Author Archives: drewsmith28

Unknown's avatar

About drewsmith28

Words, words, words...

The girl who wasn’t there by Ferdinand von Schirach (Abacus)

Posted on August 14, 2015 by drewsmith28

“On a fine spring day in the year 1838, a new kind of reality was created on the Boulevard de Temple in Paris” That reality was of course photography which is part of the theme here. To those of us … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Satin Island by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape)

Posted on August 9, 2015 by drewsmith28

  “Turin is where the famous shroud is from, the one showing Christ’s body supine after crucifixion: hands folded over genitals, eyes closed, head crowned with thorns. The image isn’t really visible on the bare linen. It only emerged…” U … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr (Fourth Estate)

Posted on June 23, 2015 by drewsmith28

“Leaflets. At dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across ramparts, turn cartwheeels over rooftops…Urgent message to the inhabitants of this town. Depart immediately to open country.” He is the orphan radio repairer. German. She is the blind daughter … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, In progress | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Blood, bones and butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (Vintage)

Posted on June 8, 2015 by drewsmith28

“We threw a party. The same party every year, when I was a kid. It was a spring lamb roast, and we roasted four or five whole little guys who each weighed only about forty pounds over an open fire … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Biography | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Gathering by Anne Enright (Vintage)

Posted on June 1, 2015 by drewsmith28

“I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother’s house the summer I was eight or nine, but I am not sure if it really did happen.” THE back cover copy on my edition says that this 2007 … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Biography, fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman (Simon & Schuster)

Posted on May 21, 2015 by drewsmith28

“You would think it would be impossible to find anything new in the world, creatures no man has seen before, one-of-a-kind oddities in which nature has taken a backseat to the coursing pulse of the fantastical and the marvelous.” STORY … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Three Brothers by Peter Ackroyd (Vintage)

Posted on April 30, 2015 by drewsmith28

“In the London borough of Camden, in the middle of the last century, there lived three brothers…”  HISTORIANS should always write at least one novel set in their own era. They have the training for detail to record the now. … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage)

Posted on April 28, 2015 by drewsmith28

  “It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shear’s house.” On first reading of Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Biography, fiction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sapiens, a brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (Harvill Secker)

Posted on April 9, 2015 by drewsmith28

“About 13.3 billion years ago, matter, energy, time and space came into being in what is known as the Big Bang.” YOU will like this one. It is about you. Us. The master species. The wise ones.  Dr Harari’s middle … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Non fiction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber)

Posted on March 30, 2015 by drewsmith28

“You would have searched a long time for the sort of winding lane or tranquil meadow for which England later became celebrated.” We are in Shrek country. Frodo-land. There are ogres, sprites, curses. It is middle England, post Arthurian, pre … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment