Happy day 1 of #NYRBWomen26!!!!!

#SundaySarton will start on Sunday, January 4 with her first book of nonfiction, I KNEW A PHOENIX. A year of May Sarton, yay! Details here: www.joiedevivre9.com/sundaysarton...

LOLLY WILLOWES is celebrating its 100th birthday(!!) & this STW classic will be our first book for #NYRBWomen26, starting January 3! Details here: www.joiedevivre9.com/nyrbwomen26....

He's everywhere I go. #AContinuation25

“staging a pleasure … a discourse … breakfast is a garment” 💛

"reading serendipity is joyful"

From the archive, my thoughts on LOLLY WILLOWES by Sylvia Townsend Warner, @joiedevivre9.bsky.social’s current #NYRBWomen26 group read. (Anyone can join in.) It’s a magical novel in more ways than one! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/l...

A special edition of #NYRBWomen25 on my blog today in which I've written about (and ranked) twelve wonderful books I read during the year. A big thank you to @joiedevivre9.bsky.social for another fantastic selection of books. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/12/28/n...

#SundaySarton will start on Sunday, January 4 with her first book of nonfiction, I KNEW A PHOENIX. A year of May Sarton, yay! Details here: www.joiedevivre9.com/sundaysarton...

LOLLY WILLOWES is celebrating its 100th birthday(!!) & this STW classic will be our first book for #NYRBWomen26, starting January 3! Details here: www.joiedevivre9.com/nyrbwomen26....

I finished reading WUTHERING HEIGHTS this morning (for the first time) & now I have this song stuck in my head. Kate Bush forever! youtu.be/Fk-4lXLM34g?...

“The only things they forgot were my trunk and all my dresses in the wardrobe. But the little things were all there and that’s what really matters, because it’s the little things that are most often forgotten.” (p99) #NYRBWomen25

#NYRBWomen25 I'm a bit ahead this time, but this is a great memoir so far in its blend of farce and horror, capturing the tumultuous period after the Russian Revolution. Teffi can be funny even when there is terror all around as she flees from Moscow to Kiev and now to Odessa.

"The old woman pulled a mournful face and threw up her hande "Ach, don't talk money! How can anyone make money out of the misery of others? Out of the misery of those who have nowhere to lay their head!" #NYRBWomen25

“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath, the door of a vanished house left ajar” Margaret Atwood, Eating Fire : Selected Poetry, 1965-95

Baby Blahaj with my #FridayReads Memories by Teffi with #NYRBwomen25 and In Memoriam by Alice Winn, which a friend recommended, and is reminding me strongly and happily/sadly of Pat Barker's Regeneration, with my old book group of sainted memory.

Well I made a list of books I couldn't forget this year... and left a few off (which means I will open the new year with another list! like a dog! ) nevertheless I'm leaving this here for those who love books and living like dawgs in the mind of Kafka! www.alinastefanescuwriter.com/blog/2025/12...

Some of my favourite books this year were from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social thanks to the wonderful #NYRBWomen25 readalong.

Another excellent longlist from @bookcritics.bsky.social! 💫

“Heroism and service to the people – these are words best avoided. It is in the name of service to the people that the Bat has been stripped. Art and beauty are surer ground.” (p8) #NYRBWomen25 #Teffi

More @bookcritics.bsky.social longlists were announced today! 💫

#NYRBWomen25 I’m fascinated with Teffi’s sister, Mirra Lokhvitskaya, “known as the Russian Sappho … [with] close ties to the decadents and Symbolists.” (intro p viii) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirra_L...

Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Criticism

#NYRBWomen25 Who is ready to read more Teffi?! ✨ 'Considered her single greatest work, MEMORIES is a deeply personal account of the author’s last months in Russia & Ukraine, suffused with her acute awareness of the political currents churning around her.' Starting tomorrow!

The @bookcritics.bsky.social longlist is here for fiction! It’s such a great list! 💫

#NYRBWomen25 I’m behind in my reading, but sitting down to finish THE SUN KING. Her quips crack me up. “The King goes on to send Mme de Maintenon a thousand we don’t know whats, because, in accordance with her policy of mystifying posterity, she has here erased two lines.” (p174)

White Flower by Agnes Martin, 1960 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137332

This is such an interesting conversation! Djuna Barnes! open.spotify.com/episode/2tgp...

To learn about the 2026 Reading Pilgrimage group, go to ReadingPilgrimage.com.

This morning’s listening. 🎶 (Tunes inspired by Patti Smith’s BREAD OF ANGELS)

Knowing what’s best for other people is a dangerous game. —Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Long View

The painter with camellia branch (Self Portrait) https://www.wikiart.org/en/paula-modersohn-becker/the-painter-with-camellia-branch-self-portrait-1907

All the Dorothies are on sale during @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social's sitewide sale for the next (checks watch) 36 hours! 📚🎁 Go: www.nyrb.com/collections/...

To write something that will be worthy of that rising moon, that pale light. Katherine Mansfield, Katherine Mansfield Notebooks

#NYRBWomen25 Elizabeth-Charlotte (Liselotte) seems quite spirited. “A great blonde Teutonic tomboy…she was fond of animals & had many pets; little dogs & a tame duck; she hoped they had immortal souls, while doubting whether anybody had.” Is said to have written 60k letters throughout her life.

#NYRBWomen25 “There were four men without whose collaboration the King could never have built Versailles: Colbert, Le Vau, Le Nôtre and Le Brun.” (p14) I loved this section on the builders.

Here are the books I finished in November. So many gems. I also still have Proust #AContinuation25 & several short story collections in circulation so here’s to a prolific reading month in December! #NYRBWomen25

New on the blog today, I've written about THE HEARING TRUMPET by Leonora Carrington. A surreal, subversive, wildly imaginative novella that challenges traditional patriarchal & ageist societal structures, turning them on their heads in thrilling fashion! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/t...

#NYRBWomen25 #XiXi Mourning a Breast @joiedevivre9.bsky.social #RachelCuskTogether #Transit

“Louis XIV fell in love with Versailles and Louise de la Vallière at the same time; Versailles was the love of his life.” (p1) #NYRBWomen25 Here’s our page guide & a photo of Bernini’s sculpture mentioned on page 7.

#NYRBWomen25 The Surreal Economics of Aging: Leonora Carrington’s The Hearing Trumpet Reimagines Value Beyond Decline bullandbearmcgill.com/the-surreal-...

Very much looking forward to this conversation w/ Lisa Robertson and curator Gemma Blackshaw (Wednesday eve London time) in conjunction with artist Cathie Pilkington's HOUSEKEEPER at the Freud Museum. www.freud.org.uk/event/works-...

#NYRBWomen25 Because of my travels earlier in the month, we are a book behind, but tomorrow, we start THE SUN KING by Nancy Mitford. “a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV & Versailles” Tomorrow’s pages: Intro & chapter 1. Page guide coming.

Surprised that I really enjoyed reading Mourning a Breast by Xi Xi with #NYRBwomen25. I mean, the title didn't make me think it would be delightful. Her cheery, matter of fact writing of the terrifying and often bewildering cancer journey, in this delightful hybrid of a book, felt timeless.

I have everything ready for our Thanksgiving dinner & I have about 20 min until guests arrive so I’ve poured myself a glass of wine & I’m going to finish Xi Xi. I’m so grateful for you all! I hope you’re having a fabulous day filled with loved ones, delicious food & some quiet reading time. 🥰🍁🍂

Books currently in rotation.

More info on #SundaySarton coming soon!

All biographies should contain an Astral Chart.