Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult

The Thursday Soapbox will be back next week.
Songs of the Humpback Whale was Jodi Picoult’s first ever novel, released when she was just 26, and allegedly purchased by the publisher for the sum of $3000. Before reading this novel, all I knew of Jodi Picoult (apparently pronounced pee-KOE) was that she was a multi-million-selling novelist [...]

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Interview with Keith Gray

I recently reviewed the fantastic Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray which you can find HERE.  Never being one to shirk my responsibility to bring you as much detail as I possibly can about the books I love, I asked Keith if he would have a wee chat with me.  He said yes.  So here it [...]

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Jaclyn Moriarty: Finding Cassie Crazy

(Also a giveaway: do read on . . .)
I’ve got a problem. Finding Cassie Crazy (published as The Year of Secret Assignments in the USA) is without a doubt one of the best books I’ve read in a long time – or ever – but I have no idea what I’m going to write about it. [...]

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Interview with Katie Fforde

Bestselling novelist Katie Fforde chats with Kirsty about corsets, flamenco and independent-minded heroines. Katie’s latest book, Wedding Season (Century), is out now!
First of all, then, tell us about Wedding Season…
I wrote Wedding Season for several reasons. Firstly, I wanted to write about a girl who made corsets. I’d met one, she used [...]

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Eloise Ristad: A Soprano on Her Head

Right-side-up reflections on life and other performances
Seems a bit silly to review a book about musicians’ mental blocks and performance anxiety on a book blog; but Eloise Ristad herself acknowledged her debt to The Centered Skier by Denise McCluggage and The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, and reading A Soprano on Her Head made me realise [...]

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Coming up on Vulpes Libris

A bit of a Young Adult theme emerging in our reviewing choices this week. We also have an interview with Katie Fforde, a dash of fatal familial insomnia and a sprinkling of humpback whales.
Monday: Kirsty has an exciting interview with best-selling novelist, Katie Fforde.
Tuesday: Leena raves about Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty, a YA [...]

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Sybille Bedford: Quicksands: A Memoir

I didn’t know much about Sybille Bedford before I read this – other than that she was born an aristocratic Sybille von Schoenebeck in Germany, married a Mr Bedford to obtain a British passport in the 1930s, and wrote acclaimed novels in English. I haven’t read any of Bedford’s novels yet, either, but I understand they [...]

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Friday Soapbox: Caroline Rance on Unlovable Heroines

Historical novelist Caroline Rance recently spent a week on the Picnic Publishing blog, where she talked about everything from the rigors of historical research to why her experience and fascination with mud makes her uniquely qualified to write about the streets of 18th century Chester. We invited her onto the Soapbox to talk about [...]

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Quick Announcement

Just to say that due to a technical error (so technical I barely understand it myself!) we have been unable to post the Thursday Soapbox today as announced. So, today we are running Friday’s post on Roddy Doyle’s The Woman Who Walked into Doors (see below) and the Thursday Soapbox will instead become…dada…the Friday Soapbox.
So [...]

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The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle

It took a long time for Roddy Doyle to be accepted in his own country as a ‘serious’ writer. His first novel, The Commitments, which was later made into a successful film, was initially self-published as he couldn’t find a publisher in Ireland. His straightforward prose, his use of four-letter words and his sharp ear [...]

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