Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
a dystopia from the nineties reads too much like social realism…
Category: Book Review
The Middlemen: A Satire by Christine Brooke-Rose
pointed gags from the 1960s about things that haven’t changed
february movie round up
in february i saw some movie
Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham
the trouble with trouble with lichen is that it’s best read half-asleep and mostly i read awake
A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf
there’s a reason Woolf didn’t collate this story collection in her own lifetime…
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
a giant book that offers a giant good time
The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse #14)
a heartbreaking misfire from the world of Sookie Stackhouse
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
a serious novel that reminds us, again, of the cost of our silences
video – poetry, stripper trousers, hairloss, napoleon complex: smh live stand-up
it’s scott manley hadley aka SOLID BALD
Whale Oil (Monthly Chapbooks #2) by Tempest Miller
Tempest Miller’s second monthly chapbook – a brave if not brilliant series
Daddy Boy by Emerson Whitney
chasing tornadoes and remembering pasts
Return to Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany (Book 4 of 4)
comments on the conclusion to a four-book series
Studies in Classic American Literature by DH Lawrence
I read a bizarre quasi-blog from DH Lawrence so y’all don’t have to
The Counsellor by Cormac McCarthy
a bad book that, ethically, i probably shouldn’t have been reading
La Mordida: A Scholarly Edition by Malcolm Lowry, edited and annotated by Patrick A. McCarthy
…a curiosity, a fragment of fragments, a distillation of the mind- and work-wrecking ferocity of addiction…
january movie round up
the movies I watched in January
Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. le Guin
a quick run through Ursula Le Guin’s debut novel
Universe Architecture Series: Le Corbusier by Jean Alazard
a short book on architecture and lost futures
The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde
generations fought for a future that – this week – is being murdered on the world stage
Girls Gone Old by Fiona Helmsley
exceptional essay collection from an under-appreciated american
Native Sons by James Baldwin & Sol Stein
fun if minor James Baldwin book feat. correspondence and two collaborative pieces
video – the pret a manger coffee subscription was the best thing that ever happened to me – anti-comedy stand-up
pret a manger is like Greggs for people with student debt … like Birley Sandwiches for people who iron their own clothes
To Say Nothing of The Dog by Connie Willis
a nice, light, vacuous text that is unforgivably overlong
HUGE by Brent Butt
fun thriller about three comedians on a road trip… and one of them’s a killer
Motion Sickness by Lynne Tillman
a surprisingly disappointing book about flaneuring about
Five by Doris Lessing
five early novellas (in one book) from Nobel winner Doris Lessing
Flight From Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany (Book 3 of 4)
delany’s 1980s fantasyland crumbles into the stark realities of the AIDS crisis – an arguably perfect example of its type
XXXMAS SPECTACULAR 2024: IF SANTA WAS A BABY
gags, props, racy costuming and another seasonal what if…
Persuasion: A Colors [sic] Primer (Little Miss Austen) by Jennifer Adams, Art by Alison Oliver
a con job luring in hapless literary parents: AVOID AT ALL COSTS
The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh
i haven’t read it before but i have kinda read it before
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
it is human to cringe at the elevator pitch – a post-apocalyptic Shakespeare troupe (eww) – but don’t be put off, this is essentially a 2010s Infinite Jest (the good bits)
The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild by Mathias Enard
a glorious, cacophonous, collage of varied delights and pleasure
Neveryóna by Samuel R. Delany (Book 2 of 4)
a cracking novel-length trip to Chip Delany’s 1980s fantasy land
Finding Your Comic Genius by Adam Bloom
an interesting book on writing comedy that doesn’t try to make you laugh
The Earth Is Falling by Carmen Pellegrino
some intriguing Italian fiction about haunting and being haunted
Julian by Fleur Pierets
a deeply moving portrait of grief slowly becomes a cold exercise in self-aggrandisement
Abolish the Family by Sophie Lewis
accidentally, i am almost a revolutionary
Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany
non-digressive thoughts on book 1 of 4 of Samuel Delany’s sword and sorcery series
A Small Town In Germany by John Le Carré
another treat from the english spywriter too boring to not die old
video – raw & unreceptive: scott manley hadley stand up live at crack comedy kingston (London) 27.10.24
a stranger filmed a recent stand up set i did then emailed it to me
The Motion Of Light In Water by Samuel R Delany
i thoroughly enjoyed this 1980s memoir about the halycon days of cruising (and sci-fi)
To Rest Our Minds & Bodies by Harriet Armstrong
preview of an excellent bildungsroman coming in 2025
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse #13 (of 13))
thoughts on one last trip to bon temps and smh ponders last vs first impressions
Future by Tom Woodman, Rupert Smissen & Aditya Bidikar
can there be hope in a future where basically everything’s dead?
The Ballad of Beta-2 & Empire Star by Samuel R Delany
a pair of early novellas that really delivers, especially one
There’s No business like BUSINESS! by Brian Butterfield
a strange text from a strange, failed, business person
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse #12)
in novel 12 of 13 i finally find something in Sookie Stackhouse i don’t like (that’s a joke i loved it)
Still Pictures: On Photography & Memory by Janet Malcolm
Janet Malcolm did it again one last time
Very Far Away From Anywhere Else by Ursula K Le Guin
breathtaking short and obscure naturalistic novella that works works works
Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti
i think it might maybe be errr one of the best books I’ve read
Triumph Of The Now 