Audition by Pip Adam
i think i liked this a lot, but possibly i maybe just agreed with it a lot?
Author: scottmanleyhadley
Book blogger. Depressive. Dog owner. Occasional rapper. GSOH. Poet.
The Beginning Place by Ursula K. Le Guin
a great brief obscure le guin
Death Egg by Nathaniel Duggan
the publisher behind Liver Mush returns with more poetry almost as good as Liver Mush
Babel by R. F. Kuang
a cracking idea, a knife-edge epilogue but too much brilliance and not enough sex
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse #9)
no one deserves misery, which is why we should all be reading Stackhouse
‘a disgusting lie’ by Fran Lock
excellent serious poetry that escapes the drudge of the academy
George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
not marvellous and definitely not medicine… or literature
A Rap On Race by James Baldwin & Margaret Mead
an out of print James Baldwin from the mid-70s is a great little treat
video: live noise in the marshes – around and around
feedback loops in the marsh
Fabulae: How It Begins by Isabella Streffen
interesting contemporary poetry about detailed rereadings of books I haven’t read
Prisons We Choose To Live Inside by Doris Lessing
writing on the dangers of group mentalities, though pretty committed to one particular viewing of the world…
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
a solid memoir about the importance of food… and cancer
video: live noise al fresco a capella – dog city (it’s a city for dogs)
dog city, it’s a city for dogs and noise
Cold Earth by Sarah Moss
cold, sinister, spooky… enveloping like an envelope
Matrix by Lauren Groff
a solid historical novel – won’t change your life, but a serviceable way to kill a few commutes!
Rescue Me: On Dogs and Their Humans by Margret Grebowicz
we have lived with dogs for longer than we’ve lived with agriculture; we are arguably not people without them…
Talking At The Gates: A Life of James Baldwin by James Campbell
a solid and non hagiographic literary biography
From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse Book #8)
i return to the perfect oeuvre of america’s greatest living novelist
The Bees by Laline Paull
got a lotta buzz a decade ago… does it still have the honey???
Waiting for Ted by Marieke Bigg
a novel about someone on a chaise longue
The Bureau of Past Management by Iris Hanika
on blogging, on genocide, on the dangers of forgiveness
The Archbishop’s Ceiling by Arthur Miller
right up the Archbishop’s ceiling
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
i didn’t understand it all but i liked it a lot
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (True Blood Book #7 lol)
do these books make life worth living? no, but it’s closer than basically anything else
Sex and the Death of Chivalry by Pete Brown
someone on the internet sent me a first draft of a novel
‘Exterminate All The Brutes’ by Sven Lindqvist
a harrowing, unputdownable, essential book on the history of genocide
Villains Of All Nations by Marcus Rediker
probably too old now to have been a pirate
Piranesi by Susana Clarke
strange weird wonderful yes
Monaco by Juliet Jacques
pointless, self-indulgent, felt like it took less time to read than to write… in short, I loved it
The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck
it’s absolutely fine and that’s why it’s not
The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
we’re not in Earthsea any more…
The Baby Is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite
short and sweet novelette with a lot going for it
Baby, Bring Back 1997 by Scott Laudati
a premium usa contemporary prose chapbook
Viriconium by M. John Harrison
almost 600 pages of not really my thing maybe
The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger, edited by Rene Rojas, Bhaskar Sunkara and Jonah Walters
now that’s what i call henry kissenger
video: a sad evening in london making LEGO
why live when you could watch this???
The Third Man by Graham Greene
reading the script of a very acclaimed film…
Provenance by Ann Leckie
unexpectedly not on holiday, I read something light
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
notes on a brief bought of heady influenza
In Limbo by deb jj lee
a book that potentially argues it’s worse to be depressed than abusive???
Against the Written Word by Ian F. Svenonius
a gen xer performing cynicism without realising it *has* gone out of style
Sorcerer by Ed Atkins & Steven Zultanski
i liked this play… does that mean it was terrible???
My 2024 Resolution? Revolution!
chasing enough optimism to change the things i can surely change
My 2023? Some good books and trips but mostly a waste of time!
the best part was when i spent a full day as an unpaid boom mic operator
video: a morning in Delhi
in november i spent a morning in delhi
Getting By In Tligolian by Roppotucha Greenberg
excellent non-realist novella about public transport time travel
This Is Not A Novel by David Markson
it is a novel, but it’s a good one
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris (True Blood Book #6)
Yes, Charlaine Harris is the American Marcel Proust.
The Wind’s Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
some of the best fiction you’re likely to find… plus some stories that aren’t
video: Riyadh by Day
in early November i spent ten hours(ish) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Triumph Of The Now 