words and pictures and music and stuff
Dormant Last read · last published · next check
Read 6 days ago and current, but nothing has been published for 3 years.
Death in Her Hands – Ottessa Moshfegh ; published by Penguin Press (US) 2020 Beautiful Book 31 was the US version of Sarah Moss’s ‘Ghost Wall’, a version infinitely more beautiful and apt than the lacklustre UK version…and here we … Continue reading →
One of my favourite groups ever, Everything But the Girl recently returned after a twenty plus year sabbatical, with a brilliant album, Fuse. Here is the first single, ‘Nothing Left to Lose’. This record brings me so much joy.
It’s been a hot summer so far and my book shopping has been dampened by the muggy atmosphere…but it hasn’t deserted me! My first selections were a number of Puffin books via ebay: The Microbe Man – Eleanor Doorly One … Continue reading →
‘The Birthday Party’ by the French writer Laurent Mauvignier was longlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize and comes with promises of a nail-biting thrills to the end of it 400+ pages. The set up concerns the 40th birthday party … Continue reading →
Greek Lessons – Han Kang ‘The Vegetarian‘ was a stunning novel and while her subsequent novels haven’t quite matched the subversive melancholy of that first tome, Kang’s novels are always worth reading. ‘In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman … Continue reading →
Nicole Flattery is part of the current surge in young Irish writers which includes Sally Rooney, Megan Nolan, Wendy Erskine and Colin Barrett. This is her first novel and presents us with a swerve-ball away from the contemporary concerns of … Continue reading →
Described as ‘a genuinely exhilarating entertainment’ by Neil Bartlett in The Guardian, Richard Millward’s ‘Man-Eating Typewriter’ promises to be a right rollicking read, summed by Bartlett as follows: ‘The largest part of the book is taken up with what purports … Continue reading →
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss – art by Alex Merto This is the US version of Sarah Moss’s folk horror fable. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (who have a noble history of beautifully covered books) this version makes the … Continue reading →
Nothing Special – Nicole Flattery Another of the brilliant younger generation of Irish writers, this is Flattery’s first novel coming after a very well received collection of short stories, ‘Show Them a Good Time.’ A very different angle from many … Continue reading →
‘I tried to think what innocence meant and failed.’ ‘Harriet Said…’ was the first novel written by Beryl Bainbridge, but the third published (in 1972) after being rejected by numerous publishers, not for the quality (‘Your writing shows considerable promise…’) … Continue reading →
