Patriotism: "I went on musing about why it was thought better and higher to love one's country than one's county, or town, or village, or house. Perhaps because it was larger. But then it would be still better to love one's continent, and best of all to love one's planet." bit.ly/2atFrpw

My review of 'Another Country' by Caroline Lucas: bit.ly/42c1NrI

I've reread 'To The Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf and had a great discussion about it with my reading group so I've updated my review: bit.ly/1KW3P3M #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished 'Never Laura' by Evgeniya Lyras, a boldly original work of speculative fiction. My full review: bit.ly/46kof4x @renardpress.com #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Wow! Zadie Smiths 'On Beauty' might have started as 'Howard's End' rewritten but it ended up as utterly wonderful in its own right. My review: bit.ly/4ps373A #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

I've just finished 'Autobiography of Red' by Anne Carson, an 'epic poem' rewriting the myth of the tenth labour of Hercules. As usual with modern retellings of myth, the roles of hero and monster are reversed. My full review: bit.ly/4md5nsW #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

“There is no need to look smug and knowing - like the Mona Lisa - or - or a lavatory-attendant.” A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor My review: bit.ly/4gkO7k0 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Here is my review of T for Taylor, Elizabeth 'A View of the Harbour' in my 2025 A-Z of novelists challenge. bit.ly/4gkO7k0 Next up is U for Updike, John 'Rabbit is Rich' #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

“Anybody can be happy - there is no skill in that. what is important is to become a someone.” Still Lives by Reshma Ruia My review: bit.ly/46gy8Qq #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Madame Bovary in Manchester? I've just finished 'Still Lives' by Reshma Ruia. It's refreshing to read a book so rooted in everyday life. My review: bit.ly/46gy8Qq #Booksky💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

I've just finished the epic winner of the 2015 Booker: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. It isn't brief and there are many more than 7 murders. My full review: bit.ly/4p19URC #booksky 💙📚 #literaturesky #books 📚

So looking forward to this series based on the wonderful Ronan Hession book. My review: bit.ly/3YZ1jmw

Recently finished The Spire by William Golding. Superbly gappy stream of consciousness in a heavily symbolic novel. Wow. My full review: bit.ly/3JCfNVc #Booksky 💙📚 #Literaturesky #Books 📚 The picture shows a wooden beam in Lincoln Cathedral, placed there to stop the building falling down.

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads was a superb production. It runs until Saturday. If you're in Eastbourne, see it! My full review: daja57.blogspot.com/2025/08/talk...

That sounds about right.

Pointed Roofs (1915) was the first novel in English to be described as 'stream of consciousness'. Which it is. Sort of. My review: bit.ly/45qSW7D #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Today’s blog is Madonna, still banging out Like a Virgin at 67 years old, still spinning her discs, still vogueing and good luck to her! In, “On writing as performance” An elderly writer struts his stuff in the hope of just one sale. open.substack.com/pub/drewgumm...

I've just finished Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, a classic tragedy of claustrophobic marriage. My full review: bit.ly/4fN1b1s #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished Schreiber's An Introduction to Literary Criticism. It was first written in 1965 so, as you might expect, I utterly disagreed with some aspects of it. Nevertheless, he made some interesting points. My review: bit.ly/45SDh0T #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

@titanbooks.bsky.social‬ My review of Matt Wixey's Basilisk: bit.ly/47uREK0 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

I've just finished Basilisk by Matt Wixey, a horror novel starring some good computer hackers. My full review: bit.ly/47uREK0 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished Falling Animals by Sheila Armstrong, a fascinating mosaic portrait of an Irish seaside community. My full review: bit.ly/3Umksgi #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

I've just finished 'All the Colours of the Dark' by Chris Whitaker. I gobbled the pages. Exceptional writing made me believe in what I realise in retrospect was an unbelievable plot. My review: bit.ly/3J1bv9I #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

“The root of the problem is that my ... high life makes you lowlife.” Vernon Subutex 3 My review: bit.ly/45tT9H3 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

“Can someone explain to him why clothing manufacturers sew on labels so that they itch around the waist?” From Vernon Subutex 3 My review: bit.ly/45tT9H3 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

