Here are links to recent book reviews I’ve published on this website. Look out for more soon.

Featured

May 30, 2025

Review: Bookish words and their surprising stories

May 30, 2025

If, like me, you enjoy reading around a subject, and probing a little deeper than strictly necessary, and you are an avid reader or a determined writer, Bookish Words should appeal to you.

May 30, 2025

May 29, 2025

Compare and contrast #4

May 29, 2025

In this article, I republish a review of mine that was first published in Teach Secondary magazine. Next, there follows the article I actually sent in. The differences are only minor, but I thought you might find it interesting to examine the differences, and consider what difference they make, if any, to your experience and understanding of the review.

May 29, 2025

Compare and contrast #3

May 29, 2025

May 28, 2025

Compare and contrast #2

May 28, 2025

Taking the reader from the Middle Ages to more or less the present day, Gray shows how the kind of places we do our shopping in, and what we buy, have changed over the centuries.

May 28, 2025

Compare and contrast reviews #1

May 28, 2025

Apr 23, 2025

Review: The Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World

Apr 23, 2025

I wrote this review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that optimism is something all writers need a great deal of!

Apr 23, 2025

Review: Small Habits Create Big Change

Apr 23, 2025

I wrote the review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that the “small habits” approach to writing is something useful to consider.

Apr 23, 2025

Should writing tutors embrace "produictive failure"?

Apr 23, 2025

My review of this for Teach Secondary magazine has just come out. Here is the published version, followed by the copy I submitted, which is slightly longer because it has a little more detail. I wrote the review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that the “productive failure” approach to teaching is something I’ve done, to some extent, in my creative writing classes.

Apr 23, 2025

Is Artificial Intelligence actually any good?

Apr 23, 2025

I’ve reviewed this book for Teach Secondary magazine. Although my review is written from the standpoint of the question, “how useful is AI in schools?”, I do thiink it has relevance here because many writers, and writers’ organisations, are also scrutinising AI.

Apr 23, 2025

Apr 16, 2025

Nonfiction notebook: 6 types of book review

Apr 16, 2025

I love books, and I love reviewing them. However, I’ve decided that a one-size fits all approach to reviewing books (or anything else, come to that), just won’t do. So I’ve categorised my reviews into 6 types.

Apr 16, 2025

Book review round-up to August 2019

Latest Book Reviews