Michael Duffy profiles some great writers of the last few centuries in a series of interviews that never happened based on things the authors actually said!
21 April 2024
15 April 2024
11 April 2024
6 April 2024
23 March 2024
18 March 2024
13 March 2024
10 March 2024
24 February 2024
1 March 2024
23 February 2024
16 February 2024
6 February 2024
1 February 2024
29 January 2024
11 January 2024
17 January 2024
12 January 2024
Set in the early-twentieth century, Father Brown's world is quintessentially English; crime scenes await in country houses, rural parish churches and quaint gardens as well as foggy London streets and shadowy railway stations. Father Brown may be a kindly cleric, but his bumbling nature disguises a detective mind to rival Sherlock Holmes.
Father Brown makes for an improbable super-sleuth. But his innocence is the secret of his success. Refusing the scientific method of detection, he adopts instead an approach of simple sympathy, interpreting each crime as a work of art, and each criminal as a man no worse than himself.
Reading Progress
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories 1892-1895 collects stories which show Anton Chekhov beginning to confront complex, ambiguous and often extreme emotions in his short fiction. These stories from the middle period of Chekhov's career include - influenced by his own experiences as a doctor - 'Ward No. 6', a savage indictment of the medical profession set in a mental hospital; 'The Black Monk', portraying an academic who has strange hallucinations, explores ideas of genius and insanity; 'Murder', in which religious fervour leads to violence; while in 'The Student', Chekhov's favourite story, a young man recounts a tale from the gospels and undergoes a spiritual epiphany. In all the stories collected here, Chekhov's characters face madness, alienation and frustration before they experience brief, ephemeral moments of insight, often earned at great cost, where they confront the reality of their existence.
Reading Progress
Psychiatry registrar Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.
Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, as she and her fellow trainees deal with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has a life-threatening eating disorder; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.
Reading Progress
Graham and Joan Bendix have apparently succeeded in making that eighth wonder of the modern world, a happy marriage. And into the middle of it there drops, like a clap of thunder, a box of chocolates. Joan Bendix is killed by a poisoned box of liqueur chocolates that cannot have been intended for her to eat. The police investigation rapidly reaches a dead end. Chief Inspector Moresby calls on Roger Sheringham and his Crimes Circle - six amateur but intrepid detectives - to consider the case.
The evidence is laid before the Circle, and the members take it in turn to offer a solution. Each is more convincing than the last, slowly filling in the pieces of the puzzle until the dazzling conclusion.
Reading Progress
Van Diemen's Land, 1841. Mathinna, the adopted Aboriginal daughter of the island's governor, Sir John Franklin, and his wife, Lady Jane, sits for her portrait. She is the subject of a grand experiment in civilisation - one that will determine whether science and reason can be imposed in place of savagery and desire.
Years pass. Sir John Franklin disappears on an Arctic expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage. England is horrified as reports of cannibalism filter back from search parties, no one more so than the most celebrated novelist of the day, Charles Dickens, for whom Franklin's story becomes a means to plumb the frozen depths of his own soul.
Reading Progress
The Booker Prize winner for 2023 is Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.
‘From that first knock at the door, Prophet Song forces us out of our complacency as we follow the terrifying plight of a woman seeking to protect her family in an Ireland descending into totalitarianism. We felt unsettled from the start, submerged in – and haunted by – the sustained claustrophobia of Lynch’s powerfully constructed world. He flinches from nothing, depicting the reality of state violence and displacement and offering no easy consolations.’
The 2023 Shortlist for the Booker Prize also included:
- The Bee Sting, Paul Murray (Irish)
- Western Lane, Chetna Maroo (British/Indian)
- This Other Eden, Paul Harding (American)
- If I Survive You, Jonathan Escoffery (American)
- Study for Obedience, Sarah Bernstein (Canadian)
The International Booker Prize winner for 2023 is Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov. It is the first book originally written in Bulgarian to win the International Booker Prize.
‘Our winner, Time Shelter, is a brilliant novel, full of irony and melancholy. It is a profound work that deals with a very contemporary question: What happens to us when our memories disappear? Georgi Gospodinov succeeds marvellously in dealing with both individual and collective destinies and it is this complex balance between the intimate and the universal that convinced and touched us.’
