A modern novel inspired by Austen

Austenland by Shannon Hale During the week of July 17, Shiny New Books is celebrating Jane Austen. I’ve written a reading list (with help from Elaine) about Austen inspired novels and sequels. A while ago, I shared my full review of Darkness at Pemberley by T.H. White, now here’s Austenland, another book that’ll appear in Read More

Nice little surprises

It’s lovely when you get a nice little surprise (or ‘pleasing’ as Lynne at DGR would call them). I’ve had a couple of good bookish ones this morning. Firstly, I unpacked my acquisitions from the charity shop yesterday. I know I don’t need books, but my daughter was having her hair cut, and what was Read More

Old reviews from Feb 2011: Jones – Lukas – Nicholls

A novel of ‘Great expectations’ – Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones With its lovely cover, and the promise of Dickensian fun in paradise, I was easily lured into this novel.  I’ll admit that having missed most of the hype about it when it came out, I was expecting a soft and lightly humorous novel along the Read More

Old reviews from 2011 – 2 second novels

The Facility by Simon Lelic Simon Lelic’s first novel, Rupture, (see here) was such a breath of fresh air last year that when I was able to get my hands on an advance copy of his second, I could hardly wait to read it and for the publication date to get near.  Would it be as innovative Read More