Author: Susan Brice

  • The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

    ‘I cannot believe you haven’t read this! Why haven’t you read it?’ Thus said my daughter to me, after discovering that I had not read Richard Osman’s huge bestseller about a group of retirees who have a penchant for solving murders. So why had I avoided this book I wonder. Well, I think I was […]

  • So Late In The Day – Claire Keegan

    Whichever bookshop I am in, here or on my visit to New York City recently, I have been assaulted by huge displays of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. Not to my taste, as faithful readers may know by now. Luckily however there is always another bookshelf to browse, just around the corner. Here I found a […]

  • The Strand Bookshop

    I was heading for my favourite bookshop in New York City; The Strand, in this case the smaller of the locations on Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side. My son- in- law’s words were echoing in my ears: if we want to have good bookshops in our neighbourhood then we must use them. Indeed, […]

  • October 2024

    A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles Two people at church talked glowingly about this book, so obviously it was a ‘must read.’ The first paragraph, to my surprise, transported me back over 50 years to when I was standing in Red Square in Moscow. This was Cold War, iron curtain time but although this […]

  • A House In Sicily – Daphne Phelps

    This was an interesting read, not quite an autobiography, maybe somewhere in between a memoir and a travelogue. Through familial contacts and a mixture of circumstance and serendipitous happenings, Daphne Phelps, a young psychiatric social worker becomes the custodian and then the owner of a beautiful house in Taormina, Sicily. There is an obvious lack […]

  • The Bastard of Istanbul – Elif Shafak

    Elif Shafak has a new book out: ‘There are rivers in the sky,’ and so she is absolutely everywhere. She obviously has a very good publicity agent as every paper, magazine or journal I pick up is pushing this new novel. The author has been speaking at the RA and making podcasts etc. I had […]

  • Validation

    It is always good to find someone who shares your own views about, well almost anything really, but inevitably I am thinking about books here. I have said before that I really don’t rate the writing of Sally Rooney and will certainly not be buying, or reading, her new book ‘Intermezzo’. The reviewer and critic […]

  • September 2024

    It is quite rare to read the first couple of pages of a novel and just know that you will love the book. It is a delicious feeling and it happened to me with this story. I have only read one other novel by Ann Patchett: The Dutch House. I liked it but for me […]

  • Enduring Love – Ian McEwan

    When I had read ‘Lessons’ by Ian McEwan I decided I had to read more by this acclaimed writer. ‘Enduring Love’ is a fascinating if rather disturbing read. A hot air balloon floats over the Chilterns and suddenly seems to be in trouble. Several people picnicking go to help and grab hold of ropes. There […]

  • Being told what to read…

    I have read the suggestion that one should avoid reading newly published books and focus on those at least 10 years old. The premise being that if they are still around then, well, they must be worth reading. It is so expensive to publish a book that it is more and more common for print […]