so-soMonk Nichephoerous‘ dream of Saint Nicholas leads him on a heist to steal the Saint‘s bones. With irreverent and sometimes nihilistic language it still sometimes a little too opaque for me and the style often leaves me feeling detached from the characters.
https://youtu.be/LBq8qdYz8rU
pickWitty and intelligent, Nicked weaves a magical story out of historical facts.
pickThis is a dark tale (with a whiff of Hilary Mantel's "Beyond Black"?) of disappearance and suspicious death, set in a crumbling mansion with the principal characters being cantankerous (and possibly dangerous) old Cathal Flood and his carer Maud. It's an engrossing mystery that manages to be slyly funny and also poignant.
Extra marks for Renata, Maud's agoraphobic trans landlady.
Top marks for Aoife McMahon's superb narration.
pickI bought this book based on the description: “wildly imaginative, genre-defying, and delightfully queer adventure—a swashbuckling saga, a medieval novel noir, a meditation on the miraculous, and a monastic meet-cute.” No regrets!
pan★★☆☆☆
I'm glad I read this as an influential historical document, but wow! Despite my strict religious upbringing and lifelong fascination with Christian monasticism, I was somehow not prepared for just how authoritarian Benedict's Rule would be.
I got this book from a flea market back in 2016, finally got around to reading it. Almost halfway through the book, Joan hasn‘t saved France yet. But it‘s a really good read so far. Very promising!
#snowflake #snowflakes #papersnowflakes
A very old book about St. Nick…author is Edric Vredenburg, no publication date, not in Litsy database. The art is beautiful.
#StNick
#DecemberDreams
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
