A Single Man

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood is set in California during a single day in 1962 and concerns George, a grieving middle-aged English college professor, in th e aftermath of the death of his partner, Jim. A tender and stark evocation of grief, A Single Man is also exceptionally perceptive and was one of the [...]

Literary Adaptations

2010 appears to be the year for books on-the-big-screen. The forthcoming Oscars have highlighted a number of recently made literary adaptations: An Education; Precious (based on the novel, Push); A Single Man; The Lovely Bones; The Last Station; Bright Star; Julie & Julia; Coraline; Fantastic Mr Fox; The Princess and the Frog. That’s only the [...]

Recent Acquisitions

A few books have dropped through the letter-box of Paperback Reader abode over the last week and, at the time of going to press, I have read one of them with a review forthcoming. I spotted Plan for Chaos by John Wyndham in a bookshop recently and was instantly intrigued as it was a title [...]

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

I love Classic literature; I love books in translation; I love controversial novels with scandal and intrigue so when Polly of Novel Insights chose Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Pierra Choderlos de Laclos for the Riverside Readers to discuss, I was delighted. An eighteenth century epistolary novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses concerns two bored aristocrats [...]

Jane Austen's Emma

I first read Emma by Jane Austen a decade ago when I studied it in my final year of school. I have never seen an adaptation -not even the 1996 film version with Gwyneth Paltrow- but being a devout fan of the 1995 BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice, I was intrigued as to how [...]

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