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LADY MIDNIGHT
It's summertime so my head turns to YA fiction to get away from the pressure of "grown up" books - that's an insult to some of the YA fiction that outstrips the so-called mainstream novels by a country mile and especially when it comes to addressing social issues and generating a useful conversation, but in my case it simply means…
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THE BIG BOOK CHALLENGE – UPDATE
Okay so I’ve wracked my brain to come up with a list of books for the Big Book Challenge (see my earlier post for details). Given the fact I have two years to complete the challenge I’m sure some of these will fall by the wayside, but a good start is half the journey as they say. So here they are…
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BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS
I've been one of King's 'constant readers' ever since I came across a second-hand copy of his first short fiction collection Night Shift in the 70s. As with most writers with a canon of work as vast as his (and there aren't that many), he has sagged a bit from time-to-time but in my opinion his short fiction collections never let you…
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THE BIG BOOK CHALLENGE
I’ve never been someone who rose to the bait of a challenge but when paparali.com challenged me to read (and review) 20 books over the next 24 months I couldn’t refuse. Having worked most of my adult life in adult education and principally adult literacy, I feel this is a challenge worth accepting. The list of book types in the…
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FRANCE 2013: BEDENAC
At the end of news broadcasts there’s usually a lighter item preceded with the words “and finally..” and I suppose this is it for our holiday in France 2013 (although we still have the 8 hour drive to Roscoff tomorrow and the sailing). We rented a gite in Bedénac in Charente owned by Sue and Paul Wright in 2011 and…