Well Read Beard reviews Chad Lutzke’s ‘The Neon Owl – When The Shit Hits The Van. Chad’s work is fabulous and if you’ve not discovered the prose magic this guy offers with every book you might want to change that this year! Don’t forget to subscribe to The Beard! Unlike many other Arts & Entertainment
George Saunders, lauded for his short stories and winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Lincoln in the Bardo, has been a teacher on the Syracuse University MFA creative writing program since 1997. This book is based on one of his Syracuse courses on Russian literature. A Swim in a Pond includes seven classic
What a book… I did help format this book but my review is based on the fabulous writing that is held within the pages and not my involvement in the project (just for transparency I wanted to mention that small fact). Girl on Fire wastes no time and throwing the reader headlong into the story,
A classic that feels on the forefront of its genre, it’s not hard to understand why Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land has been hailed as one of the novels which set the tone for popular science-fiction. Yet, in addition to the Martian lands and futuristic practices, Heinlein also offers up his powerful comments
 Horror – an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. Perpetual Dread is the perfect title for this books as with each turn of the page I was unsure what would face me. It is one of the darkest and most depraved books I’ve ever read – it is full on extreme horror –
Here’s an interesting premise for a thriller: three students are brutally attacked and lynched by a mob in the Nigerian university town of Okriki. Everybody knows who did it – the whole thing was captured on social media – but nobody knows why. Dr Philip Taiwo, a psychologist and expert on the behaviour of crowds,
Informative and necessary, Abdulrazak Gurnah uses stripped back prose to tell the stories of Hamza, Ilyas and Afiya in his insightful new novel, Afterlives. It’s a satisfying linear tale, and one that doesn’t need any literary embellishments to bring the narrative to life. Gurnah takes us through the lives of his characters in a simple, effective
While 2020 has unarguably been one full of stressors and upsets, it has (thankfully) been a great year for my literary intake. Months of furlough and a year spent mostly indoors has allowed me to turn to my bookshelves, reading lists and book recommendations, and wade through the bad times with words. The books on
A huge thank you goes out to Well Read Beard – why have you not subscribed to his YouTube channel yet, you are missing a trick. So I’ve made it easier for you, just click here and have your mind opened to a whole host of indie writers you’ve not heard of but need to
I first discovered Mitch Sebourn during the Covid pandemic – and I have to say it’s one of the best things that has come out of all that crazy! With being stuck in the house and not a lot to do (when I wasn’t at work) I also decided to set up a YouTube channel
