Tag Archives: biography

Bright Lights Dark Shadows by Carl Magnus Palm

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Okay, unless you’re a hardcore ABBA fan, you can give Carl Magnus Palm’s detailed and extremely thorough biography, Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA – a miss. I am a hardcore fan, so I persisted with all 554 pages.

My love affair with ABBA began at age six. My birthday was all planned when, two days before the party, I got the mumps. Socially devastating when you’re in prep! My dad repaired the disaster by buying me ABBA’s Arrival album and a bottle of Lucozade (“Because that’s what the Queen drinks when she’s sick.”). No party, but my new school friends came over frequently to dance to Arrival. Continue reading →

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Prior to reading Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, my knowledge of the Troubles was limited, and was essentially informed by three things:

    • Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard (I read this multiple times as a teen)
    • a brief visit to Belfast in 2001
    • Lost Lives by David McKittrick et al. – a book that I bought second hand after my Belfast visit. It lists the story of every life lost during the Troubles (3,630 people were killed between the late 1960s and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement ). Continue reading →