Discussions & Reviews of Prose, Poetry, Lyrics, and Art
Marguerite Yourcenar wrote so beautifully about the grief of Roman emperor Hadrian at the death of his lover, Antinous (alsoContinue Reading
Do you have a muse? What is a muse? Do artists have muses these days? Definition: Muse (person): muse noun;Continue Reading
“Wasps”, from Soul Collective, by Marthe Bijman, 2nd ed. 2025, p. 16. Painting: “#47 WTAF?”, acrylic & permanent markers onContinue Reading
I cannot resist the marked-down sections in book stores. When I see books that are on sale, I just loseContinue Reading
On Jan. 11, 2026, “Hamnet”, directed by Chloé Zhao, won Best Motion Picture – Drama, and Best Actress in aContinue Reading
For a writer to describe something impossible or inconceivable, they might use metaphors, similes, understatement, incomplete phrases, invented words, blankContinue Reading
This is a double waka about what makes him happy. JOY I have chairs and a table,a vase and flower,aContinue Reading
I suppose every book we’ve read and reread, and every movie we’ve watched more than once, and every song we’veContinue Reading
“Light” and “You in Flower” images and poems from: Soul Collective – Poems and Paintings, by Marthe Bijman, pp. 11-12.Continue Reading
Charlie Mackesy’s first book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, published in 2019, is special. It isContinue Reading
WHO MADE YOUWho turned the muscles in your armsso elegantly around the bone?Who sculptedthe column of your neckso perfectlyfrom marbledContinue Reading
DELETE THE PAGEDelete the pageThere is a new youAbout to enterThe stageRaise the barAnnounce the birth ofYour new, improvedAvatar “DeleteContinue Reading
ENTRANCELook backTill you seeWhat’s in the darkLook backThe spotlightsCatch their eyesLook backAs they stretchTo see youLook backThen turn awayFrom theContinue Reading
—Perfect You PERFECT YOU Trace the outline of his face —The amber eyes with feathered lashesThe bold nose with itsContinue Reading
One of the admin jobs on a blog like this is updating the indexes. I am a child of librariansContinue Reading
Here is a line in a letter that the famous author Katherine Mansfield wrote on Aug. 25, 1915: “This isContinue Reading
To continue with my series on marvellous writing, here is another particularly beautiful and moving piece, from the memoir ofContinue Reading
I’ve lost track of how many books and authors I’ve reviewed and written about. I’ve regularly published reviews since 2009,Continue Reading
I’ve just blown my hard-earned money on an unbirthday present to myself: I bought the Taschen edition of Hokusai, whichContinue Reading
I love the character of “Jack Reacher”. I love that authors Lee Child (and, lately, Andrew Child) have kept theContinue Reading
I have lots of quotes from songs, poems and novels floating about in my head, probably taking up space thatContinue Reading
There are many wonderful love stories. There are fewer love stories that are also tragedies. Here are the words, writtenContinue Reading
Marcel Heijnen is a Dutch photographer who has lived and worked in Asia since 1992. He now divides his timeContinue Reading
I can’t remember who said it, but it was that when you are feeling absolutely miserable, or absolutely happy, onlyContinue Reading
The other day someone who’d read a couple of posts from this blog, told me that he was amazed atContinue Reading
Cities are places of man-made structures. The attractions they have often lead us to perceiving them as beautiful, which theyContinue Reading
In Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas, “Blind Captain Cat”, who listens to the goings-on in the little Welsh seasideContinue Reading
We produced The Colours of Cold last year, a song about how beautiful it is in Winter when it snows.Continue Reading
In the process of writing lyrics, I’ve been doing an awful lot of critical listening, and I’ve been reading aContinue Reading
I am often very loathe to give negative criticism of any published book, since a book takes an awful lotContinue Reading
Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki made The Man Without a Past (Mies vailla menneisyyttä) in 2002. This, strange as it mayContinue Reading
Here’s a long-post. Expect it to be emo. A few months ago – it feels like a lifetime though –Continue Reading
On my new album, “Ticket to Mars”, the fourth track is “The Great Wall”. Cōdae · The Great Wall TheContinue Reading
On this fine Spring morning, I woke up to this post from Nick Cave, on his Red Hand Files. NothingContinue Reading
I take advice from my favourite writers on what to read. This morning, Nick Cave wrote about his holiday readingContinue Reading
The header, “Think on thy soul, for once”, refers to the line by “Othello” to “Desdemona” in William Shakespeare’s play,Continue Reading
