Monthly : January

Reading long Crandolin by Anna Tambour (Chomu Press). Crandolin is an enchanting and playful novel, packed full of idiosyncratic characters, lyrical flourishes and sly humour, while ruminating on two of my very favourite subjects – food and music. The characters include a master confectioner, a bladder pipe (bagpipe?) player and a trio of Russian train-workers, […]

Delivery

I like a good fiction podcast from time to time. They’re good company when you’re working through something long and drudgey at work, and when they’re done well, they’re excellent. My paragon for audio presentation of fiction is BBC4extra. Understandably, since it’s a huge, professional organisation. But there are a lot of skilled independent and […]

October reading or at least such as I remember it

Okay, so the thing is I know I read a whole bunch of short fiction in October, but the awesomeness of Canada has all but wiped the whole lot from my memory. Seriously, I can’t even remember the authors or titles let alone whether I liked them or not. Here’s what remains. The novel I […]

January reading

Kicking off last year’s monthly feature where I attempt to jot down some notes on what I’ve enjoyed reading-wise during the month. During February and March I’m going to attempt read the BSFA shortlisted novels, but January’s selection was a bit more of a lucky bag. The Sword Of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett – a […]

Fun stuff that I read in February

Continuing my monthly reading round-up that a/passes on some recommendations of neat stuff and b/ proves that I’m keeping the resolution going. “The Gutenberg Boys” by Ian Boyter (The Vanity Press). More of a rolling anecdotal memoir than a novel, but I was pretty taken with the evocation of time/place, language and technology in this […]

Support Our Zines Day

October 1st = Support Our Zines Day, an initiative…um, initiated…by Damien G Walter, and one of which I wholeheartedly approve. I love fiction zines. I fell in love with Interzone in the mid-late 80s and used to read tons of the UK small press mags that flourished during the 90s, but I while still keep […]