England | Raging Biblio-holism

High Dive

February 15, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s 1984 and Maggie Thatcher is prime minister, Ireland is tearing itself apart, and life is otherwise moving steadily forward. But when Thatcher’s entire leadership team plans to stay in Brighton for a conference, three lives – a hotel manager, his daughter, and an IRA operative – collide with the bombing of the Grand Hotel as their backdrop. The Review: This has been a year for slow burners in the ToB – books that take their time, develop […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, High Dive, Historical Fiction, History, Ireland, Jonathan Lee, Literature, Margaret Thatcher, review, Reviews, The Tournament of Books 2017, The Troubles

The Final Solution

September 2, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: An old man, once a famous detective, has retired to keeping bees in the English countryside. When a young mute German boy arrives in town – accompanied by an African gray parrot – the old man must once more apply his powers of deduction to determine what happened to the boy, what the parrot’s reciting strings of numbers could mean, and who might have interest in taking the bird for themselves… The Review: In an odd bit […]

Categories: Fiction, Mystery • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, Germany, Michael Chabon, Mystery, review, Sherlock Holmes, The Final Solution, World War II

Sweet Tooth

July 29, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s 1972 and the Cold War is in full swing. England is still reeling from the discovery of the Cambridge 5 almost twenty years earlier. New plans are put in place by MI5 to encourage artists to make pro-Western materials – and new recruit Serena Frome is tapped to run author Tom Haley. But as she gets closer to Haley, she must keep truth and lie separate even as the world pushes her to come clean… The […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 1970s, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Cold War, England, Fiction, Ian McEwan, Literature, Metafiction, Reviews, Spy, Sweet Tooth, The Great Vacation of 2016, Writing

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

July 20, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Kim Philby was the perfect spy. Educated, well-groomed, brilliant – it’s no surprise that he rose to prominence in MI6 during the Second World War and the ensuing Cold War conflict. What was surprising was that he was also working for the Soviets. For over thirty years, he maintained a double life and compromised nearly every major operation for the West. This is his story and the story of those who thought they knew him – but didn’t […]

Categories: History, Non-Fiction • Tags: A Spy Among Friends, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, Ben MacIntyre, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, CIA, Cold War, England, Espionage, History, John le Carré, Kim Philby, Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, MI5, MI6, Nicholas Elliott, Non-Fiction, Reviews, US, USSR, World War II

Prudence (The Custard Protocol, Book One)

April 11, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Now twenty years old, Lady Prudence Maccon Akeldama is in so many ways the child of all three of her parents. When Lord Akeldama sends her off on a mission to recover some missing tea in India, she (along with scions of the Tunstell and Lefoux families) takes a ladybug painted dirigible and sets off. But India is not England and it’s not just tea that’s gone missing… The Review: Gail Carriger Parasol Protectorate series, which concluded […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: Akeldama, Alexia Tarabotti, Alternate History, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fantasy, Fiction, Gail Carriger, Historical Fiction, Prudence, Prudence Akeldama, Prudence Maccon, Reviews, Tea, The Custard Protocol, Vampires, Werewolves

License Renewed

September 18, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Bond is back – only it’s now the 1980s and things have changed. Not everything, of course: there’s still an M and a Q and Bond is still Bond and a crazy person has an idea for how to wreak havoc around the world, this time involving nuclear power stations. And only Bond has a chance at stopping him… The Review: Those old Fleming Bond novels are strangely compelling. Not all of them were terrifically well-written (although […]

Categories: Fiction, Spy • Tags: Adventure, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, Ian Fleming, James Bond, John Gardner, License Renewed, MI-6, Reviews, Spy

To the Lighthouse

May 28, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: The Ramsay Family and their guests are summering on the Isle of Skye in Scotland in 1910. Over the course of an ordinary day, rather ordinary things happen – but time swiftly passes and, ten years later, so very much has changed (while yet so much remains so similar). The Review: There is a certain amount of work that goes into reading Virginia Woolf. I noticed it, to some extent, with Mrs. Dalloway but To the Lighthouse is a more […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, Literature, Modernism, Reviews, Scotland, The Ten Year Catch-Up, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Woolf 2015, World War I

The Buried Giant

April 22, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Some time after the death of Arthur, an elderly couple decide to set out from their village to visit their son, who lives in a village some distance away. But a strange mist has covered the land, making memory & knowledge unreliable, and their journey dovetails with the journey of several others (including a now-aged Sir Gawain) who seek to combat and dispel the mist – at whatever the cost might be, to themselves and to a barely-at-peace England. […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, Arthurian, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fantasy, Fiction, History, Kazuo Ishiguro, King Arthur, Literature, Reviews, The Buried Giant

Going Out

December 26, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: Luke is 25 and apparently allergic to nearly everything, including the sun. His best friend Julie is scared of lots of things and, as such, won’t leave their hometown. But when Luke is given a chance to be cured, they must face their respective challenges and, with a gang of four other crazy friend, take a VW Camper van out to Wales. Hijinks ensue. The Review: Scarlett Thomas is probably my favorite author who I always forget that I […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, Going Out, Literature, Reviews, Scarlett Thomas

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: England