The title of Grace O'Connell's debut novel is pulled from a poem by Helen Humphreys, "Blurring".* It's ironic that the closer you examine something, the harder it is to focus, and this is a truth which Maggie Pierce inhabits when Magnified World opens. She is reeling from her
At first it seems simple. One scene after the next. Imagine them, jotted on yellowed, soiled, stained pages from eighty-someodd-years ago. Scattered across time and space, you quietly order each of these moments in your reader's mind. You think you are assembling a timeline, affording these scenes refuge
24-hours-of-bookishness for this read-a-thon. (Note: I'll be updating this post regularly throughout the day, to reduce the feed traffic, so please scroll down for the most recent updates.) With a special emphasis on the shared bookishness in this case, because it's an event in memory of a woman who was
Secret codes, ancient mysteries, adventure stories, treasures, oversized fold-out maps, a hidden pocket in the back binding, and a satin ribbon for a marker. (I know, it sounds too good to be true, but read on: it's really quite marvellous.) Put that together with a passion for history and storytelling
Once a year, David travels to visit Stella; they have been divorced for 8 years (they were married for 21 years), and this year he brings Catherine, the woman he is with. But Catherine is not his "new girl"; that is Dina -- without the 'h' -- whose picture he
