Monthly Archives: November 2015

Love and loss and making decisions – Zelle Andrews’ Paisley Memories is the epitome of the noble genre we know as  bildungsroman…. When we meet Tess Cooper, she is a young woman in trouble. Her father has just died, and … Continue reading →

James Street’s The High Calling is the rare sort of sequel that continues a story without giving in to the typical reader’s desire for neatly tied up plot lines. As I have written on a couple of occasions now, work … Continue reading →

In which we learn that Buddha and Jesus met the same sorts of people… Each morning my wife Lea and I read together, a delightful habit which we have been practicing for a number of years. Our readings consist of … Continue reading →

A little over two hundred years ago a college student named P.B. Shelley got himself expelled from Oxford. Now, at last, we know exactly why. The Bodleian Library at Oxford has made available a recently discovered copy of Percy Bysshe … Continue reading →

If Blake is right and “without contraries is no progression,” I should make a real breakthrough soon. Or something… Another week, another book not finished. This one , though, I am close to breaking one of strongest rules and simply … Continue reading →

Herk Harvey’s cult classic Carnival of Souls is full of creepy, atmospheric goodness – just right for a Halloween movie fest…. Given that it’s Halloween, time to take note of a cult classic that in its atmospheric creepiness ranks as … Continue reading →