Middlefocus

  Where Are The Kings Donal Ryan Transworld Digital, Penguin Random House, via NetGalley Advance Reader Copy (ARC) Read on Kindle Publication date: August 2026 4* I have physical copies of all of Donal Ryan's books, so when NetGalley offered me an advance reader copy of Where Are the Kings for review, I jumped at the chance.  The title immediately intrigued me.  Was a question mark missing? A glance at the dedication page deepened the mystery.  There was an extract from WB Yeats's On Baile's Strand, depicting someone fighting "crowns" on the waves amid cries of "Where are the kings?" The passage hints at struggle, grief and perhaps even madness—elements that resonate throughout the novel. Just a few minutes into the first chapter, I read: “There doesn't have to be a reason for crying. 
Sometimes crying just starts itself up in a person, and the person has no control of it.” This is our young protagonist, 12-year-old Jack, watching his mother. What a ...

    Night Flight , Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, with an introduction by André Gide Translated by Stuart Gilbert, Penguin Books, 1940 edition. This English translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Vol de Nuit came from a late friend's bookshelves. The Penguin edition with its distinctive orange-and-white cover, denoting works of fiction, is now 86 years old and the content very much of its time.  Aviation was in its pioneering age and although the events described are tragic, the French writer, André Gide in his introduction writes "great though these risks still are, they are growing daily less, for each successive trip facilitates and improves the prospects of the next one."  Sadly those diminishing risks were not realised as is apparent by  another book from the same shelves—a book that survived an air crash. Back in 2001 my friend had ordered a title on the Geology of Ireland from a bookseller in Selkirk, Scotland. The book was on board an aircraft that crashe...

Really enjoyed this memoir from the reserved shelves of Libraries NI.  An account of three artists, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon and James MacIntyre spending the summer of 1951 on the Island of Inishlacken on the western coast of Ireland across from Roundstone, County Galway. James was the youngest of the three and the author of the memoir. Gerard died in 1971, George in 1979 and James in 2015. What I liked about this memoir was the sense of comradeship and adventure back in the early 1950s. The stories of the artistic community in Belfast of the time and the familiar (to me) places mentioned all combined to keep me turning the pages. There are delightful pen portraits of the characters and islanders. The observations on the work of artists developing their style were fascinating. I went in search of this book having heard about it through the publicity for an event in the FE McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge. Back in November 2025 the Friends of the Gallery hosted an artist talk b...

Four reads for November.  Not weighty tomes this time but already sure that there will be plenty of stimulating content. Fiction: Breaking Point by Edel COFFEY Non-fiction: Women and Power, a manifesto by Mary BEARD French literature: L'Heure Exquise by Dominique BARBÉRIS Poetry and Drama: Red Velvet by Lolita CHAKRABARTI I've set myself a new goal of reading a lot more non-fiction - a genre that will include essays, biographies and commentaries.  Add to that a work of fiction each month as well as a French text and some poetry/drama. We'll see how that develops.

Managed to squeeze-in-a-read on our trip in Turkey.  How appropriate that it should be Orhan PAMUK's The Red-Haired Woman .  I thoroughly enjoyed this story which reprised aspects of the Oedipus myth - the interplay of tensions between fathers and sons. The context of the novel is well-digging in a small town on the outskirts of Istanbul. The red-haired woman is a member of a travelling troup of actors who visit the town. She becomes the object of our narrator's attention. There is a connection with the father. A terrible accident occurs and there follows decades of repressed guilt... and an unexpected denouement.  The story definitely kept my interest and the final pages definitely caught me off guard. Reading those I simply had to go back and restart the novel. Really?  Check it out - you'll get my drift. It was fascinating to read a novel in situ - travelling through parts of Istanbul mentioned in the story. I finished it while there but I didn't take th...

  Wasn't able to make this event - abroad on travels - but have read the book which I much enjoyed. Anyone out there attend? Reaction? What a great idea.

  I am plannig to read these four books this month.  My Name Is Red. Orhan PAMUK The heftiest by far is Orhan PAMUK's My Name Is Red published in 2001 by Faber&Faber.  We are holidaying in Turkey soon and as I like to read literature from the country I am visiting I thought this would hit the spot. Mind you, I'll have to be mindful of baggage allowances and so perhaps an e-version or audiobook might be more practical for carrying around. Here's some info on the book from Faber&Faber This train is for.  Bernie McGill It's Book Week NI later this month and local writer Bernie McGill will be sharing some readings and reflections at Suffolk Library where I attend a monthly reading group.  I've already started this one having picked it up at the library last week. The book, a collection of short stories, was published by No Alibis Press in 2022. Here's some details from the publisher  and information from the author herself here. There are plenty of even...

  The plan has been a while in the making.  It is to address my ToBeRead (TBR) stack which gets bigger by the week.  Have you a similar pile? You know, the one that sits on a shelf or at the side of your bed. Yes that one! You pass a bookshop and something new catches your eye. Okay then, let's get that.  Or you've been to a book launch, met the author and because it was a free event (maybe with a glass of wine) you felt it was just downright rude not to buy a copy of their latest. Don't even think of the book programmes on TV and Radio when listening in inevitably leads to another purchase. So yes, I welcome all those opportunities for the new but feel the need to balance the flow and make room for them.  The way I'm doing that is through a reading planner. I'll share this on another post but essentially I have created a specific calendar on my phone to schedule a month's reading in advance. What's the saying? Those who fail to plan are planning to fail.  ...

