Michael J. Ritchie's Blog, page 51
June 19, 2017
“Here, The World Entire” by Anwen Kya Hayward (2016)
[image error] “I hear his heartbeat first.”
If you’ve been lingering around this blog long enough, you’ll know I have a particular fondness for Greek mythology. I’m no expert, but I like to keep my hand in, enjoying the stories of the heroes and gods who live their lives like a historical soap opera with added magic. Anwen Kya Hayward, is someone who knows what she’s talking about. Academically instructed up to the eyeballs in the mythological studies, Anwen and I met through social media several years ago...
June 14, 2017
“A Talent For Murder” by Andrew Wilson (2017)
[image error] “Wherever I turned my head I thought I saw her, a woman people described as striking, beautiful even.”
If you delve into the life of Agatha Christie, there’s something very interesting about her that will quickly come to the surface. On the 3rd December 1926, following a row with her husband Archie, she disappeared. Eleven days later, she was found at a spa hotel in Harrogate, checked in under the name of her husband’s lover and apparently suffering with amnesia. She never told anyone what ha...
June 11, 2017
“Veni, Vidi, Vici” by Peter Jones (2014)
[image error] “Romans came up with two stories about how they were founded.”
So far this year, I noted that I’d been pretty low on non-fiction fodder, having worked my way through just three non-fiction books based on the future, economics and poison. Part of this is because I’ve been going through some stuff this year, and my default position is to hide inside fiction, and I’d made myself very comfortable there, escaping into imaginary worlds. However, I decided to step out and headed back in time to lear...
June 5, 2017
“Foxglove Summer” by Ben Aaronovitch (2015)
[image error] “I was just passing the Hoover Centre when I heard Mr Punch scream his rage behind me.”
It’s been a difficult weekend for London. As the city dusts itself off from the second terrorist attack this year (the third in the UK), it showcases once again that the British people are strong, brave and resilient, and despite claims of certain American news outlets, we are not left “reeling” or “cowed”. What better to read right now than a story about the Metropolitan police continuing to do the outsta...
June 1, 2017
“Dead Writers In Rehab” by Paul Bassett Davies (2017)
[image error]“I know why the caged bird sings. But that pigeon outside my room at four in the morning? What the fuck is his problem?”
It’s well documented that a lot of creative people seem to develop a fondness for, and perhaps a reliance on, drugs or alcohol. Indeed, I wrote an article for a spirits website about the favourite drinks of several authors. I suppose there’s no real way of knowing if the addictions caused the creativity, or the stress of creating let to the addiction. Who knows? All we do k...
May 29, 2017
“Wonder” by R. J. Palacio (2012)
[image error] “I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid.”
Many of us don’t even realise how privileged we are. We have money, security, health, and we only notice we’ve got it once it’s gone. Books have that amazing ability to transport us into someone else’s way of life and see how things might be different for others. I’m not even talking about fighting dragons or hurtling through space this time, just simple things about people who are just like you and me, but society treats very differently.
Wonder...
May 27, 2017
“The Readers Of Broken Wheel Recommend” by Katarina Bivald (2013)
There is a book for every person and a person for every book.
“The strange woman standing on Hope’s main street was so ordinary it was almost scandalous.”
Books are great, and books about books are even better. This blog already has a stack of reviews on it based around bookshops thanks to Veronica Henry, Penelope Fitzgerald and Robin Sloan, but there’s always room for one more. There’s something wonderful about bookshops; so much promise held in those shelves. Adventures await, romances are...
May 22, 2017
“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley (1818)
[image error] “You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.”
“I’m reading Frankenstein at the moment,” I said over Thursday afternoon cocktails (because that’s the sort of life I have). My friend looked at me from over his Manhattan and said, “Boring, isn’t it?” I sighed. “Yes.”
“Thing is,” he explained. “You have to read it through the lens of Frankenstein’s own hubris. He is melodramatic and you’ve gotta go...
May 17, 2017
“After Dark” by Haruki Murakami (2004)
[image error] “Eyes mark the shape of the city.”
It seems that eventually, if you read enough, you will brush up against Haruki Murakami. A few years ago I read Kafka on the Shore and was simultaneously smitten and bemused by it. He is probably Japan’s most famous literary export (Kazuo Ishiguro wrote his books in English) and his books are charmingly bizarre.
After Dark takes place over seven hours, from midnight to 7 am, in Tokyo. Mari Asai is sitting in a restaurant at midnight, reading a heavy book, wh...
May 14, 2017
“The Sculptor” by Scott McCloud (2015)
[image error] “Ready?”
Ah, comics. Sorry, “graphic novels”. I’ve never been one for superhero comics or anything sprung from that world, but visual stories are far more than that. I’ve not submerged myself in the world of graphic novels at all, but I dip a toe in now and again. I’ve read some Shakespeare adaptations in that form, and I’ve read Scott Pilgrim and am up to date with Saga, one of the best and strangest graphic novels around. Earlier this year I read the story of Agatha Christie’s life in the f...
