Nine Book Reviews

Summer is over and winter is drawing in. Now is the time to think about something new to read, or something different, or both.

Here are links to my nine, most recent book reviews. They may give you some inspiration for your next read.

 

Men in Caring Occupations by Ruth Simpson

What does it mean to be a man in a female dominated profession?

 

Curtain: Poirot's Last Case, by Agatha Christie 

Hercule Poirot is ill, he is dying, and he invites his old friend, Arthur Hastings, for one, last investigation

 

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French

This is a story of modern family life, told through the diaries of three different members of one family

 

The Clothes They Stood Up in by Alan Bennett

This is a slim volume but Bennett still manages to pack a punch with his sparse prose, with many touches of his sharp and on-the-nail humour.

 

The Part-Time Job by PD James

This is another slim volume, just one short story and an essay, but it’s a perfect quick read as an eBook.

 

Tales Of The City by Armistead Maupin

It is 1976 and Mary Ann Singleton changes her visit to San Francisco into a permanent move.

 

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman

It’s the suburbs in the 1970s, and two teenage lads, Enn and Vic, go to a teenage party to meet girls.

 

Rude Britannia: One Man's Journey Around the Highways and Bi-ways of British Sex By Tim Fountain

Tim Fountain set out here to explore Britain’s sexual highways and byways, to explore the fetish clubs, swingers’ clubs, dogging sites and much, much more.

 

The Fallen Curtain by Ruth Rendell   

Ruth Rendell was known for her dark psychological thrillers, but she also wrote many short stories. This was her first collection of them.

 

Happy reading

Drew

Eight Book Reviews

 

Looking for some holiday reading? Here are eight of my book reviews that may prick your interest.

 

Arkansas by David Leavitt

David Leavitt has always been an interesting short story and novella writer, here is a collection of three of his novellas that are more than worth a read.

 

London Urban Legends by Scott Wood

I have always been fascinated by urban legends and so it appears has Scott Wood. This was the perfect read on my journey to and from work, on the London Underground..

 

The House of Stairs by (Ruth Rendell writing as) Barbara Vine

For many years I lived in Notting Hill, London, where this novel is set, and it turns on the head the convention of the crime novel.

 

From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell

During the summer, I realised I had not read Ruth Rendell’s first novel, so I did. All great writers must start somewhere.

 

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

I first read this novel as a young teenager, when I found it very frightening. I reread it as an adult and found it uncomfortably disturbing. It is still thought-provoking now.

 

Logical Family: A Memoir by Armistead Maupin

SPOILER: One of the best things Armistead Maupin has written.

 

Liverpool Murders - Kirkdale Hangings 1870–1891 by Steven Horton

So much true crime literature is sensationalist, moral-panic writing or just plain voyeuristic. This book isn’t and it is fascinating for being so.

 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick

SPOLIER: One of, if not the best novels Philip K Dick wrote.