“…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
Monthly Book Review - The Beautiful Bureaucrat
Most books you think are good have a good story. A natural and kind progression, something that the reader can be sympathetic, and something they enjoy. Most books that are considered an ‘enjoyable read’ will couple emotive and exciting writing with good story and make the reader happy to be reading that book. This book is a notable exception: it was very good but it absolutely did not make me happy.
Monthly Book Review - The Alchemist
What I thought would be a short and sweet fable here from Paulo Coelho, suggested to me for my monthly Book club, has actually hit rather closer to home than I expected. So much so in fact that after reading it once in less than a day, I read it again the day after, I then purchased the audiobook so that I could have Jeremy Irons growl it to me for another go over on my way into work.
Monthly Book Review - The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Another month another book. That’s what I though at least when I first picked up ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’. Little did I know that what I had actually picked up was not another book, no, this was in fact 500 pages of sheer edge of my seat, heart in my mouth, sweat on my brow mindfuckery.
Holly the Dog
Monthly Book Review - Mythos/Heroes by Steven Fry
Just take a deep breath, and relax.
Let’s be honest, this review is going to be less of a book review and more of a Steven review. I made the intelligent decision to read this book and then to buy it on audiobook immediately after and I have to say, this is one of the few times in life where the audiobook far outstrips the written word.
On the Making of Mead
Exercise is hard?
People are told constantly that exercise is tough, exercise is tricky, exercise is hard and somehow for doing it you are putting yourself through an abnormal strain. Motivation on gym posters is all presented as 'feel the burn', 'embrace the pain' and other irritating catch phrases. The thing is, whilst this is all well and good if you are a masochist, in fact most people don't like pain and therefore you're immediately put into a negative mindset. Adverts on tv show grimacing faces, internet sidebar ads have puffing and panting people looking like they're attempting to squeeze a watermelon out of their most private orifice.
Monthly Book review - Kill your Friends by John Niven
Iceland
Iceland is beyond comprehension. I like to think of myself as being very imaginative. I like to create little worlds in my head, the wackier the better, on a pretty regular basis. The only type of dreaming I do is lucid, I write stories about my dreams and the fanciful places my head takes me to. My imagination even breaks into the real world at times in the form of my habit of greatly over exaggerating even the most mundane stories, though this probably isn't something to brag about.
Stars - for Stephen
A star is an incredible thing. Tiny pinpricks of light which speckle the night sky, humanity has perpetually been fascinated by them. Holes in the firmament, permanent affixations to the celestial sphere, guiding beacons for lost travellers, nuclear power-stations of colossal scale, the twinkle in a lovers eye after a particularly bad pun; history is alive with descriptions of them given by scholars and simpletons alike from all walks of life.
The Beauty of The Flower, or the perceived separation of Science and Creativity
I was listening to a song the other day (thank you Spotify Discover Weekly) called 'Red' by Phoria. It's a nice piece, floating ambient piano coupled to a clapped beat and slightly breathy singer, it's a good song to listen to when you're thinking about other things. Halfway through the song though, blooming from the gentle wailing vocals comes a deep, soothing voice.
"..The beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too.."
Monthly Book Review - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This was an incredible story. I’d like to make a point of that as every other review I’ve read for Chimamanda’s star-crossed love epic seems to plough right in with the social commentary aspects of the story and though these are of course vital to the book and what gives it such clout when sitting on your bookshelf, none of that would mean a damn if the story wasn’t superb. And my word is it superb not just for me but for one of the widest ranging audiences I think a book could possibly have.
