I so nearly didn’t post a chain for this month. I made a start but the second half had several false starts and then when the final link came, I was aghast at how I could have missed the last few. By then I’d taken a step back from the blogging world for a short while, and it’s been such a long time since I’ve posted about anything other than books; I thought, maybe I’ll just let this one pass …. But here I am: posting about books. Continue reading “Six Degrees of Separation: from Tales of the City to …”
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Published 1971
(Reviewed as part of Jane’s Birthday Book for Underappreciated Lady Authors and as part of The Classics Club.)
Continue reading “Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor”
Fathers
perhaps what all the best fathers and father figures have in common is their universal striving to offer unconditional love and support to those in their care
I am aware that it’s been quite a while since I posted anything related to Cornwall and our lives here; I really must address it. But not today. Continue reading “Fathers”
Five Things on a Friday
Paula at Book Jotter has recently written about her intention to start a series of posts entitled Three Things… I’m adapting her idea slightly. Continue reading “Five Things on a Friday”
The Provincial Lady in Wartime by E M Delafield
Published in 1940
(Reviewed as part of Jane’s Birthday Book of Underappreciated Lady Authors and for the Classics Club.)
Continue reading “The Provincial Lady in Wartime by E M Delafield”
Six Degrees of Separation: from The Tipping Point to …
The starter for this month’s six degrees is Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (2002). It’s important to include that first word. I forgot when I looked it up on Amazon and got the popular TV game which I haven’t watched but have a vague understanding of courtesy of family members who all tell me that I’m missing out. I haven’t heard of Gladwell’s book either but having finally found it on Amazon, I now notice its subtitle: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, and I think this is a book that I ought to have read and ought to enjoy. A skim of the chapter titles didn’t endear it to me though. I suspect it will remain a worthy book which I shall never quite pick up. (I also noticed his more recent book: Outliers (2007). This one I have heard of, but it fell into the same category: I ought to want to read it but really, I don’t.) Continue reading “Six Degrees of Separation: from The Tipping Point to …”
Reading rambles: reading in situ
The Birdwatcher by William Shaw
‘Superb description of a haunting, blighted landscape.
His best book so far’
I am not a connoisseur of crime novels, though I have read a book by C J Sansom, whose praise it is that adorns my library copy of The Birdwatcher. I don’t understand the distinction between thriller, psychological thriller, crime novel, detective novel, police procedural. Perhaps there is no distinction; perhaps they are all terms for a wide umbrella of popular fiction, which, if what I read is correct, is currently booming. Whatever it’s called, I have been standing out in the rain for quite some years, not particularly drawn to the genre however it might be described, and not really sure what the fuss is about. But recently, I’ve read a couple of crime novels: the first as an early reviewer, because the book was based in Cornwall and the second because it was based in Dungeness. And I might just be taking the bait. But I’ve also been bitten by another bug. Continue reading “Reading rambles: reading in situ”
