People’s Choice 10 – The Result…
Well! The People’s Choice Begorrathon Special was exciting! One book raced into a clear read from the beginning and held off all challengers as it stormed towards the finishing line. So I hereby declare…
This Week’s Winner…
The Blurb – It’s July 1976. In London, it hasn’t rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he’s going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn’t come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta’s children — two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce — back home, each with different ideas as to where their father might have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share. Maggie O’Farrell’s sixth book is the work of an outstanding novelist at the height of her powers.
Thanks to Naomi at Consumed by Ink for the review that brought this book to my attention.
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And thanks to all who voted! It wouldn’t be the People’s Choice without you!
The book will be added to my TBR – now all I have to do is find time to read it!
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TBR Quarterly Report…
At the New Year I added up the full extent of the horror of the TBR, including the bits I usually hide. So time for another count to see how I’m doing…
Woohoo! The mathematically astute amongst you will note that although the official TBR has gone up, the overall total has gone down! This is due to books moving off the wishlist onto the TBR – see? I’m the Queen of Willpower and Spreadsheets – I’m so proud of myself. If I continue at this rate, the TBR will be clear by… 2038!
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Reading Ireland Month – #begorrathon16…
I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in the Begorrathon throughout March, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it too. I’d like to thank Cathy at 746 Books for creating this event and for all the hard work she’s done to make the bookish side of it a huge success. Not only has she inspired people all over the blogosphere to participate, but she’s pulled all the posts together to make them easy to access – here’s the link. And she has been the major contributor herself, with a series of brilliant posts that have introduced me to loads of new authors and taught me a lot about Irish literature.
Well done, Cathy – take a bow!!
I also must thank Cathy for her great giveaway, WHICH I WON!! Look what I WON!!!
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The Visitor is the haunting tale of Anastasia King, who, at the age of twenty-two, returns to her grandmother’s house in Dublin – the very house where she grew up – after six long years away. She has been in Paris, comforting her disgraced and dying mother, who ran away from a disastrous marriage to Anastasia’s late father, her grandmother’s only son. It is a story of Dublin and the unkind, ungenerous, emotionally unreachable side of the Irish temperament. Recently found in a university archive, The Visitor was written in the mid-1940s but was never published. This miraculous literary discovery deepens the oeuvre of Maeve Brennan and confirms her status as one of the best Irish writers of stories since Joyce.
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The Long Gaze Back, edited by Sinéad Gleeson, is an exhilarating anthology of short stories by some of the most gifted women writers this island has ever produced. Taken together, the collected works of these writers reveal an enrapturing, unnerving, and piercingly beautiful mosaic of a lively literary landscape. The Long Gaze Back features 22 new stories by some of the most talented Irish women writers working today. The anthology presents an inclusive and celebratory portrait of the high calibre of contemporary literature in Ireland.
These stories run the gamut from heartbreaking to humorous, but each leaves a lasting impression. They chart the passions, obligations, trials and tribulations of a variety of vividly-drawn characters with unflinching honesty and relentless compassion. These are stories to savour.
Aren’t I lucky? 😀
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The Around the World in 80 Books Challenge – #AW80Books
Hosted by Sarah and Lucy at the wonderful Hard Book Habit…
Well, having spent the entire month in Ireland, unsurprisingly that’s the only destination I’m adding this month, and of all the books I’ve read the one I’m going to choose for this challenge is…
So here’s the summary to date…
The Main Journey
- London – Martin Chuzzlewit
- Orient Express
- France – The Sisters of Versailles
- Alps
- Venice
- Brindisi
- Mediterranean Sea
- Suez
- Egypt
- Red Sea/Arabian Sea
- Bombay
- Calcutta
- Kholby
- Elephant Travel
- Allahabad
- Indian Ocean/ South China Sea
- Hong Kong
- Shanghai
- Yokohama
- Pacific
- San Francisco
- Sioux lands
- Omaha
- New York – I Am No One
- Atlantic Ocean
- Queenstown (Cobh) Ireland
- London – The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
I’ve got books planned for some of the gaps, but am still open to suggestions for any of the places highlighted in red. Any genre…
The Detours
That leaves 53 spots for me to randomly tour the world, so here’s where I’ve been so far…
- The Hebrides – Coffin Road
- Florida – Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Iceland – Snowblind
- Himalayas – Black Narcissus
- Ireland – The Heather Blazing
9 down, 71 to go!
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