Read: Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín ★★★★★ 📚
A re-read in prep for Long Island. This is a beautiful quiet read that lingers a long time. Really enjoyed reading it again.
Tag: ★★★★★
Read: Clear by Carys Davies ★★★★★ 📚
I loved this short tale, 1840, 3 characters, the split in the Kirk & the clearances.
There was a word in Ivar’s language for the moment before something happens; for the state of being on the brink of something.
Read: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray ★★★★★ 📚
A great read, multiple pov, full of surprises. Inside each character’s head indecision jerks chains. The stories shift between characters, each enough for a novel of its own. At first I felt some were left hanging, but it all weaves together.
Read : Prophet Song by Paul Lynch ★★★★★ 📚
The epigram –
“In the dark times will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times. Bertolt Brecht”
In the head of Eilish, mother of four, as she walks into hell, a small step at a time. Had me completely absorbed.
Read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver ★★★★★ 📚
David Copperfield about the opioid problem in Appalachia. I was sucked in by Demon’s voice. Glad I knew a happy ending for at least some characters was expected. I”ll wait a bit but rereading Dickens is on my list for 2024.
Read: Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein ★★★★★ 📚
Great read, drops you into 1940s Trinidad plantation barracks. Cramp, leaky & claustrophobic. History & the recent past twists Hans, Shweta & Krishna, good people, into knots. Entangling characters, setting & my attention.
Read: You Have a Friend in 10A: Stories by Maggie Shipstead ★★★★★ 📚
Loved these absorbing stories. Wide ranging settings & situations. Plenty of surprises. The only disappointment, an expected last story turned into acknowledgments & extract from The Great Circle.
Read: The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean ★★★★★ 📚
Flawless seventies recreation. Suburban, gothic, ghosts, teenage energy all with a depth of detail. No modern language, attitudes or slip up. Exciting too.
Read: The Secret History by Donna Tartt ★★★★★ 📚
A re-read. Still brilliant. A cast of over privileged young poseurs’ arrogance leads to murder and their panic to another. The consequences play out. All followed by the less wealthy narrator, who is dragged in and down by his fascination.
Read: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka ★★★★★ 📚
Great read. I know almost nothing about Sri Lanka. Surprisingly touching given the setting, the after life, a world of ghosts & demons many the result of political killings.