How wonderful is this!! Thank you so much @buriedinprint.bsky.social for sending me this. ❤️

Lovely review on Instagram for Furrowed Middlebrow's The House Opposite by Barbara Noble. #bookreview #booksky www.instagram.com/p/DRAhRtWgaCE/

It seems my world weary soul needs certain kinds of 'nice' books at the moment. Having to try and not just read vintage middlebrow and golden age mystery. I'm craving them. However, I just started The Mingham Air by Elizabeth Fair. The last of her books I had to read. @deanstpress.bsky.social 💙📚

Well I finally finished (it hurt my brain) with help from @piedwarbler.bsky.social 😁

The #Hiddenbooksgame is here. It's totally fiendish. After getting 5 in ten minutes, I feel I may be stuck for several hours now. @nationalbooktokens.bsky.social 💙📚

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025! "Each of these books arrives in English in expert and accessible translations that honour the art and voice of their original authors." tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v

I put a call out on FB for jigsaws - so I didn't have to buy any more. I'm now in the midst of a jigsaw explosion, think I may enough to last me until about February maybe even longer. 😁 It's little things that keep me happy these days.

New on the blog today, I've written about CROOKED CROSS by Sally Carson. A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...

Last night, I started reading a book that I have had for ages. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff. My goodness, it's sooooo charming. 😁 No idea why I hadn't read it before. 💙📚

Trying to get my book group book read for Monday evening. My First Murder by Leena Lehtolainen - I really need to commit to long reading periods, but it really isn't very good tbh. So get distracted by other things.Oh well, at 42%now. 💙📚

I finished Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy this afternoon. I spent several days reading this as I have had so much going on since moving. I absolutely loved it, the ending was superb! Such a fab novel to spend a week with. 💙📚

Oh gosh! I adore Muriel Spark, I shall definitely need to get this when it comes out. 😍

It's been quite a slow reading month. Moving upheaval had an impact. I still managed to read some good books. In addition I'm a third of the way through Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy on Kindle. That will go into November's pile. In the meantime here's my October reads. List in alt text. 💙📚

Beryl Bainbridge is such a good writer, The Bottle Factory Outing was the first novel I read by her. I can't remember now, if An Awfully Big Adventure is one I have waiting somewhere on my shelf. So delighted she is getting reissued.

Started reading Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy. I have previously read several of her novels, and this one seems to have been newly reissued. My version is the Kindle edition, but I do love this new cover art. 📚💙

I have moved into an overview 55s retirement village. At 57, with chronic illness and serious mobility issues it seemed a good idea. I'm the youngest here! 🤷🏽 Yesterday, I had lunch with my mum and sister in the bistro, then mooched around the stalls of the craft fair they had on.

I moved to my new flat on Friday! Already, my books and I are feeling very much at home!

Had to start the phone calls etc today (some things via online) to switch accounts to my new address. Moving on Friday! I'm fairly sure a certain broadband provider whose services I have dispensed with will be using my call for training and monitoring purposes. 🤭

I raced through that Patricia Wentworth novel for #1925club it was such a rollicking good page turner. I needed something in a similar vein (having a busy, exhausting week) so my second @deanstpress.bsky.social golden age mystery of the week is The Witness on the Roof by Annie Haynes. 💙📚

Just finished watching S3 of The Diplomat, which was hugely watchable. Having both Alison Janney and Bradley Whitford in it was genius.

On the Ramblings today! My first post for the #1925club - my thoughts on some GA crime here! kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/l...

My first #1925Club contribution is A Saturday Life by Radclyffe Hall - much funnier than I was expecting

It's time for the #1925Club and my first offering is Greenery Street by Angela Thirkell's little brother: tinyurl.com/4wm5xn22 @stuckinabook.bsky.social @kaggsy59.bsky.social

No blog posts from me these days, but I can still join in with the #1925club reading the entertaining The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth. I can't remember if I have read her before, so I may have many to explore. 💙📚

I do so enjoy Penelope Lively's writing. Ten minutes ago, I finished Judgement Day which she published in 1980. I would highly recommend everything I have previously read by her too. 💙📚

Duh!! Only just realised this must be a sequel to A Spring of Love. Only 70% in before the penny dropped. 🙈

Not forgetting our four mystery titles from 1925! 😊✨ The Blue Diamond by Annie Haynes Witness on the Roof by Annie Haynes The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth The Dower House Mystery by Patricia Wentworth #1925Club

One week to go! @kaggsy59.bsky.social

From the archive for Katherine Mansfield, #BornOnThisDay in 1888, thoughts on THE GARDEN PARTY. There's a beautiful fluidity of emotion in these stories as they move from happiness and gaiety to sadness and loneliness in the blink of an eye #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2020/10/23/t...

I'm currently reading Other People by Celia Dale. It's very good! I have loved everything I have read by her to date.

Absolutely loving this book, but utter exhaustion brought on by moving stress has meant this week has become a bit of a slow reading week. I do love getting back to a book when I know the writing is so good. 💙📚

Ooh, going to see this play on Saturday. A rare trip out with my sister and a friend. I admit to finding manoeuvring my chair into the theatre row a palaver, just not much space to turn etc. Thankfully, I shall have two back street drivers with me to prevent disasters. 👩‍🦽

The #celebritytraitors first episode absolutely over delivered. Delighted that Celia Imrie is as sharp, fierce and twinkly eyed as I hoped and Nick Mohammed the utterly delightful human I knew he would be (big fan!) Alan Carr as a traitor will never not be hysterical. Even if he messes it up.

I'll bet you were you little minx #CelebrityTraitors

Me answering the door after 6pm in winter. #celebritytraitors

I have a moving date. *collapses in a heap!*

Kiran Desai's "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" - weird title, good book, slightly long. For more: librofulltime.wordpress.com/2025/10/04/b... #bookershortlist #booksky 📚💙

Started reading: The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty. It's strongly atmospheric, with some gorgeous prose. 💙📚

There's a great deal to be said for a commonplace book, and this one contains a superb collection of writing

Some lovely little @renardpress.com books spotted in the wild yesterday at the equally lovely @dauntbooks.bsky.social ! 😊📚💙

As someone who is allergic to wasps and other vespids (which are not great this year with the warm days)… this is your yearly reminder on how to use an EpiPen. Also… you have to jab harder than you think.

Just seen a post on FB asking: If there was one book you could read again for the first time - which would it be? I mean, as if there's only one. It's the only thing I envy young people, that they haven't read those books yet. Yes, I am old. 💙📚

I'll be at Birmingham Literature Festival on 11th October with some great names, brilliant writing workshops, events for children and much more. Come if you can! Link here www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org

Started my next book group read last night. Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire. It drew me right in. Set on the coast of Northern Ireland during the pandemic. 💙📚

"The man in the bookshop who knew about Carr, his eyes too seemed other than of himself, seemed not to be seeing things on his behalf. It was as if he found himself always in strange houses looking out of the windows of rooms in which nothing was his."

Five More Novels About Long Relationships I’ve Read alifeinbooks.co.uk/2025/09/five...

September was a brilliant month for reading - here's a picture of what I enjoyed, and you can read more about them, plus plans for October, here! kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/10/01/s...

New on the blog today, I've written about UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD by Hiromi Kawakami (tr Asa Yoneda). A thought-provoking, speculative novel about evolution, societal structures & the possible extinction of humanity. Lots of interesting ideas here. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/u...

My September reads: The Spring Begins and A Pink Front Door were my bookish highlights. 💙📚

Ooh I do love an old-fashioned murder mystery packed with secrets, snobbery, and well-behaved police officers taking charge. This one has me hooked.