I was wondering whether to put ‘Cultural Differences’ instead of ‘Koreans’ in my title. Could ‘Koreans’ somehow sound a bit … I don’t know … politically incorrect, I wondered. Especially since the word is followed by ‘autism’ and ‘isolation’, neither of which has positive associations. But no, I decided to stick to ‘Koreans’. After all, [...]
It’s Sunday again, blogging day; the summer vacation is almost as over – or will be by midnight tonight – and I’ve found myself thinking, Hmm. What have I done this long hot sultry summer? In terms of targets, what have I achieved? (What have you achieved?) What grade would I get for Not Having [...]
The summer holidays are drawing to a close. A pretty banal statement, you might think? Not if you work in the field of education, as I do, or if you’re still in the process of being educated - which we all were, once upon a time, right? That is, unless you happened to be brought [...]
I had my first child and my first puppy in close proximity of each other. The puppy was a female mongrel of eight weeks, the child a female toddler of sixteen months. And the novel I was working on at the time was about twelve months old. That is, I’d been writing it for the [...]
First of all, let me emphasise that this truly is a noble book. Really, I mean it. I’m not being facetious. Even though I’m about to embark upon a few critical thoughts, I still fervently maintain that this is a noble book. And for that reason alone, I say Hats off to the author, Heather Morris. [...]
I thought I’d have a blog-chat about something completely different this week. Namely, about a novel that everyone in the bookish world appears to be talking about of late: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelikes. I’ve read a lot of books this summer holiday, but The Silent Patient is one that I have found almost impossible [...]
After Neil Armstrong’s death in 2012, his family made the touching statement: “Next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.” Isn’t that’s a lovely piece of advice? Not just in memory of Neil Armstrong, the first man [...]
