The Wales Readathon, aka Dewithon is being hosted by Paula at Book Jotter. It’s running throughout March. Here is what I thought about my second Welsh read this month: Azzopardi was born in Cardiff to Welsh/Maltese parents. Her first novel The Hiding Place was shortlisted for the 2000 Booker Prize and was set in the Maltese Read More
Search Results for: new mabinogion
New Stories from the Mabinogion #4
The Meat Tree by Gwyneth Lewis. The Meat Tree is the fourth in the series of contemporary retellings of stories from the medieval Welsh story cycle The Mabinogion commissioned and published by Seren Books. See my reviews of the other titles in the series here and here. Gwyneth Lewis is an interesting author: firstly a poet, she has written a book-length poem about Read More
New Stories from the Mabinogion #3
The Dreams of Max and Ronnie by Niall Griffiths See my previous post here for some background on this series of comtemporary retellings of the medieval Welsh story cycle the Mabinogion, and the first two titles in the sequence. The third book, The Dreams of Max and Ronnie to give its full title comprises two novellas based upon separate Read More
New Stories from the Mabinogion: vols 1 & 2
The Mabinogion is a collection of medieval Welsh stories of Celtic origin – they are written very much in the bardic tradition of oral storytelling. The eleven tales as normally collected have the four ‘branches’ of the Mabinogion proper, a set of Native Tales and three Romances; the Native Tales also include early references to Read More
Two shortish reviews: Dusapin and Clare
The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin Translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins Dusapin is a Franco-Korean author who won the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Lit for her first novel Winter in Sokcho, which followed the life of a young woman working at a hotel at the town near the Korean Read More
#TDiRS22 – The Dark is Rising Sequence Book 5: Silver on the Tree
And so we come to the final book in Susan Cooper’s fantasy adventure series for older children (and adults!), Silver on the Tree, published in 1977. Thank you to all those who have read along with me over the past five months, your company has been much appreciated. You can also catch up with the Read More
#TDiRS22 – The Dark is Rising Sequence Book 4: The Grey King
A bit later than originally planned, but I hope you’re still with me as we come to the fourth of the five books in Susan Cooper’s wonderful children’s adventure fantasy series, The Grey King, published in 1975. Catch up with the previous posts here: Introduction Over Sea, Under Stone The Dark is Rising Greenwitch This Read More
Index A-M
Books featured are indexed by author surname. The links will take you directly to the review or article associated with it. Key to Abbreviations: TopJump to authors’ surnames beginning with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M Authors A AARONOVITCH, Ben ABBOTT, Megan ABRAHAM, Thomas – Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication – RC NF (7/10) 2019 ABOULELA, Leila ACIOLI, Socorro – The Read More
Index N-Z
Books featured are indexed by author surname. The links will take you directly to the review or article associated with it. Key to Abbreviations: Top Jump to authors surnames beginning with: N O PQ R S T UV W XYZ Authors N NABB, Magdalen – Death in Springtime – O F (7/10) 2010 NADEL, Jennifer – Pretty Thing – RC F (7.5/10) 2015 NASPINI, Sacha – Tell Me About Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Where the Wild Things Are
Hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links in titles will take you to my reviews where they exist. So without further ado, our starting book this month is … Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak As Read More
The Six Degrees of Separation Meme: Fates and Furies
Hosted each month by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, this meme picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six steps. (Here’s my one for last month.) This month the starting book is Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. Fates and Furies is a novel I’ve yet to read. If you look at the Read More
Saturday Selection
Another busy week! Thank goodness I have nothing booked in for the next fortnight – even for half term, except for promising my daughter a London trip to Camden market. Monday night was my Book Group – this month we read The Amber Fury (aka The Furies) by Natalie Haynes. I read this book last year and Read More
'After the first death, there is no other.' – or is there?
Advantages of the Older Man by Gwyneth Lewis When this short novel popped through the door, I couldn’t resist reading it straight away. Gwyneth Lewis is a poet, author and playwright and I’ve previously read her volume in Seren Book’s New Tales of the Mabinogion series. The Meat Tree is a retelling of the strange and ancient Read More
Ten Books that Represent Great Britain
A couple of days ago, Simon at Savidge Reads and Thomas at My Porch created a new meme (Yes Simon, I know you didn’t want to call it a meme, but it is one – a nice one!). The challenge is to pick ten books that sum up your own country geographically but authors from that Read More
Penguin Blogger’s Night
I had the privilege to be invited to the second annual Penguin Blogger’s Night which happened yesterday. Having been last year, I knew it would be a great evening, and I made all the arrangements so that I could go. It was held in the fifth floor bar at Waterstones Piccadilly – amazingly I’d never been in Read More
The real King Arthur …
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve Arthurian myth and legend is one of my favourite reading themes. If asked about my favourite movies, Excalibur [1981] comes 2nd (after The Blues Brothers). I saw that film the week it came out at the Odeon Leicester Square and was immediately smitten with the Arthurian bug. A few years Read More
