Been in a reading slump lately ( read two dull Booker shortlist titles), but McBride pulled me out with her intense, energetic, immersive writing. The details of this destructive relationship were definitely hard to read at times but I couldn't stop. I do need a break before the sequel though.

Fourth park run, fourth location. Jumped on Merseyrail early this morning and headed to Chester. This was a proper cross country run with a stretch of muddy paths. Also the hilliest one I've done. But lovely volunteers and now I get to spend the day in Chester. #parkrun

Great window display at Type Books on Queen W. Ready for Game 3 - go Jays!

Walked the park run at Bellevue Park, Sault Ste Marie this morning. Beautiful morning, lots of autumnal colour. Lovely route. Came first in my age group. Was only one in my age group, ha. Going to set myself a challenge of walking 100 different locations before I hit 65. Today was #3. #ParkRun

Shetland Islands Council has backed a motion from Scottish Greens councillor @alexjarmitage.bsky.social to boycott Israel. The islands join the Scottish Parliament and Edinburgh City Council, which voted for Green motions on boycotts last month. greens.scot/news/shetlan...

Calm and sun before the storm. Took a bus to Scalloway and a lovely walk towards the headland and lighthouse. Nothing but sea, sky, ponies and sheep and bracing fresh air. Just what I needed. Hunkering down inside now with tea, biscuits and knitting while waiting for the storm to pass.

Shetland Wool Week - impossible to sum up in a post. Workshops, exhibits, talks, meet-ups with friends, music, yarn shopping, lots of laughs and inspiration. SO much fab knitwear to gawk at. Shetlanders so friendly and gracious with their time and knowledge - there's really nothing like it. #yarnsky

Novels by Alison Moore are perfect to take on vacation because you're guarenteed to have a better time than her characters. There are sad scenes of cringe worthy of a Mike Leigh film and an underlying menace akin to a subtler Celia Fremlin. I find them weirdly entertaining. @saltpublishing.com

Shetland Day 3: Another great day - did the Park Run on Bressay ( the most northern park run in the UK) which was so much fun and conviently ends at a cafe. Lunch with friends, then picked up my SWW annual and am musing on projects while working on my Sunburst Cowl by Julia Billings.

Shetland Day 2: 18k walk on Bressay, first climbing its highest point, the Ward of Bressay. From there you can see Noss and I was intrigued by a structure on Ander Hill ( turned out to be a ruined WW1 tower), so headed there next - sunny, warm day but the wind was so strong it nearly blew me over.

Shetland Day 1: A walk around The Knab, a bit of wool shopping ( excited to see J & S 5ply Gansey yarn in person), and dinner with friends at my favourite restaurant.

Calm, smooth sailing into Lerwick this morning. Whew! So excited to be in beautiful Shetland again.

An odd, little romp which careened from one surreal plot twist and complicated relationship, to another. Protests, pain, philosophy & the plague - all in this unusual love story. Reminscient of Muriel Spark, Iris Murdoch & Penelope Fitzgerald, but fell a little flat by comparison. #SpinsterSeptember

My next read for #SpinsterSeptember, this novel about Dorothy Wordsworth is told partly through the eyes of a servant at Rydal Mount, and partly through the imagined words of her destroyed red diary. Beautiful nature writing and some interesting speculation on her later illness. An enjoyable read.

Enjoyed this memoir of moving and building a life in Shetland. No knitting content ( I'll have my fill when I head there next week), but lovely descriptions of nature, and peppered with Shetland phrases mostly about the weather - i.e Steekit stumba (a thick mist), Trollamist ( a thick, dark mist).

I'll watch any movie with Trevor Howard so delighted when @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social screened Green For Danger. Recorded it so I could read the book first. Both marvellous - tension in the book was so palpable ( and better than the movie) but casting Alistar Sim as Cockerill was brilliant.

First book for #SpinsterSeptember a rather sad tale of a woman's annual holiday spent in a hotel on a Danish island, in what was her former home before the war. Some wonderful portraits of the other guests (another spinster among them). A novel about memory and history told and retold.

Really enjoyed #Witmonth this August. Last book read for @deadinkbooks.bsky.social book club was Jeanne by Arielle Burgdorf, a translator writing about a translator. Lots of interesting observations about language, gender and identity, though plot fell short. A good companion to Fair.

For #Witmonth I wanted to read some Québécoise lit and I loved this exuberant novel, translated by Sheila Fischman. It's a whirlwind of stream of consciousness as characters - rich and poor - with all the horrors of the 20th century embodied in them are juxtaposed against celebration.

"And so it ended, as a matter of course, like a sweater being knitted to completion." An apt quote for this novel. Promising start, got a little tedious in the middle, cast off the last few pages, stood back to look at the whole creation and thought, it'll fit. #Witmonth

Happy Birthday Tove. Having a lazy Saturday morning reading comic strips. #Moomins #ToveJansson

A philosophical novel of dreamscapes involving illness, opera, stress about an upcoming academic conference, strange conversations in cafés and an immersion in the work of the poet Paul Celan. Think I'd have gotten more out of it if I knew Celan's poetry but would read her again. #witmonth

Wow. I almost started crying in the coffee shop as I finished this. As brilliant and powerful as everyone has said. I feel completely wrung out but determined to read the other two books of hers that @charcopress.com has published. But now, I need to go for a walk. Just read it! #witmonth

Announcing a new tool to fight AI slop in the book world - and authenticate that the books we publish are written by, you know, humans. Books by people vs books by AI open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/b...

