Marcus Hobson > Recent Status Updates

I was here in Gabriel's Bay around this time last year. Good to meet with old friends again.

Paul Cleave has set his latest book in the USA - and very sucsessfully. This is like being washed down river by the force of the action - impossible not to be swept along.

Wonderfully rich in art and facts...

This is like reading the true story of a town down the road.
Here was me thinking it was fiction.

WARNING! Don't read this space little poems if you are close to the end of a relationship, they are too powerful, too poignant, too painful.
For everyone else, read and enjoy the beautifully observed snippets of life.

I love it when I find a 'switch' in a book. At first you're not too invested in a book, then suddenly something happens and you start to really care and be involved.

I have no idea where this is going, but I am enjoying the ride.

There are wonderful lines in this book, such as "He wore a corduroy suit in a marmalade shade."

The word penis is on the first page. I suspect it is going to pop up on lots of other pages too.

As life improves for Elizabeth, once she has left home, I am haunted by an uneasy feeling that something else terrible is lurking over the page.

This is so beautifully and carefully written that when something dark and horrible happens it hits you twice as hard. You know it's coming, but you are not ready.

Climate fiction is the new science fiction. Enjoying the international intrigue in this book as countries vie to build and mine Antarctica as the snow begins to melt.

The English have a phrase or idiom - to be sent to Coventry - which means to ignore someone. Cusk is sent to Coventry by her parents who do not speak to her, although it takes some time before she realises that she has in fact been sent there. Wonderful essays.

How has this taken 25 years to have an English translation?

Wornderful journey through Northland that takes in art, literature and human quirkiness.

This is stunning. Essays, photos and paintings. Full of remarkable meetings, wonderful quotes from writers and a keen eye for the passing landscape. Love it.

Not sure how to describe this. Odd. Different. Quirky.

This is going very slowly.
It will continue to go slowly if I insist on reading lost of other books at the same time, rather than dedicate myself this this, but I find it hard without some sort of plot or story to latch onto.

I'm not sure...
978 pages left...

Loving these new poems.

'Grief is a swallow,' he said. 'One day you wake up and think it's gone, but it's only migrated to some other place, warming its feathers. Sooner or later it will return and perch in your heart again.'

I continue to be impressed with this book.

Each of the ten minutes has a section, and each starts with taste or a smell; salt, lemon and sugar, cardamon coffee, watermelon, spiced goat stew, etc. It all adds up to a great feast for the senses

Despite the grim premise, I'm really enjoying this so far. Booker Longlist #5 for me so far.