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The Byron Journals / Daniel Ducrou
In Aida Edemariam’s Guardian profile of Christos Tsiolkas that ran over the weekend, she enumerated the numerous garlands laid at Booker-longlisted The Slap‘s door. Among them is Colm Toíbín’s...
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Lunatic in My Head / Anjum Hasan
Imagine a city where you can tell a person’s social position, what language they speak and their background just by looking at them. Anjum Hasan’s Lunatic in My Head tells us that Shillong, in India’s...
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Wagers and half-lives: Charles D’Ambrosio’s The Dead Fish Museum
In ‘Up North’, the fourth story in The Dead Fish Museum, a man whose wife is having a string of affairs says, ‘Our marriage was like a constant halving of the distance, without ever arriving at the...
View ArticleThe Dirt / Mötley Crüe with Neil Strauss
A little while back, one of the senior publishing editors at work, Karen, mentioned she was seriously enjoying the Mötley Crüe memoir. ‘No you’re not,’ said I, unbelievingly. Silly me! Trust me, the...
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The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis / Lydia Davis
I was talking to a friend the other day about how it seems to be baby season, how we have swiftly and surely reached the age where our family, friends and colleagues generate offspring without any...
View ArticleIndia Dark / Kirsty Murray
Just a little peep from me: a review of Kirsty Murray’s India Dark on Radio National’s The Book Show. Also, something a bit novel. If you’d like to read a book with me, and hear me discuss it with some...
View ArticleThe Beautiful and Damned / F. Scott Fitzgerald
I think I should rename this blog – 12 BOOKS. One book a month. That seems to be the going rate right now. Not exactly a bargain. Sorry guys! I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned for...
View ArticleThis is what I read in 2010
Here is a list of the books and journals I’ve read this year, in vaguely chronological order: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Played with Fire / Stieg Larsson The Girl Who...
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2010 in sounds (pace Culture Mulcher)
I know most people are starting to look forward now, but I stumbled across an amusing video at bright stupid confetti the other morning, and I thought it might be quite fun to do a Culture...
View ArticleFreedom / Jonathan Franzen
Things I liked about Freedom: Excellent dialogue. Often, the big difference between a good book and a great book is the utility and credibility of the dialogue. In a serviceable book, dialogue often...
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