Sue Wilsea
The Uncoupling, by Meg Wolitzer
Reviewed on August 13, 2012
The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer is a delightful novel to try and unpick: part sex comedy and part satire on small town America, it’s blown along by a puff of magic realism. A new teacher, Fran Heller, starts at the school where happily married Dory and Robbie both teach and chooses Aristophanes’s drama Lysistrata as [...]
That Summer at Hill Farm, by Miranda France
Reviewed on July 23, 2012
This first novel ( simply called Hill Farm in some editions ) is an interesting one. At its heart is the doomed affair between farmer’s wife Isobel who lies awake at night listening to the rumblings of her husband and the tapping of the death-watch beetles and handsome Australian Jack, the new stockman. However, the [...]
I Still Dream About You, by Fannie Flagg
Reviewed on July 7, 2012
Life appears to have worked out well for Maggie Fortenbery, a former Miss Alabama. She enjoys her work as a realtor, or estate agent, which allows her to lead a comfortable and independent existence and she has some good friends. She is unfailingly charming, polite and well-meaning and has retained her good looks despite being [...]
When You Were Mine, by Rebecca Serle
Reviewed on May 10, 2012
The hook for this contemporary teenage novel is Romeo and Juliet ( the “greatest love story ever told”) though When You Were Mine offers a slightly different take on the well-worn tale. Rosaline, the seventeen year old narrator, is a character from the original Shakespeare play ( although to be fair it wasn’t the latter’s [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Mark Oldfield
Mark Oldfield has worked in criminological research for over 20 years. He has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Kent and has carried out research in the areas of risk assessment and prediction and as well as evaluative research on policing, prisons and probation. He has also taught in various Universities on research, crime and criminal justice.
