Category Archives: Culture

Reading Well: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro‘s best known novel; Never Let Me Go published in 2005, was his sixth novel, followed by a seventh in 2015. It’s an odd book. Ishiguro’s voice and craft are incredible: poised, restrained, full of … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: Hell or High Water

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Hell or High Water, a 2016 release directed by David Mackenzie and starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham, is a solidly crafted modern Western with an old time plot of good guy does bad for good, … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The Wolf Border (2015) is Sarah Hall‘s third novel that I’ve written about, following Daughters of the North and The Electric Michelangelo. I really enjoy her writing, and I received the paperback edition of The Wolf Border with great anticipation. It did not disappoint, not least … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Open City by Teju Cole

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Teju Cole‘s Open City (2012) is one of the finest written contemporary novels you’ll encounter. It tells the story of Julius, a Nigerian graduate student in psychiatry living in New York City. It’s a classic intellectual novel: Julius wanders the city, meeting … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Posted on August 19, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The Eye of the World (1990) is the first in a 16 (!) book series by Robert Jordan. He said he envisioned it a sextology, but things clearly got a little out of hand. It’s easy to see why: not only … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Dirty Dust by Máirtín Ó Cadhain

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The Dirty Dust, published in Máirtín Ó Cadhain‘s original Irish as Cré na Cille in 1949 and translated into English by Alan Titley in 2015, rests on a fantastic premise: after the residents of a small Irish town die, they remain as … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Published in 2013, and winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize, Richard Flanagan‘s The Narrow Road to the Deep North is really two stories woven together. The first recounts the harrowing experience of Australian soldiers in Japanese PoW camps; the second, the life of … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan purports to tell the story of two people, however the cast of characters is much larger. Each chapter is written from a different perspective, and while Bennie (a musician and record producer) and … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Posted on June 26, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Yevgeny Zamyatin‘s We has a bit of a tortured publishing history: written in 1921, it was first published–in English–in 1924. Further translations followed (Czech in 1927, French in 1929) but, due to the nature of its political critique, it was not … Continue reading →

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@TheMovies with PopPop: Tangerines

Posted on June 18, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Tangerines is a 2013 Georgian-Estonian film, directed by Zaza Urushadze, and nominated for a 2014 Oscar (not to be confused with 2015’s Tangerine about a transgender sex worker). The film is set in Abkhazia, a region of Georgia that fought … Continue reading →

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