Category Archives: Writing

Book Review: Trent Dalton’s Love Stories

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

Love Stories by Trent Dalton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I’m going to go right down the middle with a middling rating of this book, with the stars mostly for the intention. It is clear that Dalton is a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Lorrie Moore’s The Collected Stories

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

The Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore My rating: 3 of 5 stars I think I was in university when I first discovered Lorrie Moore, reading Like Life (1990) and then liking it so much that I read Birds of America … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Eduardo Galeano’s The Book of Embraces

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

The Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I was first exposed to the Memory of Fire trilogy, it was a revelation. Here, in anecdotes both poetic and mythic, Galeano turned the history of … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Andrew O’Hagan’s Be Near Me

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Because I’d raved about O’Hagan’s Marilyn Monroe book (as narrated by her dog, Maf), a new literary friend loaned me one of his favourite books, ‘Be Near Me’. … Continue reading →

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Book Review. Alice Munro’s Friend of My Youth

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro My rating: 4 of 5 stars I return to this page, and see, a surprise to me, that I rated it three stars in 2011. I actually don’t remember reading it before. It … Continue reading →

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Book review: Alice Munro’s The Progress of Love

Posted on 10 January 2025 by andyq

The Progress of Love by Alice Munro My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’ve decided to get all of Alice Munro’s work and go back and read them all … eventually. Previous to this one, I finished ‘Something I’ve Been … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Rebecca F. Huang’s Yellowface

Posted on 2 July 2024 by andyq

I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages. The premise is so, so good. Quite a while ago, a friend posted on Facebook (Hi Harsukh) that she just didn’t get the book, and I wondered why, with it seeming … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Sharon Olds’ Balladz (poetry)

Posted on 30 July 2023 by andyq

Balladz by Sharon Olds My rating: 5 of 5 stars I think I must have discovered Sharon Olds’ book The Gold Cell in my late teens or early twenties, and then worked my way backwards as well as reading her … Continue reading →

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Hi Andy, it’s Andy

Posted on 8 July 2023 by andyq

I had a routine with Andy, whether by email or phone, where I’d immediately greet him with ‘Hi Andy. It’s Andy.’ This amused me inordinately and Andy agreed, telling me once, ‘It never gets old’. Way back in 2011, in … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Creative Non-Fiction, How to live, Writing | 2 Comments

Book Review: Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem

Posted on 12 June 2023 by andyq

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu My rating: 3 of 5 stars An interesting controversy, I can see, from the reviews on Goodreads. A dear friend recommended this to me, although he said I might not like it, if I’m … Continue reading →

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