Books of Note

Conversations On Kindness by Bernadette Russell

I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I’m not sure if I’d known what was coming, I would have started it so impulsively. We live in a world where the leader of a major political party (I had to check this was actually true, as I’ve been ill and was concerned I’d had a fever dream where I’d imagined she was a senior politician) describes diversity initiatives as a “poison” , and the presumptive leader of the “free world” (apologies for the liberal use of parentheses, but I’m struggling to overcome deep skepticism about the cultural and political structures which we tend to take for granted and feel powerless to alter for the benefit of us all – i.e. those whose labour is exploited by capital [ more on this later ]) can call the teaching staff at Harvard “woke” and blame the first tragic air disaster in more than 20 years on disabled staff at air traffic control . These are facts, I checked! It’s worth interjecting at this point with a quick definition of woke, as expresse...

Big Reads circa 2007

Rooting about behind old electronic equipment I discovered a stash of cuttings clipped from The Western Mail between 2006 and 2007, back when I was Waterstones' representative and, hopefully (but not likely) authoritative reviewer, and still using my 'maiden' name. Gawd, the stuff I used to get away with! Still, daft as I was, grouping Richard Flanagan, Nicholson Baker and Winkie by Clifford Chase together, I can honestly say I was trying my damnedest to get people to read books that I sincerely enjoyed, for whatever the reason. And I have a year's worth of the buggers too. It's nice to know that at some point in your life, your opinion mattered... Obviously not enough to get paid for it. But such a beautiful young face.





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Comments

  1. Ah, the flow of intertextuality. Having read these reviews I realised I've given away my copy of The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break, and that Sherrill has written two other books of fiction that I'd not read. I will be rectifying both situations shortly.

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