Author Archives: drewsmith28

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About drewsmith28

Words, words, words...

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Posted on June 27, 2014 by drewsmith28

There is a very good piece by Nick Davies on the phone hacking debacle here http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/25/-sp-phone-hacking-trial-rebekah-brooks-rupert-murdoch Nice girl, Rebekah

Posted in Non fiction | Leave a comment

Pommes de terre by Frederic Anton (La Chene)

Posted on June 25, 2014 by drewsmith28

“J’aime la pomme de terre. La frite croustillante a l’exterieur, fondante a l’interieur, juste salee. Les pommes rissolees, avec leur parfum de beurre.” This is still in French but mostly it is recipes which are easy enough to follow with … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Non fiction | Leave a comment

A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Galley Beggar)

Posted on June 23, 2014 by drewsmith28

“She and me. Like to lurk here in the day. Those gossips we have are the very best and we read and read. Quote quotes back forth. That’s good for sharing books of this and that. Word perfect. We snick … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Leave a comment

Icefields by Thomas Wharton (Washington Square Press)

Posted on June 20, 2014 by drewsmith28

“At a quarter past three in the afternoon on August 17, 1898, Doctor Edward Byrne slipped on the ice of Arcturus glacier in the Canadian Rockies and slid into a crevasse” Wharton’s take on the founding of the Jasper community … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | 1 Comment

Murder bag by Tony Parsons (Century)

Posted on June 4, 2014 by drewsmith28

Lee Child – see below – also writes the endorsement on Tony Parson’s departure into the crimo genre. “Tense and human”, he says. Welcome to the field of nastiness and violence, Tony. Parsons can write. I have followed his work … Continue reading →

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Killing Floor by Lee Childs (Bantam)

Posted on May 24, 2014 by drewsmith28

“I was arrrested in Eno’s diner. At twelve o’clock. I was eating eggs and drinking coffee”  I read somewhere someone saying they would automatically buy a new Lee Childs book as soon as it came out. That was their reading … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Outtakes | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Biography, Non fiction, Outtakes | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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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