This week, the review of a book about spinsterhood in which it is claimed that there are few positive images of spinsters in fiction, moved me to write about the spinsters that are an important part of Barbara Pym’s fiction. Pym gave a positive, often comic, and sometimes trenchant, voice to the spinsters in herContinue reading “Week beginning 6 April 2022”
Author Archives: robrjo
Week beginning March 30 2022
I am catching up on some reviews written a while ago, and not posted to this blog. They have been posted on Good Reads, Twitter and Linked In as part of the process of reviewing for NetGalley. Donna Leon Give unto Others Grove Atlantic Atlantic Monthly Press, 2022. Reading a Donna Leon is always delightful.Continue reading “Week beginning March 30 2022”
Week beginning 23 March 2022
Two non-fiction books are reviewed this week. One, Alison Ripley Cubitt’s Misadventures in the Screen Trade was an easy read. The other, When Hope and History Rhyme Natural Law and Human Rights from Ancient Greece to Modern America by Douglas Burgess was not so easy, but introduced such a wealth of ideas and engrossing analysisContinue reading “Week beginning 23 March 2022”
Week beginning 16 March 2022
The books reviewed this week are both fiction. They were sent to me by NetGalley for review. Lisa Unger’s Last Girl Ghosted and the inspiring story of the women’s march to Washington by thousands of women after the election of former President Trump have feminist themes. On the March by Trudy Krisher is a particularlyContinue reading “Week beginning 16 March 2022”
Week beginning 9th March 2022
NetGalley provided me with the uncorrected proof of Lisa Z. Lindahl’s Unleash the Girls The Untold Story of the Invention of the Sports Bra and How It Changed the World (And Me) in exchange for an honest review. Lisa Z. Lindahl Unleash the Girls The Untold Story of the Invention of the Sports Bra andContinue reading “Week beginning 9th March 2022”
Week beginning 2 March 2022
Reviewing Tom Stoppard A Life was an interesting process – looming large was the question ‘How did I enjoy the plays of this conservative person who, in my opinion, dined too many times with Margaret Thatcher? The closest I could come to recalling any sense of political unease was at the end of seeing NightContinue reading “Week beginning 2 March 2022”
Week beginning 23 February 2022
Clare Chambers The Editor’s Wife Arrow Books, Penguin Random House 2021. The Editor’s Wife is a complex novel, with some seemingly simple elements that add to the storyline so successfully that it is not until later that their wider impact becomes clear. Contrary to the title, which foreshadows one woman as the focal point, anotherContinue reading “Week beginning 23 February 2022”
Week beginning 16 February 2022
Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is the subject of one of the books, Take Up Space The Unprecedented AOC, I review this week. Nan Sloane’s historical account of women who are unknown or have been forgotten, Uncontrollable Women, seemed a good companion as so many more such women are given a voice – sometimes a loud one. NetGalleyContinue reading “Week beginning 16 February 2022”
Week beginning 9 February 2022
Reviews for Bright Young Things by Jane A. Adams and All the Lights Above Us seem to have been lingering on my NetGalley shelf, without being transposed to this blog. So here they are – two fiction books sent to me by NetGalley for honest reviews. Jane A. Adams Bright Young Things Severn House 2021.Continue reading “Week beginning 9 February 2022”
Week beginning 2 February 2022
Thank you NetGalley for the two fiction uncorrected proofs sent to me for in exchange for honest reviews. Each must be given a star rating for NetGalley and I gave The Final Case 5* and The Watcher Girl 3*. David Guterson The Final Case Alfred A Knopf 2022. How can my words, reviewing The FinalContinue reading “Week beginning 2 February 2022”
Robin's Room 