Nature Girl meets Courtroom Drama

"Where the Crawdads Sing" is a North Carolina way of saying "Beyond the Blackstump" which would probably also be a good name for a book if it is not already taken. Everything you need to know about the main character in "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens is contained within her deer analogy. “Kya … Continue reading Nature Girl meets Courtroom Drama

Fiction & non-fiction in harmony

When Pocket book-club read The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman I knew how it would end and I knew which book I had to re-read next. A few years ago I read Zealot: The Life an Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. Aslan describes himself as having come from a family of lukewarm Muslims … Continue reading Fiction & non-fiction in harmony

Why do you love short stories?

How old are short stories? Short fiction is as old as humankind. Novels are the new fang-dangled thing. The first short tales were oral. Storytellers often used rhyme to memorise stories. One the earliest still surviving tales is "The Shipwrecked Sailor" written on papyrus in Egypt around 2000 BCE. The Greek Aesop's fables, the first … Continue reading Why do you love short stories?