Booksnob

LATEST ARTICLES ( 302 )

• Joys of the Season

  

  This is my absolute favourite time of year. I enjoy all of the seasons, but Autumn is so beautiful and so fleeting that I can’t help but embrace it with more... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Matriarch by G B Stern

  

  Thanks very much to Daunt Books, who sent me this a while back. Their taste is impeccable; last year they reprinted one of my all-time favourite novels, Illyria... Read more

  Posted on 28 September 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Notes from the Classroom

  

  My student teacher days are over. Now I’m in the classroom, on my own, with the freedom to teach what I want in the way I think best, without having to tick lot... Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives Ed. Sarah Weinman

  

  Who could resist a book with such a fabulous title and cover? Certainly not me. I am very grateful to Lindsay at Penguin for sending this my way, as this is a... Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Soundbites

  

  1. I’ve fallen back in love with London. Miranda introduced me to the lovely Quo Vadis in Soho, which showed me that sophisticated restaurants are within my... Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

  

  My goodness, this book is brilliant. The story opens with the confession of a captured prisoner: she frankly admits that she is a coward. Read more

  Posted on 06 September 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Exploring East Sussex

  

  Two weeks ago, with the promise of lots of lovely long days filled with sunshine, my mum and I finally decided to visit two places we’ve been meaning to get to... Read more

  Posted on 03 September 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

  

  This is the story of two marriages and a powerful friendship that binds them. Larry Morgan narrates; in the real time of the novel, he is in his sixties, and... Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Capitol Time

  

  Washington D.C. is the most unlikely capital city I’ve ever visited. It’s certainly got more official buildings than you could shake a stick at, but it’s so cal... Read more

  Posted on 24 August 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Hotel by Elizabeth Bowen

  

  This is Bowen’s first novel, and I’ve been saving it up for a while. I was looking forward to being able to read it from the perspective of having already read... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• New York, New Perspective

  

  I have never visited a city as a tourist after having lived there. I’ve never left anywhere that I didn’t want to leave other than New York. As such, I had no... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• On My Travels

  

  If all goes to plan, when you read this, I’ll be sunning myself in New York! I’m going to be hanging out in the Big Apple (and making a quick stop in... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Reading Young Adult Fiction

  

  A few weeks ago, I was teaching a lesson in the school library when one of my students asked me to help her choose a book. As I never need an excuse to foist... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Sunny Surrey

  

  I had hoped to visit Hastings this past weekend, but rather typically, the one iffy day we had weather wise was on Saturday, when my university friend Emma had... Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple

  

  I’ve heard a lot about this book lately, and when I saw it going for less than the price of a magazine in Tesco, I snapped it up for a bit of light reading. Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Crisis of Brilliance

  

  David Bomberg, In the Hold, Tate GalleryOn a sweltering day, there is no better place to be than a picture gallery. Their cool, hushed corridors hung with the... Read more

  Posted on 14 July 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford

  

  This is one of those Mitford novels that’s fallen by the wayside over the years. It’s very tied to its period, which is perhaps why it hasn’t become a favourite... Read more

  Posted on 06 July 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Village Warming

  

  My sister moved house at the weekend, to a village just up the road from mine. It’s a lovely spot; down a quiet lane, opposite a 15th century church and with... Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens

  

  This was going to be a perfectly ordinary point-by-point review of Monica Dickens’ The Winds of Heaven, but as I began writing (or ranting), I realised that my... Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Time Will Darken It by William Maxwell

  

  This is one of those books that is very difficult to write about. It tells a story in which ‘nothing’ really happens, and yet, as we all know, it is the nothing... Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE