What a mess. Sorry. A kitchen sink of contemporary Indian catastrophes. I didn’t mind listening but also never really got involved. It was a little too much for me. #booksky #arundhatiroy #theministryofutmosthappiness 2016 #bookreview here: www.librarything.com/topic/384249...

A terrific new novel looking at how our minds work, how we keep record, what association we make with the past and memory. … and how unmoored we are without our phones. #booksky #bookreview with a touch of analysis here: www.librarything.com/topic/384249...

The myth of Orlando, or Roland, which ties into The Song of Roland, and to Virginia Woolf's Orlando, and to Roland Mitchell in A.S. Byatt's Possession, and likely every fictional character with these names, begins with historical trivia. #booksky #review here: www.librarything.com/topic/384249...

#Currentread Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf (1922) a #quote I’m stuck on. This is our young widow, Betty Flanders, thinking in her lost husband, Seabrook #booksky #VirginiaWoolf

I might be in love with Virginia Woolf. Again. I’m on page 21. #booksky

@kevinanthonybrown.bsky.social provides a look into the Harlem Renaissance and his personal direct connections through a collection of essays. #booksky You can read a little more about his book here: www.librarything.com/topic/384249...

“…for Thomas, to listen to a story was to become involved in its composition.” I’m enjoying Transcription by Ben Learner #booksky

May 📚

“there is many a reputation up there which, little by little, time has consumed down here like a moth” If the moon could hold such things… This is from Ariosto, d. 1533

That controversially published Gabo novella It has hung around. It's a simple story, but there is something about it that has stayed with me since I finished Tuesday. And I'm happy to keep in mind. www.librarything.com/topic/384249...

My 1st by Beryl Bainbridge (1932-2010, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 5 times) But… I struggled with most it. It looks at what can’t be captured in a photograph by exploring the 1st war photographed - the bloody Crimean War. www.librarything.com/topic/384249...

What’s your motto today? (The picture is from The Heart is a Lonely Hunter)

A taste of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. A poor inebriated guy talking to our deaf/mute in a cafe: “… because I know you understand the things I want to mean.”

Any Nicola Barker fans here? This was my 1st. An audience member interrupts a jazz performance setting up a social media storm. It's a fast, light, humorous novel with some serious philosophy, that always stays very human. www.librarything.com/work/3455631...

A thoroughly enjoyable, fascinating and inspiring memoir by someone who has always been a free spirit and defied any kind of constrictions, whether parents, money, men or even fame. Her mom was quite a character too. 🎧 www.librarything.com/work/3373098...

Nicola Barker on social media (from her 2025 novel TonyInterruptor)

A wonderful winner

As one always skeptical of these lists, i find myself much less critical of this one. No Byatt or Iris Murdoch. But an interesting list. I’ve read almost half (48). If you repost, how many have you read? What’s missing?

She opens the book affectionately hugging a statue of Josef Stalin in Tirana, Albania in 1989. She was 11. This regime would collapse in 1990, and the country break down into civil war in 1997. Ypi wrote a powerful memoir, read terrifically on audio. www.librarything.com/work/2705787...

April’s reading in 4 different ways

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world.

I spent ten months chipping away at these 900 pages. Fun stuff. Fun language. Knights and damsels and very strange morality. I have a sort of personal review here: www.librarything.com/work/6821891...

March reading. Same thing, different apps

I’ve only read two of these so far. And the two I’m reading now and the one I’m reading next did not make it. So I will complete the 7 misses before i read the next shortlisted book.

That voice. The pristine language. Charles Arrowby, our disturbing narrator is eloquent, precise, performative. He's our dark magician, our Prospero. And he's consumed by a sea monster of jealousy. The fire is lit. The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch www.librarything.com/work/10162/r...

‘After the bombing of the police station I realised there’s no way of knowing how much danger you may be in. People say the Revolutionary Guards are afraid to stay in their own buildings and have started hiding in schools. It’s better to stay at home.’ In Tehran: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

From September but new and eye-opening to me - like, the literary world almost makes sense now open.substack.com/pub/devonhal...

The USA is cruel and deranged. It has always been so. I really didn't understand the extent of it, or the historical continuity, until I listened to this book. Or, I should say, this book gave me a horrifying new perspective. Good book, bad history: www.librarything.com/work/3294843...

What I Learned From Making a Documentary About My Grandmother Beryl Bainbridge

I have recently read all Wharton’s novels. So I was primed for this book. And I wrote a 4-page review that came out in single breath: www.librarything.com/work/2190439... For the long-review-link-adverse: this was extremely thorough and well documented, and informative, but also exhausting.

Woman Without Men is the shortest and oldest book on this year’s International Booker Prize. A feminist critique of Iran, its also the only book that led to the author’s imprisonment. I enjoyed this! It's puzzling and has kept me thinking about it. www.librarything.com/work/1349457...

I wish i could join in all these!

The 2026 #WomensPrize for Fiction longlist💚 Which book will you be reading first? #WomensPrizeforFiction

A terrific review for International Booker longlist readers (and other readers too. 🙂)

Literary crosstalk - Lytton Strachey I’m reading Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out where St. John Hirst is based on him. And I’m reading a biography of Edith Wharton where she calls him “the only light left in that particular corner of the heavens.” - ie hated Bloomsbury.

Terrific review of an absolutely wonderful book

February 📚 (Most of my time went into three books i haven’t finished yet - Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee, The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf, and Le Morte DArthur by Malory)

Interesting to read this one directly after On Earth As Beneath. Both isolate groups away from society so readers focus on character & universal traits over action. This one elevates due to the interlocking nature of the vignettes, symbolism & #BookerInternational #LongList #BookSky #TranslatedLit

A phrase to remember: ‘i give you up in despair’ … said by St. John Hirst to Rachel Vinrace when she criticizes Gibbon, his literary hero (from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf) Now i just need a context to use it.

What I like to read: it’s a simple and demanding answer. I just want good literature. 🙂 Seriously though, i want a book to get me thinking and I want the prose (or poetry) to do something. To work.

Just, you know, how is everyone not obsessed with The International Booker Prize longlist. Like anything else could be going on in life…

Current obsession thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...

❤️

Countdown. Under 12 hours now. (8am here in us cst)

Five authors by whom I’ve read at least five books: Willa Cather Edith Wharton William Faulkner Toni Morrison Cormac McCarthy (I’m looking forward to adding Virginia Woolf)

(Rachel) “I don’t like Jane Austen” (Clarissa Dalloway) “You Monster!” I’m with Dalloway… (from A Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf)

An optimistic thread of poetry. I never know what I’m reading with poetry. So expect an occasional semi-coherent possibility meaningless post.