I just finished my second book by Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility, and I must admit I’m fascinated by the author’s ability to create thrilling stories that are essentially slow-paced. This is the second book in my recent memory (Station Eleven being the other one) where seemingly easy passages provoked surprising adrenaline spikes in my body. I don’t think I remember feeling so impacted by a book in this way.The setting is quite unexpected and starts at the beginning of the 20th…
Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 31st July 2026 British doom titans The Salt Pale Collective have been pretty quiet since their stunning 2023 debut record, ‘A Body That Could Pass Through Stones and Trees’, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy working away on the follow up. That debut came in at number eight on our Album of the Year list 2023, and so to say that I have been waiting for this new record for a while is perhaps an understatement. Well, finally we have ‘And God Said…
In case it helps a fellow Supernote newbie out there: I bought a Lamy AL-Star EMR pen for my Supernote Manta after seeing it recommended on Reddit. I thought it’d be fun to try another pen. I opened it up, tried it out, and I immediately learned that I much prefer the fineliner-style ceramic nibs on all the pens sold directly from Supernote / Ratta. If you’re curious, you can read more about the pen differences on the Manta product page. I’m still loving the Manta, by the way. I’m logging my…
Some people believe that there are no coincidences. They connect seemingly unrelated events, conversations, and experiences, deciding that the universe or whatever higher power they believe in is trying to tell them something. I do not know if I believe that in every situation, but I might be willing to believe it this time. Over the past few weeks, I have been having conversation after conversation about home. It has come up in discussions about identity and belonging with friends and…
I’m going to start joining in with the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer. I’ve made my own image from a stock photo (credit: Anna Shvets) to avoid adding images created via generative AI to my blog. Feel free to use it too if you would like! This week’s prompt is about dual-wielding books: Do you read one book at a time, or juggle a few at once? I am quite possibly incapable of reading just one book at once! I have a tendency to get fidgety, though this happens mostly…
— I’m just going to carry on here in this sort of unconnected notes form. The times seem to call for it or at least my attention span does. — I read a poem lately that went straight to my heart:Poetry Itself Is a Kind of Sunlight by YanyiBelieve me, poetry itself is a kind of sunlightNo substance has been found anywhere in the cosmosThat can break the wings of poetry.Here’s a chance at last to meet one another,The river in Shenzhen chuckles merrilyThe sky sheds joyous tears.Though we’ve never…
This follows on from my last post which was prompted by my first sighting of a Woodpecker here at The House of Light. But on 31st October 2017 at Wild Poplars - a static caravan residing in the winter quarters of a circus - a redheaded green woodpecker graced the lawn. I automatically found myself referring to Woodpecker as 'he'... That 'he' was a 'he'? No idea... But the pronoun usage was noticed, and gave rise to the poetical below. I saw, not for the first time, that pronouns are largely…
Scorching days seem to be a feature of the summer now, but there are still lots of jobs to do at the Fromebridge Reserve with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The species rich grassland contains a couple of fenced of pens with various heritage fruit trees. This means they cannot be grazed and so today’s task was to scythe and remove the nutrient. There’s not any particularly important species in the pen, so the arisings could be disposed of in the adjoining hedgerow rather than spread as green…
lingthusiasm:ALTALTALTALTALTHere are two shapes. If you had to assign the name “bouba” to one of them and “kiki” to the other, which name would you give to which? If you think about it, you probably have a guess… In this Lingthusiasm zine, Gretchen McCulloch gets enthusiastic about these two linguistically famous shapes.Print and fold your own copies for free! 8½ x 11 paper: colour, b&w A4 paper: colour, b&w Learn more about bouba and kiki! What words sound spiky across languages? (Lingthusiasm…
Read the full post at - Why read novels? via Dynomight Love this -> https://dynomight.net/novels/ I like the Socratic questioning of a generally unquestioned “good” thing. But really, why read novels? I’m partial to Theory 4, Theory 7, and Theory 8. Theory 4: Legible mind-space Maybe novels are just another form of entertainment. OK. But say you tried to tell the same story as a novel or as movie / podcast / opera / interpretive dance performance. Different formats will be better in different…
Greetings fellow readers! I'm back with another curated list of new and upcoming classic film books. This list has everything from memoirs from the biggest celebrity names, lots of biographies, genre books, deep dives on individual films and plenty from the BFI and Turner Classic Movies. Of course you'll also find your usual offerings about Alfred Hitchcock, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and other enduring legends. Publication dates range from JULY 2026 to DECEMBER 2026 and these are subject…
Aye gods what a flick. So much to unpack here and despite the jokes about spoilers for a several thousand year old story — that most of us were taught in school — there will in fact be spoilers in this review. First, I joked with a friend before seeing this movie that if Sir Christopher Nolan told this tale with a timeline that went from the middle out I was going to scream so loud the sirens would cover their ears. Well, Nolan gonna Nolan. Still, the master has mixed the spectacle and…
Erika Tracy is a Los Angeles art star. Just ask her. As played by Olivia Wilde, Erika becomes the driving force in I Want Your Sex, director Gregg Araki's satirical look at a conceptual artist who hires a floundering 23-year-old college graduate (Cooper Hoffman) as a studio assistant. Delighted to land a job, Hoffman's Elliott gets more than he bargained for when Erika bluntly proposes that they have sex. Thus begins Elliott's wild foray into sexual waters he doesn't know how to navigate,…
Without words, without begging, without effort or belief, prayer is wonder.Each breath is a wombsuffused with the name of Jesus. This is how &
