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Continue reading →: Book Review: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The need for conversion may have arisen from prejudice, I confess. On reading an interview with the author recently – who has just published her second book after 20 years – I was reminded that ‘The God of Small Things’ was on my bucket list to read; one of many,…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Luther and the 9.5 Theses by Kenneth Brownell
Kenneth Brownell’s short book gets four stars from me as an ‘average’. Aspects of the book swing from little more than three to a definite five. I shall attempt to unpack why and how. It is remarkable that in the academic world of research, despite all researchers knowing the importance…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Ok so I get the metaphorical nature of GGM’s novel. I understand the aspect of magical realism. I have no choice at all but to catch the motif of ‘solitude’ in all its facets (I appreciate I’m reading a translation but even so, he hammers the word home a lot!).…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Equus by Peter Shaffer
I first came across this play in the final moments of my teens thanks to a girlfriend I was besotted with, from Eastbourne. She had studied it (if I recall correctly) for A level. The play turned out to be one of those key texts which transformed my understanding of…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
There are many books considered ‘classics’ which end up on almost all the well-known ‘Top 100’ or ‘Must read’ lists. Many of them, as I’ve been continuing my race against old age to work through my literary bucket list before I give the aforementioned utensil a good kick, have turned…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Quiet People of India by Norval Mitchell
“…you can both love something deeply and look down on it at the same time and this is all too easy for the foreigner in Asia.” I have a great deal of sympathy and understanding for Norval Mitchell despite the fact that this book made me cringe repeatedly and made…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC by Frederick Buechner
To call Buechner’s ABC of theological terms quirky would be an understatement. The guy is somewhere between one current short of a fruitcake and a deep well of the most profound thoughts and understanding. One thing is certain: you would be hard-pressed to find a more witty yet genuine lexicon…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
I came to read Diaz’s novel simply from googling the best books to read from the 21st Century and up it came on the ‘Top Ten’ list rather like ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ which I’m also reading. Well, ‘Oscar Wao’ got a Pulitzer for the author so it’s hard…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne
There is absolutely no doubt that John Osborne changed the face of British theatre when he wrote ‘Look back in Anger’. The first of the new post-war wave of ‘Angry Young Men’, you can see from the very opening lines that the epithet is well deserved as the chief protagonist,…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
There are some books in this world which, I must surmise, have achieved a cult-like status among the older generation who remember the impact they created when first published but, in truth, have not been read afresh in many a decade. If they did, they might be unsettled by what…
Hello, I’m Ken.
Welcome to Write Out Loud, my blog dedicated to all sorts of things to do with writing.
This page will be updated constantly every week with book reviews and writing-related stuff.
The blog is the baby sister of my personal blog kenthinksaloud where I write ‘Monday Murmurings’—insights into life and philosophy. Get a clever take on politics with ‘Wednesday Banker,’ and ‘Future Friday’ for the latest in psychology, environment, and tech.
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Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing) 