Photo by Abee5 (CC BY 2.0) Another year is drawing to a close, and it’s time to look back at the books we have read and pull out some of the best. Thank you for contributing to this list and making it so varied. I was delighted to see several books in translation this year. …
Month: December 2019
The Places in Between: Rory Stewart
Published by Mariner Books, Harper Perennial and Picador Rory Stewart had set out to walk from Iran all the way to Nepal—through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. But in December 2000, when the Iranian government took away his visa, the Taliban refused to allow him to enter Afghanistan. So Stewart had to go directly to Pakistan. …
Magpie Murders: Anthony Horowitz
This is a whodunit within a whodunit. One Friday evening, Susan Ryeland, the Head of Fiction at Cloverleaf Books, picks up Magpie Murders, the latest manuscript by Alan Conway—one of their most successful writers—and takes it home. She pours herself a glass of wine and starts to read. As she reads the manuscript, so do …
The Gap of Time: Jeanette Winterson
“God doesn’t need to punish us. We can do that for ourselves. That’s why we need forgiveness.” A man driven crazy by jealousy, a wife accused of adultery and a lost child: this is Jeanette Winterson’s take on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.[1] But unlike Othello, The Winter’s Tale allows the for redemption and a chance …
Talking About Books 