I’m one of those people who’ll buy a book on a whim because the title is so enticing. For me, those books never disappoint — Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is one of those books. Written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, a Mexican-American author and poet, the novel gives the reader an…
So I recently went to a talk organised by the English Society’s very own Jack Hession (rhymes with session) on the ins and outs of Irish publishing. Jack was a brilliant host, offering up thought provoking questions to the three guests: Kathy D’Arcy, a prolific poet from Cork; Tom Morris, the writer in residence at…
Pillow Thoughts is one of three books by Australian writer Courtney Peppernell published in 2017 and has become one of my favourite modern collections. Originally published in 2016, Pillow Thoughts gained international attention, with even The Chainsmokers talking about how much they love the work. Andrews McMeel then republished the collection in 2017, along with…
At around seven I dropped the transparent little dude. Placed him on my tongue and gave myself away. Pretty far out if you ask me. Then I wait and wait for him to take me on a journey, to find deeper understandings and perceptions. I want to see everything man, that’d be the bomb. Sharon…
So I’m doing a module this semester on women and literature, which has been pretty cool so far, and made me think a lot, having been perceived as a woman my whole life. We’re only a few weeks in, but already the questions we’ve been presented with have leaked into other aspects of my thinking…
I don’t know how many of you would be familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality test (you can take it for free at 16personalities.com), but to those of you who are, I fall under their category, ‘The Mediator’, or INFP (Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Prospective). You can actually learn a whole lot about me simply by typing…
“’Twas the night before Christmas” is one of the most iconic lines from any children’s poem, and certainly the most well-remembered from our childhoods. I decided to venture away from that this year and get a taste of what else was there to get me in the holiday mood. Whether you want to impress your…
When I first received ‘The Girl of Ink and Stars’ (TGIS) by Kiran Millwood Hargrave as a present, I was quite sceptical about what I would find. Judging the book by its cover (I know, I know) I could see it was the archetypal young adult (YA) fantasy fiction novel. When reading this genre in…
This issue, being the last one before Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Written in 1898 by an Irishman, Dracula is the classic Gothic horror story. Dracula is important for being a novel that has truly established the foundations of a new, popular genre: vampire fiction. Every vampire…
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Hemingway once proclaimed this six word attempt to prove a point. It became arguably his best piece of short fiction. Yet how would this artistic, bar-loving scoundrel fare with the newest blast to the publishing world – Young Adult (YA) novels? Though criticised, beloved, ridiculed and acclaimed, no one…