Curious about the life and work of Agatha Christie (b. September 15, 1890)? From the archives, @jackewilson.bsky.social talks to Gillian Gill about her biography of Agatha Christie. #agathachristie #mysteries #booksky

New Medieval Books: Johannes Gutenberg: A Biography in Books, published by @reaktionbooks.bsky.social www.medievalists.net/2025/09/new-... #historybooks #Gutenberg

‘Her style is so direct that it’s surprising how much it can hide. Biography seems to be an answer to a sense among some readers that Stein does not mean what she says, or that in some way we are being deceived.’ Adam Thirlwell on Gertrude Stein, in the next issue: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

"We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close are we able to come to that person's essence?" – Haruki Murakami, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle #books #booksky @jackewilson.bsky.social @literaturesc.bsky.social

"Without realizing what was happening, Alice was trying feebly at first, but with growing determination, to get a new hold upon life." – Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio #botd #booksky From the archives - @jackewilson.bsky.social talks to author Alyson Hagy about Anderson's #stories.

Born on this day in 1921, Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) was a visionary writer whose prose pushed the limits of science fiction and philosophical inquiry. We're proud to offer a collection of his stories to a new generation of sci-fi readers 📚💙: mitpress.mit.edu/978026254506...

“We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.” ― Stanisław Lem, #Solaris Tarkovsky's 1972 film adaptation - also worth a look to celebrate Lem's birthday. #books #booksky

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.” ― D. H. Lawrence D. H. Lawrence, b. September 11, 1885 @jackewilson.bsky.social talks to author David Ellis about D. H. Lawrence's life and works. #books @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

Episode 732 starts with @jackewilson.bsky.social taking a look at the different ways that 10 writers have viewed the Bible. Then Jacke talks with Kate Loveman about her new book on Samuel Pepys. #books @universitypress.cambridge.org @kateloveman.bsky.social #booksky

"So you have swept me back, I who could have walked with the live souls above the earth, I who could have slept among the live flowers at last" – H.D. For more about the life and works of H.D., join @jackewilson.bsky.social and Lara Vetter in Episode 564. #botd #poetry @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

starting this podcast from the very start

From the archives, in Episode 128, @jackewilson.bsky.social talks with Mike Palindrome about their top 10 animals in literature. @literaturesc.bsky.social #books #literature #booksky #animals

Agenda for today: Add this book to my To Read list. ✅ #Booksky

"The land sets its seasons by the rain." – Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain #botd #booksky #nature #naturewriters

Join @jackewilson.bsky.social on a trip through literary England (signup open through September 30)! Scheduled stops include Jane Austen's Bath, Tolkien's Oxford, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and more. For details, visit the ⁠History of Literature Podcast Tour itinerary⁠ at ⁠John Shors Travel⁠.

"He was one of those senseless persons who are very well capable of looking after their worldly affairs, and, apparently, after nothing else." – Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov #books #booksky #meaning @jackewilson.bsky.social

The Odyssey: "the right book in the right hands of the right person" @jackewilson.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social @danielmendelsohn.bsky.social #greatbooks

@theguardian.com @disruptionbooks.bsky.social For more about Shakespeare's relationship with the Earl of Southampton, take a listen to Episode 712, in which @jackewilson.bsky.social talks to author David Medina about his book Shakespeare's Greatest Love. #shakespeare #booksky

@devoney.bsky.social explores the enduring appeal of Elizabeth Bennet, Austen’s most beloved heroine.

"Wright was one of those people," said poet Amiri Baraka, "who made me conscious of the need to struggle." From the HOL archives. Richard Wright, b. September 4, 1908 #botd #booksky #novels

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun" – Keats, "To Autumn" Episode 730 – @jackewilson.bsky.social talks to @grahamwatson.bsky.social about his book on #Charlottebronte and @saracharles.bsky.social about her choice of a "last book." #autumn #booksky

If you are in or near Baltimore you should know that the Walters Art Museum (which is free!) has a small but wonderful exhibit about cats in medieval manuscripts

For more about #medievalmanuscripts, take a listen to Jacke's conversation with @saracharles.bsky.social about her book The Medieval Scriptorium. @jackewilson.bsky.social #medievalsky

"It had been growing gray and cloudy, like the first evening of autumn, and a shadow had fallen on the darkening shore." – Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs #botd #books #booksky

Or maybe Edith Wharton doesn't like you?

