Book Club
Click on any of the reviews below to read more
Click on any of the reviews below to read more
Dawn Spence – Book Recommendation – March 2022 – The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
"Every man who is not helping to bring about a better state of affairs for the future is helping to perpetuate the present misery and is therefore the enemy of his own children. there is no such thing as being neutral: We must either help or hinder" (Unknown) ...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review – February 2022 – What I learned losing a million dollars
Review byStephen Kearney Fairly early on in life Jim Paul began to notice something: he was a special guy, a cut above the rest and brighter than most. He always seemed to be rewarded for ignoring convention, either through ignorance – he didn’t even know the rules...
Paul Pickering – Book review – January 2022 -Message From a Star by Michael J Clark
You will not have heard of this book or the author, Mick J Clark. Mick is a singer-songwriter and this is his first and only published novel. Message From a Star is set in present day U.S.A. and the two leading characters are ex-high school best buddies who drifted...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review December 2021- Normal People
Normal People by Sally Rooney review by Stephen Kearney How do we get to hear about a new publication, film or television series? There’s probably a thousand and one answers but for the most part, at least in my case, the first awareness just seems to appear...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review November 2021- Ireland and the EU Post Brexit
Ireland and the EU Post Brexit by Ray Bassett first published 2020 Review by Stephen Kearney Ireland and the EU Post Brexit is a very disturbing book. In fact, I would say it is one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. Let me make it clear; this...
Barry Goddard – Book review October 2021 – Mama’s last hug
MAMA'S LAST HUG I'm halfway through this book, and it is moving. The Bible gave humans dominion over the earth, while in recent times we have had Science putting us at the top of the evolutionary tree - same difference, really. Mama's Last Hug, written by a long-time...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review – September 2021 – How Not to be Wrong – The Art of changing Your Mind
James O’Brien Review (replaying the tapes) by Stephen Kearney “One thing about you” said a friend of long – very long – standing “is that you reflect, or as you’d put it, you replay the tapes.” How Not To Be Wrong, James O’Brien’s 2020 work, is a master class in...
Paul Pickering – Book Review – August 2021 – Reflections From a Bookshop Window
This is the author’s only published novel. The publisher, Martin Breese, who was a very good friend of mine, tried to encourage Clive Linklater to write more novels, without success. The author steadfastly refused, which is something of a pity. Clive actually owned...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review – July 2021 – Citizen Clem
Review by Stephen Kearney “An empty taxi pulled up outside ten Downing Street” ran the joke of the time “and Clement Attlee got out”. Orwell called him “a dead fish”. A chapter of this very biography is entitled “Few thought he was even a starter.” So embarrassed was...
Laurence Hattersley – Book Review – June 2021 – The Ministry of Bodies
At the X-ray conference, Tim our regular radiologist was back from holiday, but not noceably refreshed by the break. His increasing irritability had a comedic zest to it. He struggled to conceal his contemot for the overinvestigation by us physicians, and cagey,...
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