You Must Remember This – Joyce Carol Oates

I think there is an interesting comparison between this and Don DeLillo’s Underworld, which I reviewed a couple of weeks back. Maybe it says something about a male-female difference in approach[…]

Those Big Russian Novels
 
I’ve had both of Tolstoys big novels on my bookshelves for some years. I’ve used them as bookends, doorstops and once threw War & Peace at an ex-girlfriend. The only thing I haven’t done is read t[…]

I like detective fiction, but I’ve got to say I am not quite so keen on straight down the line mystery novels. It strikes me that what I like about my detective fiction is finding out about the detective, his/her methods and the lure of a stron[…]

Product placement: via Kultureflash comes news of (yes) an art show (yes) with (guess what?) a DIFFERENCE.
Presumably to promote some new motor which they want to position as ‘edgy’ in some way, BMW are sponsoring a group show on the the[…]

Battle Of The Books
I’d not seen this BBC4 show before I stumbled across it last night, and missing the first few minutes I was interested to see what happened to the book that lost. The format, not a million miles from the old Freakytrigger fe[…]

I have just given You Whores a cursory glance for the first time and I was amused soon enough. The idea’s seeming unoriginality quickly dissolves once you recognise the quality of craft and content (simple but stylish and effective design, very[…]

Timewyrm: – Apocalypse – Nigel Robinson (3/10)
  (TARDIS crew: 7th, Ace; VILLAIN: The Timewyrm, The Panjistri)
The third installment of the Timewyrm series was written by another Target novelization alum whose previous efforts focused o[…]

Question for ILB (when it returns): how much of a book do you need to read before you can say you have read it?
(inspired by flippant qn in Orange list comments)[…]

The Orange Prize for fiction compiled a vote of the living library of top 50 essential contemporary reads.
To be in, you needed to be well thought of by bookish sorts (the survey was undertaken during the Hay festival) and not dead.[…]

Most of the work in Tom Friedman’s current show at the South London Gallery is entertaining enough without being breathtaking, or even especially exciting. Much of it consists of plays on perspective: several boxes of Cheerios spliced to form t[…]