On Feb 9th at 18:00 at English Books and Tea, Craig Herbertson, Scottish musician and author, will be entertaining anyone who cares to listen.
Craig will be reading some of his sci-fi/fantasy/horror. I don’t have any sound recordings of him reading – but here are two songs of his.
It has been 8 years since Gillian Welch’s last album. Some artists pump out an album a year. Some artists wait until they have something special. The Harrow & The Harvest is something special. It is an album filled with dark, americana, bluegrass folk. These songs sound and feel as if they have been passed down and played by generations of banjo-playing Americans whilst the sun is setting on their front porches. They seem instantly recognisable. And yet they are new songs, which is a fantastic feat of song writing. The musicianship and singing is also flawless, almost indolently so.
I haven’t yet made up my mind if this album is depressing or not. This is an album which will bear dozens and dozens of listenings without growing at all stale.
Also worth mentioning, is the cover art – which is gorgeous, and has already proved to be a customer magnet in the shop.
From: www.folk-around.com
This book follows on from the Mistborn trilogy but is based 300 years in the future. It therefore has entirely new characters.
As eager as I was to read this book I was a bit skeptical at first as I loved the original trilogy and wasn’t sure where Sanderson would be taking the novel. However after a few chapters and getting used to the new world, the plot quickly developed and proved to be just as captivating as the previous books. The novels’ foundation is still based on the magic of allomancy however this world has advanced technologically which I feel adds realism as it progresses and moves forward as you would expect a civilization to do. I really like the idea of exploring how worlds and what is perceived as normal change over time.
The novel also includes sections of ‘local newspaper excerpts’ dotted throughout which I thought was a nice added touch.
As with most of Sandersons’ novels it is very fast paced so even though this is a short novel don’t be fooled into thinking that it lacks in story. He quickly brings together a fantastic set of characters – Wax, Wayne and Marasi who add punch and wit to the novel – making it much easier to get over the fact that all the beloved characters of the previous books are long gone.
I think this is a fantastic sequel and highly recommend it.
We would like to wish all of our incredibly good-looking, fragant and (most of all) patient and forgiving customers a very happy new year! Together, we have made English Books and Tea a little haven of quirky oddness that has a place in many people’s hearts as being something more than ‘just a shop’.
We look forward to seeing you in the new year!
We are planning a German course for beginners. The plan is to have 5 participants, meet once or twice a week, to explain everything in English (so no need to feel all overwhelmed because explanations are in German) and to use a mixture of native Germans (for conversation practice) and English speakers who have learned German to a high level (for explanations, grammar etc..).
If we can get 5 people interested, then the price would be €6/classroom hour (45 mins). Assuming an average of 3 hours a week, that would be roughly €72/month.
If you are interested – reply here or send a mail to english-books-and-tea@netcologne.de
