Fáilte!
A Canadian, living in Ireland, blogging about the PhD that consumes 50% of my life and the books and the cat that consume the rest.
diaries
I’ve always been deceptive. I don’t know if this is a learned behaviour, or something inherent in me. When I was small, my parents couldn’t send me to my room as punishment because that was where I kept my toys. Instead, they opted to send me to the spare room. After this happened once or… Continue reading diaries
Book Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
★★★★★ There are some books I’ve simply never owned, despite being among my favourites. I’ve discovered I’m rather picky when it comes to book covers – I refuse to purchase a copy of a favourite book if I don’t feel the cover and the binding are sufficiently nice, worthy of gracing my favourite novels. Rebecca… Continue reading Book Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Book Review: Beroul’s The Romance of Tristan
★★★★☆ My first introduction to the story of Tristan and Isolde was through Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. My dad loves the opera, but my mother doesn’t enjoy them. Luckily for my father, he discovered when I was relatively young that I was exactly the kind of child who loved the opera: big clothes, big… Continue reading Book Review: Beroul’s The Romance of Tristan
Review: The Girl Below by Bianca Zander
★★★☆☆ As yet another one of my mother’s Christmas books, A Girl Below made it through a few members of the family before adding itself to my bookshelf. The back cover teases a supernatural mystery, something that all the women in my family are extremely keen on, and yet my aunt declared the book was,… Continue reading Review: The Girl Below by Bianca Zander
Procrastination vs. Organisation: Tips to get things done
I’ve never been good at organisation, in fact, I’ve always been a terrible procrastinator: after one more episode, after I finish my tea, after I read just one more article, after I respond to this email. Undertaking a PhD requires a higher level of organisation and personal accountability and responsibility than I’ve ever had before.… Continue reading Procrastination vs. Organisation: Tips to get things done
Review: In a Cottage in a Wood by Cass Green
★★★☆☆ As a child, we had a tradition: we were always allowed to purchase one book in the airport. We weren’t exactly frequent travelers, but we usually flew once a year, and every time my brother and I were given the opportunity to select a book from the airport bookshop to amuse us on the… Continue reading Review: In a Cottage in a Wood by Cass Green
Things no one tells you about moving abroad
I had always been in love with Ireland, ever since I was a little girl, to the point where I didn’t even need to announce my intentions to move as everyone in my life already knew that I would be going. I had naively imagined that I would experience no culture shock, that I would… Continue reading Things no one tells you about moving abroad
Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
★★☆☆☆ Books in my family travel. They are slipped in purses, lodged in backpacks and packed in suitcases. They are passed between parents, siblings and children, until everyone has read each book in our communal library. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane was gifted to my mother last Christmas, and having made its way through… Continue reading Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
Moving: A Miscellany
You never realise how many things you have until you have to fit them in a suitcase He bought a Brita filter because he’s wanted one for ages and now we all drink filtered water. Yes, all of us, because “it’s nicer for her!” Yeah, but she’s almost always “my” cat. Tesco microwave butter… Continue reading Moving: A Miscellany
About
Having resolved to increase the amount of books I read for pleasure in the upcoming year, and encouraged by my family to create an outlet for writing that was outside academia, I thought perhaps a blog would be a good start. My life revolves around my Ph.D, and my ever constant companion, Pangur Bán, whose… Continue reading About
Lover Leabhar 