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    Thanks for dropping by....

...and welcome to the website for Raven Books, Blackrock. You'll find a variety of books, book-related news, a posting celebrating writers and writing, and plenty of suggestions for what to read next.  We hope you enjoy browsing! (This site is best viewed using Firefox)


January 27th

Today is the birthday of Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Alice's AdventuresDodgson in Cheshire, England, in 1832.  As well as writing novels and poems, Carroll was a photographer and a mathematician, lecturing in mathematics at Christ's College, Oxford.  He also wrote over 97,000 letters in his lifetime.  Carroll was a renowned storyteller and was inspired to write Alice's Adventures In Wonderland from telling stories to the children of the dean of Christ's College, one of whom was named Alice.  The book was first published in 1865, and was followed in 1872 by Through The Looking Glass.  He wrote, "One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others".



The Pleasures Of Men,
Kate Williams

Spitalfields, 1840.

Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her Uncle in a rambling house in London's East End. She has few companions and little to occupy the days beyond her own colourful imagination. But then a murderer strikes, ripping open the chests of young girls and stuffing hair into their mouths to resemble a beak, leading the press to christen him The Man of Crows. And as Catherine hungrily devours the news, she finds she can channel the voices of the dead ... and comes to believe she will eventually channel The Man of Crows himself.

But the murders continue to panic the city and Catherine gradually realizes she is snared in a deadly trap, where nothing is as it first appears ... and lurking behind the lies Catherine has been told are secrets more deadly and devastating than anything her imagination can conjure.

With an elegant style and thrilling plot, The Pleasures of Men reveals the dark, beating heart of corrupt London during Queen Victoria's reign.



Raylan,
Elmore Leonard

US Marshal Raylan Givens, star of the series Justified, is back in action, this time with a federal warrant to serve on a dope dealer named Angel Arenas, a man 'born in the U.S. but a hundred percent of him Hispanic'. The state troopers are impressed when the marshal struts into the convict's hotel room without drawing his gun, but Raylan soon finds that Angel's already been the victim of another crime, one that's way bigger than a few pot plants, and clearly the work of a professional...

Raylan shows Elmore Leonard at the height of his powers, as we follow one of his favorite protagonists through a series of adventures with unlikely villains. As ever, the work is filled with unexpected twists and the most vibrant, crackling dialogue currently available in the English language.
Ramblings

Young Me, Now Me

Find an old family photograph, dust it off and just imagine what you’d all look like were you to repeat the shot.... read on


And I Quote...
To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June ~ Jean-Paul Sartre



Do we need religion? Can the answer be found in books? Stephen Crane investigates.



The Inquisition revolutionised record-keeping and surveillance techniques. Cullen Murphy's new book God's Jury draws parallels between some of the interrogation techniques used in previous centuries with the ones used today.



Author and neurologist Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa recommends three brilliant brain-teasing books.



In The Flame Alphabet, a chilling dystopian novel by Ben Marcus, the speech of children begins poisoning adults.


  Poetry Corner

A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky
Lewis Carroll
      
          
A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July —

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear —

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?


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