P.D.R. Lindsay's Blog, page 12

Review: The Keeper of Lost Thing by Ruth Hogan

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ruth Hogan has produced a charming, pleasant read based round an unusual and original idea. Her hero is an old man, Anthony Peardew, who lost his love just before their wedding and he also lost her special gift to him. Devoted all his life to her he also devotes a lot of time to finding things, labelling them and saving them in the hope that they will find their owners and he might find her gift, a medal.

His housekeeper, Laura is a...

Review 'H is for Hawk' by Helen Macdonald

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald




This was a prize winning non-fiction or perhaps faction work. The writing was literary, elegant and a little self indulgent at times. The author is training a hawk, a goshawk, trying to recover from the shock of her father's sudden death, and trying to sort out her life.

The method of telling her story is to look at T H White's life and his book, The Goshawk and talk, discuss and compare her training of her goshawk with his. I found this annoying at times. It se...

Review YA novel 'Realms of the Gods'

The Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This YA novel is the last in a four part series about Daine and her magical gift with animals.
The whole series is well worth reading and lovers of magical fantasy will enjoy them. Tamora Pierce writes with good sense, creates likeable characters, has an exciting plot and her monsters and villains are shudderingly nasty. There's a bit of a moral too, but well hidden. If you are kind and thoughtful and work hard against prejudice and...

Seems to me that Writer's Choice Writers are having another good year.

Writer's Choice is popping the champagne corks again. We have done this every year of our existence and this year we are celebrating G.J. Berger's success.Yet again we have a winner. This is our fourth year and G.J. Berger's 'Four Nails' has won the 2016-17 San Diego Historical Fiction Award. Brilliant work, Mr Berger. 'Four Nails' is a great read. And G.J. Berger won the same award in 2012-13 for his first novel, 'South of Burnt Rocks, West of the Moon'. Congratulations for giving Writer's C...

Review of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabelle Dalhousie series

A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


These novels are a great series. Each novel is a comfortable, thoughtful read but this is not the series of novels for those wanting a great adventure and fast pace story. Isabelle is a philosopher and whilst she has interesting, often complicate, human problems to solve she is not dodging death or hunting villains. She is mulling over the problems we all meet and have to deal with. Each book in the series also looks...

Refview of 'The good People' by Hannah Kent

The Good People by Hannah Kent




Historical writers seem to fall into camps. There's the Kings and Queens lot, the Use famous people lot, the Ancient Chivalry lot, the Let's Use Obscure History lot, and the Rub The Reader's Nose In It lot. I think I sadly have to put Hannah Kent in the last lot.

They are the authors who can't see a road without making it dusty, rutted and full of pitfalls to lame horses or people -summer - or muddy - winter - full of muck and mess, filth, ordure, robbers and nas...

Spread the Good News!

Writer's Choice is popping the champagne corks again. We have done this every year of our existence and this year we are celebrating G.J. Berger's success.Yet again we have a winner. This is our fourth year and G.J. Berger's 'Four Nails' has won the 2016-17 San Diego Historical Fiction Award. Brilliant work, Mr Berger. Congratulations for giving Writer's Choice another award. We have had competition successes every year of our four years' existence, and whether it says something about idiots...

Review of The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain

The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This delightful heart-warming story involves four sisters in an English village where they are the only Muslims and the only migrants from Bangladesh.

Bubblee wants to be an artist and lives in a flat in London. Mum an Dad do not approve. Mae is still at school and runs around filming everyone for her social media blogs, and Youtube. Farah, happily married just wants a baby. Fatima is desperate to pass her driving te...

Review of 'Burial Rites' by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent




This novel is a hard read. It is unrelentingly grim and grey. Is Iceland as hard and cruel? Was it, in the 19thC, such a dirty, mud infested, filthy place? Were people so cruel to servants? I don't know, but it doesn't seem to be the land of Viking heroes in this novel, more nasty minded miserable curs.

The story is a stunner, based on a real event and one where no one is sure what happened except that the maid was executed. This gives author, Hannah Kent, plenty of...

Three Cheers!

Writer's Choice is popping the champagne corks again. We have done this every year of our existence and this year we are celebrating G.J. Berger's success.Yet again we have a winner. This is our fourth year and G.J. Berger's 'Four Nails' has won the 2016-17 San Diego Historical Fiction Award. Brilliant work, Mr Berger. Congratulations for giving Writer's Choice another award. We have had competition successes every year of our four years' existence, and whether it says something about idiots...