Tag: book review

Rutherford Park by Elizabeth Cooke

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re not the target audience for a particular book? The cover of this one set my alarm bells ringing with its references to Downton Abbey and Catherine Cookson and Edwardian English country houses.…
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Dog and Butterfly

Tolstoy famously wrote that “All happy families are alike”, but John Philip Riffice’s novel Dog and Butterfly proves that all good rules also have their exceptions. It’s a novel about a family that is, in general, very happy. The love between…
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Meditation by James Hewitt

Meditation is a difficult subject for a ‘how to’ guide, because ultimately it doesn’t really matter how you do it. This is a pretty good attempt, though. James Hewitt gives the basic advice on posture, breathing, etc., and then takes…
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The Almost Lizard by James Higgerson

James Higgerson’s debut novel follows a teenage boy whose habit of imagining himself in television soap operas develops from harmless fantasy into a cause for suicide. In a striking opening chapter, Danny Lizar announces that today is his 21st birthday…
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Bottled Air by Caleb Klaces

I read this book twice in quick succession. It’s only a short collection, 70 pages of generously-spaced poems and a few pages of notes, so it didn’t take long. Interestingly, the two readings were very different. The first time, I…
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The Quiddity of Will Self by Sam Mills

This book is unlike any other I’ve read. That, in itself, is a reason I’m glad I read it. In a world in which too many books are reminiscent of other books, this one is truly unique. It may sound…
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