Signs of Life by Natalie Taylor

First of all, this is not a review. It can’t be. Signs of Life is a true story and it’s one that I engaged with so deeply that I cannot hope to be objective. I’ll see this piece then as more a literary tipping of my hat to the extraordinary woman that is Natalie Taylor and [...]

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White Teeth by Zadie Smith

There are some books that you enjoy so much that you’re wary of reading anything else by that author. It just cannot possibly be as good and it’s not worth the disappointment. White Teeth is that book for me. Set in the area in which I was born and bred, this book has a particular [...]

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Sins of the father, Conor McCabe

Apropos something else altogether, Utah Phillips is supposed to have said that `the Earth is not dying: it is being killed and the people doing it have names and addresses.’ There have been a number of recent books, some of them very good, about the corruption, mediocrity and stupidity that have led to the present [...]

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1861:The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart

Originally, I had intended on doing something different to mark America’s national holiday, but the 4th of July was mentioned so much in this book, that I figured it was kismet. The author, with the old-fashioned name which shouts of Americana, has written a splendid book that centers on the beginning of the American Civil [...]

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Coming up on Vulpes Libris

So it’s Independence Day tomorrow and this week we’ll claim independence as the thread that links our somewhat disparate reviews together. From the American Civil War, in which freedom and independence was sought for those who were slaves, to the Irish economy and the path walked by the perhaps-not-so-independent Celtic Tiger (see what we’ve done [...]

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Adventures in the Screen Trade: a Personal View of Hollywood, by William Goldman

Coincidence: I’d planned ages ago to review Adventures in the Screen Trade, and scheduled it for this month. Last week, on impulse, I got hold of Hegarty on Advertising and, as you’ll have noticed, reviewed it enthusiastically. Part of my enthusiasm came from the fact that it reminded me of Goldman’s book, an old favourite [...]

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