I hate the fact that my reading The Beekeper from Aleppo has been timed this way and I hate that by accident I picked a photo that is yellow-bluish. Most of all I hate what is going on in Ukraine, my whole life I have been hoping I will be able to avoid seeing war …
The Shark is Broken – Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, dir. Guy Masterson
A retelling of the famous feud on the set of Jaws. Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss we not the best of friends, as the story goes supposedly the tensions were flying high, but it also improved their acting. For us, the result is a surprisingly great movie and an entertaining play about their relationship and …
Continue reading The Shark is Broken – Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, dir. Guy Masterson
The Beekeeper of Aleppo – Christy Lefteri
We tend to forget that the war in Syria is still going on, our attention drawn by the newer crises or those closer to home. This is a reminder that this conflict has never been resolved and that the world simply abandoned Syrians to fend for themselves. A story of a couple that did exactly …
A Long Way Off/ Daleko, dalej – Pascal Garnier
A noir with a twist. This short novel by Pascal Garnier takes us on a mad trip to Agen (very invitingly called the capital of prune). We travel with Marc, in his sixties, and his daughter Anne in her thirties. It is weird, painful, dark, but also funny in a menacing and sinister way. Marc’s …
Continue reading A Long Way Off/ Daleko, dalej – Pascal Garnier
Charles Dickens Museum – 12 Museums for 2022
Museums that previously were homes are weird places. They may work out splendidly, like Sir John Soane’s Museum, or they may fall a bit flat. Unfortunately, for me, the latter was the case with Charles Dickens Museum. I must admit the bar was set high as I did visit it on the same day as …
Continue reading Charles Dickens Museum – 12 Museums for 2022
The Dud Avocado – Elaine Dundy – Quotes
I don't suppose there is anything on earth to compare with a French student cafe in the late morning. You couldn't possibly reproduce the same numbers, noise, and intensity anywhere else without producing a riot as well. This time he really took in my outfit and then that Look that I'm always encountering; that special …
The Dud Avocado – Elaine Dundy
Sally Jay Gorce is a true personality. As we join her in Paris where she is hellbent on living her life to the full, there isn’t a boring second. Sally’s mix of tenacity and carelessness gets her in endless trouble. But she doesn’t let herself be broken, she gets up, deals with yet another hangover, …
London Transport Museum – 12 Museums for 2022
Certainly, a new experience for me, as I’ve never visited before. Having thoroughly enjoyed the National Railway Museum in York a few years ago I thought I may enjoy this as well. And I wasn’t wrong! It is so much fun, especially for someone who lives in London, as it all becomes personal. All the …
Continue reading London Transport Museum – 12 Museums for 2022
Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead – Quotes
I don't regret anything, but I will if I let myself. I thought I would believe I'd seen the world, but there is too much of the world and too little of life. I thought I would believe I'd completed something, but now I doubt anything can be completed. I thought I would not be …
Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
At almost 600 pages I would call this book sprawling, but Maggie Shipstead jokingly calls it ‘slender wisp of a thing’. Understandable when you know the original manuscript was over 1000 pages. Irrespective of its size it is a riveting story of the life of Marian Graves, a fictional pilot, and her attempt to fly …