Ian πͺπΊ
@theyannster.bsky.social
π€ 179
π₯ 270
π 102
Reader,golfer, loves dogs and music (people not so much)
I love Everett. This one is darker with fewer jokes, but then it has dual strands of a married couple coping with the terminal diagnosis of their pre-teen only child, and modern slavery in modern America. Heart-breaking, devastating and tense, with enough humour to make it a joy to read.
#BookSky
6 days ago
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Terminally ill Tom agrees to meet penpal Oliver in out of the way seaside town that has seen better days. In a beautifully drawn shabby hotel, with shabbier staff and even worse clientele, a draw takes place with life-changing prize. Explores guilt, death, and the soul.
#BookSky
12 days ago
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Last and longest of the 2025 Booker list. Lovely if over-long tale of lovers and their missteps. There is humour, pathos, mysticism and gorgeous lyrical prose. Wouldn't be surprised if it lifted the big prize, but lack of judicious editing left it in 3rd place for me - but a wonderful book.
#BookSky
17 days ago
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My
#Booker
top 5 in order 1. The Land in Winter - Andrew Miller 2. Flesh - David Szalay 3. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny - Kiran Desai 4. Flashlight - Susan Choi 5. Seascraper - Benjamin Wood
#BookSky
17 days ago
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4
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Book 12 of the Booker list. Emotional family epic sprawling across East Asia and the US. Full of loss and longing, hope and despair. A satisfying if sad denouement completing a broken circle of broken people made slightly more whole. Loved it.
#BookSky
about 1 month ago
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Wordle 1,576 2/6* π©π©β¬β¬π¨ π©π©π©π©π© 2 2s in 2 days
about 2 months ago
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Wordle 1,575 2/6* π¨β¬π©β¬π¨ π©π©π©π©π© Today is going to be a great day
about 2 months ago
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Booker list 11. Certainly in the top 2 or 3 so far. Winter of β62/β63. Neighbours with very different problems find their issues exposed in the claustrophobic atmosphere of cold, snow, blizzards. I liked it very much.
#BookSky
about 2 months ago
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6
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Book 20 of the Booker list. Didnβt make the shortlist. An examination of late-stage capitalism and populism through the prism of journalism and the life of an anti-woke journalist. As irritating in fiction as in real life, the views expressed just make me want to hold my head in my hands.
#BookSky
2 months ago
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Booker list 9. Plays with structure enough to interest without diverting too much from narrative. War in Ukraine vividly brought to life through eyes of oddballs on edge of society. Topic alone may make it a contender.
#BookSky
2 months ago
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Business idea. Bib-shorts for tradesmen. Having endured a morning of the dreaded βcrackβ from the electrician in my house. I figured that some sort of bib-short would cover a multitude of sins.
3 months ago
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Booker list 8. This one messed with my head. Part one pretty straightforward, then part 2 continues the narrative with different relationships and goes on to question each characterβs role. Not sure what it was trying to tell me, but it told it beautifully.
#BookSky
3 months ago
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Booker list 7. Sort of coming of age tale of Jay as his family goes south to visit inherited farm and he meets Chuan. Little happens and maybe the subtlety was lost on me. Change of narration from 1st person to 3rd and back jarred a little. Sorry, not for me.
#BookSky
3 months ago
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Book 30 of '25 and Booker list 6. The life of a man told in sparse prose and sparser dialogue, "okay", "sure"! Yet fully realised and utterly compelling - definitely a contender for the big prize.
#BookSky
3 months ago
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Booker 5. 16 year old gets "ketch", goes to Venezuela and a group of kindly nuns. Begins a new life in England with the constant shadow of the daughter she left behind. Beautifully brings to life the contrast between UK and Trinidadian cultures and values,while exploring what it means to be a mother
3 months ago
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Booker list 4 - 2 visits to Greece, 9 years apart, not always clear at first which visit we're witnessing. Same characters, different lives. Interesting technique switching from narration to narrator's notes worked well for me. Enjoyed till final chapter left me cold. Still worth the read.
3 months ago
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5
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Booker list 3. The Albanian/US culture clashes are better drawn than most of the characters. There's incident and drama and it feels like there's something great here trying to get out, but not getting beyond the ok. Not one for the shortlist.
4 months ago
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What Sarah said πππππππ
add a skeleton here at some point
4 months ago
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And another one reaches the 90 landmark
4 months ago
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No 2 of Booker list. A life of hopeless drudgery, a guitar, a film director, a girl and a song from a dying man's dream all wrapped in a beautifully evoked foggy gloom with the faintest hint of sun poking through. Even reading it in mid-summer you can feel the damp seeping into your bones.
#BookSky
4 months ago
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Wordle 1,505 6/6* π¨β¬β¬π¨β¬ β¬π©π©π©π© β¬π©π©π©π© β¬π©π©π©π© β¬π©π©π©π© π©π©π©π©π© Again βphewβ
4 months ago
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Wordle 1,504 2/6* β¬π©π¨π¨β¬ π©π©π©π©π© Some days the random first word method works a treat
4 months ago
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Booker Longlist 1. Middle-aged couple live in aftermath of affair till youngest goes to college. Dad drives her there, then keeps on driving, visiting friends and thereby revisiting his past, turning a blind eye to future. Tom is a reliably dry narrator honest with everyone but himself.
#BookSky
4 months ago
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All Dolly wants, without being able to name it at the turn of the 20th century in rural Australia, is equality of opportunity. Seeking her own place in a changing world through 2 global wars, she sacrifices love and family in a constant search of the next thing. Engaging.
