The Madness of Grief, by The Reverend Richard Coles. Pub 2021 Published in 2021, one would expect this book to be about COVID-19 - it is not. In fact, other than some mentions of lockdowns, there is barely a mention of the omnipresent and ongoing pandemic and so the story seems like it could be... Continue Reading →
My Last Supper, by Jay Rayner. Book report #30 (2021)
My Last Supper, by Jay Rayner. Pub 2019 Jay Rayner is a journalist, food critic, and author who writes delightfully clever reviews and commentary about food, restaurants, and culture. Part Anthony Bourdain, part David Sedaris, he is honest and insightful, never shying away from mild to moderate deprecation of himself or others. I have read... Continue Reading →
Coming Through Slaughter, by Michael Ondaatje. Book report unnumbered (2021)
Coming Through Slaughter, by Michael Ondaatje. Pub 1976 I sought out this book earlier in the year after finishing But Beautiful, the lovely book of stories about storied jazz musicians. In several reviews of that book, people had gushed about the wonderfulness of Ondaatje's short novel/novella about jazz musician Charles "Buddy" Bolden, a short-lived and... Continue Reading →
A Bookshop in Berlin, by Françoise Frenkel. Book report #29 (2021)
A Bookshop in Berlin (aka No Place to Rest Her Head), by Françoise Frenkel. Pub 1945, my edition pub 2015. This book was recommended by my book club partner, and while their praise of it was not effusive, it was sufficient to interest me as a book to check the "recommendation" box on this year's... Continue Reading →
Everything in Its Place, by Oliver Sacks. Book report #28 (2021)
Everything in Its Place, by Oliver Sacks. Pub 2019 A now-former work colleague recommended Oliver Sacks as good reading. As this same person had recommended Harari's Sapiens, which was excellent, I took their advice again and was not disappointed. This is the most recent of Sacks' books, a posthumous one. It is a collection of essays... Continue Reading →
Death in a Darkening Mist, by Iona Whishaw. Book report #27 (2021)
Death in a Darkening Mist, by Iona Whishaw. Pub 2017 This is the second book in the Lane Winslow series of murder mysteries, set in the Nelson/Kaslo area of BC. So as not to give too much away, I will say that this one was a good as the first, well written and with enough... Continue Reading →
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Book report #26 (2021)
The Scarlet Letter: A Romance, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Pub 1850 When I read this book back in 1983, it was under duress - a high school requirement. This novel was part of what we referred to as the 'fallen women' section of Grade 12 english, a trilogy of reading that including this, Doctor Zhivago, and Tess... Continue Reading →
A Game of Chess and Other Stories, by Stefan Zweig. Book report #25 (2021)
A Game of Chess and other stories, by Stefan Zweig. Translation by Peter James Bowman in 2016. Stories originally pub 1925, 1927, 1936, and 1942. I think I first heard about the Chess story in a Slack channel discussion about leadership - I think someone mentioned it as a favourite book, but I can no... Continue Reading →
20th Century Yokel, by Tom Cox. Book report #24 (2021)
21st-Century Yokel, by Tom Cox. Pub 2017 I've had this book on my shelf for ages, purchased shortly after I read Cox's short stories a few years ago. I enjoyed some of those and the writing style - especially the evocative text describing landscape and outdoor spaces in several of the stories, so thought I'd... Continue Reading →
On Confidence, by The School of Life. Book report #23 (2021)
On Confidence, by The School of Life. Pub 2017 In building up a library for an upcoming course, I found this book in one of the "if you like X, you'll also like Y" section of the bookseller's website. I've seen The School of Life books online and in shops before, and this one seemed... Continue Reading →
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