“I don't call it gossip," said Misty. "I call it ‘emotional speculation.'” —Laurie Colwin, Happy All the Time

Trollope is very sound on churches imo — (maybe this is one for @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social too)

Happy memory time: Rereading a favorite Ross Thomas novel that bears the bookseller’s label from the long-gone Savile Book Shop in Washington DC. IFKYK

“hollow, tinsel bohemianism and egocentric deformations”

Sven was compact and well made, like a good canoe. Laurie Colwin, A Big Storm Knocked It Over

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碁の音や芙蓉の花に灯のうつり　 go no oto ya fuyō no hana ni hi no utsuri the sound of go — reflection of light on the hibiscus flower — Masaoka Shiki Shiki composed this haiku in 1898.

Saturday morning music Oh, true love can conquer hate every time Give out some love and you'll find peace sublime And my darling, one more thing If you let me, I will take you To live where love is king

Bare minimum for holding a conversation: Ivy Compton-Burnett

Eric Hynes on a character in Errol Morris’s Gates of Heaven “doltish sublimity” FTW

“like little black anchors dropped”

Also from the NMWA today, the Guerrilla Girls in 1992. Same as it ever was.

“The Palmist” by Leonora Carrington, for me one of the highlights today of the “Uncanny” exhibit at NMWA. Many thanks to @nonsuchbook.bsky.social for reminding me that the exhibition ends this weekend!

This is what people mean when they talk about LLMs: Local Literature Machines

Off Pennsylvania Avenue —DC authors

It was unusual for him to express a wish to see anyone in the afternoon, which he was accustomed to spend in a state of comatose disapproval of modern life. Anthony Powell, What’s Become of Waring

What an amazing book this is

Spexus

you have been visited by "Le Boulanger Quebecois" repost to receive his blessing

A periodic rewatch of this last night in order to restore my faith in, well, everything…

What actor’s expression in a movie will stay with you for the rest of your life?

Unpublished Henry Green novels found on ferry

Forget faster-than-light travel or aliens or ghosts or parallel worlds or whatever, the most unbelievable thing that happens in books is when a character goes to bed and sleeps solidly all night until the morning.

On the “one of the top ten albums I’ve played most often” list

The 9 Men Of Soho by J. MacLaren-Ross (Julian MacLaren-Ross) (Allan Wingate (Publishers) Limited, 1946). Cover Art by John Banting. #the9menofsoho #jmaclarenross #julianmaclarenross #1940s #books #book #shortstories #dustjacket #coverart #cover #artwork #allanwingate #johnbanting

here we go ngl not going outside this week

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All plums.

What a book to find in the wild today. And what a blurb.

Now playing, because every day is Fred Hopkins Appreciation Day. But truly all three are awesome here

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I always thought this was a modern expression, but here is Henry James using it in 1881.

I've done another post on Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Flint Anchor - one of my top 20 books. Now I am looking at clothes, particuarlly crinolines, and Warner's great touch with conversations clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-...

Sunny day, off work in one of the world's most vibrant cities, so naturally coming home for a required nap 🙄

Good heavens, I had forgotten that my doppelgänger is in this book

RIP Henry James you would have loved the story of an American from the Midwest who enters a world of European intrigue

…the English disease, a love of Nature Virginia Woolf, Orlando

Virginia Woolf, Orlando

Records like this are the reason why I can’t do anything else while listening to music, lol ❤️

“McCorkle’s out of town and I no longer go to funerals.” “Then you must miss out on a lot of quiet satisfaction,” Haynes said. Ross Thomas, Twilight at Mac’s Place

Ross Thomas, Twilight at Mac’s Place

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France, the country of true justice

Enter the vortex that contains Anthony Powell, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Barbara Pym, and some Golden Age detection…

Now playing some guys who are 🔥🔥🔥

Simon Raven klaxon!

Now playing Edward Vesala, Ode to the Death of Jazz (ECM 1990). Strong SunRa vibe in this part: youtu.be/hXQdzEosm-w?...

On parle peu quand la vanité ne fait pas parler. —La Rochefoucauld We are slow to speak unless prompted by vanity. (F.G.Stevens, trans.)

Just spotted this here in the wild. Hardcover from Pantheon. Reader, I bought it.

Gary’s post prompted me to play this gem, which I burned from the Owl cd some years ago