Rick O'Shea

Book Ninety Seven 2014: The Assassination Of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel First of all, shame me – this is the first Hilary Mantel I have ever read. Done? Good. This is a collection that ranges from the interesting to the short and pithy through the fascinating title story right the way to one story which as far as I’m concerned is one of the best I have ever read (Harley Street in case you’re interested; I read it twice). Ashamed to say I mad the choice on the intriguing title and the beautiful cover, very glad I did.

Book Ninety Six 2014: All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman I’ve read a couple of his books in the past, in this I have rarely come across something with so many brilliant vivid ideas in such a small space. Tom is a regular guy all of whose friends just so happen to have one superpower or another (many of them very, very strange). He marries The Perfectionist and on their wedding day she’s hypnotised by one of her ex-boyfriends into thinking he’s invisible. As beautiful and bonkers as you might think it would be. I *love* what goes […]

Book Ninety Five 2014: Not That Kind Of Girl by Lena Dunham Part David Sedaris-style observational pieces about her life with elegant phrases, part her own (bonkers at times) life backstory, part manifesto for life, I presume your interest in this very much depends on whether you like what Lena Dunham does in life. I do, parts of it are very funny, parts quite sad, parts are almost unbelievable, parts are incredibly intimately confessional and there are parts where I wonder why I’m reading an e-mail exchange in full between two people I don’t know and will never meet. I […]

Book Ninety Four 2014: The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide No, I don’t have an obsession with Japanese authors either. It’s just I’ve read a quite a few this year by coincidence… This one has been staring out at me from the bestseller shelves in a bookshop in town for a while and I am absolutely sure that whether you enjoy it or not depends on your attitude to cats. A small one wanders into the life of a thirty-something Japanese couple renting a small house from a neighbour’s yard and proceeds to change their relationship and the world around them. As I’ve said […]

Book Ninety Three 2014: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami I don’t have a Murakami addiction. No siree bob… This is not only his second book this year but the 5th (I think?) of his I’ve read in the last 2 years. It had a certain air of mystery to it as I’d deliberately read nothing to do with it and it was sealed in plastic in bookshops. Dive in, so… Unlike Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years Of Pilgrimage from earlier in the year it’s slim, beautifully illustrated and a simple kids story full of his usual weirdness and wonder. Loved it.

Book Ninety Two 2014: 10 Billion by Stephen Emmott Remember earlier this year when I read Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything? My one problem with it was that it’s quite a hefty tome, thus putting off so many people. This gives the same message in 170 pages. You’ll have it read in an hour. If I could I would have one delivered into the hands of everyone on Earth. Read it. The future of all of u and all of ourchidren depends on it.