It is tempting to think of a whimsically-inclined title such as The Unlikely Heroics of Sam Holloway as a jaunty, appealingly-idiosyncratic journey through the highs and lows of life with a young Englishman whose unorthodox approach to life and decidedly non-mainstream experiences lead to a glowingly-happy end at which Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
Lauren Graham is one of my favourite people in the world. I say this quite confidently though I have never met her nor conversed with her at length on social media – nothing says I know you well than an almighty long Twitter thread these days right? – it’s Continue Reading
Book review: The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
Human beings are an innately communal species. It’s one of the things that define us – our need to not simply be in close proximity to our fellow women and men but to know them, laugh with them, drink and eat with them, and above all, profoundly connect with Continue Reading
Christmas in July #1: Book review of Twelve Nights by Andrew Zurcher
There is something deliciously wonderful about subsuming yourself in any book that takes places at Christmas, even if like Andrew Zurcher’s debut novel, Twelve Nights, it is more situational than thematic. There might be little that is innately festive in Zurcher’s lustrously-novel but that is in fact it’s greatest Continue Reading
Book review: The Book Ninja by Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus
I believe it was those pop sages ABBA who once intoned in one of their marvellously-attractive songs that “Love isn’t Easy (But It Sure is Hard Enough)”. A perfect mix of early ’70s folk-pop, Swedish harmonies and life truisms doesn’t feature anywhere in The Book Ninja by Ali Berg Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: Reading books made quick and easy with abridged illustrations
I love reading books. Losing myself in books, long and short, big and small, has been a passion of time since I can remember but even I have to admit it’s well near impossible to read everything (not that I don’t give it a red hot go!). Riding to Continue Reading
Book review: The Lonely Hearts Cinema Club by David M. Barnett
Jenny Ebert is not even remotely comfortable in her own skin. That much is apparent from the get-go in The Lonely Hearts Cinema Club, the latest book from David M. Barnett (Calling Major Tom) in which the film nerd who won’t accept she’s a film nerd – she loves Continue Reading
Book review: LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff
When the cover of a book proclaims it’s Romeo & Juliet meets Mad Max meets X-Men with a little bit of Blade Runner cheering from the headlines” it’s either got a healthy sense of what makes it work so well or its hopelessly derivative and is hoping that bringing Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: People, books and the seamless matching of the two
The Librairie Mollat is an independent bookstore in Bordeaux, France that has had a great deal of fun, so notes Laughing Squid, matching customers and books together in fantastically creative ways. So seamless and imaginative are their efforts that it looks as if book and customer belong perfectly together, Continue Reading
Book review: The Hoarder by Jess Kidd
One of the first things that strikes you within a few words of diving into the wonders of The Hoarder is how exquisitely well Jess Kidd writes. She is that rare talent who can spin the most lusciously poetic of phrases and yet never once lose the kind of Continue Reading