Literature Discussions and Book Reviews
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 Thérmos, 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
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
Updated discussion and reviews After many years of reading and reviewing novels by Chinese authors, that have been translated into English,Continue 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
Trying to make sense of the new collection of stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, I asked the question: WhatContinue Reading
Acclaimed Fantasy author Neil Gaiman teaches in his Masterclass course on The Art of Storytelling, that a writer and aContinue Reading
As my reward for having gotten through 2020 without any major ructions, while at the same time staying productive, IContinue Reading
The plot, settings and characters of Star trek Picard – The Last Best Hope, were predetermined, and only needed toContinue Reading
The latest novel by Isabel Allende is a family saga that depicts the modern history of Chile as well asContinue Reading
Fredrik Backman’s latest novel, Anxious People, published in Sept. 2020, is well-timed, written for people who feel anxious in theseContinue Reading
My discovery of the Google Doodle which celebrated the music of Johann Sebastian Bach started me on the road toContinue Reading
Pondering creativity When you have read and reviewed many books, as I have done, you eventually realize that even theContinue Reading
Here’s a new poem I’ve written, called “Rooted”. I saw these tangled, blood-red tree roots while we were out onContinue Reading
In the previous three posts, I looked deeper into the third and last part of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall Trilogy.Continue Reading
In this post I continue to analyze the long and deeply nuanced historical novel, The Mirror and the Light. Previously,Continue Reading
Blogging about books and literature is something that I’ve been doing for more than a decade and may perhaps continueContinue Reading
This is a post in which I continue to analyze the impressively long and deeply nuanced historical novel, The MirrorContinue Reading
Larry McMurtry has died. He passed away on March 25, 2021, in Archer City, Texas,US, at the age of 84Continue Reading
Review In the previous post, I showed my appreciation for the third and last part in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf HallContinue Reading
Having read every single page in the 883-page long historical novel The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel, IContinue Reading
Continuing with the theme of biographies and literary biographies of megalomaniac monarchs and leaders of nations, here is the fourthContinue Reading
The Last Empress, by Anchee Min, is the second in a set of two novels about the Chinese Qing DynastyContinue Reading
In this post, I continue looking at a select few biographies about mad, bad and dangerous monarchs and masters ofContinue Reading
In the last years of the 19th century and the first 20 or so years of the 20th century, AsiaContinue Reading
I was thinking about a comment that Fran, one of the bloggers whom I follow, made the other day aboutContinue Reading
An elegantly worded, thoughtful and compelling novel about travellers in outer space who face a worse choice than life-or-death. ReviewContinue Reading
Nick Cave has become a writer of note in addition to being a celebrated musician, lyricist and composer. His blog,Continue Reading
Here is the sad tale of a quite discombobulated radio interview. In the post before this one I discussed theContinue Reading
The use of videotelephony software, such as Zoom, Facebook Live, Skype or Teams, for video and audio streaming of whatContinue Reading
A few months ago, I wrote a piece about three novels that have as their subjects the former President ofContinue Reading
I know from personal experience how tiresome and aggravating it is to pick up mistakes in something you’ve made afterContinue Reading
Seven Circumstances grew some more this year – the 10th year of its existence. Yes, it’s been ten years sinceContinue Reading
Here’s a less than 2-minute review of Jon Gliddon’s latest novel, The Forbidden Zone. It was easy to add graphicsContinue Reading
L.E. Modesitt Jr. is world-famous and has written a formidable list of Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, so long thatContinue Reading
For the first time in a very long while, I could feel tears coming to my eyes while I wasContinue Reading
Ray Bradbury is regarded as the most famous and most celebrated writer of Science Fiction in the world. On JuneContinue Reading
Radio interview with Jon Gliddon about The Forbidden Zone Becca · Jon Gliddon Interview Review There’s a reason whyContinue Reading
If you look up Paraguay on a map, like I had to, you will see that it is a countryContinue Reading
Sometimes a new book comes out of which the plot or theme feels unimportant or irrelevant. But sometimes global eventsContinue Reading
The Welcome to Night Vale (WTNV) phenomenon is now so well known that the listeners to the podcast are actuallyContinue Reading
Way back in 1967 John Cleese and Marty Feldman produced a hilarious sketch called The Bookshop. (It was not subtitledContinue Reading
What is Stephen King known for? Horror Fiction. Suspenseful mysteries. I bought If It Bleeds in the hope that IContinue Reading
This small book, with the tremendously long title printed in gold letters on the cover, is classified as a LiteraryContinue Reading
