Guest Reviewer
Devil In A Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley
Reviewed on July 9, 2010
First published in 1990, Walter Mosley’s dark tale of mid twentieth century Los Angeles has become a cult classic. It is the tale of Easy Rawlins, a WWII veteran who’s finding his way in a lawless Los Angeles, barely scraping by on his factory wage, he’s minding his own business one night when he’s offered [...]
I Curse the River of Time, by Per Petterson
Reviewed on July 1, 2010
Although released this year, Per Petterson actually wrote I Curse The River of Time back in 2008. Ignoring their capitalist impulses, Harvill Secker didn’t rush out a translation to take advantage of the massive success of his previous novel, Out Stealing Horses. They decided to let it simmer and wait for a quality, author-approved English [...]
The Hell Of It All, by Charlie Brooker
Reviewed on June 29, 2010
Potty-mouthed misanthrope Charlie Brooker has carved himself out a rather attractive niche of the last few years, as a sort of thinking man’s Alf Garnett. Imagine the bastard offspring of Jeremy Clarkson and Stephen Fry – full of hatred and disdain for the majority of things in the world, but with a withering wit and [...]
Light Boxes, by Shane Jones
Reviewed on June 28, 2010
Two words here: delightfully quirky. This really is the only way to describe the magical, hallucinogenic and psychedelic fairy-tale that is Light Boxes, Shane Jones’ short debut novel, originally published through Baltimore’s Publishing-Genius Press in an edition of 500, and now issued by Hamish Hamilton, as well as being optioned for film by director Spike [...]
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Reviewed on June 25, 2010
The Great Gatsby is one of those novels about which it is difficult to say anything new. High schoolers who had it forced down their throats remember it as that novel about rich people and a green light somewhere, with all details forgotten after the final exam. It’s a shame because Fitzgerald’s language is perfect. [...]
And This is True, by Emily Mackie
Reviewed on June 23, 2010
To say that Emily Mackie’s debut novel is a thought-provoking and adventurous look at human relationships and the affect society has on them would be a bland understatement. And This is True is the story of Nevis Gow, a fifteen-year-old boy who has travelled the country in a caravan with his father since he was [...]
Hellhound On His Trail, by Hampton Sides
Reviewed on June 20, 2010
The relationship between assassin and target is an unusual one. The latter has usually built up a public standing of repute through years of work, and whether generally considered good or evil, it’s their public persona which ultimately leads to their murder. The former, on the other hand, is often unknown, unexpected and at least [...]
Lost Places, by Simon Kurt Unsworth
Reviewed on June 17, 2010
Horror, at its best, takes the mundane and every-day, and then corrupts it through a distorting lens beyond what it’s built to withstand. The safety of the normal world is left behind, replaced by a tangential, edgy unfamiliarity. Allied, of course, to a heightened sense of skin-crawling fear (but not necessarily gore, although it has [...]
Songs of a Dead Dreamer, by Thomas Ligotti
Reviewed on June 14, 2010
Thomas Ligotti is widely regarded as one of the most important writers currently working in the horror genre. His work is the subject of intense debate by fans and scholars alike. His often complex stories have conspired to bring him almost mythic status and this has been intensified by the difficulties of finding his earlier [...]
Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko
Reviewed on June 9, 2010
Everyone has their own opinions of which books we all should read before we die, and, for me, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony is placed firmly in my own personal top five (alongside Jane Eyre, Heart of Darkness, The Bell Jar and Animal Farm). Although it was published in 1977, it is a highly versatile book [...]
The Death of Bunny Munro, by Nick Cave
Reviewed on June 2, 2010
It’s easy to mock celebrity novelists – the assumption being that were it not for their fame, their novel would never have been published. To every rule there is an exception, and in this case, that exception is a 50-something year old Australian, Nick Cave. Cave has firmly established himself as musician and screenwriter and [...]
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Reviewed on May 26, 2010
Anytime I come across a novel that is a ‘re-telling’ of some other work, I become a little nervous. So this author was either too unoriginal to come up with his own themes and feels the need to re-hash someone else’s, or so arrogant to think that we didn’t get it the first time, or [...]
Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey, by Colin Grant
Reviewed on May 25, 2010
Potential readers may be justifiably put off by the flippant title of this book about one of the most enigmatic, yet least well-known, black icons of the last 100 years. Born in Jamaica in the late 1800s, it was clear that Garvey was destined to achieve greatness, or at least give the appearance of achieving [...]
The Harm, by Gary MacMahon
Reviewed on May 17, 2010
The best species of horror story-writing is that which preys on primal fears, especially if it’s something which could happen only too easily in real-life. Gary McMahon’s novelette, the first entry in a projected series of ‘longer’ short stories issued in a mini-book format by TTA Press (the publishers of Black Static and Interzone magazines), [...]
