Raynor Reads Stuff

Category: Great books

  • REVIEW: The Firework-Maker’s Daughter

    My final book for February (yes I know it’s mid March but I am still catching up) was another children’s book. I’ve been buying up books from charity shops that I loved as a child and have lost along the way. These have included books like The Didakoi, Wind in the Willows, Carrie’s War, The…

  • REVIEW: The Mind’s Eye

    More Scandi Noir. I think it’s the dark nights and cold weather that means I’m drawn to the genre during the winter. I know it’s spring now but I haven’t quite caught up blogging about the books I read last month yet. Just this one and one more to go, then I have February checked…

  • REVIEW: Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries

    I’ve read a lot of Kate Mosse’s historical novels and I absolutely love them. They are great hulks of books and often flit between time periods, but are mainly based in Languedoc in France. I find them great page-turners. So when Ms Mosse brought out Warrior Queens at the end of last year, I had…

  • REVIEW: Strange Shores

    I have no idea why I chose to read the final exploits of Detective Erlendur Sveinsson as my introduction to his character, but I did and now I am going to have to track down all the others (there are ten) because I loved it. Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason isn’t exactly Erlendur’s last case,…

  • REVIEW: The Triple Echo

    H.E. (Herbert Ernest) Bates is well known as the author of The Darling Buds of May series of books – of which I have read none. I have, however, read other novels by the same author like Love for Lydia and Fair Stood the Wind for France, both of which I read years ago and…

  • How Michael Morpurgo writes tough stuff for kids

    I may have mentioned before that I love children’s literature and I still read many children’s books. Among my favourite children’s authors is Michael Morpurgo. Now here is an author who knows how to spin a good yarn but what I really admire about his books is that there is no shying away from very…

  • January reading round up

    I set myself a couple of reading and writing goals for 2023. Nope, they weren’t New Year’s resolutions because I gave up on those a very long time ago; they’re just goals for the year. Among them were to read 200 books and attempt to write reviews for every book I have read, to read…

  • REVIEW: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

    I was browsing through an email from a bookshop the other day and I came across a picture of this book. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom will be 20 years old later this year and it is probably at least 15 years since I last read it, so I thought…

  • REVIEW: The Wombles

    Everyone has heard of The Wombles right? Most people can probably sing the theme tune to the television series too. I loved The Wombles as a child but before I wax lyrical about the book, I’m going to tell you a story. About 20-25 years ago I was on the island of Alderney, one of…

  • REVIEW: Magpie

    Wow I’ve had a pretty good reading week so far and it’s only Thursday! I’ve just romped through Magpie, by Elizabeth Day, a thoroughly enjoyable domestic psychological thriller. It’s one of the books I received for Christmas – Amazon wish lists are a wonderful thing. Elizabeth Day is a British journalist and author who also…