My new blog post on the wonderful Leonora Carrington. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2026/07/17/l...

Excited, or at least interested, to discover that Don Delillo's 1980 pseudonymous novel, Amazons, will be republished in November.

A walk on the wild side: The Pure and the Impure by Colette, translated by Rachel Careau @wwnorton.com roughghosts.com/2026/07/17/a...

Next in my #20BooksofWinter: Playing in the Light by the late South African UK resident Zoë Wicomb anzlitlovers.com/2026/07/16/p...

Just finished The Conquest of the Plassans, the fourth novel in Zola's Rougan-Macquart sequence - which I seem to be getting through at the rate of one a year!

Coming from Penguin Classics next year - a wonderful novel!

Herve le Tellier's follow-up to The Anomaly, also translated by Adriana Hunter, is the true story of one man's participation in the French resistance, as well as an exploration of the appeal of fascism then and now: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/07/14/t...

Herve le Tellier's follow-up to The Anomaly, also translated by Adriana Hunter, is the true story of one man's participation in the French resistance, as well as an exploration of the appeal of fascism then and now: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/07/14/t...

New on the blog today, I've written about THE SPRING HOUSE by Cynthia Asquith. Part war-torn love story, part character study, part portrayal of a woman’s life on the home front, there's a wonderful sense of character development in this absorbing novel. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/07/14/t...

It will not surprise anyone to learn there has been some book buying while I have been on holiday in Yorkshire. These from the Oxfam in Helmsley:

Bit more Bessette here www.selavy.fr/post/helene-...

TWILIGHT SLEEP brims with Edith Wharton’s sparkling wit as she casts an unflinching, satirical eye over the quirks and foibles of New York society in the Jazz Age. My thoughts on this excellent novel: readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2026/07/10/t...

New on the blog today, I've written about THE PUMPKIN EATER by Penelope Mortimer. A superb novel about a married woman's descent into an inescapable abyss. Raw, unflinching and razor-sharp, it's the best book I've read so far this year. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/07/07/t...

Pleased to see that I'm not the only person left underwhelmed by this novel.

The fifth novel in my read through of Brain Moore's work, The Emperor of Ice Cream, set in Belfast during the Second World War: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/07/04/t...

The fifth novel in my read through of Brain Moore's work, The Emperor of Ice Cream, set in Belfast during the Second World War: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/07/04/t...

Living in exile: Dying in Toronto by Daša Drndić, translated by Celia Hawkesworth roughghosts.com/2026/07/04/l...

"You're the exact opposite of a law enforcer. One might even say, when you arrest a wrongdoer, that you are sorry." My final Maigret novel.

Libra Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World A Different Drummer

Looking forward to this:

An enjoyable book club discussing the unreliable narrator of Agnes Owens' A Working Mother and to what extent she lies to herself.

M John Harrison talking about disrupting the form, writing in small sections before piecing them together, and his confusion over his late fame (tonight at Blackwell's in Edinburgh).

ICYMI I wrote about this novel about a most unconventional priest, inspired by an important Colombian cultural figure and friend of the author. @archipelagobooks.bsky.social To live is to love life: Aside from My Heart, All is Well by Héctor Abad roughghosts.com/2026/06/26/t...

New on the blog today, I've written about OPERATION HEARTBREAK by Duff Cooper. Loved this beautiful, bittersweet novella, a deeply moving story about hopes & expectations, disappointments & dashed dreams, and the emotional pull of love & war. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/28/o...

I discovered Robert Aickman (#BOTD) thanks to WE ARE FOR THE DARK, an excellent collection of stories in collaboration with Elizabeth Jane Howard. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2022/03/04/w...

The cruelty of poverty in rural Spain in a novel from 1981 by Miguel Delibes, now translated by Peter Bush: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/26/t...

The cruelty of poverty in rural Spain in a novel from 1981 by Miguel Delibes, now translated by Peter Bush: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/26/t...

"...all I could see was death..." #jozefczapski #nyrbclassics #20BOS26 Book 5 kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2026/06/24/a...