Little Gods, by Anna Richards
Reviewed on May 4, 2010
For anyone choosing to be different, life can be extremely difficult to negotiate at times, but it’s just that: a choice. However, for those who are born different, life is even more difficult: it was not of their making, just a fateful throw of the dice. Little Gods takes this premise of accidental difference and [...]
War Games, by Linda Polman
Reviewed on April 28, 2010
When the dust has settled after a natural disaster, or some tenuous respite reached in the chaos of a violent conflict, and a newsreader calmly announces that humanitarian aid is on route to the affected regions, the casual observer usually assumes the worst is over, help is on the way. As international journalist Linda Polman [...]
Secret Son, by Laila Lalami
Reviewed on March 25, 2010
Secret Son, which has just been longlisted for the Orange Prize, is the first novel by Moroccan-born Laila Lalami, who has previously published a collection of short stories. Youssef El-Mekki, nineteen, with dreams of becoming a film star, lives with his mother in a one-room shack cobbled together from corrugated metal and plastic sheeting in [...]
The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
Reviewed on March 23, 2010
Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk’s sixth novel translated into English centres around a curious conceit: throughout the story, Kemal, the narrator, periodically draws the reader’s attention to certain objects – a clock, a letter, a teacup, or even a cigarette butt – and explains why he is choosing to display or exhibit them. Each one evokes [...]
Angels’ Blood, by Nalini Singh
Reviewed on March 8, 2010
Fresh from a tidal wave of recently released vampire romance novels following successes like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, it’s now been whispered that angels are soon to be the next big thing. Nailini Singh’s Angels’ Blood couldn’t be more perfectly timed for lovers of supernatural romance. Elena Deveraux is one of the best vampire [...]
The Missing by Jane Casey
Reviewed on February 16, 2010
The Missing is Jane Casey’s first novel, a thriller set in a Surrey commuter town, narrated by an English teacher at a girl’s private school. Sarah Finch is a thwarted soul hiding a tragic secret. Her brother disappeared from their front garden when she was eight years old and never returned, no body was found. [...]
Orphans of Eldorado, by Milton Hatoum
Reviewed on February 12, 2010
A tiny Roman numeral at the top of the spine announces (in a whisper) that Orphans of Eldorado is the thirteenth instalment of Canongate’s critically acclaimed Myths series. However, it seems that Canongate have relaxed their branding, as Hatoum’s slim novel is issued as a trade paperback, and a colourful one at that. The decision [...]
None of This Ever Really Happened, by Peter Ferry
Reviewed on January 21, 2010
None of This Ever Really Happened was publisposhed in hardback under the title Travel Writing. The new title is fitting for a novel that places the author at the centre of a story that blends fact and personal history with fiction and is also populated by personal friends and famous writers. It must also be [...]
Your Face Tomorrow, by Javier Marias
Reviewed on January 14, 2010
Your Face Tomorrow is a truly remarkable novel, in every way. Granted, some perseverance is needed initially, as the way in which Marias’ narrator allows his story to unfold is unique and startling, but perseverance is swiftly displaced by compulsion, and you are compelled to turn each page not so much by a racy plot [...]
Broken, by Karin Fossum
Reviewed on December 3, 2009
This intriguing, daring novel is marketed as crime fiction (by which I mean it looks and feels as if it belongs in that genre) and is written by one of Norway’s leading crime novelists, but though a pivotal crime is committed, it radically subverts all generic expectations. Broken sets its post-modern stall out early: the [...]
Flashforward, by Robert J. Sawyer
Reviewed on November 12, 2009
Let me begin with the spoiler alert. A serialised television adaptation of this novel has recently been aired in the United States and is currently airing in the United Kingdom (and possibly other locations). However, I do not think fans of the series will find it spoiled for them either by reading this review or [...]
Howards End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill
Reviewed on October 15, 2009
Too many times have I bought or borrowed a book on a friend’s recommendation, on the premise that this book – with its insipid pastels and prepubescent misty child on the cover – will thrill and amaze me. Too often, it is pure sensationalised drivel encapsulated in low grade prose. It is not that these [...]
The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
Reviewed on October 2, 2009
“That night when the Waterless Flood began, I was waiting for my test results: they kept you locked in the Sticky Zone for weeks, in case you had something contagious” I felt like a child opening present under the Christmas tree when I held the new Margaret Atwood in my hands, knowing full well that [...]
Hungry City: How Food Shapes our Lives, by Carolyn Steel
Reviewed on September 30, 2009
This is not a gastro-book. Neither is it an escapist holiday page-turner about the joys of food. It’s much better than that. It is a thorough, well-researched, broad-reaching and entertaining essay about how we in Britain have come to have our current relationship with food. This relationship is carefully characterised, using a wide range of [...]
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Reviewed on September 22, 2009
What is there still to be said about Neuromancer? William Gibson’s startling novel is revered in certain circles as a genre-defining piece of modern literature, representing a startling glance into an all-too-possible future of ever-greater technology paralleled by ever-diminishing humanity among a growing global underclass. Since it was first published 25 years ago, Gibson’s debut [...]
