Tag Archives: Colm Toibin

Things That Are Making Me Happy This Week

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

01. Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is underway. We enjoyed an Austro-Hungarian lunch (that extended into dinner) at Cardwell Cellars. Highlights: the flammekuechen, the wines by Werkstatt (especially the riesling sekt), and the gingerbread kugelhupf, which were out of this world. Continue reading →

Reading Ireland Month 2025

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It’s fast approaching March which in the bookish world, is Reading Ireland Month, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. I’ll be using it as an opportunity to tackle the TBR stack and will be selecting from the following: Continue reading →

My Best Books for 2024

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I did away with ‘top tens’ a few years ago, and instead I finish the reading year with a recap of the books that are still speaking to me (less about four and five-star ratings, more about what has stuck). Continue reading →

The Top 60 from the Best Books of 2024 List of Lists

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Presenting the 2024 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2024-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 60 books.

(This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 55 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2024 – A List of Lists – enjoy!). Continue reading →

Long Island by Colm Tóibín

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , ,

Sequels are a tough gig. Colm Tóibín’s Long Island – the sequel to Brooklyn – is exquisite. And, I’ll go as far as saying that I enjoyed it more than Brooklyn.

There are already dozens of reviews of this novel; it’s front-and-centre at every bookshop you walk into; and the reservations at my library number 120+ (of which I was one). Fortunately, I popped by the library last week and spied it on the ‘Most Wanted’ shelf (one week loans, no renewals, and bad karma for borrowers who don’t observe the rules!). Needless to say, I snapped it up and started reading immediately. Continue reading →

Things That Are Making Me Happy This Week

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

01. Edinburgh Book Festival (beamed all the way to me in Melbourne) – Colm Tóibín, interviewed by Caoilinn Hughes. I love how much Colm laughed at Caoilinn’s questions. He was a great sport, especially when she opened with describing him as “…Costco’s hottest product – from the aisle between the shovels and the underwear… it’s either a very, very good book or a very, very bad book.” She then continued with a five-minute rundown of his stellar career, and when she got to the end, Colm dead-panned, “Thanks for that lovely introduction Caoilinn, although you left out quite a lot…”
Continue reading →