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Welcome to A Novel Review, the book podcast where every week, Seamus reviews a different book. For 2025 Seamus is doing a ‘Book World Tour’ where every month he ‘travels’ through literature to another country. The rules are simple: Each month he reads two books – one male and one female and the author has…
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A man who can never die traipsing through the annals of history. But the thing is, for him it isn’t history and instead, just the present day. A sweeping novel in which the main character adopts many names, takes on many lives and experiences the rise and fall of empires. And in that rise and…
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I open at the close and today, after 7 books and 7 months, we come to the end of the Harry Potter journey. We are back for the final time for the magical finale where wands are swapped, lives are lost, and Horcruxes take the ultimate beating. It’s a dark whirlwind of cloak-and-dagger secrets—literally—and Dumbledore’s…
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Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively is a clever, kaleidoscopic dive into the memories of Claudia Hampton. Weaving through time, it’s like history told by an unreliable yet fascinating narrator, blending love, war, and introspection. Lively’s writing is sharp and witty, offering both sweeping moments and intimate detail, all while blurring the lines between personal narrative…
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24 years into the century is surely the best time to look back and decide which books are the best books of the 21st century surely? A solid list on flimsy foundations that will most certainly be changed year on year for the next 76 years, or until I die.. whichever comes first! Painting: I…
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The names Bond, James Bond. The introduction to one of literatures most famous spies. The man who smokes 70 cigarettes a day. A high-stakes game of words and cards, where James Bond, suave as a martini and sharp as a razor’s edge, gambles his heart and lives on the turn of a card. A lyrical…
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Back again we go to Hogwarts for Harry’s 6th year of mayhem and madness. A novel in which so much is the same and yet there is a world of difference. The threatening tension from previous books of Voldemort is now realised and defined. And in that, a lifting of tension. We are free to…
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The Novella. The Goldilocks length. Not too short, not too long, but that being said, a novella is tough to pull off. What is it that makes a good novella? Is it the length, the story, the characters? There might never be a correct answer to such a question – just a personal preference. Well,…
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Buying a book is the combining moment of pure excitement meeting the expectation of the unknown. But what happens when you buy a book, and it doesn’t live up to your expectations? It is bound to happen; it is impossible to like everything and be honest to yourself, so tune in this week to listen…
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You are on a train isolated in the middle of a desert. Everyone you are with is capable of committing murder and getting away with it, but also solving murders and framing others. A melting pot of mystery and ego all wrapped up in this year’s Mystery Writers Society annual event. And then, the best…
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