I’m so upset to hear Catherine O’Hara has died. I defy anyone to find a better piece of physical comedy than the ankle injury walk in Best in Show, and Moira in Schitt’s Creek is a genius interpretation of character. Genius

#lastfourwatched #letterboxd

I think I may have been (at least temporarily) beaten by a @backlisted.bsky.social book. It’s genuinely so chilling and worrying that I can’t face picking it up.

Remember that episode of Friends where Joey puts books that are scaring him in the freezer?

The Crystal Vase by Astrid Goldsmith is a graphic memoir. It’s funny, informative and very moving, and I read it in two sittings (and that was only because I needed to stop to make tea and breakfast!). The style of the artwork is simple but beautifully done, and I loved reading it.

Half way through and it’s terrifying.

Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche story by C. S. Lewis. As someone who has never been taught any Classics, I’ve enjoyed contemporary books telling these stories, and wondered if this might be a little old fashioned, but my misgivings were unfounded. I enjoyed it an awful lot.

Saturday morning reading. Reading a @backlisted.bsky.social book from the 1970s that seems chillingly prescient

Just back from watching Rental Family. Loveliest film I’ve seen in the cinema in a while. I love a small story, and this was it. Looks beautiful, the score was subtle but effective, and I thought the performances were believable. I really enjoyed it.

What I’m reading next

Decided to read some more @backlisted.bsky.social books this week, and started with Smile Please by Jean Rhys, An Unfinished Autobiography. I adored reading this book. The majority of it covers her childhood in the West Indies, and then her move to London as a teenager.

Sunday morning coffee and a Backlisted book

Just finished the latest Locklisted bumper episode, excellent listening as always and I can confirm it generated significant progress on my latest project. Thank you, @backlisted.bsky.social 😂

Today’s book purchases. A graphic memoir, a bookshop short fiction book club choice and the latest @backlisted.bsky.social book.

I’m fast becoming a @nellstevens.bsky.social fangirl. I read Mrs Gaskell and Me this weekend, and it was both imaginative and informative, gave me an insight into an author in a way I haven’t encountered before, and best of all, made me want to go and read more Elizabeth Gaskell.

I think it was Lucy Scholes who first posted about Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee on her Instagram feed, and then not too long after that it was included in the @backlisted.bsky.social Summer Reading podcast. As often happens, it’s months later before I pick it up. But it was worth the wait.

Just putting this out there www.quincetreepress.co.uk/product-page...

I finished the final book in Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy, Kudos, this week. I tried reading Outline close to when it was first published, but I didn’t like it, and gave up after about 50 pages. When @backlisted.bsky.social, I knew I’d have to try again.

I finally found myself in the right place to read Gliff by Ali Smith. My god, she can write. I absolutely adore reading her books and seeing how they manipulate language and form, and are perfect reflections of the times we live in. Another incredible book.

Book 2 was Cheese by Willem Elsschot translated by Sander Berg. Originally published in the 1930s, and republished with a new translation, this is the story of an ordinary clerk who ends up attempting to become the main distributor of Dutch Edam cheese in Antwerp.

Thought I’d better do a bit of a catch up with the books I’ve read so far in January. The first one was Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy. I was introduced to by @backlisted.bsky.social and enjoyed The Constant Nymph, then loved The Feast, but I’d never even heard of Lucy Carmichael.

Attempting my first jumper in crochet. I’ve made mostly blankets and scarves, but I have also made some smaller toys and miscellaneous items, but never anything like this. After two days, I’m about a third of the way down the yoke (it’s worked in one piece from the neck collar down)

I’ve still got this one last day before I go back to work. Finished reading the excellent Gliff by Ali Smith this morning, and started Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee.

I’m a little but late, but here are my favourites of the books I read last year.

Made friends a crocheted scarf each for Christmas. Mentioned it to an aunt who asked if she could have one. Delivered it yesterday, she wore it today, and I now have a request for another one, with a veiled suggestion that everyone else wants one too. Guess what I’m doing for the next few weeks!