#BookSky
4 months ago
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Book 23 of '25. Excellent cast of beautifully drawn characters, focusing on Bob the "sin-eater'. The conversations are real, inner-lives exposed. There are more life lessons than a whole season of Ted Lasso. Excellent.
#BookSky
4 months ago
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Golf injury
4 months ago
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Book 22 of '25. Siblings held together by desperate need for paternal approval, ripped apart by tragedy as each attempts to cope in ways that emphasise their differences. Joyce dares you to jump to obvious conclusions and throws them back in your face.
#BookSky
4 months ago
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11
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Wordle 1,482 6/6* β¬β¬β¬π¨β¬ π¨β¬π¨π¨β¬ β¬π©π©π©π© β¬π©π©π©π© β¬π©π©π©π© π©π©π©π©π© Phew indeed
5 months ago
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Just me and my bestie sharing a moment
5 months ago
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An important book. Uses simple prose to tell a remarkable story. A complex character who manages to somehow hold on to his humanity in the most inhumane of circumstances. The contradictions in his character are explored and the horror around him not shied away from. A must read.
#BookSky
5 months ago
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5
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Full of love and hope but with a background of incredible brutality, which 40 years on from publication is hard to stomach. It's hard not to root for Kerewin, harder not to love Simon, but Joe is too hard to love and understand. The writing is beautifully lyrical, but the ending too neat.
#BookSky
5 months ago
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8
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Loveliest saddest most beautiful song ever
open.spotify.com/track/2H4cWs...
loading . . .
Lonely Anywhere
the everybodyfields Β· Nothing Is Okay Β· Song Β· 2007
https://open.spotify.com/track/2H4cWsUMF7yWZSSGyvknqt?si=8Xvk88ZzT3CsBeGyK8v0eg
6 months ago
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reposted by
Ian πͺπΊ
Ben Goldsborough MP
6 months ago
If they canβt run a party of 5 MPs how are they going to run a countryβ¦ π€―
3
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My top 5 reads so far in 2025 1 The Magician - Colm Toibin 2 The Glutton - AK Blakemore 3 Saville - David Storey 4 In Memoriam - Alice Winn 5 The Weekend - Charlotte Wood
#BookSky
6 months ago
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9
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Book 19 0f '25. School friends and lovers navigate youth, war, the horror of the trenches, the attitudes of Edwardian England, loss and more. At times I wanted to skip the grim familiar descriptions of Loos and the Somme, but sticking with it paid ultimate dividends. Wonderful book.
#BookSky
6 months ago
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The βNormal Peopleβ comparison put me off and itβs very wide of the mark. But this is a lovely tale of new love and friendship late in life. Deftly delves into how 2 set in their ways individuals navigate their differences and find a common path to an uncommon conclusion.
#BookSky
6 months ago
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Book 17 of '25. Moctezuma and Cortes meet, take drugs, and T-Rex's "Monolith" is heard. Mad as it sounds, but also deeply insightful and disturbing. There is cannibalism, summary execution and sodomy. Wild and quite wonderful.
#BookSky
6 months ago
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Book 16 of '25. Fascinating compilation of short stories with recurring themes. The Asian-American experience, loss, grief, re-invention. I bought it assuming a novel and glad I made the mistake. Loved it.
#BookSky
6 months ago
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5
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Wordle 1,426 6/6* β¬β¬β¬β¬β¬ β¬π¨π¨β¬π¨ π¨β¬π©π©π© β¬π©π©π©π© β¬π©π©π©π© π©π©π©π©π© Thought it was going to be one of those days.
7 months ago
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Paris
7 months ago
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3
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Book 15 of '25. Fascinating characters linked by love and loss and war, with their stories revealed backwards from 1947 to 1941. The reverse unfolding of the narrative worked really well and I will certainly seek out more by Sarah Waters.
#BookSky
7 months ago
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3
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And the football commentator said βitβs the veteran, the pensioner, the 37 year old!β Well f**k you, football commentator!
7 months ago
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A year is a long time in golf
7 months ago
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Book 14 of '25. Once I got over the population of stereotypes I was in. A young person's attempt at finding their true self through the prisms of work, relationships and family history, all shining a different light. Ultimately a satisfying read.
#BookSky
7 months ago
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Book 13 of '25. Felt a little like I was being provoked rather than challenged, and yet found myself finally rooting for the narrator, who frankly made her own mess with little thought of the consequences for others.
#booksky
7 months ago
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3 friends gather at the house of deceased 4th's to clear contents. Inner lives are explored and contrasted with how they are seen from outside. Lovely, not without tragedy. A kernel of love and hope, and warning that however we see ourselves, we mustn't be fooled that that is how the world sees us.
8 months ago
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1976 Booker winner. Son of a coal miner goes to grammar school and spends years searching for his place in the world. If Ken Loach wrote novels, it would probably be something like this - in a good way.
#BookSky
8 months ago
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Breaking news. Itβs official. I really canβt organise a piss up in a pub. Wifeβs big 60th birthday family lunch will now be attended by only 5 people (originally 13). I am so shit at this- though to be fair the Heathrow debacle was not down to me.
8 months ago
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Ahh thatβs more like it
8 months ago
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A masterpiece. Thomas Mann's life. War, literature, music, fame, populism, family, sexuality, nationality, identity, and yet at the heart of it a flawed, vulnerable, confused, relatable genius. Essential reading.
9 months ago
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3
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