Month: June 2021

Football Books To Take Extra Time Over

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With the country once more in the grips of football fever thanks to the Euros, now is the perfect time to seek out some of the more interesting and possible overlooked books which show the economic, social and psychological angles of our most beloved national sport.   Africa United: How Football Explains Africa by Steve Bloomfield Travelling to twelve countries across the vast continent, Steve Bloomfield tells the story of modern day Africa through the lens of it’s obsession with … Read more

Review: Lost Children Archive

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  A thrillingly ambitious novel that spotlights the cruelties and injustices of child migration from Central America to the USA. Telling the stories of one family’s road trip to the deserts of Arizona to find the homeland and memorials of the last free Apaches and the desperate train journey taken by some ‘illegal’ child migrants, Luiselli creates compelling drama and confronts the shocking hypocrisies of America. The narrator and her husband met and married during a long sound archiving project. … Read more

Review: Skyborn

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  Past mysteries and present crises collide in a whirlwind adventure that explores family, friendship, and standing up for what you believe in. The Quinn Family Circus is in need of a new headline act. Ever since Bastjan’s mother died in a terrible aerobatic accident, ticket sales have been declining. Now, in desperation, the ruthless ringmaster is looking to Bastjan to revive his mother’s act. Far away and a long time ago, Ester disobeys her parents to explore the mysterious … Read more

Review: Crazy

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  Jane, somewhere around a mid-point in life, finds herself at a moment of reckoning. A creative writing tutor, she suffers from both an unsteady sense of conviction in her task and acute, shifting physical pains that strike at unpredictable moments. Reflecting on the formative relationships in her life, she recalls the conflicts and currents of childhood and family life – stumbling attempts at intimacy, and in particular an early, shattering encounter that lead to a life-long connection with a … Read more

A Long Look At Hemingway

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Ernest Hemingway was one of the most important and divisive literary figures of the twentieth century – ahead of a major TV documentary series on his life, Cliff looks at his works and influence: Around fifteen years ago, I decided I would spend an entire month devoted to Ernest Hemingway. I’ve always enjoyed setting myself peculiar goals, and this was borne out of the fact that, apart from reading The Sun Also Rises as a precocious teenager, I hadn’t really … Read more

Review: Yours Cheerfully

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If you’ve been suffering from a reading slump, this is the ideal book to get you back on a reading roll. Featuring the same cast of characters that stole our hearts in Dear Mrs Bird, Yours Cheerfully continues the tale of the spirited Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty as they navigate their way through 1941. This is Number 2 in the Emmeline Lake Chronicles but you do not need to have read Dear Mrs Bird to enjoy it. And if … Read more