L.H. Johnson's Blog, page 24

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami My rating: 4 of 5 stars A lyrical exploration of tragedy, The Other Americans is an incredibly poised and eloquent novel. One night Driss Guerraoui crosses the road and is killed by a speeding car; the novel follows what happens next, spiralling through a series of chapters told by […]

Cynthia Voigt, Americana and the texture of literary things

“Dicey looked out over the tall marsh grasses, blowing in the wind. If the wind blew, the grasses had to bend with it.” I don’t remember the first time I read Cynthia Voigt. I do, however, remember what it was that I read. A book called Homecoming. A title that bore little resonance to my […]

About that secret project I've been working on…

Hello! So, over the past few months, I have been working on a small secret project and now I can tell you all about it. Essentially, I got increasingly grumpy and decided to do something about it. Grumpiness is a very good motivational factor! My grumpiness centred about the increasing realisation that the women writers […]

Unexpected Archive Delights : 1920s Children’s Book Adverts

I am constantly surprised by archives. I know that’s an incredibly strange thing to say and one that sounds even stranger when you are supposed to know what you are looking at, but it’s true. I am surprised by archives; the way they give me something that I request that comes with a thousand other […]

Unexpected Archive Delights : 1920s Children's Book Adverts

I am constantly surprised by archives. I know that’s an incredibly strange thing to say and one that sounds even stranger when you are supposed to know what you are looking at, but it’s true. I am surprised by archives; the way they give me something that I request that comes with a thousand other […]

Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr

Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr My rating: 5 of 5 stars There are some books you know – or at the very least, think that you know – before you get anywhere near to reading them. Bridge to Terabithia is one for me, and Marianne Dreams is – was – another. I thought I knew […]

Orion Lost by Alastair Chisholm

Orion Lost by Alastair Chisholm My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m always interested when a book does something differently, and this really does. Orion Lost is a big, meaty science-fiction story set aboard a space-ship where everything suddenly goes wrong. And the only people who can put things right are the kids – thirteen […]

Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg

Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg My rating: 5 of 5 stars I am increasingly conscious that I am moving closer to the world of the Brontës, falling in love with it, and not being remotely mad about this, not at all. I would have fought against this a few […]

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo My rating: 5 of 5 stars (The dizzying joy of finding a copy of this in the charity bookstore, when you’re still the 449302nd reservation on the library copy…) Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo is a novel of such utter articulacy that I scarce know how to handle […]

The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman My rating: 1 of 5 stars Here’s the thing: I admire what Pullman can do; I admire the way he can articulate things; I admire the worlds he has creates with all of their wild wonder and glory; but I do not admire this book. It is overlong, overwrought […]