Whew - this was quite an intense read! Sad, tragic, defiant, despairing and at times, menacing, are the emotions of 14 yr old Galla as she reflects on the poverty and violence of her life while cycling 20 miles from school to home. A rivetting, compelling voice. #witmonth #NYRBWomen25

A very creative and original memoir/manifesto that could be applied to any of the creative arts. It certainly made me think about all the hundreds of decisions made my translators on every page. Grateful for their skill and creativity. Highly recommended.

Incredible patchwork jacket stitched all over with intricate flowers to hide the patches. In the Stitching in WWII exhibit at the Festival of Quilts. #FOQ25

Putting together a pile of books for potential reading during August - Women in Translation month. But to get me psyched up for the books, I'm going to first read Fair by @jencalleja.bsky.social ( not in translation), one of the essential people who makes WIT possible. #Witmonth

Joining in the fun with my predictions for the Booker longlist announced later today: Universality, Natasha Brown Theory & Practice, Michelle de Kretser The Möbius Book, Catherine Lacey The Book of Records, Madeleine Thien Helm, Sarah Hall Flashlight, Susan Choi Audition, Katie Kitamura

I have also reached the mountain stage of this novel set during the 1928 Tour de France when many of the peleton are also battling memories of the WWI battlefields. It really depicts the thrill and exhaustion of the race - they also had to fix their own punctures and ride during the night!

I'd be remiss in posting about Grasmere without a shoutout to @samreadbookseller.bsky.social which is one of my fave bookshops in the UK - crammed with goodies everywhere you look; I always find something interesting there. Didn't even know about this Gardam novel set in Cumbria.

A day of two halves - reading and knitting up at Easedale Tarn before the rain started. Then I decamped to Dove Cottage for a cuppa in the café and a good mooch in the museum. I do love the Wordsworths' beautiful postal bag. And very much enjoying the memoir.

Finished a this shawl though it's too muggy to wear at the moment. This is The Weatherhouse from Susan Crawford's book Echoes, inspired by the novel by Nan Shepherd. Fun to knit. I think these colours would look good in the Cairngorms. #knitsky 🧶

Thrilled to attend Stuart Murdoch's recent interview (with songs) at Prescot's Shakespeare North. The novel was sweet, nostalgic, full of angst and café observations, alongside insights into living daily with chronic fatigue. Took a while to get into its rhythm but enjoyed it. Book 52/2025

I need to up my succulent game. Isn't this bowl from the gardens at Monk's House beautiful?

Thoroughly enjoyed making my Tonnach and have cast on another in a solid colour as my knitting while watching the Tour de France. So many inspiring colour choices showing up in Kate's group on ravelry. 🧶

Of course after the fabulous week I've had, it would have been remiss not to have bought some of Susan's Room of One's Own yarn. Just my colours - will ponder a pattern. The Fenella yarn will be combined with stash to knit a Weatherhouse shawl in Charlestonish colours. 🧶

I've been on a Bloomsbury-inspired knitting/camping retreat with Susan Crawford and out last visit was to Monk's House. I finished my Virginia vest from Susan's Echoes book just in time. Photo taken outside Woolf's writing hut, first pic shows her desk and view. 🧶

You can take a lovely, relaxed walk from Charleston to Berwick Church along a good path, through curvy English countryside. The church itself, painted by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, is very striking and beautiful and wonderfully preserved.

Charleston gardens in full bloom. Glorious!

Bucket list tick - I have finally made it to Charleston and it was wonderful - never been in a house that was just so comfortable as well as being beautiful. Tons of inspiration for colours and design, so much to look at and take in. A perfect day.

A powerful story where the ghost isn't as haunted by the past or history, as his former girlfriend is. Interesting narrative techniques and a very engaging, if desperately sad story. Book 43/2025

Lewes itself is also a really fun place to visit, full of character, history and hills! Lots of quirky side paths and the colour palette of its buildings is gorgeous. Up the narrow Pipe Passage, just off the High Street is the Round House, bought by Virginia Woolf in 1919.

The Vanessa Bell exhibit currently at Charleston in Lewes is fabulous. Reproductions in books can't do justice to the scale or depth of colours. Her still lifes in particular are so vivid. I found myself taking photos of tiny bits of paintings to focus on the fabulous colour juxtapositions.

It's not often in one afternoon that you can browse the shelves in a 15th century bookshop AND, drawn in by the promise of books and coffee, enjoy both with a view like this! Definitely check out Taigh Coffee when in Lewes ( a tiny but interesting curation of small presses too).

I wanted a Scottish writer on my trip and finished this on the train home. Loved its humour, nature writing, Scottish vernacular throughout, and sense of community during WWI. A soldier on leave impacts a house and village with three generations of eccentric women. Book 42/2025

Happy Solstice - this was taken about 4:30 am from my window in Tighnabruaich overlooking the Kyles of Bute. #LoveScotland #ArgylleSecretCoast

Lovely few hours spent in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute yesterday. Climbed The Serpentine up to Canada Hill so called because people climbed it for a last glimpse of the ship carrying loved ones emigrating. Mango raspberry cream from Wee Zoe's soooo good. #IsleofBute

"Certain words delighted him utterly. The one that described the condition of a ball of wool . . . when it had just been started; that described its innermost beginning when a fine thread of worsted was being wound. Liki. When the thing was at the very start of what it would become."

Been having fun experimenting with cyanotyping on paper and fabric. This could get addictive . . .