The 2023 Shortlist for the International Booker Prize also included:
- Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind from Spanish
- Standing Heavy by GauZ', translated by Frank Wynne from French
- The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox from French
- Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim from Korean
- Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches from Catalan
View the list of all Booker Prize Winners and those we have so far reviewed by clicking here.
In the long term, we hope to review all the Booker Prize winners.
Progress
Long regarded as one of the pinnacles of Western literature, The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War in its final days, as Achilles, the supreme Grecian warrior, withdraws from the conflict over a disagreement with Agamemnon.
The ancient Greeks regarded this epic poem as a representation of real history, and in the 19th century the Homer enthusiast and amateur archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, excavated what is now believed to be the site of the ancient conflict.
For this special reading project I plan to eventually provide summaries of each of the twenty four books of The Iliad, notes on characters and the Greek Gods, a character map and a general discussion at the end.
Click here to visit the main page for this special reading project.
(Please Note: This is an ongoing project and not all pages are complete)
Progress
Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD. His reign oversaw a period of relative peace in the empire, and he was the last of what was considered five good emperors.
Marcus Aurelius was also a stoic whose notebooks, written for his own benefit, have become a key text to understand stoic philosophy.
For this special reading project I provide the complete text of Marcus Aurelius notebooks, known to modern readers as Meditations, taken from a public domain edition hosted on Project Gutenberg. I hope to provide historical context and notes about the text as I read.
Click here to visit the main page under construction for this special reading project.
(Please Note: This is a planned project which has not yet been commenced)
Progress
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels, predominantly from the 1920s and 1930s. Well known writers of the Golden Age include Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ronald Knox, Anthony Berkeley and G. K. Chesterton.
But these books have roots in earlier works of detective fiction, and there are still mysteries being written today that would fit in with the ‘feel’ of the Golden Age (Anthony Horowitz is an excellent example of a modern day writer of contemporary ‘Golden Age’ mysteries).
For this special reading project I am reading as widely as possible from this era, but especially books by authors suggested by Martin Edwards' study of the period, The Golden Age of Murder.
Click here to visit the main page for this special reading project.
Progress
The Federalist Papers were written in 1787 to 1788 to defend the new American Constitution against its critics. They explained the Constitution and have provided future generations guidance as to how the Founding Fathers intended the Constitution to be interpreted.
The Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and America's fourth president, James Madison, cover issues of America's independence, including the need to ensure against foreign influence, as well as how the new Federal Government would operate. The Federalist Papers also deal with the separation of the powers of each branch of government, as well as government oversight, which includes the power of Congress to impeach. For these reasons, The Federalist Papers are still important documents which have been referred to in debates about the presidency of Donald Trump.
You can now read summaries and commentaries of all 85 Federalist papers here on the Reading Project.
The pictures below represent places we have travelled or enjoy. In each picture there is someone who is reading. The photos represent the portability of books and the idea that they might be enjoyed almost anywhere. Click on the Google Earth Symbol to view where each photograph was taken.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel from Supertree GroveThe Supertree is part of a group in Marina Bay Sands Gardens, with the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore, as backdrop
Harry Hartog Bookstore, PenrithHarry Hartog Bookstore is the newest and largest bookstore in the Penrith region, west of Sydney
Singapore, Flower DomeThe Flower Dome is located in Singapore's Gardens by the Bay
Singapore Botanic Gardens BandstandThe Bandstand in Singapore Botanic Gardens was erected in 1930 and is now often used for wedding photos.
Swan Lake, Singapore Botanical GardensSwan Lake is a small part of Singapore's Botanical Gardens, established in 1859 and honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Old Government House, ParramattaResidence of ten early governors of New South Wales between 1800 and 1847
Archibald Fountain, Hyde Park, SydneyCentred in Hyde Park, this Art Deco fountain features scenes from Greek Mythology
Everglades, Leura, Blue Mountains, AustraliaA former residence, art gallery, cafe and garden which hosts outdoor theatrical performances
Rookwood CemeteryRookwood Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the Southern Hemisphere and was used in the 19th Century as a place of recreation
New Parliament House, CanberraNew Parliament House is built into Capital Hill and was opened in 1988 in time for the Bicentennial Celebrations
Other recommended websites on Neocities!
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