Well this is just a charming little book. Ms. Hempel is a twenty-something schoolteacher who lives a pretty normal, almost mundane, life. She attends the school talent show. She muses on the odd relationship between student and teacher, and sometimes teacher and teacher. She gets engaged. She breaks up. She takes kids on field trips. She wants to be the young cool teacher but she also feels that she ought to learn how to be a disciplinarian. The book is a novel, sort of, in […]
Who could ever say you’re not simply wonderful?
So here’s a funny thing. I have a book by Matt Haig on my “to read” shelf over on Goodreads. It’s called The Dead Fathers Club and it’s on there because a) I am always up for reading modernised novels based on Shakespeare plays (I’m already beside myself about the Hogarth Shakespeare project, but that’s another story) and because b) my father died all too recently. That’s not really the funny thing. The funny thing is, since I bang on about books pretty much all the time […]
This is what happens when you covet
A female teacher engages in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student. This is not exactly a topic that lends itself to humor, but in the hands of Zoe Heller, readers will find biting humor along with social commentary that provokes and makes one squirm. Although the novel (shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize) is over ten years old, its topic is still relevant and the writing is superb. The novel is told from the point of view of Barbara Covett, a friend of […]
“And I should tell him all my pain,…”
And I should tell him all my pain, And how my life had droop’d of late, And he should sorrow o’er my state And marvel what possess’d my brain; (Tennyson, In Memoriam XIV.13-16) Mad About the Boy, the third Bridget Jones book, is confusing. But then, Bridget Jones herself and her narratives are confusing; there’s the original Bridget Jones of the Independent newspaper columns, there’s Bridget Jones of the films, and there’s Bridget Jones of the books. I’m pretty sure that Bridget Jones of […]
The melting snowball effect.
After reading the prologue of this book, I was 100% sure I was going to love it. That is not exactly what ended up happening. Let me tell you what happens in the prologue, as a sort of illustration: The book opens with this kid on the roof. He’s pretty much an outcast, and he’s been chased up there by his schoolmates. He’s wearing a uniform, so this is a private school, and there are statues of Saints decorating the roof, so it’s Catholic. This kid […]
I’m not going to lie to you. I mostly only read this because Eggs Benedict Cucumberbatch is in the movie.
Okay, so, previous statement about not lying may be slightly a lie. I originally bought this book in 2011 right before the movie came out. I don’t think Eggs Benedict was even on the menu at that point in my life. (I think I watched Sherlock for the first time later that year when it ran on PBS?) Anyway, I mostly bought it because I’d really enjoyed The Constant Gardener (and by really enjoyed I mean I FUCKING LOVED IT–that book slays me), and had also […]
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