Adrian Mole is a character that accompanied the British public for thirty years. First introduced in The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ published in 1982, Adrian grew and developed throughout the subsequent decades, while also becoming the chronicler of the societal changes happening in the United Kingdom. I remember I read the …
Continue reading Adrian Mole. The Cappuccino Years – Sue Townsend
It wasn’t really about the engineering of the space, the real battle was about the culture — about changing the hearts and minds of New Yorkers, of changing their minds about who their streets were for. If building roads actually resulted in less traffic, then surely after sixty years of interstate highway construction we would …
It was probably last year when I got from my mum a set of four books about modern approaches to urban design. I read them slowly because the subject matter is a serious one. It touches us every day. Since most of us live in cities, the design mistakes haunt us, making our life difficult …
Continue reading Streetfight. Handbook for an Urban Revolution – Janette Sadik-Khan, Seth Solomonow
Wow, what a year it has been. Like no other. I know it’s meant to be the Q4 summary, but as it happens I will also take this opportunity to summarize the year. We've been in multiple lockdowns, we lost loved ones. But we also learned a lot about ourselves. The enforced slowing down has …
My chaotic relationship with Inspector Rebus continues. This is also the last of my October Cyprus vacation crime-reading spree. The others were: The Winner by David Baldacci, Camino Island by John Grisham, Run Away by Harlan Coben, Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré (who sadly recently passed away), The Whistler by John Grisham and In The Woods by Tana French. October …
A few days ago I published My Fiction Books of 2020, so now for New Year’s Eve let’s see what came out of the non-fiction shelf. I noticed the older I get the more non-fiction I read, and generally, I enjoy it a lot. It challenges me more than fiction. Which makes sense as it …
Merry Christmas!!! I hope you are having a wonderful time with your loved ones, even if due to circumstances known, it has to be done remotely. Weird year as it was it is finally time to sum things up and see the back of it! When the pandemic hit Europe I fell into a complete …
Rain is an agony here. In other parts of the world, a downpour will in all likelihood come as a boon for nearly everyone and everything – good for the crops, good for the fauna and the flora, and with an extra splash of romanticism, good for lovers. Not so in Istanbul though. Rain, for …
Continue reading The Bastard of Istanbul – Elif Shafak – Quotes
I may spend the next few paragraphs regretting not knowing Elif Shafak’s prose earlier. But I won’t. Instead, I will be grateful for the spur of the moment decision back in August to sign up for three book subscription boxes. I got The Bastard of Istanbul from Books That Matter. This kind of gems was …
Saturday was no breeze for Megan, either. She woke up and immediately felt embarrassed. That nasty, awful, hollow endless embarrassment that was becoming her life. Randy was still asleep. She lay there, wishing she could be unconscious again. If she got up and out of bed, what would there be to do? "Yeah, I guess …
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