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I read an entire book about Irish tweed and I think I liked it

Irish Tweed: History, Tradition, Fashion by Vawn Corrigan

September 25, 2020 by tillie 3 Comments

As a kid I despised history. To me, it was just which war happened what year, and which person invaded that country another year. Honestly the western focus on war and conquering is deeply problematic and ruins so many people’s interest in the past. But the past is so important – it shapes who we are today. The best way to learn about history, I find, is through culture. Go to any exhibition on fashion through time and most of it deals with fashion as […]

A country without a language is a country without a soul

The Speckled People: A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood by Hugo Hamilton

September 21, 2020 by tillie Leave a Comment

The speckled people is a memoir of a childhood in Ireland in the 1950’s, growing up between languages. Hugo’s mother is a german emigrant and his father is an Irish nationalist determined that his children will revive the Irish language. Hugo himself is just a boy who wants to fit in with the other kids – who all speak English. The book is written in a soft language, floating in and out of the memories of a young boy. His father is a brutal tyrant […]

If you’re patient it’s not a bad read.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

January 26, 2020 by tillie 2 Comments

Dracula as a phenomenon has pretty much taken on a life of its own to the point where I thought I knew all about it.I mean, Dracula is Dracula right?! Turns out I don’t! Dracula isn’t at all what I expected. It is told through a collection of diary entries, letters, notes and telegrams following various people through the novel. The story opens with Jonathan Harker traveling from London to the estate of Dracula in Transylvania. It’s all very spooky and mysterious, Dracula doesn’t eat, […]

Come on James just tell me what to listen to so I’ll be cool.

Perfect Sound Whatever by James Acaster

September 2, 2019 by tillie Leave a Comment

I promised myself I wasn’t going to read this book in one sitting, but, like everything else James Acaster related, I gobbled it up as soon as I got my grubby little hands on it. Perfect Sound Whatever is Acaster’s defense of 2016 as the best year for music OF ALL TIME. Also, he was having a slight breakdown at the time. Totally unrelated. Let me be very clear: the only reason I bought this book was because of my un-ending adoration of James Acaster. […]

The past is a black hole, cut into the present day like a wound, and if you come too close, you can get sucked in.

Severance by Ling Ma

August 10, 2019 by tillie Leave a Comment

Severance is a beautiful book with a lovely pink cover and a mysterious title. It opens and unfolds slowly as you read and then it just stops. It jumps backwards and forwards in time in a slow, meandering pace that feels like it ultimately amounts to nothing. We begin by meeting Candace in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the population has succumbed to Shen fever. Candace has joined a small band of survivors, but she spends most of her time reminiscing about the time […]

“If there is one man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is a coal-miner”

The road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

July 20, 2019 by tillie Leave a Comment

George Orwell is not a great writer, but he is an admirable journalist. He does not shy away from difficulty or experiencing hardship on his own body. I admire him a lot for this trait of character. In The road to Wigan Pier he was commissioned by “the left bookclub” to write about the experience of miners in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Orwell has never been anything but clearly socialist and this is a book about socialism and an attempt to argue for its benefits for […]

esmemoria on What Else Would You Look With?I wonder if the audio brings out the best in the novel. The last part of the book was pretty great, but I had so...
narfna on What Else Would You Look With?Sad you didn't really like this one. I absolutely loved it. Not sure when I will be able to wrap my head around reviewing it....
narfna on And now, jump back hundreds and hundreds of years…#BlameMalin on this one for me, too, because she literally sent me a copy.
narfna on “And that very same evening—that very same evening—Lord Edgware dies. Good title that, by the way. Lord Edgware Dies. Look well on a book stall.”That's gotta be the new headcanon.
drmllz on “And that very same evening—that very same evening—Lord Edgware dies. Good title that, by the way. Lord Edgware Dies. Look well on a book stall.”I like to think the wife packs Hastings off to England to hang out with Poirot and enjoys having a whole ranch to herself...

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