My new blog post on Joan Barfoot's GAINING GROUND (or ABRA), an unforgettable novel about rejecting conventional roles, self-liberation, motherhood, and solitude. Full five stars from me! readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2026/06/24/g...

New on the blog today, thoughts on LADIES OF THE RACHMANINOFF EYES by Henry Van Dyke. A fabulous coming-of-age story featuring a precocious black teen raised by 2 eccentric women in 1960s US. Witty, barbed, tender & poignant, a 5-star knockout read for me! jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/23/l...

“She wanted narrative without conventional plot, poetry without metaphor, testimony without confession. She wanted to document the violence embedded in ordinary life without melodrama or sociology. This refusal to belong cost her dearly.” www.selavy.fr/post/helene-...

“I’ll be perfectly willing to sacrifice anybody or anything for the sake of my work" Brian Moore's fourth novel, An Answer from Limbo, explores the selfishness of the artist. 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/21/a...

"The great thing about libraries then was there weren’t so many dust jackets about. I would pick a book up, read the first two pages, think, ‘Oh wow, that’s weird’, and it would turn out to be a Robbe-Grillet, and it would open a door to the anti-novel... You never knew what you were going to get.”

Whatever the difference is, it all began the day we woke up face-to-face like lovers and his four-day-old smile dawned on him again, possessed him, till it would not fall or waver… —Don Paterson, “Waking with Russell” Selected Poems (Faber, 2012) #FathersDay #poetry www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...

You realise that most of your favourite writers of the last ten years are Scandinavian...

My new blog post on Claudia Piñeiro's brilliant, engrossing tale of crime, religion, oppression, and dysfunctional families. Translated by Frances Riddle and published by @charcopress.com. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2026/06/20/c...

Favourite ‘challenging/bonkers’ books? I thought you'd never ask! The Woman in the Dunes (Abe) The Hundred Brothers (Antrim) Gerald's Party (Coover) Sacred Cow (Eltit) Riddley Walker (Hoban) A Disaffection (Kelman) Berg (Quin) The Last Lover (Can Xue)

A dark, grimy fable: Glantz by Tobias Ryan @tobiasvryan.bsky.social roughghosts.com/2026/06/18/a...

‘My father tried to kill my mother one Sunday in June, in the early afternoon.’ #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/18/s...

“The Muirs gave Kafka a distinctive voice in English for half a century: fluent, formal, enigmatic and mesmeric” – but a new, award-winning study of Kafka’s translators has almost completely erased their work from literary history, says Boyd Tonkin engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

New from @dauntbookspub.bsky.social this week, a coming-of-age story Uruguayan style - Eugenia Ladra's Bait, translated by Miriam Tobin: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/14/b...

New from @dauntbookspub.bsky.social this week, a coming-of-age story Uruguayan style - Eugenia Ladra's Bait, translated by Miriam Tobin: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/14/b...

Many thanks to @roughghosts.bsky.social for drawing my attention to this, which, of course, I had to immediately get hold of as Dasa Drndic is such an extraordinary writer.

NO#3 in #20BooksofWinter: the oddly titledTono-Bungay by H G Wells, part of a trio of novels that explore class and emerging modernity in Edwardian England anzlitlovers.com/2026/06/14/t...

New on the blog today, I've written about ANSWER IN THE NEGATIVE by Henrietta Hamilton. A very enjoyable vintage mystery set in the world of the National Press Archives on London’s Fleet Street. Ideal fans of Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence novels! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/14/a...

New on the blog today, I've written about some of my favourite COMING-OF-AGE NOVELS from the shelves. Featuring books by Rumer Godden, Jean Rhys, L. P. Hartley and more! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/c...

The first in an autobiographical trilogy from Finnish writer Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg, Lowest Common Denominator: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/l...

The first in an autobiographical trilogy from Finnish writer Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg, Lowest Common Denominator: 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/l...

"I have so little sense of living what I’m living while I live it that I have to relive it to finally live it."