Author Archives: drewsmith28

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About drewsmith28

Words, words, words...

Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (Vintage)

Posted on May 6, 2014 by drewsmith28

Edmund de Waal pronounces in his prologue that this story could almost tell it itself. Yes and no, Edmund. To anyone whose family were part of the same exodus from Odessa to Vienna to Paris as Russia, as then was, … Continue reading →

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The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Faber)

Posted on April 28, 2014 by drewsmith28

“The world begins anew with every birth, my father used to say. He forgot to say, with every death it ends. Or did not think he needed to. Because for a goodly part of his life he worked in a … Continue reading →

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Life: Keith Richards (Phoenix)

Posted on April 9, 2014 by drewsmith28

Chapter One; In which I am pulled over by police officers in Arkansas during our 1975 tour and a stand off ensues… It is not the salacious tittle tattle or the schoolboy sniggering (or the size of one M. Jagger’s … Continue reading →

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Mistress by James Patterson (Arrow)

Posted on April 9, 2014 by drewsmith28

I was curious to read something that was really popular, a best seller to compare with other books here. Does popularity equal literature? Does it matter? Are readers the ultimate accolade? So I turned to the “world’s bestselling thriller writer” the … Continue reading →

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Leviathan by Philip Hoare (Fourth Estate)

Posted on February 27, 2014 by drewsmith28

“Perhaps it is because I was nearly born underwater” A wonderful book of journalistic discovery about whales. I read it too long ago to review it properly but it stays in my mind as one of the reasons to start … Continue reading →

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Meander by Jeremy Seal (Chatto & Windus)

Posted on February 19, 2014 by drewsmith28

“I would have gone down the Meander years ago if I’d known it existed.” Apart from the maps, which are almost as deliberately confusing as perhaps the suspicious Turkish military might have intended for foreigners, this is a brilliantly informative … Continue reading →

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Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown)

Posted on February 5, 2014 by drewsmith28

  I should post a reservation about BIG books in general. Both the Booker listed Kills and the winning Luminaries are substantial door-holders, so is Donna Tartt’s Goldfinch, fewer pages but denser type, smaller margins. Such expansiveness demands more time, … Continue reading →

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Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor (Secker)

Posted on January 24, 2014 by drewsmith28

“In the top floor room of the dilapidated townhouse across the Terrace, a light has been on all night.” O’CONNOR becomes the first writer in this blog to have two books listed in the 101 lists. No apologies there. As … Continue reading →

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Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor (Secker)

Posted on January 24, 2014 by drewsmith28

IT is a while since I read Joseph O’Connor’s masterly narration of the Irish migration post famine distilled into the tale of a single boat’s crossing. It was as I recall the first book to be introduced on Richard and … Continue reading →

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Jim Crace and the new religionists

Posted on January 23, 2014 by drewsmith28

JIM Crace has a knack of creating brooding invisible forces that help create a framework beyond the obvious. In his Booker listed Harvest the prime protagonists hardly speak for themselves at all but just infect the narrative with a sense … Continue reading →

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