How to be good - Nick Hornby Reviews

No spoilers! This novel is Nick Hornby's fourth book. The plot goes that Kate Carr - a doctor, and therefore in her opinion, doing 'good' in the world is married to David, the self-proclaimed 'World's Angriest Man' - newspaper columnist who's negative personality has has a detrimental effect on their marriage. Close to ...  Read the complete review

I picked up "How to be good" very recently and couldn't put it down. It is definitely a good book to pick up on a day off and get the kettle on and simply keep reading until you're finished. It is the story of a Doctor called Kate, who has an affair after her husband changes from being "The Angriest Man in Holloway" - a ...  Read the complete review

This is a delightful little book however it must be said that it will not be to everyone’s tastes. This is the second book by Nick Hornby that I have read, the first as Fever Pitch which was based upon his own, quite understandable, obsession with all things Arsenal and how that obsession impacts upon basic human relationships. In How to be Good ...  Read the complete review

How to be Good by Nick Hornby was described as “Hilarious, sophisticated and compulsive” by The Sunday Times and was thrust upon me by the wife after I complained of being bored on the tube to and from work. She gave me a choice of two books, but How to be Good won as I had rather enjoyed Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch and although it had remarkably ...  Read the complete review

I did not particularly enjoy this book, though I shall give some plot detail before I tell you why. This story is written from Dr. Katie Carr’s (no relation) perspective (which, I imagine, is very insightful and accurate coming from a man - at least its what I’d imagine some women to think like. Indeed, Libby Purves of The ...  Read the complete review

D’you think that Nick Hornby will ever write a book that is not set in North London? How To Be Good opens with a sentence about being in a car park in Leeds but after that everything in the book happens within a couple of miles of Hornby’s beloved Highbury – again. I personally wish he’d move his stories away to another ...  Read the complete review

If you?re in the mood for a laugh then make time to read Nick Hornby?s latest, How To Be Good. A tale of marital disillusionment that results in a hilarious reassessment of the central relationship in the book between Katie and her husband David. The story is told through the eyes of Katie and much has been written about whether Hornby ...  Read the complete review

I have previously found Nick Hornby to be a hit and miss author. I enjoyed Fever Pitch; I thought I enjoyed High Fidelity, until I re-read it and the book's innate shallowness shone through, if shallowness can shine? I found About a Boy to be even more shallow, crammed full of metaphors and clichés that were supposed to be funny, but left me ...  Read the complete review

Normally I love shopping at airports, especially Manchester. There’re good shops that always seem to have things that high street shops don’t, there’s the buzz from seeing the 50kg bars of toblerone (even though I don’t like the stuff) and there’s the nice warm and excited feeling in your tummy because you know that, ...  Read the complete review

Y’know when you first buy a book, you sit with a hope and glint in your eye that this one may take away a couple of hours a day for a week or so, well when I bought ‘How to be Good’ I had a quiet hope that this time Nick Hornby would be able to write something that could last me more than a couple of days – how wrong I was, ...  Read the complete review

I read ‘Fever Pitch’ not that long ago. I started off expecting it to be a bit boring, as I am not a football fan, but I found it was a really good book and I really liked the style. Since then I have read ‘High Fidelity’, although I haven’t seen the film and then finally this one. I had high expectations of this book ...  Read the complete review

We all want to be good citizens don’t we. You know, donating money to Children in need every year, helping old ladies out with a seat at the bus shelter, you may even spare 50p to give to someone begging in your local subway. For some people, being good is not just a lifestyle choice, it’s a job too. Look at firefighters, police ...  Read the complete review

I bought "How to be good" for my husband, and waited patiently until he'd read it. It wasn't easy, but that's the sort of thing that good people do..... or is it? Katie Carr is a doctor, she believes in being good, she tries to do the right thing, but she has no plans about changing the world. She is a long way ...  Read the complete review

If you're already a Nick Hornby fan you'll love this book. It's very funny and had me nodding in recognition in a lot of places. I found it compulsive reading and hard to put down. It's a humorous and insightful look into a liberal, middle class family's values, problems and what happens when a you put a borderline mad new age ...  Read the complete review

This has been one of the most eagerly-awaited books of the year. Nick Hornby's excellent previous novels High Fidelity and About A Boy have left readers looking forward to another high-quality novel. The author's ability to translate apparently ordinary characters and situations into hilarious and observational fiction has been a trademark ...  Read the complete review

Why don't we like do-gooders? Is it because we're all talk-gooders? Happy to give money to charity, donate our old crap to a jumble sale or help the homeless by buying a Big Issue, just as long as we don't have to put up with them in our comfy homes or comfy lives because, let's face it, they're all smelly. Right? ...  Read the complete review

Hornby's back! And readers, get this. This time he's wearing high heels and mascara - would you Adam and Eve it?! If like me you already love this mans work, you will no doubt be champing at the bit to read his latest. Well, I have no patience. I got the damn thing from my book club and was unable to delay the gratification - ...  Read the complete review

Considering I have a bit of an aversion to hardback books (no room in my already jam packed handbag) I’ve been anxiously waiting for this book to come out in paperback so that I can add it to my much loved Nick Hornby collection. However I noticed the book in my local library a few days ago and couldn’t hold out any longer. I grabbed ...  Read the complete review

Nick Hornby, the master of modern laddism, has attempted a bit of a departure here, in that the whole book is written from a woman's viewpoint. Our humble narrator is a GP, married to the self-styled 'Angriest man in Holloway', who writes a newspaper column, railing against everything from theatre curtains to liberalism to life in ...  Read the complete review

How To Be Good is not about how to be good! Confused? Nick Hornby has written this novel from the viewpoint of a woman GP who has just had an affair, her husband is going nuts and she's basically bored. The book itself is too long-winded, he has subjected us to several chapters of descriptions rather than just story ...  Read the complete review