When I recall the first time I met Violet, it embarrasses me. I hold the memories up to the light and think - did it really happen like this? And even if it did, why not tell it differently? More generously? Why don't I pretend, even to myself? There's nobody left to know, nobody who … Continue reading Cursed Bread | Sophie Mackintosh #UKfiction
Today I saw a picture of Jude with a child. Not one of the fair-haired nieces I remember from photographs around the Old House, who would be grown by now, but a dark-haired little girl. We've all done it. At some point before, during or after a relationship we have typed their name into our … Continue reading Thirst For Salt | Madelaine Lucas #AWWfiction
What's On My Mind: Finally feeling back on track healthwise, workwise and blogging-wise. Planning a mini-break in Queensland for next month. I know lots of people have jumped back into international travel this year, but I've seen so many of my family & friends spending a week confined in a foreign hotel or hostel room … Continue reading Stories & Shout Outs #59
November 1961 Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving it a second thought; back before anyone knew there'd be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big … Continue reading Lessons in Chemistry | Bonnie Garmus #USfiction
Fanda @ClassicLit is once again hosting Zoladdiction month throughout April. This year she has included a fun questionaire to take us away from our books! You don't have to be reading a Zola this April to join in the tag either. The questions are designed to entice afficionados and those new-to-Zola as well. My first … Continue reading The Émile Zola Tag #Zoladdiction2023
Glaston had been in the doldrums for forty years when I arrived. Not so much dead or dying as undecided. Worn down by branch closures and businesses leaving, by farming changes and the fickleness of markets; held up by a solid past and the confidence of those who saw beauty in it. It's streets are … Continue reading Glass Houses: A Novel | Anne Coombs #AWWfiction
I promised I wouldn't write a post for every single chapter in L'Assommoir but how does every second chapter sound 😀 ? The famous wedding day between Gervaise and Coupeau in L'Assommoir chapter three, sees the wedding party decide to walk to the Louvre to celebrate their special day. The plan had been to go … Continue reading Reading Zola | L’Assommoir – The Wedding Party
Better late than never! Every single month so far I have forgotten this meme from Jana's Reviews From the Stacks, until I spy Jennifer @Tasmanian Bibliophile at Large or Lisa @ANZLit Lovers post. I love compiling this list as it gives me a good excuse to go back over my older posts, checking them for missing … Continue reading Spell the Month in Books | April
"We must be very nice to him," said Mrs Braithwaite, looking up at her daughter with large blue eyes. "Nice to him!" echoed Miss Braithwaite in surprise. "Well, of course we'll be nice to him. I mean, why shouldn't we?" On the 1st September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later France and England declared … Continue reading The English Air | D. E. Stevenson #1940Club
Once again it is time to peruse our bookshelves to find books, short stories and poems first published in a certain year. This time Karen @Kaggsy’s Bookish Rambling and Simon @Stuck in a Book have given us 1940. 1940 was a leap year. In February, 4-year-old Tenzin Gyatso was proclaimed the 13th Dalai Lama and on the … Continue reading The 1940 Club
On the last day of her life, when she was two hundred and forty-seven years old, the blind poet, miracle worker and prophetess Pampa Kampana completed her immense narrative poem about Bisnaga and buried it in a clay post sealed with wax in the heart of the ruined Royal Enclosure, as a message to the … Continue reading Victory City | Salman Rushdie #historicalfiction
Reading Zola in April with Fanda @Classiclit has become a tradition and a treat; something I look forward to every year. Zola's Paris novels in particular, fascinate me. Zola was the master of detail. Between lived experience and strenuous research, Zola immerses his readers into the life and times of his Rougon-Macquart characters. Zola not … Continue reading Reading Zola | L’Assommoir an introduction
Back in 2020 when I was given my very first proof copy of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club and devoured it one rainy long weekend, I knew he was on a winner. Writing in the genre I call #cosycrime, Osman had nailed the easy-to-read, funny, heart-warming murder mystery. No forensic jargon or gory details … Continue reading The New Thursday Murder Club Mysteries | Richard Osman
Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton on Unsplash March was a month of two halves. At the beginning I was keenly finishing off books started in February and moving onto Irish and Welsh short stories for Begorrathon and Dewithon, with plans to read at least one Welsh and one Irish novel as well. But then I got … Continue reading March 2023 | The Books
The International Booker Prize is my aspirational longlist. I would like to read more diversely and more books in translation, and lists like this are a great place to find inspiration. Most years though, I'm lucky to acquire and read one of the books from the list. This year it is A System So Magnificent … Continue reading International Booker Longlist 2023
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