My Book Reviews

A very entertaining novel. Number 6 in the Jackson Brodie series. Some characters that appeared in previous episodes return and this together with a Murder Mystery Weekend in an old stately home provides enough ingredients for a joyous, chaotic murder story. This and the previous Jackson Brodie books would be excellent for TV series. Until now only "Case Histories" made it that far. All in all I think this book fully deserves 5 Stars.

I love this book! It's a Jackson Brodie novel, but as always, there is a lot going on. Puzzle pieces almost seem not to connect, but Kate Atkinson does it again. I won't tell anything about the plot, you'll have to discover it all yourself. Amazing there is not a high quality TV series about Jackson Brodie yet. Five stars fully deserved!

Emotionally Weird is one of the weirdest books I ever read. The construction is even weirder than Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley. In Dutch this would have caused to mention the so-called Droste-effect. In the book there are multiple stories in a story in yet another story in another story. It does work but it leads to the reader having to check in already read bits who these people are, because there a so many of them. I won't even try to explain what it is all about, but can say that nothing is what it seems to be. I give the book 4 stars, because I think it is over-complicated.

  Third book in the series about Jackson Brodie. Another very captivating book, loaded with action and combined with great humour. (At least in my opinion.) I will not ruin future readers joy by telling anything about the plot(s). What I love is that you get offered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. You can try and imagine what really matters, but Kate Atkinson often will surprise you with where the story is going. Five stars fully deserved. I might read it again!

  I knew Kate Atkinson could write. I loved a God in Ruins, Life after Life and many more that I read. I saw "The Case Histories", the Jackson Brodie series on TV. This is the first one of the series that I read. It's really amazing how Kate Atkinson manages to insert humor even when there are gruesome matters going on in the book. I have always moaned that in a book the POV should always be with the main person. In this book there are many POVs. And it is not disturbing at all, it adds to the jigsaw puzzle that is being filled in while you read on. Or maybe you could say that there are many main characters. I will not disclose any of the content of the book; of course I don't want to be a destroyer of other reader's fun. Five stars is fully deserved! I got a few more Jackson Brodie novels in the house. Really looking forward to read them!

This book should be read by every Dutch person and people with Dutch roots. It is a gripping story in two ways. It is the translation of a Dutch novel. Yet it made to the shortlist for the Booker Prize, the most prestigious prize a writer can win in the UK. Quite an achievement. For me it ripped open some old scars. Remembering the regular arguments with my father. He would announce how proud he was to be Dutch and I presented him some cold facts. Facts that are not very nice for the Dutch. It always ended with him telling me that I was a snotty young man and that I should shut up. He would hide behind his newspaper. The newspaper that I nicknamed "The Liar" and had been forbidden to be printed in the period 1945 until 1949. And I would storm out of the living room, upset that he was not listening to me. I always fell for this trap and he knew it. Seemed to enjoy it. Anyway, it is a great book that left me in tatters. I expect to need some time before I pick up a new book. Th...