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Published: 2014, unbound Genre: Fiction Themes: historical, norman invasion, fens, fighting My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ I have finished reading The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth and it was worth the effort.   This is a book written in a made up language based on old English.  At first glance it seemed to read like Chaucer's Prologue from the Canterbury Tales, and I almost abandoned it without getting further than the first page.  Luckily, Mark Rylance's recommendation stopped me. I kept thinking that Mark Rylance wouldn't encourage me to read something that I wouldn't get something out of so, with my thumb in the glossary, I pressed on.  The first few pages were slow going as I got my head round the rhythm of the language, but its surprising how quickly you become used to it and start to read at a normal pace. The tale is set in England just after the Norman invasion of 1066, and the main character, Buccmaster of Holland, sees a 'haeric star' [hairy star or comet] th...

  I think there are two kinds of children's book.  The big glossy numbers that usually relate to a TV show, and are not very well written, and then there are the wonderful stories that children listen to with all their attention.  The Helen Oxenbury books about Tom and Pippo are like that, and the pictures are beautifully drawn.  I bought Tom and Pippo and the Bicycle when one of my grand daughters was about two, and she was enthralled by it at the time. My own children loved the books written and illustrated by Shirley Hughes, especially 'Alfie gets in first' and 'Dogger'.  Our copy of Dogger is so well read that the spine has disappeared, and the pages are falling out, but we can't possibly throw it away.  My younger son used to anxiously hold his breath when we got to the part where the toy dog gets lost at the school fete and ends up for sale on the toy stall.  Even though we had read the story a gazillion times, there was still that dreadful wait ...

  Published: 1973, Holt McDougal Genre: Fiction Themes: baseball, american culture, humour/farce My rating (out of 5): ❤ I finished reading Philip Roth's 'The Great American Novel' last night, so I went back to the library this morning looking for something to help me get over it. Roth's book was written in the dark ages of 1973, and I am surprised it has survived contact with today's woke generation and remained on the library shelves.  It is brilliantly written, but very, very offensive.  If you are female, black, disabled, Jewish or were born with dwarfism, this book will push all your buttons.  It is a satire about a baseball team that is bordering on farce, so I read it as it was intended to be read, but the language burns the eyes and I'm not sure anyone would touch the manuscript if it was presented to a publisher today. The story is very much about baseball but even I managed to follow along, even though I had no previous understanding of the game.  We f...