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Numinous Experience
I’ve never read Shelley’s Frankenstein, but it’s a book that has worked its way deep into our culture. Is its impact due to the fact it’s one of the first books to present the numinous experience as an encounter with modernity? In Frankenstein’s monster we have the vaulting ambition of human ingenuity. It is dangerous…
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Mirrors of the Unseen by Jason Elliot
Mirrors of the Unseen. Journeys in Iran drew me in as if I, too, were visiting the country. Elliot mixes ancient and modern history and his own experiences of Iran. His portrayal of people is mostly kindly (I hate sniggering travel books). His observations a trifle self-conscious. The second half of the book lost me…
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New Year Resolutions
Absolutely none. Some years I indulge in them, most years I don’t. I’m neurotic enough without widening my sense of responsibility and guilt. Because, let’s face it, New Year resolutions often do fail. Far better to sneak up on my nasty habits and clobber them unawares. And I’m not saying what my nasty habits are.…
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Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs
So far in the Alpha and Omega series, Hunting Ground is my favourite story. Charles and Anna are both werewolves, but where Charles is an old werewolf, Anna is young, inexperienced and emerging from some serious trauma. The thing is, their wolf natures don’t care about their differences. They’re mated. In the first two Alpha…
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Phoebe Atwood Taylor
Dominating my “to buy” list are the books of Phoebe Atwood Taylor. Whether starring Asey Mayo or Leonidas “Bill Shakespeare” Witherall I enjoy the slightly zany, breathless rush of improbable events and coincidences that lead to the triumphant resolution of a murder mystery. I also enjoy the glimpse of another world–of America recovering from the…