After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn’t care no more about him, because I
I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to author Paul Elwork whose debut novel The Girl Who Would Speak For the Dead (Amy Einhorn Books/Penguin Group) was released in March. The title and cover are good and gothic and more than enough to pull you in – but it’s the story that keeps you
Jane (Mia Wasikowska) and Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender) I am, quite frankly, aghast that the movie Jane Eyre is only on limited release – 300 theatres nationwide, or something ridiculous like that. I never was much a fan of Jane Austen. I read her entire library in middle school, because that’s what you do when
Macaroni and Cheese and Richard Ayoade. The only things in the world that consistently help me beat the blues. The Euro’s all very blasé about the former, but the latter he loves – especially since the trailers for Submarine, Ayoade’s directorial feature debut, started surfacing. It’s all very Jean-Luc Godard and, you know, it’s Moss,
.99 each at the Goodwill After sleeping vertically for most of the week, I managed to get all horizontal last night. And this morning. And this afternoon. I’ve kipped more in the past 24 hours than I have in the past 2 weeks. Now I’m all Greenwich Mean and groggy and trying to finish the
There used to be a massive Borders bookstore just outside of Manchester. The Euro and I would spend rainy Saturdays there drinking coffee and reading American Magazines. It’s sunnier here (72degrees on Friday!) and more difficult to justify a day indoors but we manage to do it now and then. A few weeks ago we
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is Fear of the Unknown. – H.P. Lovecraft H.P. Lovecraft was the forefather of modern horror fiction. His guiding literary principle was what he termed “cosmic horror”, the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that
I love the writings of Marcus Aurelius. Even my mother, not a fan of stoicism, calls him heavy. I own four copies of his meditations and can’t really justify buying another. But I’m tempted because The Puffin is doing beautiful things with paperbacks these days.
Try to learn to breathe deeply; really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. – William Saroyan, Advice to a Young Writer On Christmas Eve I received a parcel
The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become. – Mark Twain There’s a photo of me unwrapping Christmas presents, hands to head, squealing in excitement. I remember being tickled to death at my gifts but if The Euro had not caught it on camera I would have sworn he exaggerated. In addition to
Elizabeth Edwards had been abandoned at a venue by her handlers and needed an escort. One of the event organizers caught me rummaging through the craft service, otherwise idle, and asked if I would be so kind – I certainly would. Edwards didn’t look sixty. Or sick. And more than anything, I remember being taken
(The recorded voice of Virginia Woolf) “Only after a writer is dead…” If you enter the John Ritblat Gallery in the British Library from the upper level and turn left to the first list of recordings, you can listen on headphones to a short extract from Virginia Woolf’s only recording. Part of a BBC radio
