childhood

The Books that Built the Blogger with TJ from My Book Strings

Today on the blog I am delighted to welcome TJ from My Book Strings, a blog I love and one I have followed since I started blogging. TJ has taken a different approach to The Books that Built the Bloggers and I am honoured to have this post on my blog. It’s a beautiful, thoughtful piece…

No 639 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

Last year I read Roddy Doyle’s The Woman Who Walked in to Doors and was stunned by his ability to so vividly inhabit the voice of a battered woman. In Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, I was stunned again, this time by his ability to so believably recreate the voice of a ten-year old boy.…

No 682 You by Nuala Ní Chonchúir

Some strange things happened when I started reading You by Nuala Ní Chonchúir. Firstly, my childhood home, where I lived from birth to the age of 15 went on the market. I had a look at it online; the occupants who bought it from my parents had changed very little, so looking at the rooms…