Georges Simenon (The New York Times: Book Review Search Article) was a prolific Belgian born writer, publishing 400 books. He is best known as the creator of fictional detective Jules Maigret. The Widow Couderc is one of Simenon’s ‘romans durs’, his more literary output. It follows Jean, a quiet, rootless ex-convict who has recently finished […]
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This book is narrated by Freddie Montgomery, a 38-year-old brilliant but deeply amoral and narcissistic scientist. After drifting through Europe, Freddie returns to Ireland to raise cash because his wife and child are being held hostage by a Mediterranean gangster over a debt. When his mother reveals she has sold off the family’s art collection
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In August 2026, the BBC broadcast a 60-minute documentary entitled Disclosure: Welcome to Glasgow. (BBC One – Disclosure, Welcome to Glasgow) The programme investigated claims that parts of the city centre have descended into a dangerous, “zombie apocalypse” combat zone. Reporter Myles Bonnar spent a week filming in Glasgow city centre, focusing heavily on hotspot
A bad, bad place by Frances Crawford Read More »
There is no single christianity. Adherents to the faith have disagreed over doctrine and practice from the beginning. They continue to disagree in the present day. At times they have disagreed so vehemently that they have burned, butchered and persecuted each other over the centuries. There are at least 45,000 denominations of christianity in the
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This Dutch language novel is an epic, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel published in 1983. It follows Louis Seynaeve, a young Flemish boy growing up during the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II. It presents a dark, complex portrait of collaboration, family dysfunction, and loss of innocence. The first half tracks Louis chronologically in a
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John and Edna Kinsella temporarily foster a young girl at their dairy farm in County Wexford, Ireland. This is to relieve the girl’s mother, who is a relative, and who is in the final stages of pregnancy. At the Kinsella’s farm the girl enjoys better care and nurturing than with her own parents. The girl
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In this book Alexander Broadie describes The Scottish Enlightenment (Scottish Philosophy in the 18th Century (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) as a deeply collaborative, highly practical explosion of intellectual energy in the 1700s. He shows how this movement in Scotland reshaped how the Western world viewed human nature, economics and science. Rather than viewing it as
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Mary Costello (Mary Costello – Canongate Books) was a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. Her collection of short stories, The China Factory, published in 2012, was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. Her second book and first novel, Academy Street, was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Costa First Novel Prize and the EU Prize for Literature in
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Are you looking for a novel which is heartbreaking and heartwarming? A novel which is funny, sad and deeply moving? Reach for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, a debut by Gail Honeyman from 2017. The summary is as follows: Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats
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