At first I thought a biography would start emerging with each review but I guess it’s better to write down a full bio:
My name is Robert Pisani and I was born in 1978 in Canada. From 1978 to 1988 I lived in an Indian reserve called Cormorant Lake and then from 1988 to 1992 I lived in the small town of Kenora. From 1992 onwards I moved to Malta and I have been there ever since.
I have always liked reading from an early age and despite the odd setback, I have been quite consistent. Incidentally I have been working in bookshops ever since I was 16 and my profession is school librarian (although being a librarian is not only about reading)
In 2009 I embarked on a project to read all the titles listed in the 1001 books you must read before you die but by 2012 I felt like a slave so I abandoned the project and the blog.
In 2017, after completing an MA in Library, Information and Archival Studies and at the advice of my then girlfriend, I decided to resurrect the blog and widen the scope, including films and music reviews as well as book reviews. As a disclaimer, I will not accept requests to review self-published books.
Some trivia :
I think cats are amazing.
My fave food is probably Rogan Josh with all the trimmings Naan pilau etc
My fave band is Beat Happening
My fave book is Jonathan Coe’s What A Carve Up!
My fave film is Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.
I was a music critic for over ten years.
The Bobsphere 
re: book review request by award-winning author
Dear Deucekindred’s Blog:
I’m an award-winning author with a new book of fiction out last month.
Ugly To Start With is a series of thirteen interrelated stories about
adolescence published by West Virginia University Press.
All the stories in my collection have been previously published in
well-regarded print and online literary magazines such as The Iowa
Review, Passager, The Bitter Oleander, Confrontation, Salt River
Review, The Foliate Oak. and The Cortland Review.
Can I interest you in reviewing it?
If you write me back at johnmcummings@aol.com, I can email you a PDF of my book. If you require a bound copy, please ask, and I will forward your reply to my publisher. Or you can write directly to Abby Freeland at:
Abby.Freeland@mail.wvu.edu
My publisher, I should add, can also offer your readers a free excerpt of my book through a link from your blog to my publisher’s website:
http://wvupressonline.com/cummings_ugly_to_start_with_9781935978084
Here’s what Jacob Appel, celebrated author of
Dyads and The Vermin Episode, says about my new collection: “In Ugly to Start With, set in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Cummings tackles the challenges of boyhood adventure and family conflict in a taut, crystalline style that captures the triumphs and tribulations of small-town life. He has a gift for transcending the particular experiences to his characters to capture the universal truths of human affection and suffering–emotional truths that the members of his audience will recognize from their own experiences of childhood and adolescence.”
My short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. Twice I have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. My short story “The Scratchboard Project” received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.
I am also the author of the nationally acclaimed coming-of-age novel The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel Books, Penguin Group, 2009), winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers (Grades 7-12) and one of ten books recommended by USA TODAY.
For more information about me, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Cummings
Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kindly,
John Michael Cummings
Have you heard of Clifton Fadiman’s Lifetime Reading Plan? Then there’s Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon. The list goes on! I think for folks like us, we just feel compelled not to miss anything!
yes! I we suffer from book FOMO.
I would be interested in your review of any Meir Shalev’s books. They are so different from anything I have ever read. Great read. Try it.
Hi Robert, just found your blog. I’m also from Canada (and still here), and also started my blog with a 1,001 Books challenge, subsequently abandoned. Cats are indeed amazing 🙂
Hey – thanks for the comment! As I type my cat pumpkin is sitting on my shoulder like a parrot!
Hi, Robert! I stumbled upon your blog while searching for information on Rohinton Mistry’s short story The Collectors. It is included in the Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories and while I finished reading the book today (yay!), I am behind on my notes… Anyway, I was glad to find your review of Mistry’s collection of short stories. Also glad to find a fellow Canadian and a bookworm, and someone who now lives in the country that I’ve been in love with ever since my visit 20 years ago. Although it probably looks a lot different now…
If you ever feel like chatting, feel free to send me a message.