Love Your Library (and Life Update), October 2023
My thanks, as always, to Elle for her participation in this monthly meme, and to Laura for mentioning whenever she sources a book from the library! I’m posting a bit later than usual because it’s been...
View ArticleNovellas in November, Week 1: My Year in Novellas (#NovNov23)
Novellas in November begins today! Cathy (746 Books) and I are delighted to be celebrating the art of the short book with you once again. Remember to let us know about your posts here, via the Inlinkz...
View Article“The Possibilities of Place” Webinar with Nina Mingya Powles
Yesterday was National Nonfiction Day in the UK, apparently, as well as being part of the ongoing Nonfiction November challenge. Appropriately, I attended what I think must be my first writing...
View ArticleNonfiction November Book Pairings: Hardy’s Wives, Rituals, and Romcoms
Liz is hosting this week of Nonfiction November. For this prompt, the idea is to choose a nonfiction book and pair it with a fiction title with which it has something in common. I came up with three...
View Article#NovNov23 Week 4, “The Short and the Long of It”: W. Somerset Maugham & Jan...
Hard to believe, but it’s already the final full week of Novellas in November and we have had 109 posts so far! This week’s prompt is “The Short and the Long of It,” for which we encourage you to pair...
View ArticleNovellas in November 2023: That’s a Wrap!
This was Cathy’s and my fourth year co-hosting Novellas in November. We’ve done our best to keep up with your posts, collected via four Inlinkz post parties. We had 52 bloggers take part this year,...
View ArticleCover Love 2023
As I did in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, I’ve picked out some favourite book covers from the past year’s new releases. Gone are the days of mostly flora and fauna covers and abstract faces. Last year it...
View ArticleBook Serendipity, October to December 2023
I call it “Book Serendipity” when two or more books that I read at the same time or in quick succession have something in common – the more bizarre, the better. This is a regular feature of mine every...
View ArticleThis and That (The January Blahs)
The January blahs have well and truly arrived. The last few months of 2023 (December in particular) were too full: I had so much going on that I was always rushing from one thing to the next and...
View ArticleYou may also have seen me on…
Kim’s blog, Reading Matters (recommending three books for “Triple Choice Tuesday”) & Shelf Awareness, where I’m in conversation with another reviewer for the National Poetry Month special issue....
View ArticleNine Days in France and What I Read
Who would have predicted that the South of France would be colder and rainier than the England we left behind? Nonetheless, we had a pleasant, low-key week at the Limousin–Dordogne border. We stayed in...
View ArticleWendell Berry’s “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer” & Why I Acquired My...
Wendell Berry is an American treasure: the 89-year-old Kentucky farmer is also a philosopher, poet, theologian, and writer of fiction, and many of his pronouncements bear the timeless wisdom of a...
View Article