Author Archives: lifelonglearner
Close-up or long view? The Commissario Brunetti Novels Donna Leon
What to re-read after The Darkest Evening? I chose Donna Leon’s books about Commissario Brunetti, a Venetian police inspector, doing his best to circumvent his politically ambitious boss so that he can do his job properly. Continue reading
The persistence of images The Darkest Evening Ann Cleeves
It seems images make stronger impressions on our brains than sounds or print. So when I read The Darkest Evening, Brenda Blethyn stalked across the Northumbrian moors, and waded through the snow. Continue reading
Is there a good reason to (re-)read this book? Peter Abelard by Helen Waddell
At the time I first read Peter Abelard I had not heard of the story of Abelard and Heloise, and knew almost nothing of their world. I think Helen Waddell would have expected her readers to know more than I did then. So, although it may be a plot spoiler, I am going to tell some of what is known of the history of Peter Abelard and Heloise of Argenteuil. Continue reading
What will I find re-reading To Kill a Mocking-Bird immediately after reading A Thousand Moons?
After I’d spent a few days inside Winona’s head I wondered how To Kill a Mocking-Bird would stand up to a re-reading. The links and differences between A Thousand Moons and To Kill a Mocking-Bird jumped out at me as I wondered what to read to follow Sebastian Barry’s work. What did I find different in the experience of re-reading To Kill a Mocking-Bird, written in the 1950s by a woman from Alabama, and that of reading A Thousand Moons written in the 2020s by an Irishman? Continue reading
Reading a play like a novel. Hamlet (Shakespeare) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (Tom Stoppard)
Is it possible to read a playscript as one reads a novel? Does reading a play’s script improve the experience of watching it? And if it does, is it better to read a script before or after seeing the play? In Hamnet Maggie O’Farrell contends that Shakespeare gave his dead son fresh life in the character of Hamlet, as well as creating a memorial to Hamnet. Is this reasonable? On reading Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Continue reading
Is a writer’s world basically evil or fundamentally sound? Death at the Dolphin Ngaio Marsh
Some crime writers write as if evil is omnipresent and lurks below the most innocuous surface, everyone is capable of crime, and nearly everyone has a secret in their past that they would commit a crime to conceal. Others write as if they feel the world is fundamentally okay, people of goodwill are in the majority, crimes are unusual and happen as an outcome of unusual circumstances Continue reading
Why do I re-read a book? Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Discussion of reasons to re-read a book, and review of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
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Fresh thoughts in January – Butternut squash rissoles
Something to use up a small butternut squash? This one seemed to have been dropped or (of course) squashed. There’s a squished bit on the side. A veggie main or a carnivorous husband’s side dish. Slightly spicy so it … Continue reading
