Classic Hatchet: No Mother to Guide Her, by Anita Loos

To round off Hatchet Job Week, here’s a classic review by Vulpes founder Leena. I’m not very good at writing negative reviews: I hum and haw, clutching at straws to come up with something positive to say, and when that proves impossible, I blame myself for not ‘getting’ the book. I fully expected to enjoy [...]

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The Shack by William Paul Young

I did a rough calculation the other day and worked out that in my reading lifetime I must have worked my way through in excess of 2,000 books.  Of those, a handful have changed my life, many have enthralled me, some have rendered me nearly catatonic, while others have entertained, informed and appalled me in [...]

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Thursday Soapbox: Oh, Those Founding Fathers

Article by Ken A look at the American history section of any bookstore brings with it a familiar sight. The smiling (or heroic, depending on the subject matter of the book) visage of one of a small number of figures will be staring back at you. The names are entirely predictable: Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and, [...]

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Improving on Jane Austen. A Janeite asks: Why? Just … why?

Part of Hatchet Job Week. Oh dear – I’m not sure how good I’m going to be at this hatchet wielding thing. I’m quite a shrinking violet. I’ll get going, then maybe I’ll find I warm to my task. It’s hard to lay into books that give pleasure to millions, garner 5 star reviews online, [...]

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Why Men Can Only Do One Thing at a Time and Women Never Stop Talking, by Allan and Barbara Pease

Ray asked Ruth to look up the address in the street directory.  She opened it at the appropriate page and then turned the directory upside down.  She rotated it the right way up and then turned it upside down again.  Then she sat silently and stared at it.  She understood what a map meant but, [...]

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Follow The River by James A. Thom

As an idea, this seems like a good one; take a historical incident and build up a novel around it. Having been done many times with great success, it would seem a simple formula to follow. Unfortunately, it appears the author, in the middle of writing this book, dozed off while watching an old Western [...]

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Coming up on Vulpes Libris… (dun-dun-DUNNNN)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Den… Two years after its glorious/blood-spattered first appearance, Hatchet Job Week is back on Vulpes Libris.  Sex, politics and religion are on the menu as the Foxes embark on rants that would get them barred from any respectable dinner party. On Monday, Jackie [...]

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Even The Dogs by Jon McGregor

They break down the door at the end of December and carry the body away. The air is cold and vice-like, the sky a scouring steel-eyed blue, the trees bleached bone-white in the frosted light of the sun. We stand in a huddle by the bolted door. Prose this good – this sparingly, articulately, precisely [...]

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Tantalus and the Pelican: Exploring Monastic Spirituality Today by Nicholas Buxton

Contrary to what may be supposed, monasticism does not represent an escape from the world so much as a deeper engagement with the reality of being human. In this book, Nicholas Buxton explores the principles and paradoxes of the spiritual life, combining a lively and informative discussion of the Christian monastic tradition with the remarkable [...]

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Thursday Soapbox by Aliya Whiteley: Heads up, Spines Out

Heads up, Spines Out I have a favourite bookcase; my father made it. On it I place my most beloved books. It sits in the living room, where I hope visitors will look through it and comment on my good taste, because I prefer talking about books to talking about anything else. I think you’d [...]

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