The Internet is full of blogs and Reddits and substacks and vlogs and IG feeds of people with their cats,Continue Reading
I found out long ago, that because of the way your brain processes visual information, for instance what you read,Continue Reading
Last week there was a mean little news snippet in the UK media about Sarah Ferguson – Sarah, Duchess ofContinue Reading
Until a fellow bookworm told me about Daniel Silva, I did not even know this author existed. I found outContinue Reading
This morning, Jan. 1, 2024, I woke up to news of a series of high-magnitude earthquakes on the West coastContinue Reading
I am watching the second season of the TV show, Reacher. It premiered on Dec. 15, 2023. The first oneContinue Reading
When it comes to aeronautics, Commander Christ Hadfield knows what he’s talking about. So, when I read his latest novel,Continue Reading
Am I a Scrooge for not wanting to do the usual this year and send out packs of Christmas cardsContinue Reading
This novel has a long title; The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. It alliterates nicely, and I’m sureContinue Reading
Maggie O’Farrell wrote the sublime historical novel Hamnet and Judith, about the children of William Shakespeare. She has a wonderfulContinue Reading
I’d been slavering for Contrarian, having really enjoyed the previous two novels in L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s The Grand Illusion trilogy,Continue Reading
Let me tell you about a movie that is so bad in every way that I felt obliged to watchContinue Reading
I was reading Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, his retelling of the stories of the Old Norse gods that are containedContinue Reading
Psalm 139 is serious, deep and grave in tone, as befits a plea to God. When King David wrote it,Continue Reading
It is Autumn here, or Fall, and let me not get into how and why the season has different namesContinue Reading
One tends to apply your own ideas and values – and judgment – to just about everything you hear andContinue Reading
When I wrote the lyrics for my song, “Havn”, I was getting rid of an earworm that had been hauntingContinue Reading
“`Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speakContinue Reading
The conclusion of Victory City, Salman Rushdie’s latest novel, is an end to the novel, and an end to theContinue Reading
An associate of mine said to me a while ago that he was very busy “because he had to feedContinue Reading
The word “crooked” in the title of this novel, the first in a series of seven, only partially describes it.Continue Reading
Victory City is a showcase for Salman Rushdie’s ability to create an entire new world in a novel – inContinue Reading
Ah, it’s Spring and time for Spring-cleaning. (Happy Belated First of May!) When I was looking into the freezer toContinue Reading
No Plan B is the most recently published Jack Reacher novel. Ignore, as you should, that suspect line on theContinue Reading
I stumbled on an announcement this week – as happens when you are mindlessly browsing the Interweb, that a newContinue Reading
Councilor is no. 2 in the Grand Illusion series by L.E. Modesitt Jr. I am committed to reading the entireContinue Reading
GPT stands for Generative pre-trained transformers (GPT), a family of language models by OpenAI, that are generally trained on aContinue Reading
Allow me to get personal for once: Usually I try to remain objective and businesslike when I write on theseContinue Reading
If your eyes are fine, do not read a book in large print format. I’m sure the format is indispensableContinue Reading
During the long dark tea-time of the soul in the last months of 2022, I found my myself looking forContinue Reading
When authors write in the form of a specific genre, let’s say, Historical Fiction, there is always the play-off betweenContinue Reading
We were schlepping through the deep snow on the trail near our house a few weeks ago, and it wasContinue Reading
The biggest book news so far this year is about Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and the uproar caused byContinue Reading
Like it or lump it, the new year is upon us. “They” say (based on unknown data sources and noContinue Reading
This time of year I think of times gone by, of people I know and used to know, of absentContinue Reading
Seven Circumstances toddled along nicely this year, according to the site stats: Year Views Visitors Total 2012The birth of aContinue Reading
I was charmed by the world of “Night Vale”, that strange desert town run by aliens, hairy monsters and disembodiedContinue Reading
Because it is snowing today – snowing properly, so that the snow is lying smooth and thick and perfect overContinue Reading
Leonard Cohen, the famous musician, poet and lyricist, wrote the stories collected in A Ballet of Lepers in his youngContinue Reading
