Frank Sinatra Has A Cold by Gay Talese
excellent CNF collection spanning several decades and several lives…
Category: Book Review
THE BIG BALD BOOK CLUB EPISODE ONE – THE GREAT GATSBY
two bald heads are talkier than one
The Dry by Jane Harper
should should should should should should should … reflections on reading more trash forces a reckoning likely to be unreckoned
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
never before have i read a whole book anticipating non-existent cannibalism
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
a heady joyful experience, incidentally diagnosing Heathcliff with BPD
Under The Hawthorn Tree by Marita Conlon-McKenna
a harrowing and serious read: this is a book they give to children in Ireland
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. D*ck
spoiler: androids *don’t* dream of electric sheep
On The Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
don’t mention groundhog day don’t mention groundhog day don’t mention groundhog day
TEN WORDS OR FEWER INTERVIEW: Will Camden, author of Confessions of a Professional Conspiracy Theorist
a brief interview with Will Camden, author of Confessions of a Professional Conspiracy Theorist
Noah Fang Quicksilver by Barracuda Guarisco
it’s my kind of stuff at length oh yes please
Dhalgren by Samuel R.Delany
800 brilliant unresolved pages that work work work
Re-Re-reading The Great Gatsby (once again)
re-re-reading The Great Gatsby. It’s great. The title is a fair review.
The Destruction of Palestine is The Destruction of the Earth by Andreas Malm
some very serious stuff, for once
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
a flat opening to a series I’ll persist with (but only because the books are so short)
Advanced Elvis Course by CAConrad
…erotic devotionals, and an argument for – and evidence of – the eternal importance of Elvis…
Queen by Birgitta Trotzig
a beautiful, tight, novella about the way things so often crumble
Obiter Dicta: An accidental conversation between visitors at Frieze London 2025 by Alexa Wright
another great micro-chapbook from Tony White’s Piece of Paper Press
The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K Le Guin, edited by So Mayer and Sarah Shin
the publication accompanying a beautiful exhibition of fictional cartography
Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
a haunting novel about the hauntings of a brief extraterrestrial visit
The Malingerer by Theophilus Garcia
a short, engaging novel that has something to say, though I’m not 100% sure what it is
The Unlit City by Patrick Hawkes
a fun Soho picaresque leads scott manley hadley astray
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
notes on a piece of classic entertainment with a classic sexist bite
So Much Blue by Percival Everett
if every novel was this good no one would ever need to be unhappy
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
a book for reading with a drink and no shirt
Dancers In The Dark & Layla Steps Up: The Layla Collection by Charlaine Harris
charlaine harris does it again… again and again and again and again
Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand by Ursula Le Guin
[Not] What We Talk About When We Talk About Ursula Le Guin
The Rose Field by Philip Pullman (The Book of Dust Volume 3)
a disappointing finale to a disappointing trilogy that i read all of anyway
How To Talk Dirty and Influence People: An Autobiography by Lenny Bruce
an interesting, funny, sad memoir that leaves a lot of gaps…
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
a serious book about the past that I hope doesn’t predict the future
TriumphOfTheNow.com – a Manifesto (a Personifesto)
what is Triumph of the Now? It’s scott manley hadley
The Essential Lenny Bruce: His Original Unexpurgated Satirical Routines, edited by John Cohen
reading some work of an important early comedian
Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch
what if we could all be geniuses… for a few months as we die of germ warfare???
The Touch Report by Katrina Palmer
a book about the normalised violence of the visual arts canon
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
phenomenal stuff from an acclaimed writer I’ve never previously encountered
Windslash: The Last Elemental by Chris Bennett
being English poisons the mind; I read a fantasy novel that intentionally repeats itself
The Exhaust of Dreams Adulterated by Jane Rosenberg LaForge
a lovely collection of engaging autobiographical poetry
Common by Nikolai Duffy
contemporary intellectual mid-life crisis novel that focuses on the life of the head not the life of the heart
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
very enjoyable time travel thriller-romance combo
The Worlds of Jane Austen by Helena Kelly
a lovely popular history coffee table book bouncing around the life of Jane Austen
Every Time We Say Goodbye by Ivana Sajko
perfect, glorious, flawless. i should only read 100 page bleak novellas
Light by M. John Harrison
i read a book i hoped to love while staying with just my baby on a boat
COAL by Remi Graves
an excellent and significant chapbook of “poems and experiments”
Octavo by Marty Neumeier
a great historical detective novel surrounded by a misjudged contemporary thriller
july/aug/sept movie watching round up
what I was watching in July, August, September 2025
Fall of Civilizations [sic] by Paul Cooper
fourteen brief histories reminding us that everything always falls apart
IAN ASSERSOHN: NOTES ON THE LAMPMAKER INTERVIEW
notes on my new video interview with Ian Assersohn, author of The Lampmaker
IAN ASSERSOHN: NEW VIDEO INTERVIEW
a new video interview with Ian Assersohn, author of The Lampmaker
The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carré
everyone’s horny… and corrupt!: a 1970s spy thriller
Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
halfwritten blog from a month ago with notes on the delay thank u for reading
A Foreign Country is the Past by Fernando Sdrigotti
a great collection of short stories that aren’t pretending to not be a collection of short stories
Triumph Of The Now 