Book Club
Coming up in July: Small Island At book club, we have just finished Small Island by Andrea Levy. In preparation for last night’s discussion, I listened to a couple of Q&A sessions with Levy and she mentioned having watched a lot of the British Soap, Coronation Street to get inside the voice of Queenie, one [...]
The Tiger’s Wife
I really enjoyed this book, it is full of good old fashioned, magical, mythical storytelling and very fun to get lost in. It reminded me of Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer both in tone and theme, namely, the role of myth in dealing with difficult truths. Sometimes it is denial but at other [...]
Bookish
Next up for the Caffé Medici Book Club: Next up for the 200 Books Project: Furthermore, just a reminder that my friend Amy and I are undertaking to read a selection of 200 Books from the literary canon in chronological order. You can read and/or follow along online here. Next up is Moll [...]
200 Books Project – Robinson Crusoe
My friend Amy and I are reading 200 books from the (much disputed) literary canon in chronological order. It’s a project that ebbs and flows but always pootles on somehow. I just posted a blog about Robinson Crusoe and if you’re interested, you can read it here.
I ❤ Let The Great World Spin
Last night, a friend of mine who loves New York made my day by gifting their copy of Let The Great World Spin to me. I had tried to buy a copy several times during April but it had never worked out and I’m glad it didn’t because it was a lovely way to receive [...]
Four Thinks…
Think One: Riding the Heights of Quotidian Love One of my favourite memories from my childhood was when my mum took me off on my own at the seaside and trawled the shoreline with me to look for the treasures the mermaids had left us. It shines so vividly in my memory. It struck me [...]
Two tiny book reviews
1. The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds Great writing, all of my favourite things in one book… why did I not love it more? I think that it is because overall, I found the journey it took me on as a reader was slightly unsatisfactory. Brilliant because it is poetic and sensitive and rich for [...]
On the first day of Christmas, my true love said to me: “let’s examine fear”
On the sixth day of Christmas… I read Dave Egger’s Zeitoun, practically in one go. I think I probably lifted my head to put more chocolate in my face but that was about all. Goodness, what a fascinating and revealing story, outlining one man’s experience of Katrina. Zeitoun, the eponymous hero, is ordinary enough to [...]
Everything Is Illuminated which is not by Jonathan Franzen.
I feel late to the party having only just read this book but I am glad I turned up. I realised at some point halfway through the book that Jonathan Franzen and Jonathan Safran Foer had been occupying the same space in my head. It turns out that they are two distinct people. It’s the [...]
Hannah Stoney is a British artist and writer.