Tag: Books

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Poetry in Scotland

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Writing about writers – with the skills only a writer knows!The novel of a Sestineer and the descendants of a Victorian novelist.Review of “Lettersgait” – her new novel by Sally Evans. Published byFiction Direct – a new branch of Diehard Callender press (established 1990). £8 in person, £10 posted. http://www.readfictiondirect.co.uk for this and other books. Sally Evans – now with a PHD in Literature follows up her very popular novel“Wild Goose” with new novel – “Lettersgait”, and so this is Sally’s secondnovel focussing on the environment of a literary world. The likeable and wellportrayed characters engross us in a story … Continue reading Poetry in Scotland

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Abyss built on class and race, exploitation of domestic workers

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A young girl has died and the family’s maid is being interrogated.  She must tell the whole story before arriving the girl’s death. Estela came from the countryside, leaving her mother behind, to work for the señor and señora when their only child was born. They wanted a housemaid:”smart appearance, full time”, their  ad said. She wanted to make enough money to suppor her mother and return home. For seven years, Estela cleaner their laundry, wipe their floors, made their meals, kept their secrets, Witnessed their fights and frictions, raised their daughter. She heard the rats scrabbling in the ceiling, saw the looks … Continue reading Abyss built on class and race, exploitation of domestic workers

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Cursed by guilt, enchanted by the allure of mysticism

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Pemi Aguda who grew up in Lagos, a graduate of the writer’s programme at the University of Michigan, details magic and mayhem in the Lagos metropolis riven by crime, corruption and poverty, influenced by supernatural influences. In Ghostroots, unexplained powers which are both benign and malign, although their motivations are good but their impact is devastating, and in some cases act as messengers of divine retribution. The result of an environmental disarray, a place in which power cut are routine, masculinity is malevolent and pentecostal ministers hold sway with parables of salvation, as these ghosts, spirit jesters, unaccountable pestilences and … Continue reading Cursed by guilt, enchanted by the allure of mysticism

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Can good law topple the powerful

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Jolyon Maugham, a King’s Counsel, charismatic and successful obscure tax barrister, whose memoir cum social action manifesto Bringing Down Goliath, a product of the bird site, and large portions of it cannot really be understood unless the  reader has followed our hero’s perambulations  through Twitter. He started a mild successful blog, which led him advising the Labour Party on tax policy and even to fleeting fantasies of becoming attorney general in the House of Lords in an Ed Miliband government. But what really made him famous was hi energetic consistent abuse of anyone who disagreed with him on Twitter  where he has 420, … Continue reading Can good law topple the powerful

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Father of gyno-psychiarty

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Butcher is the harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry” as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state – women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself a … Continue reading Father of gyno-psychiarty

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International Booker-winner Kairos

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Jenny Erpenbeck and her translator Michael Hofmann won the coveted International Booker prize for Kairos a fiction which was translated into English. Erpenbeck previously won the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, for The End of Days (2015). Kairos ( name of a Greek gid as well as a word for a critical moment, is Erpenbeck’s fourth novel and the first of her books to be translated by Hofmann, is an allegorical story of a May-December affair unfolding in East Berlin during the end days of the GDR. An extramarital entanglement between the 19-year-old student Katharina and Hans, a writer in … Continue reading International Booker-winner Kairos

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Short Story: The Octopus Curry

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The Octopus Curry  – A Short Story by Penny Nair Price Liz and Roger worked together and were great comrades in the office – Roger had had his eye on her for some time but he was strapped for cash and when  Friday evening came,  another colleague – Chris invited him to eat locally to the office as a treat. Liz said her goodbyes and went on her way for the weekend.  The chosen restaurant was on the first floor.  Roger took his rucksack with him, found a space for it,  and the two colleagues sat down to a wonderful … Continue reading Short Story: The Octopus Curry

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Alice Munro, master of short story and Nobel Prize winner dies aged 92

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Alice Munro known for mastery of short stories and depictions of womanhood in rural settings, has died in Ontario, Canada aged 92. Born in 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, Munro grew up in a fox and mink farm, in the most disreputable part of the town. Munro found an escape in reading as a child and her favourite writers like Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Lucy Maud Montgomery guided her in appreciating literature beyond her age. “Books seem to me to be magic, and I wanted to be part of the magic, Books are far more important to me than life”  … Continue reading Alice Munro, master of short story and Nobel Prize winner dies aged 92

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Agony and ecstasy engulfed by desire

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Provoking offbeat sexual acts, challenges the binary of marriage and explores sexuality in perimenopause.  All Fours is tender, hilarious and sexy. A semi-famous artist announces her  pan to drive cross-country, from LA  to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey. Miranda July in All Fours, a 45-year-old “semi-famous” artist who remains unnamed locks eyes with the young man who’s squeegeeing her . Their intense but … Continue reading Agony and ecstasy engulfed by desire

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On the Brink of fear & disaster

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Philip Notman, an acclaimed medieval history professor whose fondness for Emerson’s scariest quote “ I  am glad to be on the brink of fear”, attends a conference in Bergen, Norway. On his return to London, and to his wife and son, something unexpected and inexplicable happens to him, and he is unable to settle back into his normal life. Seeking answers, he flies to Cadiz to see Inés, a Spanish academic, with whom he shared a connection at the conference, but his journey doesn’t end there. A chance encounter with a wealthy, elderly couple sends him to a house on … Continue reading On the Brink of fear & disaster