I was reading about J.M. Coetzee‘s latest novel called El Polaco, which he has published first in Spanish, not English,Continue Reading
Sjón’s latest book, Red Milk, came out in English on Sept 21, 2022 and I got it as soon asContinue Reading
This is a truly intriguing biography: a mystery brilliantly unravelled by a literary detective. It’s 288 pages long with noContinue Reading
Isn’t it funny how things go round and round? It’s probably human nature to keep repeating history, but it sometimesContinue Reading
It’s weird how things coincide. There I was today, picking out some CDs I wanted to listen to again fromContinue Reading
First things first: This novel is co-authored by Lee Child and Andrew Child. And in case you look at theirContinue Reading
David Sedaris has amused and entertained his readers with his road shows and the collections of his essays, Squirrel SeeksContinue Reading
In my previous post I gave myself a stern warning to not have preconceived notions about new books from authorsContinue Reading
There is such a thing as an intended audience: when a writer produces a book outline for a publisher, itContinue Reading
Dame Hilary Mantel, author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, used to be a book reviewer. I did not know that,Continue Reading
On YouTube, the ultimate destination for everyone who has an opinion they want to share, there are many rants andContinue Reading
I have been feeling very down lately, quite discouraged, because I am in the process of being retrained. I cannotContinue Reading
I was gratified to notice that I have not completely fallen off the planet in terms of my awareness ofContinue Reading
She Who Became the Sun is a novel which, for the most part, reads like Historical Fiction, and as itContinue Reading
I am late to contribute to the raft of praise for L.E. Modesitt’s latest Fantasy book series, The Grand Illusion.Continue Reading
A particular speech by “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, often runs through my mind, and usually, I am singing the words.Continue Reading
PSY released his album PSY 9th on April 29, 2022, and I got the album immediately, because I like PSY.Continue Reading
After last week’s post, when I wrote about my reassessment of Neil Gaiman’s writing, I thought, oh dear, what ifContinue Reading
On April 28, 2022, Neil Gaiman started doing again what all writers do when they make a living as aContinue Reading
Seven Circumstances investigates In my previous post about The Tale of Genji and The Tale of Murasaki, I mentioned thatContinue Reading
The tulips came up a treat this month, and our little garden is looking quite festive. Posting on Facebook, myContinue Reading
Amor Towles wrote the excellent novel, A Gentleman in Moscow (2019), which I thoroughly enjoyed. It received a lot ofContinue Reading
If you want to really discover literature, you should read about subjects that you don’t know or don’t like. It’sContinue Reading
A multilingual perspective Yesterday, someone asked me how my Spanish, Portuguese and French skills are, because those are the languagesContinue Reading
I recently completed a collection of compositions that share the theme of heat. It’s called Thermós, and, until today, IContinue Reading
Tension between Russia and Japan is increasing at the moment, because of the disputed nation status of the Kuril Islands,Continue Reading
People have grown used to being in each other’s company all the time during the past two years, what withContinue Reading
I’m intrigued by those things called Google Easter Eggs – which is the result you get if you type aContinue Reading
This weekend my new blog went live. It’s about my music, under the artist name I’ve picked, Cōdae. It isContinue Reading
Regarding my rant against the sellers of fake reviews: If I look at the online presences of artists, I noticeContinue Reading
The heading does not have a grammar mistake: I am referring to the businesses – also called farms – thatContinue Reading
This post concludes my review of the Fantasy novel, The Fall of Babel, by Josiah Bancroft, the last in theContinue Reading
Fans of Josiah Bancroft’s popular series, The Books of Babel, had to wait two long years for The Fall ofContinue Reading
Fans of Josiah Bancroft’s popular series, The Books of Babel, had to wait two long years for The Fall ofContinue Reading
The header image of this post is worded “un noo po-him”, or “ə ˈnuː ˈpoʊəm”, phonetically spelled: a new poem.Continue Reading
In the previous post, I wrote about how much I enjoy Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files. A recent Red HandContinue Reading
The Red Hand Files, musician Nick Cave’s responses to questions from his fans, readers and listeners, has passed the 180Continue Reading
I wondered what would happen if I added the random sentence, “But one day they found themselves on a possum woolContinue Reading
