Category Archives: 101greatreads

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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How’s the pain? by Pascal Garnier (Gallic)

Posted on November 15, 2018 by drewsmith28

“The sound coming from somewhere in the darkness was barekly audible, but it was enough…   I AM unsure about the title, douleur can be translated as pain, but it also implies grief, soreness, aching, distress and misery as in … Continue reading →

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21 lessons for the 21st century by Yuval Noah Harari (Jonathan Cape)

Posted on October 19, 2018 by drewsmith28

“In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power” YUVAL – after three books I feel we are on first person terms – has a political yardstick of communism, liberalism and fascism, which is fair enough, although as he … Continue reading →

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Colour by Victoria Finlay (Random)

Posted on October 15, 2018 by drewsmith28

“I had thought, when I set out on my travels – when I first tumbled through that paintbox – that I would somehow find, in the original stories of colours, something pure.” THE many journeys Finlay undertakes in search of … Continue reading →

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The gallows pole by Benjamin Myers (Bluemoose)

Posted on October 5, 2018 by drewsmith28

“Soot and ash. Snot and spume. Quag and sump and clotted moss. Loam.” THE opening playful poetry should not distract you… we are off to a flying start, it is 1767, we are on a secret errand, we pass the … Continue reading →

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