Title: Montaigne Author: Stefan Zweig.  Translation and Introduction by Will Stone Published: Pushkin Press / Kindle 2015 First published 1941 I regret to say that I had not previously read anything by Stefan ZWEIG (1881-1942).  However, I was intrigued to follow up on a recommendation to read this small volume on Montaigne, whose lifestyle and essay writing I have long found fascinating.  What struck me most in this short biography is the overlap with Zweig's own situation in fleeing the Nazi onslaught of the 20th century to Montaigne's position as a renaissance philosopher and essayist amid societal upheaval at the end of the 16th century.  There are clear resonances with our modern world and I found myself on several occasions marking material that could apply just as much to today as it did in those earlier periods.  There is a substantial introduction to the book by Will Stone who translated the original and in his observations there was also much to highli...

  There are times when I feel that I have to clear out some of my books. It’s not that I no longer appreciate those that I have decided to re-home, it’s more about making more space to let in the new. My latest dispersal included several books not on display but stored away in cupboards. It has been years since I opened them and I decided that they needed a more conscientious custodian.  Use them or diffuse them!  is my new guiding mantra. Mind you, flicking through some that I had earmarked for donation, I found myself rereading. Interest renewed I decided to keep them. They live to light another day. I wondered how much I had invested in the books and did a quick online search to check availability and current values. Even some of my pristine hard covers were only just a few £ pounds and there were loads for sale. So having decided to send the books on their way to new owners, it would be relatively simple and cheap to buy them again if I found I was missing them. Selec...

  Preparing for our trip to the Czech Republic I purchased a copy of Vaclav Havel's Power of the Powerless with an introduction by Professor Timothy Snyder. I've made this contract with myself that wherever I go abroad I'll delve into appropriate literature from the country, get a book, bring it with me and read it when there.  A cultural backcloth to the visit. In situ reading. Close to our hotel in Prague we spotted this memorial to the Velvet Revolution and returned to picture it with the book. Power of the Powerless is a challenging although instructive read. Notes: Check out the Vintage edition of the book here. See this related Wikipedia article here. Find the Velvet Revolution Memorial on Národní Trida in Prague

  I always like to begin writing in a fresh notebook and diaries are special in that regard as a new year, whether calendar or academic, offers the promise of starting again. Gathering up my store of diaries, I look back and see that I first started using the Collins Essential One day type (pictured above) in 2021. That diary format tied in nicely with a new year’s resolution to write around 300 words a day. I guess that I have nurtured and stuck to that habit as lots of words have been written over the years. I had used Moleskin notebooks for a long time before that mainly to capture ideas and snippets of information. The Moleskins also doubled up with journal entries and travel logs. The issue I always had was how to track and call up the information my notebooks contained. I’ve made various attempts to index the contents with limited success. As well as my diary, I still use a notebook to record ideas and snippets but treat it as a kind of commonplace book. My latest one has a f...

In 1967 when I had just turned 16, I got a summer job working in a fabric shop where my aunt was manager. It was a store selling dressmaking cottons and curtain material and my job was to brush and vacuum the floors. Before leaving to resume school I made it to the sales counter. After those first pay packets I thought I was "landed" - indispensable maybe? The workers there took me under their wings and I fondly remember one old gentleman who must have had a theatrical bent as he would share lines of poetry and plays with me. One day he declaimed the poem below. I can see him still, sure he was giving me a life lesson. I loved it and learning the words from him, I too committed it to memory.  Over the years since I have remembered its key moral message about indispensability.  I had occasion to recall the words recently and typed them in to a search engine. The result flashed back instantaneously. And there was the the poem at the top of the search and importantly the name o...

  Title: Amongst Women Author: John McGahern Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-571-22564-4 Paperback. Pre-owned My rating: 4* The back flap sets the scene: "Moran is an old republican whose life was forever transformed by his days of glory as a guerrilla fighter in the War of Independence. Now, in his old age, living out in the country, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past." This is a relatively short book at less than 200 pages and it soon becomes clear that the title Amongst Women not only refers to the farmhouse home at Great Meadow in which the action largely takes place but also to the phrase in the Hail Mary prayer recited in the family Rosary that recurs often in the story. The writing is lovely and captures the mood as the story goes through various and sometimes repetitive phases. This seems to me intentional. There are no chapters but the text is broken into distinct p...

Title: Men-in-the-Middle Conversations to Gain Momentum with Gender Equity's Silent Majority Author: Kori REED Publisher: Pure Ink Press, 2023 Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9875866-5-5 My rating: 5* The media soundscape reverberates with discussions on gender issues often emphasising equity issues in the workplace. For some reason male voices seem to be silent on the conversations that need to be had.   This was one of the key observations put forward in this challenging yet engaging book by Kori Reed. The book's structure is built around conversations with men discussing various workplace practices and situations, which being familiar to me as a male rang true.   The premise was inviting and moments into the introduction I was hooked.   I think I realised right from the outset that this should not be a quick read - the ideas and challenges shared would need time for reflection and action.   So I took a chapter at a sitting.   You can read each of the eleven chapters i...