It’s over three years since Putin’s tanks sat on Ukraine’s borders. The world watched and wondered what he would do next. Jen Stout, Night Train to Odesa Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War is an antidote to the moron’s moron, Trump's blather. The American President after brow-beating President Volodymr Zelensky and promising to end the Ukrainian war in a day has scheduled a meeting with Putin in Siberia. His press conference is cringe...

Winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize, The Fall was reissued in 2025. I got this book for my favourite girl in the world. But her dad read a bit. And that was that. Said there was a death on the first few pages. It would remain unread. That was my failing. My fall. ‘Is that Mog?’ he said. Nobody had called me Mog since I was at school. ‘Have you heard?’ ‘Heard what?’ I said. ‘Rush.’ ‘Chris Rush?’ ‘Yeah…’ ‘He’s dead.’ Chapter 1 begin with a...

Lynne Tillman (2023) Mothercare On Ambivalence and Obligation. Mothercare is an autobiographical essay by writer Lynne Tillman. I haven’t read any other of her works. My mum had Alzheimer’s. Most conversations with others end with me reminding them, ‘Just shoot me’. The issues Tillman discuss aren’t foreign to me. She’s American with a healthcare system that is both near the best and the worst as it bankrupts many and excludes others in the way...

According to William Kemarck’s 1924 model contagion follows an S-shaped curve. The assumption was that those susceptible would become infected. Infect others, recover or die and go to heaven or hell, as in Christianity. In epidemiology, the reproduction number, or R , indicates how many new cases a single infected individual causes. If R is greater than 1, an outbreak grows. If it falls below 1, stops. Nobody goes to heaven or hell. R > 1: It...

Scandinavian noir. Happy New Year is set in Skane near Malmo. It involves a murder mystery. Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Wiksell goes missing after a New Year’s party—involving teenagers and drink—in the Anderssons’s house to bring in 2019. Jennifer’s parents, Max and Lollo are simultaneously holding a party for adults. Something they traditionally do. The adult Andersonns attend. Both Fredrik and Nina are scared their house will be trashed. They...

In the Sunday Times bestseller, Daniel Finkelstein deals in the mundane and miraculous. He concludes with both. ‘Our family has survived. Love has conquered hate.’ In the battle with Hitler and Stalin, Mum’s victory is over Hitler and the Nazis. Dad’s victory over Stalin and Communism. Surviving, starting a family and thriving, a thumbing of the nose at totalitarianism. Finkelstein’s memoir fits broadly into a type of Holocaust literature which...

My current best Writers on AbcTales July '25 5. swindonwoody – Maggie (or a very reluctant celticman – Paul) 4. rhiannonw – Rhiannon 3. mscraic – Paul 2. queen beatle – Morwenna 1. Jessiibear – Jess

Look To Jesus Heb 12:2 Looking away from all that will distract us and focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and perfection of faith. (The first incentive for our belief and the one who brings our faith to maturity) John 16:6 I have told you these things, so that in me You may have (perfect) peace. In the world, you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but courageous (be confident, be Undaunted, be filled with joy.) I have...

Betsy Lerner (2024) Shred Sisters. I read Shred Sisters in about four hours. It follows the rules of novel writing. Betsy Lerner as a writer, editor and agent—she edited and promoted one of my favourite books Autobiography of a Face —knows too well the holes authors fall into. That doesn’t mean she won’t fall into them, because that’s not the way it works. Most of use can’t really see what we write. She knows that too having published a book...

Reflection of the Light Step out of the gloom, of projection, misconception: your disconnected vision has become an artificial paradise. A snow, sand castle in the rain, glass heart On your sleeves, shallow pain. Light’s out in this darkness; it only serves as A nightmare’s gain. Attune your strings, that brings them into a symphony of streams; that flows with an awareness in harmony, into soft lighting. And listen to the rhythm echo as a sweet...