French Braid is a quiet family saga. There are no shocking revelations or big dramatic moments in the lives of various members of the Garrett family of Baltimore. Instead, Anne Tyler chooses to focus on the smaller stuff; the incidents and ingredients that combine to shape a family. We meet them through a series of […]| BookerTalk
Environmental campaigners and ego-tripping capitalists clash in Eleanor Catton’s Birnham Wood. It sounded promising but it’s largely a promise unfulfilled. Birnam Wood — the portable forest that heralds the fall of Macbeth — is the name of an “activist collective” based in Christchurch, New Zealand. They’re guerrilla gardeners in essence; taking over waste public land […]| BookerTalk
Adulterers, hypocrites, snobs. Emile Zola’s Pot Luckreveals the secret world of the middle-class inhabitants of a Parisienne apartment block, showing that the outward signs of prosperity and harmony disguise the morally bankrupt nature of their lives. The occupants of the Rue de Choiseul regularly attend church and loudly condemn people whose behaviour fails to meet […]| BookerTalk
“What I’m Reading” is my contribution to the WWW Wednesday’s meme run by Sam from Taking On a World of Words. The Ws represent three questions: What I’m reading now #10booksofsummer has gone so well this year that I’m currently on book 12. This is The Interview by J David Simons which was published this […]| BookerTalk
R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface is something of a mash up. Dark comedy meets thriller in a tale which also seeks to ride the topical wave of truth and authenticity in the publishing industry. It begins with two young novelists in Washington DC. Chinese-American Athena Liu, is the toast of the publishing world, an award-winning author who […]| BookerTalk
“I doubt you’ll enjoy it,” was Mr Booker Talk’s reaction as I embarked on reading Scoop by Evelyn Waugh for the Classics Club spin. He was so right. Published in 1938, Scoop was written at a time when Waugh was gaining a name as a satirical novelist. He wrote the novel as a critique of […]| BookerTalk
Adventures in reading around the world| BookerTalk
This update was meant to be published two days ago. WordPress had other plans for how I should use my time however. When I logged on to begin writing the post I saw those dreaded words — “critical error”. Something (don’t ask me what) had gone wrong with the theme I had been using and […]| BookerTalk
When I created this blog I planned to write something, no matter how brief, about each book I read. it seemed like a doable goal at the time but in recent years I’ve found that I don’t always have the time/energy to write a review or I’m still processing my reaction to the book. I might […]| BookerTalk
This page is where you can find what everyone has read for ReadingWalesMonth’25. I’ll post links to everyone’s posts as| BookerTalk