This side of brightness by Colum McCann
In the early 1900s New York’s subway was in the process of being excavated. Working as sandhog was decent enough money, but it was dangerous work. As this book begins four...
25 July 2013
To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Ramsay wants to go to the lighthouse. His mother says that yes, of course they can go tomorrow, weather permitting. His father disagrees. The weather will not permit it, he asserts, they will not go to the lighthouse.
Much of this novel revolves around the one afternoon and evening before this proposed trip to the lighthouse. The Ramsay family, maternal and magnificent mother, needy professor father and all eight children are staying in their holiday home in the Isle of Skye. With them are a number of other guests, Lily Briscoe the painter. William Banks, Augustus Carmichael, and Charles Tansey.
16 July 2013
My wedding cake
I got married on Thursday, a quiet affair. Registry office and then out with the families for a meal. And maybe one in the pub afterwards :) This was what Himself’s...
13 July 2013
The Ballad of the Wayfaring Stranger and the Dead Man’s Whore by Sean Demory
via Metafilter Inspired by classic American murder ballads and folk songs such as In the pines and Knoxville Girl this tells the story of a girl, taken by a haint. There...
13 July 2013
A country doctor by Franz Kafka
Translated by Ian Johnston ; read Online at Franz Kafka online A doctor is needed, but he has no transport. It is winter, he has no horse to harness to his...
7 July 2013
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
translated by David Wyllie : Read online at Project Gutenberg Most people are probably somewhat familiar with Franz Kafka. When we hear that something is Kafkaesque we think of the surreal...
5 July 2013
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre’s parents die when she is an infant, and she is taken in by her uncle. Her uncle also dies, after obtaining a promise from his wife that she will...
24 June 2013
Jane Eyre [lecture notes] by Charlotte Bronte
This is just for me to have – notes made while watching the Jane Eyre lectures. May not make much sense to anyone else. Bildungsroman – novel of formation/coming of age/finding...
23 June 2013
Man of Steel dir. by Zack Snyder
This is a Superman film. And a Superman origins film at that, so you can guess at some of the plot. Clark Kent dealing with his superhero side, becoming Superman, and...
15 June 2013
The Iceman [based on the book by] by Anthony Bruno dir. by Ariel Vromen
based on the true story of Richard Kuklinski. In 1986 Richard Kuklinski was arrested for murder, he worked as a contract killer for the mob, and yet his wife and daughters...
10 June 2013
Manon Lescaut by Abbé [Antoine Francois] Prévost
Read online – Gutenberg This is a book I would never have picked up if not for the fact that it is on the reading list of an online course I’ve...
9 June 2013
A town like Alice by Nevil Shute
In post World War II England Jean Paget is tracked down by a solicitor. She is the only surviving member of a client of his, and so stands to inherit his...
26 May 2013