I’ll say it again. Raw Like Sushi is one of my favourite albums of all time #totp

My partner was given this book for Christmas and it is a stunner. I grew up in Bristol and live only 10 miles from it now, and am there most weekends. Pete the Street has captured the heart and soul of it in these incredible paintings.

Lightning the Christmas pud concluding the festivities for the day.

Christmas book presents. (Have already read 100 pages of the Margaret Kennedy and it’s glorious!)

Happy Christmas. This is where I am for the next couple of hours.

Advent puzzle finished. Loved this one

The worst film we’ve ever seen is now on Netflix (it’s from 1995). I had a look on Letterboxd and there are some 5 star reviews. Completely baffled. Haven’t seen it for over 25 years, but may need to watch it again now.

Just iced the first of two large Christmas cakes. We keep one and the other is a gift. Other half insists we have a cake, but will only eat at most two slices of it, and I will possibly have one, so the rest will also be gifted to anyone who visits, just to get rid of the bloody thing.

Met up with a couple of friends for coffee and a Christmas present exchange. We’d all made each other gifts! I crocheted them each a scarf, and in return I got a handmade felt bauble featuring Chesil Beach and a handmade cloth bound hardback of a book we’ve both loved and talked about recently.

Copies available in Heron Books in Clifton for any Bristolians who want to read it, or give it as a present. I bloody loved it, and would definitely recommend it!

Any small publishers who follow me should look at this. Tom’s writing is wonderful, and I’d love to read this new collection of short stories.

Took my goddaughter book shopping for her Christmas presents this morning. Here’s what she chose from @maxminervas.bsky.social, Heron Books and @gloucesterroadbks.bsky.social

Lovely Christmas EP by Samara Joy, for fans of Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole style of Christmas songs, and a lovely soulful live version of The Christmas Song with Antonio McLendon

Heron Books in Bristol are running an advent calendar in the shop where the first person to buy a book each day up to Christmas gets to pick a mystery proof from a lucky dip. They knew I wasn’t getting a book advent calendar myself this year …

I won’t be getting Backlisted books in my advent calendar this year as we have too many we haven’t read already, and we don’t have the shelf space! Maybe next year, I’ll have had chance to catch up a bit, there will be more authors featured that we want to collect and it will make a return.

I finished this last week, and I’m still thinking and chuckling about it now. I think few books make you laugh out loud, but chuckling aloud is a pretty good indicator of a humour. A bookseller by accident having lost his work as a journalist to online media, and attempting to revive …

Cinema trip today to see Wicked For Good (good, but supposed highest quality “Epic” screen at Vue looked like you were watching it projected onto water that had an oily film on top) and The Running Man (very good but didn’t have anything that made it feel specifically like an Edgar Wright film).

Going to the bookshop annual party this week, and they’ve asked everyone to come as book cover or in a costume inspired by a book. I’m not really a dress up person, so I’m going lowkey with a prop to make a favourite book cover. Can you guess what it is?

Listened to the new @backlisted.bsky.social episode on Patreon this morning and it’s another excellent, interesting discussion. I went into the bookshop to order the book and H asked me what it was about. I tried to remember Una’s blurb and failed miserably. Advised him to just listen to Backlisted!

Heron Books in Clifton, Bristol going all out with the window display for On the Calculation of Volume (love the calendars where every day is 18th Nov!) www.instagram.com/p/DRPNAtMjCU...

Here we go again …

I listened to the audiobook of Outline today. Unlike when I tried to read it for a book group a while back, I did make it to the end this time. I’m still bemused by the book, despite an excellent Backlisted episode discussion. Part of the problem with the audiobook is that KST does a Greek accent …

I’m reading Service by John Tottenham at the moment. About a hundred pages in and it’s so good. It’s funny enough that I’ve chuckled out loud a few times, and the occasional footnotes are gems. Enjoying it enormously

It’s here! On the Calculation of Volume III has arrived. I’ve taken the day off on Tuesday to read it. Also Outline and Transit by Rachel Cusk because, you know, Backlisted (although I have actually bought the audiobook of Transit this morning to see if KST can help me make it to the end this time.

Clifton Oxfam always has the creepiest dolls on display in the window.