A review of The Galloping Horse by Petra White
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
2d ago
The Galloping Horse encourages an exploration of complex emotions and experiences, offering a way to process the more challenging aspects of life with a deep authenticity combined with skilful use of language and the ability to resonate with the reader on a deep level especially with melancholic subject matter.  Read more ..read more
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A review of Turn Up The Heat by Ruth Danon
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
4d ago
Her writing appears to be straight forward. The language can be ordinary. It is simple in the best possible meaning of that word. Then, one reads more slowly or reads a lot in one sitting and finds one’s self looking for that other poem, Read more ..read more
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An interview with Ruth Danon
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
4d ago
The author of Turn Up The Heat talks about her latest book, about becoming a poet and the nature of poetry, the relationship between form and content, her style, the subject-object relationship, rhythm and musicality, voice, on doing readings, and lots more. Read more ..read more
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The Hand of Fate: A review of Unbound by Sinead McGuigan
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
6d ago
A place of oceans and mountains, rivers and dreams, myths and a reality that references the nightmare of history and celebrates the wonder of being. Unbound takes readers on a journey. A journey of the self affirms the value of all selves—this journey, going from one place to another. The poems wander; they look in, they reach out. Read more ..read more
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A review of Indecent Hours by James Fujinami Moore
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
1w ago
Indecent Hours, James Fujinami Moore’s inaugural volume of verse, makes me glad I occasionally have the decency to break bad habits. What provides Indecent Hours its thematic coherence are the specters of cruelty that haunt its pages, the major and minor traumas Moore documents with an economy of words as refined as it is brutal.   Read more ..read more
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A review of What Start a Bad Mornin’ by Carol Mitchell
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
1w ago
Ms Mitchell can take the lives of her characters forward, but to solve the mystery of Amaya’s past, Amaya must go into the past. That is why she recounts what happened as though it is happening. Again. Time is the biggest mystery. The stories are about Amaya Lin in particular, but Time and memory include everything. Even when you think you have forgotten, that lost time is still alive in you. I have already read it twice.           Read more ..read more
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A review of Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
1w ago
In the interest of full disclosure (and how seldom we hear of disclosure that is not full), I didn't like the authorial voice of The Passenger from the first page. But we'll come to Alicia and her troubles later. To continue with the discussion of signifiers, here we have an author steeped in Americana: the American story, as understood by America, and the cultural signifiers best known by Americans. Read more ..read more
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A review of Bright-Eyed by Sarah Sarai
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
1w ago
Sarah Sarai is full of good humor, earned wisdom and sound advice, not just for her nephew and niece but for all of us. But as she wittily cautions at the start of “A Vegas Vegan,” “I never promised you a statistician.” Nor a rose garden either! But you’ll enjoy her poetry nonetheless, no matter how perplexed you remain. Read more ..read more
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The Hero’s Folly: a Review of Shadow Dance by Martin Ott
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
2w ago
The oft-mentioned shadows are less a motif than a thick overlay; they are attached to every chapter title and peppered liberally throughout the prose. Their frequent appearance constitutes not so much a choreographed “dance” than a densely-packed rave where the music is a single chorus on a thumping loop. Read more ..read more
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Giveaway!
Compulsive Reader
by Magdalena Ball
2w ago
We have a copy of The Deepfake by Joan Cohen to give away! To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of April from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck! Read more ..read more
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