WWC Follower Asks:Hi! Im currently writing a story about an upper class Colombian girl (who lives in Colombia) who’s autistic and queer, and spends plenty of time online on fandom spaces. Due to the fact she spends most of her time on us-centric spaces, she has assimilated on aspects of US culture strongly, to the point her own thoughts are in English at the moment, as US-centric (or English speaking) communities of people with her same interests/neurodivergencies/sexual orientations are bigger…
Christopher Hale was the penname for Michigan-based author, Frances Moyer Ross Stevens who wrote the Lieutenant Bill French series. This included 12 titles, today’s being the 9th. She also wrote two standalone mysteries. Rumour Hath It was serialised in Chicago Tribune Syndicate and is dedicated to Maude. Hale is an author I have been wanting to read for some time, but lack of availability has been rather a hindrance. Based on this today’s book I hope someone decides to republish some of her…
Photo credit: Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures “In a time of apparent magic…” From the Second World War to the Trojan War, filmmaker extraordinaire Christopher Nolan certainly doesn’t shy away from the big stories – be they huge, world-changing discoveries, or his own interpretation of an ancient epic poem. In many ways The Odyssey feels like a natural follow-up to Oppenheimer; both have troubled leaders at their core, but whilst J. Robert Oppenheimer started something with his…
We all hear voices in our brain, but what if they were coming from your other heads?!? Author John Wiswell’s main character is a multi-headed dragon with a lot of contradicting opinions. Though a dragon, you may find his inner turmoil more relatable than you’d expect. Take flight in his Big Idea for The Dragon Has Some Complaints. JOHN WISWELL: A dragon is a lot like ADHD. I’ve always loved dragons. How can you not like dragons? They’re like if someone glued all the cool parts of dinosaurs…
مع السلامة (ma’a salama) melting pot. さよなら (sayonara), salad bowl. America is an omnibus of purple prose bound in balding eagle skin.We’re talking primo leather from a batty bird who steals hot dogs from kids at ballparks. True story. ((Not a BORN FREEagle mugging on a ride-or-die Clutch album. (Book of Bad Decisions, 2018. Photo by Dan Winters, danwintersphoto.com. Gallery recs: “Works on Paper: Cold War” and “Constructions.”) And not some early bird crunching half-frozen fish bait for gonzo…
Our second Galactoscope for July features two back-to-back hits by J.T. McIntosh. This fellow has been writing superlative stuff since the early '50s (maybe before, but I discovered him in 1951 with "Hallucination Orbit"). And now his latest two novels are both five star winners. Oh, and there's also something by T.J. Bass… by Janice … Continue reading [July 17, 1971] McIntosh, McIntosh, and Bass, inc. (July Galactoscope #2) → The post [July 17, 1971] McIntosh, McIntosh, and Bass, inc. (July…
I watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off which was as great as I remember. It has an age rating of PG-13 in the US and 15 in the UK for bad language and some kissing. (There is also lying to parents but apparently that doesn’t count.) This seems absurd. I have way less problem with some light cursing/petting than films that are ostensibly for kids like cartoons and superhero movies that treat mass existential threat as an incident plot point in the hero’s journey. Like: Frozen 2 in which the entire…
Visting Zwolle for business and visited some exhbitions and some (book) shops.
[This is one of the finalists in the 2026 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I’ll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you’ve read them all, I’ll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked]I. SURGERY FOR THE SOULSurgery for the soul required a sharp, eight-inch-long instrument—one time, an ice pick from the Uline Ice Company was used—and not much else. It did not require anesthesia or…
This was not what I expected. And I know to expect shocking from Murata. But I didn't knew how much sex was involved... got interesting, to the point I could not stop reading, mainly the evolution of the society. But that ending was a bit out of context... like... she broke? Everything was rationalization until the last few pages.In anycase, good book, weird, disgusting, but good and interesting. If you like weird books this is one of those.
Photo by Ben Skála, BenfotoThe Underworld can be entered from several locations. When you reach the back of any of these caves, you may invoke the hidden name of the lord of that realm and request entry to his domain, or force open the passage with a common opening spell. Despite the increased danger of invoking a powerful spirit, it is recommended that you take this route, as it informs the lord of your entry into his realm. Do not go without a weapon but leave it sheathed unless a need…
Today I have a treat for you: a new guest review! I don't feature a ton of guest reviews these days, but when Cherry emailed and said that she's been reading the blog for fourteen years and would love to write a review...well. Of course I said yes! Anyone who's been hanging around this place for fourteen years deserves a medal. When I learned that Cherry wanted to review
At the end of Four Letters of Love, his first and lovely novel, Niall Williams explains briefly how he wrote it. He and his partner had moved back from New York to the West of Ireland determined to become writers. They’d risked everything. Williams couldn’t get started, but then the first line of the novel came to him: “When I was twelve years old God spoke to my father for the first time.” He had nothing else. He continues: “It arrived and I repeated it, and said it aloud and knew this was a…
An interesting email has reached me, noticing that work seems to have resumed at Google Books: I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Google Books has been adding new material this year from a number of university libraries that have entered their partnership program. As could be expected, the [most likely] reason is that they are desperate to get more printed material to train their LLMs, and libraries are happy if big corporations put up the money and resources to scan their collections.…
The past few weeks I'd been talking to a friend of mine about fountain pens. As an enthusiast himself, he was somewhat aghast that I didn't own a fountain pen, and hadn't even used one since I was very young. So he set about correcting that omission, by helping me look for a used one on eBay. He'd recommended the Parker 51, seemingly recognised by many as one of the best fountain pens ever made, especially for the money. He found one in "battleship grey" for $50 USD, and very kindly polished…
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Chrissy Martin’s poetry collection Whole, Holy, Hot explores chronic illness with a unique pop culture lens. Esmé Weijun Wang wrote of the book: “This collection captures the realities of…