Stop Me, by Richard Jay Parker
Reviewed on September 15, 2009
howdy doody on vacation slim, attractive dreadlocked babe with a fun sticky-out bellybutton, likes rabbit fur forward this email to ten friends each of those friends must forward it to ten friends maybe one of those friends of friends of friends will be one of my friends if this email ends up in my inbox [...]
Orbus, by Neal Asher
Reviewed on August 28, 2009
I think a short confession is in order: Orbus is the first of Asher’s Spatterjay novels I have read. It is always an interesting experience diving into the middle of a long sequence of novels: you’re dropped into their established continuity and you have to swim or else drown in a sea of odd names, [...]
The Dangerous Book of Heroes by Conn & David Iggulden
Reviewed on August 25, 2009
I’ll be quite frank: I enjoy a rousing tale of derring-do as much as the next manly fellow. I like my heroes bristling with weapons and facial hair, preferably whilst rowing longboats and shouting ‘ho!’ a lot. So I was all set to enjoy The Dangerous Book of Heroes as a kind of guilty pleasure. [...]
The Last Patriot, by Brad Thor
Reviewed on July 29, 2009
A melange of history, religion and politics with a hefty portion of action, The Last Patriot by Brad Thor sounds like a recipe for success. Yet Thor’s seventh Scott Harvath novel, which sees the US Secret Service agent embroiled in a battle with Islamic fundamentalists in a race to uncover an antique treasure, comes across [...]
Ground Control: Fear and happiness in the twenty-first century city, by Anna Minton
Reviewed on July 7, 2009
Anna Minton’s short book on the modern built environment, subtitled ‘Fear and happiness in the twenty-first century city’, is a strange but interesting creature: although it hangs in the no-man’s land between serious academic study and philosophical monograph, it is never anything other than serious in its intent. The central premise is to undertake a [...]
Ox-Tales: Earth, by Kate Atkinson, Rose Tremain and others
Reviewed on June 30, 2009
As the name suggests, this collection of short stories is part of a quartet named for the four Classical elements, all of them featuring work by famous writers who have effectively donated their work for Oxfam to publish. The contributions are fairly wide-ranging too, with Ian Rankin splashed on the cover next to Kate Atkinson, [...]
The Solitude of Prime Numbers, by Paulo Giordano
Reviewed on June 24, 2009
Mathematics becomes metaphor in first-time novelist Giordano’s story about the life-altering capabilities of choice and consequence.
Starbucked, by Taylor Clark, and The Devil’s Cup, by Stuart Lee Allen
Reviewed on June 9, 2009
This review by James Appleby first appeared on Tastybooks.co.uk. This is not about coffee. Nor is it about its tastes, its modern gourmet guise or its effects on us. It is about big business, and how one name came to dominate high streets throughout the world, driven by the design and determination of one man. [...]
Late Nights on Air, by Elizabeth Hay
Reviewed on June 3, 2009
Another day, another new reviewer for Bookgeeks – so please welcome Nicola Currie! Set in the wild frigid climes of a Canadian North on the cusp of industrial invasion, Late Nights on Air is a novel about unavoidable change, nostalgic memory and emotion rooted in time and place. Beginning in the small northern town of [...]
Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles, by Harriet Lamb
Reviewed on March 27, 2009
Fair Trade has been around for a few years now and for most of us has had to share voice in the public domain with the competing virtues of organic, carbon-neutral, free-range and non-GM amongst others. If you want to know what it stands for, where it started, how it’s doing and what you can do [...]
Planet Chicken: The Shameful Story of the Bird on Your Plate, by Hattie Ellis
Reviewed on February 23, 2009
To celebrate the launch of his new food books blog, Tastybooks.co.uk, James A reviews one of the least appetizing but most important reads of the year. Planet Chicken is a well-informed look at the world of chicken farming. It takes us on a journey through the history of chickens from farm birds to their current [...]
The Mighty Book of Boosh, by Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, illustrated by Dave Brown
Reviewed on November 25, 2008
For the latest in Bookgeeks’ occasional series of guest reviews, master of the surreal James Appleby tells us all about the The Mighty Book of Boosh, a task that he’s eminently qualified for by virtue of once having seen Noel Fielding in Wagamama. Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this review written but [...]
Jar of Fools, by Jason Lutes
Reviewed on October 6, 2008
Owen Priestley gets all arty in Bookgeeks’ first graphic novel review. If anyone has heard of Jason Lutes before this UK publication of Jar Of Fools it’s probably due to his work Berlin: City of Stones. Not exactly prolific, Over the last 15 years Lutes has published a handful of graphic novels: Jar of Fools, [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Blaine Harden
Blaine Harden is an author and journalist who reports for PBS Frontline and contributes to The Economist. He worked for The Washington Post as a correspondent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as in New York and Seattle. He was also a national correspondent for The New York Times and writer for the Times Magazine.
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