I'm just getting started on The Correspodent winner of this year's Women's Prize for fiction. I bought it weeks ago, in a big post birthday ebook haul. I've been looking forward to it. 💙📚

'Nanny came down, stout and comfortable and starched, and collected her supper. She was of the old-fashioned type, and a little app to treat Johnny and Sally as if they have been her charges too, and not so long ago, either...' #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/14/a...

So cold today! I have retreated to the bistro where I ordered soup and a cheese toastie. Brrrrr!

Started reading Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh. This should prove interesting as it's set in New Zealand during WW2. 💙📚

New on the blog today, I've written about some of my favourite COMING-OF-AGE NOVELS from the shelves. Featuring books by Rumer Godden, Jean Rhys, L. P. Hartley and more! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/c...

I just watched the final episode of Tip Toe, the Russell T Davies series on C4. The brilliance is undeniable, but Jesus, it's brutal.

Started reading Days of Light by Megan Hunter. I think I'm really going to enjoy this. Very beautifully written. 💙📚

Books finished in May. (A seventh was started but I'm still reading it). Book of the month = Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan/Spiderweb by Penelope Lively. The Pearl that Broke its Shell very memorable too. 💙📚

Out of curiosity, I just listened to The Boys of Dungeon Lane. It's very nostalgic, (the Beatles were not my era) but it's pretty good. Macca's still got it. Fav tracks so far,,Days we Left Behind, the duet with Ringo and Mamma Gets By. 🎵🎵 shall no doubt listen again.

Now reading This Bed Thy Centre by Pamela Hansford Johnson. PHJ'S first novel, which is excellent so far. First published in 1935, it was apparently banned by Battersea library. Tame by today's standards of course but surprising for its time. 📚💙

Margaret Drabble’s THE GARRICK YEAR is a fantastic book. A sharply observed novella which explores how women's lives in the 1960s were frequently dictated by the demands of marriage and motherhood. The humour is wonderfully barbed! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/04/16/t...

I have escaped to the bistro in my retirement village, as they have air con! Have enjoyed a pot of tea and some lunch and am seriously contemplating cake! Happily reading my book. There is a pianist in today, and it's all very civilised. 🍰

I'm currently reading Bassett by Stella Gibbons, which I am enjoying a lot. 💙📚

Following a recommendation from my sister, I started reading Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan yesterday. I had meant to read something by him for ages, it's my first book by him. 💙📚

This wasn't bad in the end, I had expected a different narrative but I like a coming of age story, which this is. Sat up far to late last night to finish it, so that must mean something.

Today on the blog, the 90th best novel of all time, according to the recent Guardian list 📚Novella a Day in May 2026 – No.18 madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2026/05/18/n...

There are a couple of tickets still available - get in quick! www.gladstoneslibrary.org/event/memoir...

My thoughts on Letter To My Daughter by Maya Angelou www.stuckinabook.com/letter-to-my...

Reading The Crooked Tree by Una Mannion. Not my usual thing perhaps, enjoying it on the whole, though not sure it delivers on all it promises. Over halfway through now. 💙📚

62 for me. Just don't ask me how many I have a good memory of. 🙈

I had a massive ebook buying splurge last night, using my birthday vouchers. Guilt free book buying is the best!

Thank you lovely peeps for birthday greetings. 😊🥳

My birthday today. 🎂 I got my favourite chocs, my very favourite perfume, a voucher for ebooks some lovely cards and was then taken out for a very posh afternoon tea. Am about to fall asleep over my book now. There are left over cakes in the fridge. 🥳

I watched an episode of Amandaland earlier today. It featured a book by Penelope Lively, Passing On. Yesterday I started reading a new book Spiderweb by Penelope Lively and Passing On was my second choice (decided to save it for another time). Amanda clearly had no idea who PL was - hilariously. ❤️

I don't have any pets, but these two muntjac were nibbling foliage outside my flat window yesterday evening. I live 3 miles from city centre but overlook a wildlife reserve. 😃

Reading a mystery book. I'm not going to say what - but it's by an American author. One character is American, but when the POV is one of the other British characters there are still many uses of American terms, which British people wouldn't use. It's driving me mad! I'm reading it quick!