One of the books I’m reading now is William Shakespeare’s Get Thee…Back to the Future, by Ian Doescher, which isContinue Reading
Here’s news from one of the writers I admire – Jenny Lawson, who made me laugh long and loud atContinue Reading
What are my favourite authors doing next? My favourite authors have new works in the works, pardon the pun, soContinue Reading
*Made-up word!! Blogger, book lover, writer and member of the Rebusfontein writing collective, “Tannie Frannie”, meaning Auntie Frannie, posted thisContinue Reading
It’s the end of the first half of the year, and so far my reading time has been reduced byContinue Reading
All the Aging Groovies like me out there would know the name Pete Townshend, the Pete Townshend – a.k.a. Peter DennisContinue Reading
Do you where Lampedusa is? Or what it is? Steven Price’s historical novel, Lampedusa, is not actually about the islandContinue Reading
If you enjoy poetry as well as Science Fiction, you will appreciate Dead Astronauts. The novel has elements of both.Continue Reading
In this post I continue looking into the subject of factual accuracy in Fiction, and specifically Realistic Fiction and theContinue Reading
In this post I continue looking into the subject of factual accuracy in Fiction, and specifically Realistic Fiction and theContinue Reading
This month’s site header (below) is of a painting called The Tooth Extractor, by Dutch artist Theodoor Rombouts (1597–1637), in theContinue Reading
In my review of Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon, I wrote that season 1 of the TV version of the bookContinue Reading
Writers could encounter two problems specific to their profession: One is finding the right line or the right word, andContinue Reading
The concept on which Altered Carbon is based is ingenious – it was futuristic and fantastical when Richard Morgan wrote theContinue Reading
To alleviate the “morbs” that might have descended on you from reading those books with pandemic and epidemics as themes,Continue Reading
Staying at home and feeling trapped or bored? Not in the mood for your usual type of book? Have aContinue Reading
Frankissstein (with 3 s’es) is a collection of interwoven love stories that takes place from the mid 1800s to theContinue Reading
Sad news – Albert Uderzo has died. He passed away on 24 March 2020 at the age of 92 at hisContinue Reading
Poor Elton John had to leave the stage during his show in New Zealand this week because he has walkingContinue Reading
Reading the screenplay of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs by Joel and Ethan Coen led me to the real artistContinue Reading
One of the enjoyable aspects of reading, is that in the process of sniffing out a particular book or authorContinue Reading
A website like this can be difficult to negotiate because of its size – currently there are more than 3,000Continue Reading
We’re going backwards. Back to print. First there was print. Then came the Internet, and there was JavaScript. And pdfs.Continue Reading
My journey through books this year It has been a very pleasant year in books for me. The activities onContinue Reading
The Strange Bird is a little gem of a novel. Every carefully chosen word is just right. Each image isContinue Reading
Which Sci-Fi devotee is not looking forward to the debut of Star Trek: Picard? (Roll on, January 23, 2020!) IContinue Reading
A big name in the world of literature, Clive James, died on November 24, 2019, in Cambridge, UK. He wasContinue Reading
After having enjoyed Patrick deWitt’s Undermajordomo Minor (2015) his most recent novel, French Exit, was a must-read. A “French exit” isContinue Reading
I have often pointed out in these posts, that I favour brevity and carefully chosen words over flowery writing. ItContinue Reading
This post from Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files is too good not to share. From: Nick Cave Date: October 22,Continue Reading
I saw the cartoon, “Things Book Lovers Do”, on Facebook, reposted by a UK company called forReadingAddicts, and for onceContinue Reading
A recent comment from an author on one of my book reviews got me thinking. I was pleased at theContinue Reading
The Booker Award was announced on October 14, 2019, and for the first time they had two winners: The Testaments, by MargaretContinue Reading
Some books have exotic contexts – there is a story about the story, and it helps the promotion of theContinue Reading
LIU Cixin, or Cixin Liu as he is known in English, is the author of the famous Science Fiction trilogyContinue Reading
On the subject of fictional worlds: I’d like to introduce you to “Rebusfontein”. Rebusfontein (pronounced rhéá-booz-fonteyn) is an Afrikaans name meaningContinue Reading
“Anonymous”, also known as “Hendrik Groen” (a pseudonym) is famous for his creation of a gang of crotchety old folksContinue Reading
In the last of this series of posts on Fictional Fiction, I look into those famous authors whose invented booksContinue Reading
When I read Denis Coupal’s thriller Blindshot, my overall impression of it was of competence – he had done allContinue Reading
On August 18, 2019, at Worldcon 77 in Dublin, Mary Robinette Kowal was awarded the Hugo Award for the BestContinue Reading
In this series of posts, I’m looking into some examples of “fictional fiction”. I’ve already spoiled the fun about books in Dr.Continue Reading
Books associated with characters in a book or a film sometimes look real and are actual published books. But sometimesContinue Reading
SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES