Picture this; outside its cold and snowy, your notifications are turned off, the chaos of daily life is on pause, and your favourite chair is beckoning you with a plush and warm blanket. What better way to settle into the moment than with a good book and a cocktail. This holiday season let me lure you to your happy place with lovingly curated pairings of reading recommendations and cocktail recipes.
Read MoreContent Warning: the books gathered here are full of foodie delights, reading these books may cause hunger pangs that can lead to loud, possibly embarrassing growling to emerge from your stomach, as well as likely salivation that results in drooling. Proceed with no caution whatsoever…
Read MoreIt’s hard for me to find a rapt, or is it trapped, audience to whom I can extol the passion I have for books. Music however, what kind of monstrous being doesn’t like music? So books that have a musical backdrop? This could be my in people…unsuspecting music devotees are soon to be lured in by my book loving ways.
Read MoreWhile it can’t be denied the paper that pulp fiction stories were printed on was dingy and cheap, hence the term, the covers were a sight to behold. Bright and lurid portraits of pretty people in various stages of torment with a shadow of evil lurking on the edges screamed escapist fiction and attracted readers enmass, despite the unquestionable ridiculousness of the plots. Join me on this trashy joyride!!
Read MoreEven before the credits roll on a book adaptation to film or television, without question the persistent refrain amongst booklovers will be, “the book was better”. So my advice to Hollywood? Get. It. Right. Read on…
Read MoreIf you delve deeply enough into the books we choose to read, more often than not you will reveal a connection to something recognizable. That in fact they capture contemporary narratives from the bones of centuries of storytelling. Mythologies, legends, classics and fairytales have all been plundered for plot in myriad of ways and a upon myriad of occasions that proves incalculable.
Read MoreWhile you await your turn at the vaccination station, possibly whiling away the hours of a lockdown trying to keep the relentless tedeem at bay, why not occupy your mind with a puzzle of the literary kind!
Read MoreAs we collectively navigate through various stages of lockdown during what was, and is still, an unprecedented year, let books be the gift you choose to give. To others, and to yourself. Prepare to be gutted, to be intrigued, to be captivated, to be charmed, to be haunted; to have your mind blown, your breath stolen, your heart wrenched, your awe inspired, your thoughts provoked …
Read MoreAs we collectively navigate through various stages of lockdown during what was, and is still, an unprecedented year, let books be the gift you choose to give. To others, and to yourself. Prepare to be gutted, to be intrigued, to be captivated, to be charmed, to be haunted; to have your mind blown, your breath stolen, your heart wrenched, your awe inspired, your thoughts provoked …
Read MoreThere we were, at the precipice of a New Millennium, posed to truly comprehend what the digital age could mean. We could wipe the sweat from our brows after surviving the stroke of midnight as it hurled us into Y2K and concentrate on building our social media personalities. What was happening in the book world you ask? Ambitious subjects were tackled and creative mythos built, encouraging a new level of acceptance to a more elastic definition of the truth in our reading.
Read MoreThis period of history saw the fade of the hippie and the rise of the yuppie. Baby boomers with a college education, a well-paying job and expensive tastes. While we may have suffered from some cultural bereavement with the endless boy bands and bad fashion that popped up like a nightmarish game of whack a mole, history was made both in the stories within the books written and by those that wrote them.
Read MoreBooks of this period showed us embracing our better selves, fighting tirelessly not only for our own rights, but the rights of others. And popular fiction, the literary equivalent of the best sort of guilty pleasure, finally gets it’s due! If we weren’t shy about having sex, taking drugs or listening to the devil’s music, why shy away from books about those things, no matter how risqué others thought them to be.
Read MoreAs you would expect, at the outset of these decades stories of triumph over tragedy reigned supreme. A dominant trend in book publishing focused on wartime experiences and symbolized the fight for freedom. This period of the 20th century was overflowing with sorrow, patriotism and ultimately, hope for the dawn of a new era. As we emerged from the war it was said that the world “stood at the summit of change for the better”.
Read More“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then I turn the monsters loose.”
No better quote could sum up each encounter with a Stephen King book than this, penned by the master himself. He is the saviour of latchkey kids far and wide and his wicked imagination has no bounds. Join me for a glimpse into each of his books. If you dare…
Read MoreAs you might imagine, books set in the 1920’s and 1930’s provided a pivotal and fruitful period in literature, with these decades being bookended by two World Wars. They encapsulated a time when people allowed themselves to indulge in the allure of glamour and frivolity even as they began to grasp the fleeting nature of good fortune. Tag along as I guide you through a wonderful collection of reads set in these times.
Read MoreSome true-life narratives have the power to restore while others may destroy. The best of them will do both. They will transcend the memoirists own story to resonate with ours. They will tell the truths of the author and the reader; pulling forward something suppressed, giving voice to something unspoken.
Read MoreIf you tell me something, anything really, I’m likely going to do the math on it. And if it doesn’t have an obvious correlation to the world of mathematics, trust me when I tell you I will find a way to get it there. And I will enjoy every minute of it. Math can be either simple or intricate, the same can be said of stories. My deep love for both is no surprise then is it?
Read MoreI may not have been blessed with luxurious locks, the luminous complexion of an angel, a killer rack or a butt you could bounce a quarter off of, but I’m smart. And funny. And I have a fairly good way with words and an exemplary skill at excavating the well-formed writings of others.
Read MoreThe books gathered here have caused me to laugh out loud in public places, stop pedestrian traffic as I bent over to catch my breath, grin like a lunatic auditioning for a DC Comics film role, snort in very unladylike ways, and maybe pee a little.
Read MoreI have begun to notice an inclination amongst my friends to allow their eyes to glaze over when I talk about books. So, I’ve decided to give up on indoctrinating them in the art of being a booklover for life and go after their children instead. Three down…eight to go! I made every attempt tp colour inside the lines with these book picks no matter how much it pained me. And trust me when I tell you, it pained me greatly!
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