TSS: Banging on the New Tin Drum – Readalong

I’ve been mulling this over for the past couple of weeks – ever since I dropped a casual question here. Indeed, there seems to be enough interest to warrant starting up a readalong. So in 2010 let’s do it and read an European masterpiece together. Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum , first published in 1959 [...]

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The White Castle / My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk

Up there with the best of Calvino, Eco, Borges and Marquez – Observer Would that blurb attract you? Calvino I’ve always meant to read.  If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller, reportedly a major influence on David Mitchell’s brilliant Cloud Atlas. Eco’s The Name of the Rose a masterpiece but I found Baudelino unfinishable.  The very [...]

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Talking about Detective Fiction – P D James

I have just spent the most intriguing weekend in the company of P D James. (I was going to say delightful – but is that appropriate considering the subject is murder?)  The thing is when I’m under pressure, I  binge on cream cakes crime reading.   So when I saw this in the newly published lists, I simply grabbed it and gorged myself. (Book-buying [...]

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The File – Timothy Garton Ash (and giveaway results)

As a young man, Timothy Garton Ash travelled  to Berlin to study the cause and effects of Nazism.  Living in the divided city his focus soon shifted to the most recent German dictatorship – that of the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik),  East Germany to you and I. Choosing to live for a while in East [...]

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TSS:Cityliterature 3, 4 and 5: Seeking your advice

(A quick post this week, simply because life is manic.) Having recently enjoyed Citylit London and CityLit Berlin, it’s odds-on that I’ll be visiting Citylit Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam when they hit the bookshelves. However, before that Lizzy is taking a BIG trip and with only a month to go, it’s time to get in the mood.  Las [...]

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Ordinary Thunderstorms – William Boyd

 … and he rode up the escalator to the first floor and selected a seat in the corner of the cafeteria with a view of the escalator and the small concourse Never mind the escalator at London City Airport.  Following his reading at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival, William Boyd had a mountain to climb.  Let [...]

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Where’s the champagne?

Would you look at the stats counter over there —–>. We’ve passed the big 100,000  …… Let’s celebrate! Thank you everyone.  You’re the best!

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Cityliterature (2): Citylit Berlin and associated giveaways

Willkommen, bienvenu, welcome. Fremde, étranger, stranger. Glücklich zu sehen, je suis enchanté, happy to see you.  Bleibe, restez, stay … Are you singing along yet to the opening song of Cabaret – the film I first saw when I was 15 and which I think sparked my lifelong fascination with all things Germanic.  Anyway on [...]

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TSS: Literary Flicks: (German) Bookpiles

Stacks of books were piled high all over the house – not just arranged in neat rows on bookshelves, the way other people kept them, oh no!  The books in Mo and Meggie’s house were stacked under tables, on chairs, in the corners of the rooms.  There were books in the kitchen and books in [...]

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Cityliterature (1): Citylit London

My latest business trip to London was mistimed.  A week after the clocks went back and British Summertime 2009 consigned to history, it was dark by 5:00 p.m.  Sightseeing on foot was postponed although I did manage a mini tour of London on the number 15 bus.  Through Marble Arch, down Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Charing [...]

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