Woody
Book
Director of over forty-five movies, playwright, writer, actor, and jazz clarinetist, Woody Allen is...
ClareR (6256 KP) rated The Glassmaker in Books
Sep 2, 2025
Murano comes across as a magical place, both in its ability to make beautiful pieces of art from glass, and also its ability to keep those who live there in a kind of time warp or stasis. If you live on Murano, you don’t age.
Such is the case with the main character, Orsola Rosso.
We join her family when she is 9 years old and her father dies suddenly. Her brother struggles with the responsibility and skills needed to run the business - that is until a rival matriarch teaches the Rosso women (via Orsola) how to make glass beads.
I loved how real people from history were brought into the story (Casanova and Josephine Bonaparte, amongst others), and how when time jumped hundreds of years, Orsola only aged a few in that time. We see how Italy changes over time, how it modernises and how climate change endangers both lives and livelihoods.
The story and characters felt as vibrant as the glass beads. This was such a refreshing, different read. Just outstanding 🤷🏼♀️
Basic Instincts: Love, Lust and Violence in the Art of Joseph Highmore
Book
Published to coincide with the exhibition at the Foundling Museum in London, this fascinating book...
Goddess Tarot - Full version
Entertainment
App
With a quarter of a million copies in print, The Goddess Tarot is one of the most beloved tarot...
Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games
Book
From the award-winning videogame writer behind Spec Ops: The Line comes an exclusive...
PORTER magazine UK
Magazines & Newspapers and Shopping
App
2017 has been an extraordinary year for women as they’ve come together in an unprecedented show of...
But when dead women start turning up and Stefan is under suspicion, Peggy realises that the culprit may be closer than she realises (and not Stefan!). She decides that she has to be the one to find out who has murdered these women. In doing so, she discovers the dark side of her family.
I really enjoyed this - the descriptions were so good, and really illustrated the vast difference between the exclusive, luxurious hotels and the fairgrounds, the wealth of Peggy’s family and the poverty of the fairground workers.
Henry Taul, Peggy’s sisters fiancé and her ex-boyfriend, really is an unpleasant piece of work, and his mother is awful - a great example of ‘new money’ and how they clearly don’t know how to conduct themselves (ok, I’m saying this with a little ‘tongue in cheek’). Unlike the more staid (on the surface) Batternbergs!
The descriptions of Coney Island so evocative, that I could have been there, and the photos that the author had taken and posted on The Pigeonhole really added to this.
I must have changed my mind about the identity of the murderer at least half a dozen times , and it really did take me until the end and the big reveal to be sure!
A thoroughly enjoyable serialisation by The Pigeonhole, made even better by the authors participation.
Cigars
Book
For the men and women who appreciate the finer things in life, The Le Snobsare your guides to the...
Owned by the Sea
8.0
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Book
Storms pass and, in their wake, new beginnings can be found. Talented young artist Jonty Trelawn...
BDSM M_M Contemporary Romance