About Rob

Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell was lined with books)

Short Story Review – Young Blood by Jordan Taylor

Story Title: 'Young Blood' by Jordan Taylor. Collection/Anthology?: Available as a stand-alone story. Details from the author's website. Briefly: It's the eve before a historic battle, and a young soldier writes a letter in the fading light of a … [Read more...]

Short Story Review: The Klinefelter’s Adventures: Chromosome of Havoc by Rachael Withers

Story Title: 'The Klinefelter's Adventures: Chromosome of Havoc' by Rachael Withers. Collection/Anthology?: Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 4 (Bristol Review of Books) Briefly: A day in the life and loves of a college student, who suffers from … [Read more...]

Every book is a journey: Rob’s ‘reviewing system’ explained

Hopefully, one of the first things that you'll notice when you visit RobAroundBooks is that it's a little different to anything else that may already be out there in Internet land. And one of the ways in which I claim my uniqueness is in the way … [Read more...]

Short Story Review: National Gallery by Peter Winder

Story Title: 'National Gallery' by Peter Winder. Collection/Anthology?: Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 4 (Bristol Review of Books) Briefly: The narrator is a regimented sort of chap. He eats his sandwiches in the restroom at work at … [Read more...]

Rob @ 12 Books in 12 Months

Sorry for the interruption but I just wanted to give you an excitable 'heads up' to let you know that I'm being featured today in an interview with Ali George, on her most illustrious 12 Books in 12 Months website. So if you want to know a little … [Read more...]

Short Story Review: Baking Blind by Melanie Whipman

Story Title: 'Baking Blind' by Melanie Whipman. Collection/Anthology?: Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 4 (Bristol Review of Books) Briefly: Naive and somewhat blinded by a romantic notion of Britain (a love fostered by her father, an … [Read more...]

Aharon Appelfeld wins Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012

The winner of this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced last night as Aharon Appelfeld, with his Holocaust novel, Blooms of Darkness (Alma Books); translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green. Appelfeld's novel, which is based … [Read more...]

Short Story Review: Brown Bag by Safia Shah

Story Title: 'Brown Bag' by Safia Shah. Collection/Anthology?: Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 4 (Bristol Review of Books) Briefly: With her Mum dead and her ashes lying in an urn, Jennifer reflects on her mother's passing and on incidental … [Read more...]

Afterthoughts: Dark Lies the Island by Kevin Barry

In a Nutshell: Dark Lies the Island is easily as good as Barry's debut collection There Are Little Kingdoms, and in some respects - mainly in terms of maturity - it's even better. I may have been worried going into this one thinking that I may have … [Read more...]

Short story review: Berlin Arkonaplatz – My Lesbian Summer by Kevin Barry

Story Title: Berlin Arkonaplatz – My Lesbian Summer by Kevin Barry Collection/Anthology?: Dark Lies the Island (Jonathan Cape) Briefly: Young Irish writer Patrick arrives in Berlin one summer, and shares an apartment with a lesbian Slavic … [Read more...]