This was one of the first Orange Prize nominees that I bought. Last year, two debut novels on the longlist made my personal shortlist. (Anna Peile's and Samantha Hunt's) Serpent's Tail, 2012 I had high hopes for this novel and, in many ways, I was rewarded for my
The chapter titles of this work reveal that it's not some kind of textbook resource on crows: Getting Up, Preparing, Reading, Walking, Dwelling, Helping, Seeing, Coexisting, Dying and Flying. Then again, the subtitle should have been my first clue (Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness), that Crow Planet is as much
A dozen years ago, Olive Senior's Gardening in the Tropics was on my list of favourite books for that reading year. Insomniac Press, 2007 Afterwards, I read some short stories (Discerner of Hearts is wonderful), but I lost track of her work, and hadn't even realized the extent of it
Originally published almost exactly 32 years ago, the events depicted in "Dulse" could have taken place 32 years prior and will, likely, still ring true 32 years hence. Lydia is a woman alone, not freshly alone -- for she has been divorced for nine years -- but self-consciously alone. Something
So Iris' Dutch Lit month was in June, right? Many of you likely participated during June. Which, of course, was the point: a shared celebration of Dutch Lit. I was planning to do that too. And I did have my copy of Hella S. Haasse's The Tea Lords well ahead