Here’s a poem called ‘Life of a Naturalist’.

Thank you @britishlibrary.bsky.social for this lovely edition from the women writers series. I am struggling to read physical books at all these days, but if my hands settle down, I'm sure I'll love it. @stuckinabook.bsky.social 💙📚

New on the blog today. I've written about INCIDENTS IN THE RUE LAUGIER by Anita Brookner. I loved this precise, psychologically astute novel in which a young woman's life is cruelly shaped by an ill-advised love affair at an impressionable age. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/05/05/i...

Now reading The Pearl That Broke its Shell by Nadia Hashimi. A bargain Kindle purchase by an author who has written several books. Has anyone read her before? 💙📚

A thoroughly enjoyable month of reading in April. Books of the month Enigma by Robert Harris and The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson, two very different books. Full list in alt text. What brilliant things did you read in April? 📚💙

Now reading, Women's Prize shortlisted The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson. I've been dancing around this one for a little while. Glad to have started reading it. 💙📚

Sat up too late, last night, finishing this. Quite sleepy today. A good read though. 😁

New on the blog today, I've written about THE SUNDIAL by Shirley Jackson. Shades of Barbara Comyns & Ivy Compton-Burnett in this irresistible blend of Gothic horror, suspenseful ambiguity & barbed humour in the dying days of an era. I loved it! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/04/26/t...

Sitting in a sunny suntrap, the communal gardens where I live. Listening to incredible birdsong, reading and getting some vit D 6 months since I moved here. ☺️ #happyFriday

Thanks to @jacquiwine.bsky.social tempting recommendation, I am now reading Through A Glass Darkly by Helen McCloy. I can tell it's going to be a page turner. 💙📚

Finished The Lion Women of Tehran this afternoon. I really enjoyed it. I think it will provide good discussions for our book group. Highly recommend.💙📚

Had the most awful day yesterday, due to hospital patient transport. A necessary service, under severe strain. Many excellent people working within it. But I was stranded for hours at the hospital, no idea when I would get picked up. Virtually nothing to eat/drink, in discomfort, utterly exhausted.

Now reading my next book group read: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali. 💙📚

My hands have been pretty rubbish (RA delightfulness) for months so I haven't done a jigsaw since just after New Year. Yesterday, I decided to give it ago. Yay, am happily ensconced, trying to ferret out bits of bluey yellow etc. 🧩😊

Just over halfway through my second read for the #1961club The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart. Which I wasn't sure about at first but now I'm liking it well enough. The first book I have read by her.

I have already finished a book for the #1961club I'm rarely this organised. My first book by John le Carre. Though I am sure I'll read more. An excellent read for the 1961 club. 💙📚 Starting another 1961 book later today. Watch this space. 😁

"The world was changing..." #1961Club #Simenon #AgathaChristie kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/t...

My first (maybe only) read for #1961Club - D. E. Stevenson's "Bel Lamington", an excellent one librofulltime.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/a... @deanstpress.bsky.social #booksky📚💙

www.stuckinabook.com/the-chateau-by-william-maxwell-1961club/ @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

Hosted by @stuckinabook.bsky.social and myself, the #1961club starts today! Share your posts on my dedicated page here kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/club-pages/1... and on Simon's blog! www.stuckinabook.com

Random earworms are the best/most annoying thing. Today, I have had Smokie's A Few Dollars More on a loop inside my head. Which led me to YouTube and reminders of other Smokie songs. When I was a very little girl, I think I thought they were cool. Now I just love Chris Norman's voice.

I'm currently reading A Call for the Dead by John le Carre for @kaggsy59.bsky.social and @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961club having started early, I should have time to start a second 1961 book. Looking for ideas. 💙📚

Gosh! This was so good. Thoroughly immersive and gripping.

What a way to end publication day! For the Guardian, I’ve written a piece on navigating the weird and wonderful word of Muriel Spark. Read it, and do give my book a read, too. LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is out right now! 🐈‍⬛ www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...