves. It was not an easy read…
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
This is a very sweet novel about old age and regret and Englishness. It takes a simple but interesting idea and keeps it engaging throughout. The author’s inclusion of social media such as Facebook and Twitter in the storyline was of course a gift to the publisher’s marketing department (as you may have started to notice) but do not be put off – it’s worth a chance…
Damned
by Chuck Palahniuk
This, Palahniuk’s latest offering, is every bit as crazy, vitriolic, scathingly sarcastic and darkly comic as you might expect if you’ve read any of his previous work. It might actually be lighter than usual and more funny, but it’s been a few years so maybe I’m mis-remembering…
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann
translated from the German by David Luke
This is really closer to a short story than a novel so I shouldn’t have waited so long to read it, but a few recent outpourings of praise made me finally take it down from the shelf. Yet for such a short piece, it was a very slow starter…
The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
Yet again looking for a quick, undemanding read, I picked up another of Gaiman’s children’s books. Once again I was reminded that not all children’s books work as easy adult reads…