OMG. Vernon Subutex 3, the final volume of the epic trilogy, brings the saga to an inevitable end. I didn't like the very last chapter but until then ... Wow. So much energy, so many truths (some uncomfortable) told. Read it! My review: bit.ly/45tT9H3 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished 'Blue Ruin' by Hari Kunzru, a pandemic book based around a love triangle which explores the world of art and artists. My review: bit.ly/4fi7CJG #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished watching 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' TV series starring Jacob Elordi. Viscerally depressing. Not really what I remember of the book: my review of that is here: bit.ly/1C5gDgU #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Newly finished 'Long Island' by Colm Toibin, the sequel to his ever-popular 'Brooklyn' ... but I wasn't engaged. My full review: bit.ly/458huB1 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just completed 'Uncanny Stories' by May Sinclair, an author praised by George Orwell. My review: bit.ly/450fYk7 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

I've just finished 'Magus' by Anthony Grafton, a review of renaissance magicians. As a general reader rather than a specialist, I found it heavy going and sometimes confusing. My full review: bit.ly/3IXmNLU #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚

I've just finished 'Tripticks' by Ann Quin, a road novel that seems to have fused Angela Carter with William Burroughs. Exhausting but some brilliant moments. My review: bit.ly/4m8tyJf #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished 'The Dumas Club' by Arturo Perez-Reverte, the book behind the Polanski film 'The Ninth Gate' starring Johnny Depp. My review of the book: bit.ly/4lMsPgU #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

I've just finished 'Vernon Subutex 2' a worthy sequel to the first book and perhaps my favourite book so far this year. Can't wait for the concluding volume of the trilogy: on order. My review: bit.ly/451vTzX #Booksky 💙📚 #Books📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck, the sequel to Cannery Row. Very funny, very entertaining, with a wonderful mix of humour and street wisdom. My review: bit.ly/4kFB6SP #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

At 28 I swore (after 'Jude the Obscure') I would never read another novel by Thomas Hardy. Forty years later, I've read (and mostly enjoyed) 'Under the Greenwood Tree'. My full review: bit.ly/4kt3Rli #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished The Flanders Panel, a murder mystery set in the art world in Madrid: an anonymous killer plays a deadly game of chess with our heroes. My review: bit.ly/44xN62z #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚

Just finished 'A Place Called Winter' by Patrick Gale, a historical novel about an Englishman farming on the Canadian prairies. Packed with incident. And based on a true story! My review: bit.ly/3I6wLu3 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

'The Appleby Files' is a collection of short whodunnits or murder mysteries. It was published in 1975 and, I imagine, dated even then. If you like elegant if pompous prose and old-fashioned class snobbery then Sir John Appleby is your detective. bit.ly/3GqbUkV #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished 'Closed Casket' by Sophie Hannah, an Hercule Poirot continuation murder mystery. My review: bit.ly/4lu5e43 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

@laurainparis.bsky.social I've just finished Proto. Many fascinating moments for the amateur interested in prehistory and linguistics. My full review: davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com/2025/06/prot...

I adore Marsali Taylor's Cass Lynch Shetland Sailing murder mysteries. I've read all thirteen. They're beautifully written. Here's my review of the latest: bit.ly/44knN3J #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just finished 'Proto' by Laura Spinney. It fuses historical linguistics with DNA and archaeological evidence to chart Eurasian prehistory. Wow. My review: bit.ly/4l9QRCA #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Just completed 'An Imposter in Shetland', the 13th Cass Lynch Shetland Sailing murder mystery and one of the best. My review: davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com/2025/06/an-i... #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Colm Toíbín says that 'The Story of the Night' is one of his favourite books, of those he has written. It's about a gay man growing up in Argentina at the time of the Generals and afterwards. The loss of innocence or of wilful naivete? My review: bit.ly/3ZMJbgR #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Wake up in the middle of the night. Blinding revelation. But of course: Vernon Subutex 1 is Dante's Inferno! Now all I need to do is prove it. My review a ce moment: davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com/2025/06/vern... #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

Vernon Subutex is in a downward spiral. This picaresque novel follows him through the music, porn and drugs subculture of Paris. Trigger warnings on almost every level including sex, sexism, and racism. It's nothing if not frank. My full review: bit.ly/4jYyaQD #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

I enjoyed the film 'The Salt Path' but it's not as good as the book. My full review: daja57.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-...

*takes notes* #booksky

Just completed 'Cakes and Ale' by W Somerset Maugham, a searing indictment of how the English upper classes used (still use?) puritanical morality to try to keep the lower orders in their place. My review: bit.ly/4n21GYB #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky