I am a 40 something book buying addict trying to reduce the backlog one book at a time!
Five Star Billionaire is an ambitious, but not wholly successful attempt to evoke the overwhelming scale and pace of modern day life in Shanghai, told through the loosely connected lives of five Malaysian Chinese immigrants. In different chapters, all titled with the recognisable cliché of self-help speak, each character struggles through Shanghai trying to make…
who knows if the moon’s a balloon coming out of a keen city in the sky–filled with pretty people? (and if you and I should get into it if they should take me and take you into their balloon, why then we’d go up higher with all the pretty people EE Cummings, The Moon’s…
The Shitos are a family of eight, spanning four generations and living under the one roof. When a young woman, Noriko, marries the Shito son Kazuhito, she is marrying more than just one man; she is marrying in to his family. Every family has its quirks, its particular way of doing things, but in…
Read more No 507 Now You’re One Of Us by Asa Nonami, translated by Michael Volek & Mitsuko Volek
Last Sunday, the inimitable poet and musician Ciaran Carson died after an illness. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, into an Irish-speaking family, poet Ciaran Carson attended Queen’s University, Belfast. He held the position of traditional arts officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1998 and was appointed director of the Seamus…
