pickI‘m usually not a fan of child protagonists, so I wasn‘t sure how I‘d respond to this. I ended up really liking Janet, no doubt because she has a healthy slug of Ramona Quimby in her, and I really related to Ramona as a kid. We know at the start she has a tragic fate, which tinges the whole story, but she‘s such an exuberant presence, it was still a bit of a shock at the end.
pickA comic tale of middle-class manners where the dark humour is biting as Muriel Spark paints a picture of gross characters happy to moan about each other in one breath while hugging in the other. Set around a dinner party, we meet a number of couples as they prepare for the event. With a spate of burglaries occurring in the area there also seems to be a connection to the feast. Spark is a reassuring favourite writer who never fails to captivate me.
https://youtu.be/dfumuFSbEzM
Introduction
Reconnecting with a bookish friend
An uncharacteristically reticent report on a biblioadventure
Mystery guest
Patreon news
A Disaffection by James Kelman
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
Standing Heavy by Gauz'
A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri
How to Breathe Water by Sharon Butala
panThis Orcadian verse SFF novel with accompanying standard southern English version tells the story of a student returning to a space station from her art studies who forms a relationship with a visitor to the station.
While it was fun matching up the two versions and listening to the audiobook on Everand, there seemed to be a lot missing from the actual story which suddenly just stopped in the middle of the action. A disappointment.
so-so