Musician Chilly Gonzales (born Jason Charles Beck) hates bananas. I’m not that fond of bananas myself. It’s that sticky, doughyContinue Reading
Looking at the stats on this blog for this year, our Annus Horribilis II, the previous horrible year being 2020,Continue Reading
Later was published on March 2, 2021, as a paperback Hard Case Crime edition from Titan Books, London, UK. ItContinue Reading
I got news this morning from one of my favourite television writers, Brent Butt – and I just had toContinue Reading
David Sedaris keeps a diary, for the same reasons, I suspect, as do other high-profile social commentators and journalists, likeContinue Reading
Over the years I have discovered that people, for many reasons, give their services or creative products away for free,Continue Reading
Poetry within Fiction: sometimes, for the sake of fully portraying a character, a writer may invent the poetry, stories orContinue Reading
Today was the first snowfall of the Winter, and we woke up to the brightness of snow blanketing everything outsideContinue Reading
Because I absolutely loved Lampedusa, by Steven Price, I had to go back to the novel which caused all theContinue Reading
It’s book awards season again, alas. I used to be one of those tail-wagging puppies that practically did zoomies whenContinue Reading
Updated discussion and reviews After many years of reading and reviewing novels by Chinese authors, that have been translated into English,Continue Reading
There’s a thing that really good authors do – and I don’t know what’s the word for it – theyContinue Reading
Andy Weir’s latest Sci-Fi novel is on the subject of the end of the world: the sun is cooling downContinue Reading
Here are my final thoughts about The Apollo Murders, by Chris Hadfield: would using Cyrillic in the text have beenContinue Reading
So, if you had to pick someone to write a Crime Thriller about astronauts and space missions in the lateContinue Reading
My guilty pleasure is reading bad writing and then making savage but unspoken criticisms of it. It’s easy to lambastContinue Reading
I thunk me a thought these past few days, which was this: people were telling huge fibs about poetry, judgingContinue Reading
Wolf Hall is 672 pages long. It is 672 pages in which every single line and every single word haveContinue Reading
This post concludes with my findings on what to do about my WordPress blogs, considering all the changes in technology.Continue Reading
Humour and comedy, these days, are minefields – full of potential explosions of public vitriol and outrage. One minute aContinue Reading
When you are waiting for someone to say something that you really, really want to hear, even the softest whisperContinue Reading
John Seabrook’s non-fiction writing is the manifestation of his public image. The websites I have found that are dedicated toContinue Reading
After my wee bit of silliness last week, here is my actual review of Once Upon a Time in HollywoodContinue Reading
On WordPress, that is. Here follow the confessions of a cynic. As of October, there will be a hiatus onContinue Reading
A review to suit a modern fairytale Once upon a time… Once upon a time, in a big, shiny cityContinue Reading
I am a fan of Nick Cave, and subscribe to his Red Hand Files communiques in which he answers questionsContinue Reading
As someone who has taken to making music using Logic Pro, John Seabrook’s book about song factories fascinated me. IContinue Reading
Anyone who is a musician will recognize the image on the cover of John Seabrook’s book: it is a quaverContinue Reading
Seven Circumstances investigates People in my family like to say “the people are revolting” whenever we see a riot orContinue Reading
One of the artists to whom Leila Marshy refers in her novel The Philistine, which I recently reviewed, is theContinue Reading
When I first had this novel in my hands, I looked at the decidedly odd cover design (thinking “What’s thisContinue Reading
Uncomfortable truths aplenty come to mind when you read and absorb J.M. Coetzee’s famous dystopian narrative, Waiting for the Barbarians.Continue Reading
On the subscription film channel, MUBI, there’s a documentary about the writer Charles Bukowski (1920 – 1994), who wrote acerbic,Continue Reading
The catch in Klara and the Sun, the latest, highly-anticipated novel by acclaimed British author Kazuo Ishiguro, is that theContinue Reading
While looking at First Person Singular, by acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami, I asked myself three questions in order toContinue Reading
I was baking and heard the birds through the open window, and thought, these things mean it’s Spring. SIGNS TheContinue Reading
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be Jenny Lawson, the witty author and “Bloggess“, this book will explainContinue Reading
SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES