What’s your number? The Guardian’s 100 best books of the 21st century

What’s your number? The Guardian’s 100 best books of the 21st century

The stretch in the evening is leaving us for another year. It’s getting near time to start lighting the fire. Much as we may hate and disagree with Top 10s, Top 20s or Top 100 things you have to do/read/visit/watch, it’s no harm having a list of books to hand to get you through the…

Book Review: A Little Life needs a large edit

Book Review: A Little Life needs a large edit

Having won the 2015 Kirkus Prize in Fiction and shortlisted for several more — 2015 Man Booker Prize, 2015 National Book Award for Fiction, 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award — I invested many hours into reading Hanya Yanagihara’s 700+ page ‘A Little Life’. I would…

Climbing Documentaries: Scaling the dizzy heights of madness

Climbing Documentaries: Scaling the dizzy heights of madness

For some reason or another, I’ve watched two films recently featuring climbers attempting ascents of El Capitan (El Cap for those in the know) in Yosemite National Park. I might add immediately that I’ve no interest in climbing. In The Dawn Wall, we meet accomplished climber Tommy Caldwell who, after a series of personal traumas,…

Swipe for a short poetry reading with @poetryireland podcast

Swipe for a short poetry reading with @poetryireland podcast

An analysis of that Screen Time App on your smartphone can be quite worrying, all those minutes and hours of time scrolling aimlessly on social with so little to show for it. I’m trying to make my screen time translate into something more productive or at the very least provocative. Next time you find yourself…