Lanny, by Max Porter I’ve been wanting to talk about this book for a while but I know I’m going too find it really difficult to do it justice. And it deserves justice, because it’s one of the most innovative and poignant and clever and beautiful book I’ve read this year. The Guardian has a …
I am not really sure of what made me buy this book. The cover is beautiful, yes, but I’m not that shallow. It just ‘called me’ and I simply answered. I was intrigued by the byline ‘the coming of age of hyperintelligence’, I’ve been struggling how to make sense of getting older, of the meaning …
It’s definitively soup weather… the mornings are dark and chilly and frankly a salad for lunch is not so appealing anymore. The first soup was butternut squash and carrots, nothing fancy, but velvety and warming. And I didn’t take any pictures, because… I don’t know, I forgot… This time though I made an effort and …
Breaking all my rules here, which is always a liberating thing to do, and writing about poetry on a Saturday… The Cheltenham Festival of Literature is still on and today I attended a poetry event: Anthony Anaxagorou… absolutely brilliant. There is a really good article about his latest collection ‘After the Formalities’ here. He read …
History. I love history. I cannot believe it when people say it’s boring or useless or ‘they hate it’… to me that stinks of bad teaching, not bad subject… I mean, how can you not be interested in ‘stories’? in people? in what happened to people? that’s what’s history is all about after all… Currently …
Never mind I have four other books patiently waiting for me to talk about them… let me be topical and up to date for once. I pre-ordered this book months ago but had totally forgotten about it… I’m always wary of ‘follow-ups’ and let’s face it how can you improve on the chilling perfection that …
Books, books, let’s talk about books again because it’s been a while and I have lots of them to share with you lovely people. Assuming there’s someone out there.. So, three books in just over two weeks isn’t bad going, but let’s face it, there were two long flights, lots of train journeys and a …
For years one of my favourite traditions when going back to Italy to see the family was buying a book in the ‘Inspector Montalbano’ series. In Italy they’re published in a gorgeous edition, with blue covers and fabulous creamy paper. They’re small edition, easily held in one hand, absolutely perfect to slip in your pocket, …
I am I am I am by Maggie O’Farrell. Second holiday read and one of the best books I read this year. Original, beautifully written, moving, scary, terrifying, profound, clever, heartbreaking… I could go on and on… just read it will you? I’m not big into autobiography… but this book is a memoir with a …
Day 3. But let’s talk about ‘Forces of Nature’, by Jane Harper. It’s another case for Aaron Falk, the Australian policeman whom we first met in her debut novel ‘The Dry’ (also brilliant). this time it’s a case of a woman missing ‘in the bush’ during a team building exercise gone wrong. Whilst I got …
while you're ahead... 