Browsing the blog archives for November, 2009

The 2009 Costa Shortlists

The 2009 Costa Prize shortlists are now out, and what everyone’s asking is will Hilary Mantel make it a Booker/Costa double? I can already see that my loyalties will be torn as my new favourite novelist Penelope Lively is up against Ms. Mantel.
Costa Novel Award

Family Album by Penelope Lively
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Elephant Keeper [...]

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November 25, 2009 by Kirsty in auto/biography, fiction, prizes
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Black Books

I freakin’ love Black Books. For those not in the know, it’s a sitcom starring Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, and Tamsin Grieg, who are individually brilliant as well as being an excellent ensemble. Channel 4 has prevented people like me from embedding clips from YouTube, so you’ll have to click on this link to see [...]

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November 23, 2009 by Kirsty in bookshops, places, television
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Fly Guy

I ♥ Simon’s Cat.

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November 20, 2009 by Kirsty in cats, video
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11th Annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance

Today is the 11th Annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance. These people can talk about it far more eloquently than I can:

International Transgender Day of Remembrance website
Helen at Bird of Paradox (and The F Word)
Queenemily at Questioning Transphobia
Ruth at Look Left of the Pleiades
Lucy at Catspaw
Arwyn at Raising my Boychick

To quote Helen:
Today, 20th November 2009, [...]

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November 20, 2009 by Kirsty in blogs, feminism, news & media, politics
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Museum of Storytelling

Here’s a good thing. A museum of storytelling in Oxford is getting the go-ahead after an anonymous £2.5m donation.
From Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland to JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth, CS Lewis’s Narnia and the parallel universes of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Oxford has played host to some of the UK’s most enduring literary creations. Now a £2.5m [...]

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November 19, 2009 by Kirsty in news & media
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Perfect Happiness – Penelope Lively (1983)

I had heard of Penelope Lively. Of course I had. She wrote Moon Tiger, winner of the 1987 Booker Prize. People across the blogosphere raved about her. I used to work in a bookshop and have responsibility for fiction; I’ve shelved her books countless times. I even listened avidly in 2007 when her novel Consequences [...]

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November 18, 2009 by Kirsty in fiction, review
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PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God

In the midst of my reading block, there was one book which I read from cover to cover in one evening. Mind you, PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God by Frank Warren is as much a book to enjoy visually than to “read” as such.
Je t’ai quitté parce qu’elle habite 1km plus près que [...]

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November 17, 2009 by Kirsty in auto/biography, blogs, review
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Reclaiming my Reading Mojo

Phew! Am I glad that’s over! By which, of course, I refer to my two-week reading (and therefore blogging) paralysis. It was torture. Wandering around my house, looking at all my bookshelves, it was like being in a cake shop but having absolutely no appetite. I kept picking books up, tasting a morsel, but found [...]

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November 16, 2009 by Kirsty in fiction, personal
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Reading Block

I seem to have a severe case of Reading Block. For the past 10 days I have been trying to read various things, from the academic to the tacky crime novel, and nothing is sticking. This is at least half of the reason I didn’t blog all last week – I just had nothing to [...]

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November 9, 2009 by Kirsty in personal
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