Practical Translation: ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ A panel discussion moderated by Merve Emre www.nybooks.com/online/2025/... The Thousand and One Nights at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/searc... #books #literature #Translation

Happy Birthday, Annie Ernaux! In Episode 511, Jacke talks with Alison Stayer, translator of many Ernaux books. #booksky

@jackewilson.bsky.social #literarytours

A very enjoyable review of a biography of Richard Ellman’s great biography of Joyce. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

"Democracy is the most fragile thing on earth, for what does it rest upon? You and me, and the fact that we agree to maintain it. The moment either of us says we will not, that’s the end of it." – Allen Drury, Advise and Consent #botd #booksky #books #democracy

BEHOLD! Fall ’25, featuring: Olga Ravn, Yoko Tawada, Alexis Wright, Susan Howe, Julio Cortázar, Jenny Erpenbeck, Caren Beilin, Ariana Harwicz, Solvej Balle, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. cdn.sanity.io/files/p34gzx...

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” ― John Milton, Paradise Lost #books #literature #booksky #reading

Born #OnThisDay in 1797 was author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who wrote the Gothic novel 'Frankenstein' in 1818. The book is considered by some to be one of the first sci-fi novels, with protagonist Victor Frankenstein using both science and alchemy to create a living creature from dead bodies.

"I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing." #MaryShelley, #Frankenstein #botd #booksky

"Looking back, you can usually find the moment of the birth of a new era, whereas when it happened, it was one day hooked on to the tail of another." - #Steinbeck #books #booksky @jackewilson.bsky.social

"It is, above all, the silences that you have lived together that will come back to you: for it is the quality of those silences that alone revealed the quality of your love and your souls." – #MauriceMaeterlinck #botd #books #literature #silences

Maurice Maeterlinck - BOTD 💙📚 #LiteratureSky

On Goethe's birthday (August 28, 1749), spend time with @jackewilson.bsky.social and Professor Ritchie Robertson as they talk about Goethe's life and works. #books #poetry @oxfordunipress.bsky.social

Belgian poster for A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951), based on the 1925 novel AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser - BOTD in 1871

"It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up." – #TheodoreDreiser, Sister Carrie #books #botd #booksky

Take a listen to the start of the History of Literature Podcast's special "My Last Book Series" with @jackewilson.bsky.social and @lauriefrankel.bsky.social. #books #booksky

BOOK POST!! @jfmachin.bsky.social edited John Buchan greatness published by @blpublishing.bsky.social (thanks for the copy)

#JohnBuchan, on writing the American #dimenovel, The 39 Steps: "in the days when the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts." For more, take a listen to this episode with Ursula Buchan, his biographer and granddaughter. #books #biography #botd @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social

Also in Episode 728 is Jacke's discussion of #LorraineHansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun. The Hansberry episode was originally released in February 2021 and has been reclaimed from the archives. #books #americanplays @jackewilson.bsky.social

"Somehow the central fact of my life has been the existence of words and the possibility of weaving those words into poetry." - Jorge Luis Borges, "The Poet's Creed" 📷 Ferdinando Scianna Palermo, Sicily, 1984

"The Library is unlimited but periodic. If an eternal traveler should journey in any direction, he would find after untold centuries that the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder – which, repeated becomes order: the Order. My solitude is cheered by that elegant hope." – #Borges #books

Jacke starts Episode 728 with a look at #20 on his list of the Greatest Books of All Time, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by #MarkTwain. #books #literature #greatbooks

"So it is in #travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home #knowledge." – Boswell's Life of Johnson @jackewilson.bsky.social

Listen now: In discussing his work Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Life, Jake tells Jacke about what it was like to write a biography of such an itinerant and multifaceted writer. 🔈 buff.ly/ModnGwP 📚 buff.ly/WBgp51u

“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.” ― Dorothy Parker #botd #booksky