Category Archives: 101greatreads

Strange weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (Portobello)

Posted on October 26, 2019 by drewsmith28

“His full name was Mr Harutsuna Matsumoto, but I called him Sensei. Not Mr or Sir, but Sensei” THE original title of this off-beat romance was The Briefcase which as I read it is titillating bait. Which way does this … Continue reading →

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Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)

Posted on August 21, 2019 by drewsmith28

My dearest Ellen, Please excuse this too-long-delayed response JOSEPH, how nice to see you again. Another tome, lovely. A pleasure, I am sure. A treat even. Back in the Ghost Light territory are we? I never connected that Bram Stoker … Continue reading →

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The Value of Everything by Mariana Mazzucato (Penguin)

Posted on June 24, 2019 by drewsmith28

“The barbarous gold barons – they did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy all the gold belonged to them.” THE quote is from 1929, Big … Continue reading →

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Van Gogh and Britain (Tate)

Posted on June 6, 2019 by drewsmith28

“I’m gradually beginning to turn into a true cosmopolitan, meaning not a Dutchman, Englishman or Frenchman, but simoply a man” Vincent Van Gogh February 9, 1874. THIS  book goes with the brilliant exhibition at the Tate Britain, but sometimes a … Continue reading →

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Spring by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)

Posted on April 30, 2019 by drewsmith28

“Now what we don’t want is Facts” THE first two of this potential quartet – Autumn and Winter –  were pleasant if not totally convincing as the contemporary novel of weight and import. This on the other hand opens with … Continue reading →

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The elegance of the hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Gallic)

Posted on April 8, 2019 by drewsmith28

“Marx has completely changed the way I view the world,” declared the Pallieres boy this morning, although ordinarily he says nary a word to me.” PERHAPS it is just my personal taste, but it seems as if a new form … Continue reading →

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Talking to my daughter, a brief history of capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis (Vintage)

Posted on March 21, 2019 by drewsmith28

“All babies are born naked, but soon some are dressed in expensive clothes bought at the best boutiques while the majority wear rags” THE very best way to write a book is to sit down on an idyllic Greek island … Continue reading →

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The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard (Picador)

Posted on March 3, 2019 by drewsmith28

“The sun is a cold star. Its heart, spines of ice. Its light unforgiving.” FROM this simple, fairy tale short opening, you may deduce that things we know are not all they seem. Let us open up the catastrophe that … Continue reading →

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Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber)

Posted on January 25, 2019 by drewsmith28

“The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died.” THE prose is wonderfully joyful and rambling. The Guardian refers to this winner … Continue reading →

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The vegetarian option by Simon Hopkinson (Quadrille)

Posted on December 6, 2018 by drewsmith28

“One evening in the late summer of 2007, and probably a Sunday, I found myself rummaging around in the salad drawer of my fridge.” I AM alarmed to see the historian Simon Schama pronouncing on the new reprint of MFK … Continue reading →

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