Anansi Boys

Kafka on the Shore by

trans from the Japanese: Philip Gabriel ISBN: 0099494094 ; Mental mayhem ; Mindspill “So you’re all set for money, then?” the boy named Crow asks in his characteristic sluggish voice. The...

Bath Tangle by

ISBN: 0099468093 Heyer’s romance novels show the reader that your story doesn’t have to be original to be entertaining, and that predictability isn’t always a bad thing. By the time you’ve...

Temeraire by

ISBN: 0007219113 Book #1 of the Temeraire series, aka His Majesty’s Dragon. See also: Naomi Novik’s site; Library Thing William Laurence is Captain of the Reliant, an English ship, fighting the...

Smoke and Mirrors by

Short Fictions and Illusions ISBN: 0755322835 Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors. Partly because you are never quite sure what you are going to get. He has his wonderful...

Time Added On by

When you are a child, and you’re poor, and you live next to other people who are poor, you never think of yourself as being poor.

Around a month ago I read an entry on Omaniblog about this book, up until then I hadn’t even known that George Hook had a book out. But that post caught my attention. George Hook is probably best known in Ireland for his rugby punditry. Together with Brent Pope and Tom McGurk, he analyses rugby for RTE in an entertaining, honest, blunt manner. He also has a radio show, but I’m not big on the radio so haven’t heard him enough to comment on that. In many ways I suppose he is the Eamonn Dunphy of the rugby world.

But I know him primarily from his rugby comments, and his constant promises that Munster will lose, and that the likes of Stringer shouldn’t be playing. I disagree with him, but am well aware that he is very knowledgeable about the game. And in an entertaining way.

No present like time by

ISBN: 0575077980 – Infinity Plus review January 2020 On this soft night I followed the Moren River valley, flying back to the Castle, hearing the chimes of clock towers in the...

Sport and the Irish by

Although the word ‘sport’ was used commonly in Ireland long before the period that is covered by any of the essays in this collection, it normally referred to hunting, fishing and other such activities enjoyed by the Irish gentleman. In addition were the games played by ‘ordinary’ people and rumoured to have their origins in Ireland’s historic and mythic past.

Another book that I picked up at work, although this is much more readable than the last. That was on the film industry in Ireland, and I didn’t finish it because of its overly academic wordiness. Despite being a sociological look at sport in Ireland, this book, Sport and the Irish doesn’t suffer from that problem.

Irish Voices by

An Informal History 1916-1966 ISBN: 0712665323 Early on Easter Sunday 23 April 1916 in Liberty Hall, the painter Christopher Brady carried out his commission of printing the document that would proclaim...

Anansi Boys by

ISBN: 0755305078 It begins, as most things begin, with a song Fat Charlie is fat, but the nickname has stuck. It is his father’s fault, if Fat Charlie’s dad calls something...