Opening with my favourite character introduction of all time, Jackson sets the tone for this odd thriller that defies expectation. Young Mary Kate Blackwood lives with her sister and uncle in the spacious family pile. The actual location and time are largely irrelevant; this book is deliberately timeless. They...

7th September - 13th September I spent the bulk of the week struggling through a TJ Klune novel. There's nothing wrong with it — it's well-written with an interesting premise — it's just not clicking with me at the moment. So I made the difficult decision to just stop reading it. I don't often DNF books, but there...

Welsh metalheads Dream State dropped a new single of sparkling synths cut through with dirty guitar and Jessie's voice builds from naive cut glass to the shrieking of avenging angels — "Forever in View". From the warping bass opening note to the sustained wash synth that closes "I've Never Felt So Hated", Chloe...

31st August - 6th September There's a cardboard box full of apples by the side of the road with a crudely hand-lettered sign that makes a Mickey of design. It reads "Free Apples" — a gift from a neighbour to the neighbourhood. I briefly feel guilty for having not shared any of my windfalls. They were delicious. A...

Happy September! Here are a few photos from my phone from the last month with neither rhyme nor reason to the theme. Thanks for reading this post via RSS! Let me know your thoughts by sending me an email: rss@thomasrigby.com.

24th August - 30th August The combination of a giant honey-coloured moon and distant light pollution reflecting off the sparse cloud cover means, even without streetlights, it's just about light enough to walk at night without a torch. An electrical storm fakes midday in half second bursts while divine chariots...

Air France Flight 006 lands in America in March. The exact same plane lands again in June — same pilot, same crew, same passengers. The military calls in a bunch of scientists to try and figure out what is going on. Given the time difference, all the passengers have doubles, all the crew have doubles. The March...

17th August - 23rd August Back home visiting family and stopped in for a pub lunch at a random pub that turned out to be the one I'd go drinking in at college about 30 years ago. Which was a bit odd! Spent the rest of the time eating chips and ice cream on the beach lamenting the broken optical zoom on my Coolpix...

Thanks to Ruben for surfacing this lovely post, and for his own thoughtful addition. Sylvia's journey from church upbringing to "nature as spirituality" mirrors my own path somewhat. Church I think I've always been an atheist; I never really believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church, even as a young child....

10th August - 16th August Along with basically everyone, I watched the eclipse using the traditional "colander and a sheet of paper" method. I took a few horrific snaps with one of my cameras but, without a solar filter, they were rubbish. It was strange because it didn't feel like a sunset despite being basically...

Usually, historically, The Five is never ranked: it's just five things in the order I think of them. But this one definitely is ranked. Maybe I need a new posty type… Here are my top 5 Irish teas and I will not be taking questions. Barry's Gold : Thompson's Irish Breakfast 🥇 — Thompson's Everyday Barry's Original...

Luring me in with a kooky redhead in a bookshop is, once again, a sneaky lawyer's trick that I'm ashamed to say worked again! Shame on me, etc. Magic is real, there are objects imbued with magic that allow the holder to conjure the unbelievable; the so-called Unknowable Objects. They have been hidden from the world...