Category Archives: 101greatreads

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 →

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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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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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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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Hhhh by Laurent Binet (Harvill Secker)

Posted on January 17, 2014 by drewsmith28

“Gabcik – that’s his name – really did exist. Lying alone on a little iron bed, did he hear, from outside, beyond the shutters of a darkened apartment, the unmistakeable creaking of the Prague tramways. I want to believe so.” … Continue reading →

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Sushi and beyond by Michael Booth (Vintage)

Posted on January 16, 2014 by drewsmith28

“Ha! You so fat you not so see your dankon for years! You pants too small. You are so fat, sun go down when you bend over!” A true story, a travelogue where Michael Booth takes his wife and two … Continue reading →

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The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt (Granta)

Posted on January 15, 2014 by drewsmith28

“I was sitting outside the Commodore’s mansion, waiting for my brother Charlie to come out with news of the job.” IT is hard for a western to get literary recognition, although if it works for west coast gumshoes then perhaps … Continue reading →

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