New Booker rival announced
I was interested to see today that a new Literature Prize is being established, possibly from next year, with the intention to rival the Man Booker Prize. I…
“Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan
This book has it all: a compelling story, a great setting (black jazz musicians in Nazi Germany and occupied Paris), lyrical prose…
Guardian feature on independent bookshops
I’ve lamented the decline of independent bookshops on this site in the past, so was pleased to see a Guardian special section…
“The Flanders Road” by Claude Simon
Not an easy read, this. The style is experimental, with prose that mimics the way we think rather than the way we’d…
“Social Ecology and Communalism” by Murray Bookchin
This book is a good, short introduction to the ideas of Murray Bookchin. He draws on anarchist and socialist thought to come up with a model of social…
10 hours to live – please act now!
Troy Davis is almost certainly innocent, but he is still scheduled to be executed at 7pm EST today (midnight UK time). There…
“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
Update: In response to some of the comments on this review, I have written a newer post that explains the ending. I…
New review for On the Holloway Road
On the Holloway Road picked up a good review from Emma over at Book Around the Corner yesterday. I don’t normally tell…