paumurp
paumurp.bsky.social
paumurp
@paumurp.bsky.social
Irish Youth worker. Easily pleased, usually slow to anger. Stick a book in my hand and give me some music to listen to and I'm generally happy. I look for dead people in my spare time (genealogy), I take some photos and I walk the occasional hill.
Book 102 King of Ashes by S A Cosby #BookSky Now I've loved all of Cosby's work so far, but this felt like it wasn't quiet as good as his other novels. I mostly enjoyed it, but didn't love it. Roman is a wealth manager, is called home as his father has had an accident and is in a coma - turns out..
December 17, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Book 101 'Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (translated Eric Ozawa) #BookSky I'm really undecided about the sort of cozy fiction uplifting type genre that is the sort of sub genre that there seems to be a lot of from Japan or Korea. This is one of the better ones, but they all seem
December 17, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Book 100 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood #BookSky 5 star read. Understated, quiet, moving, beautifully written, interesting characters and an interesting story. Tom is a 'shanker' - he lives a hard life with his mother earning from collecting whatever he can catch from the sea using old manual ways.
December 17, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Book 99 The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine #BookSky A young woman is sexually assaulted by 3 young men. The story of it's aftermath unfolds through the POV of the mothers of the three young men, the father of the girl, and the girl herself.

Set in Northern Ireland its a story of class, privilege but
December 17, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Book 98 The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar #BookSky This is a really nice novella - A fairytale about two sisters living near the boundaries between the land of fae and the 'real world'. One (Esther) is pursued by a unwanted suitor, but she is in love with someone from the fae.
December 17, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Book 97 What We Can Know by Ian McEwan #BookSky An interesting novel that I felt I admired rather than loved. Part speculative fiction about a future UK mostly underwater after climate change has writ it's damage. But also a bit of a hunt for a lost poem and a general exploration of how society
December 6, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Book 96 Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon #Booksky well this was a ride. My inner reading voice became a Sam Spade type voice. The main character is a PI in 1930s Milwaulkee dipping occasionally into Chicago. He's looking for a missing heiress, but it soon diverts in to odd territory - nazis included
December 6, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Book 95 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy #Booksky This is part an eco novel, part mystery. A woman washes up on a remote island near Antartica. She is saved by a teenage girl who lives on the island with her father and 2 brothers. The father is the caretaker for what was a research station.
December 6, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Book 94 'We Pretty Pieces of Flesh' by Colwill Brown #Booksky This is a raw but really nice novel about female friendship - it's positives and negatives. It set around 3 friends in Doncaster in England. It is written in the Yorkshire dialect/vernacular, so I can imagine some might struggle with that
December 6, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Book 93 'There is no Antimemtics Division' by Qntm #Booksky Brilliant complicated sci-fi. If you enjoy science fiction that stands out from the crowd, and presents ideas or concepts that might hurt your brain a little this will be one to get. The basic premise is that the world is at war with ideas
December 6, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Book 92 Water by John Boyne #BookSky First in a quartet of novellas making up 'The Elements'. It focuses on a woman who leaves behind her life with a child abusing husband for anonymity on an Island off West Ireland. A tough subject covered really well.
November 14, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Book 91 Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin #BookSky This was really nice. I was actually thinking it was too short. That it could have been an epic family saga type novel, but it worked nicely as it was. It time jumped now and then to bring the story from start to now, but it was such a nice ending
November 14, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Book 90 Up The Youth Club: Illuminating a Hidden History by Emma Warren #BookSky Yeah, a niche read. I'm a youth worker so this book that's partly a history of youth clubs, but mainly about youth clubs benefit young people, and more specifically how they have been a big cultural influence in the UK
November 14, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Have purchased these annuals for my mother each Christmas for the last 40 or so years. Each year they seem a little less available, and the year she's not there to receive them creeps closer. She doesn't read books, but always has a magazine, does the puzzles and reads the short stories
November 8, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Book 89 The Catch by Yras DaleyWard #BookSky The protagonist is an acclaimed author, she has a twin sister. Their mother left the family home when they were very young leaving them both to be fostered/adopted in different homes & having different upbringings. In their 30s the author twin sees a
November 8, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Book 88 Reign of Terror: The 1st Corgi Book of Great Victorian Horror Stories. Edited by Michael Parry #BookSky A charity shop find that seemed a good read for Halloween week. Alas, they weren't 'great' horro stories. There was one from Charles Dickens and another from Elizabeth Gaskell that were
November 8, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Book 87 The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman #BookSky This what it is. If you've read one and didn't like it chances are you won't like this. Obviously to be on to the 5th one, I like them. They're light easy reading, lightly humerous and all round enjoyable. The crew have to crack a code
November 8, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Book 86 The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb #BookSky I think I put my expectations too high for this. And as I'm probably a bit of a wierdo, I didn't think it was grim enough - it feels like Lamb pulled his punches a little. Apart from one jail scene, it was the opening and the endings sections
November 8, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Book 85 Shattered Dreams, Sliding Doors: The Republic of Ireland’s 1982 World Cup Qualifying Campaign by Paul Little #BookSky Irish football fans of a certain vintage will enjoy this one. As the same suggests it covers the World Cup Qualifying campaign of 1982. This is arguably one of the best
October 30, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Book 84 The Anthorpologists by Aysegül Savaş #BookSky A nice, well written, gentle story about a couple and their lives in an unnamed city (or maybe it's London and I missed it). Observations about the people in their lives, the people they see and the people they meet. Also the conflict of living
October 30, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Book 83 - Flashlight by Susan Choi #Booksky Booker nominated - another family drama. I have to admit I found the first half of this a little slow, but it might just have been life interupting my reading flow (how dare it!). But once into it I really got into it. Great story, interesting idea
October 30, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Book 82 - Buckeye By Patrick Ryan #BookSky Requested as a birthday gift, this didn't disappoint. An historical fiction - Tells the story of 2 families whose lives intertwine and various moments covering lives from pre ww2 onwards through to the 70's in Bonhomie Ohio. Zooms in to zoom out. The detail
October 30, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Book 81 - We used to Dance Here by Dave Tynan #BookSky A debut collection of short stories by an Irish author. All set in Dublin as sort of 'This is modern Dublin' collection I think. Like many short story collections they don't all land, but generally I enjoyed them
October 24, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Book 80 Clown Town by Mick Herron #BookSky The latest in the Slow Horses series. Didn't enjoy this as much as previous books in the series. The first half is very slow, so it kind of feels like 2 novellas. Feels like a bridge to the next book that is the story this is an intro to.
October 24, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Book 79 - Death of the Author by Nnedi Okarafor #BookSky A disabled, Nigerian-American author writes a book about robots that changes her life. The bit about identity is relevant - her story and the story within a story is about humanity & being human, and about family, love, culture and identity
October 24, 2025 at 1:07 PM