Tag Archives: Claire Fuller

Books I Read in December

For Richer For Poorer Victoria CorenFor Richer For Poorer by Victoria Coren is the Only Connect presenter’s 2009 memoir about how she became a professional poker player and the first female winner of the European Poker Tour in 2006 in London. Overall, ‘For Richer, For Poorer’ will probably be appreciated the most by those who already know a fair amount about poker. However, if, like me, you only have some basic knowledge of the game, ‘For Richer, For Poorer’ is still very enjoyable to read, mostly because Coren is very skilled at writing about poker in a way that will make at least some sense to those who haven’t played before. From her first games as a teenager attempting to impress her brother’s friends to her appearances on the Channel 4 TV series Late Night Poker to the highest stakes at the EPT, Coren paints excellent pen portraits of her fellow players in the poker underworld and the book is as much about the mysterious characters around the table as the game itself and how much it has changed since the popularity of online poker exploded. A very witty memoir. Continue reading

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Summer Reading: Part One

Unsettled Ground Claire FullerI have read a lot of great books over the summer and I now have a massive backlog of reviews to catch up on. Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller tells the story of 51-year-old twins, Jeanie and Julius, who still live with their mother in rural isolation, until her sudden death forces them to confront some harsh realities of life in the modern world and the truth behind some dark family secrets. It’s quite a meandering novel, often melancholic in tone, but I really enjoyed Fuller’s richly descriptive prose which captures the oppressive atmosphere of the twins’ daily lives. ‘Unsettled Ground’ was shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, and while it wasn’t too surprising that the judges crowned ‘Piranesi’ by Susanna Clarke as the winner last week, I think ‘Unsettled Ground’ would have been a worthy winner too, and I will definitely seek out Fuller’s other novels. Continue reading

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