I went to see the Beyond Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery this week. Knowing Caravaggio mostly through his Boy Bitten By A Lizard, which I dislike, I was stopped in my tracks by his other paintings in the exhibition
Category: Recommendations (page 5 of 6)
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind week – one exhibition, one gig and one play. I have to say this play was not my choice, but it’s at a theatre I really like, and I’ll go and see Mark Gatiss in pretty much anything. I thought I was in for an excellent production of a dated play. What whipped the rug out from under my feet was
Jonathan Unleashed
Bloomsbury
2016
Jonathan is a 20-something, with a girlfriend, an inane job, and a worryingly affordable decent New York apartment. His life is enriched by having to look after his brother's two dogs. But the dogs seem to be all too aware of Jonathan's internal struggle to cope with the responsibilities of growing into adulthood.
I am not a dog owner but this book made me laugh out loud so many times, I had to stop listening to it in public*. Jonathan of the title is a 20-something whose brother has given him two dogs to look after temporarily.
New York Broad Street Federal Hall 1797
One of my Books To Read List is Francis Spufford’s Golden Hill. Of interest to New Yorkers, and American readers in general.
If anyone wants to get there before me, Waterstone’s have it as one of their five October Books of the Month.
One of the others, Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith is a great read. And a good film.
I’m reading two really depressing books at the moment and have to confess I picked up a copy of Girl On A Train for when I have finished them.
(Hush! I have a secret shop – not primarily a bookshop – where I often get paperbacks.)
This National Theatre of Scotland production of Lee Hall’s play based on the book The Sopranos by Alan Warner (I can’t imagine why they changed the name), has reached London for a run in the tiny Dorfman Theatre.
(Sensitive readers be aware – this play is about sober and drunk teenage girls talking about, looking for and having sex. Bawdy is a bit of an understatement.)
I hate click-through advertising on websites, although I understand why it exists and how it is used.
But some of you will have noticed that I have links to Waterstones and Barnes & Noble on my book reviews. I’ve done this to support the shops, rather than the shops supporting me. If you click through and buy a book from Waterstones I’ll get about 7p!
But I believe in books and bookshops and I hate Amazon, so that’s why I’ve done it.
And you won’t be seeing Google Ads.
This post is probably best not to be read by anyone other than me. It’s probably going to be self-indulgent. I think I need to get what is going on in my head out and and into the world, for vaguely therapeutic reasons.
It’s my birthday on Monday and it’s a bit of a strange weekend. I have the opportunity to spend Sunday night in Leeds, which is near my parents’ house, so we’re having lunch with them and then I will come back home on Monday.
Dog Will Have His Day
The Three Evangelists
Harvill Secker
Retired policeman (and friend of Adamsberg) Louis Kehlweiler finds a bone in some old dog excrement. It's a human bone and Kehlweiler is determined to find out from whom it has come. With the help of Marc and Matthias, his search unexpectedly leads him out of Paris and into a small Breton village, where the more he discovers, the more he is convinced he is investigating murder.
I am huge fan too of Fred Vargas, whose series of detective books featuring Commissaire Adamsberg are one of the most entertaining offbeat crime books around. I always read the latest Adamsberg book on holiday, and was very upset to find that the latest was not ready for my holiday. A disgrace. However she has another set of books whose protagonists are three young men called Marc, Lucien and Matthias, known collectively as the title of the first book the Three Evangelists. This second book in the series has been a long time coming in translation but is well worth the wait. If you don’t know her books start with The Chalk Circle Man (Adamsberg number one), and The Three Evangelists. The beautifully translated (by Sian Reynolds) books are eccentric and funny – and I guess are a bit of an acquired taste. I love them. Will you?
The Essex Serpent
Serpent's Tail
2016
1893. Recently widowed Cora Seabourne, her Socialist companion and her taciturn son take lodgings in Colchester. Cora's interest in natural sciences is pricked by tales of a mythical serpent causing destruction further along the coast around the village of Aldwinter. There she meets the vicar William Ransome, who does not share Cora's scientific beliefs nor those of his superstitious parishioners. A volatile mix of emotions and beliefs will change everything.
Hard to categorise but I loved this book. It’s sort of Dickensian and Gothic but so, so, so much more; politics, science, faith, medicine, folklore, business, the supernatural and social injustice all wrapped up in an extraordinary tale. It’s a book to get lost in with a plot full of twists and turns, and characters that live in your head. It’s all set against a beautiful evocation of the Essex countryside changing through the seasons in the late 19th century. Wonderful.
