It’s been a while since I last read a graphic novel, and I forgot how powerful the format can be. An incredible blend of storytelling and imagery, the personal and the political , history and the present - I’m blown away. Book: MCD/ @picadorbooks.bsky.social Drink: Bollinger

Before we get too far into the new year, here's my list of 5 star reads of 2025! I read much less this past year (new baby sapped time, energy, brain power) but still managed to fit some bangers in there.

Went to Singapore for the first time, found @jeremytiang.bsky.social in a bookshop, had to buy it. A brilliant introduction to the country’s history told in my favourite way: a juicy family saga. Book: Epigram Drink: Pepino from QT Singapore

Catching up on some of this year’s faves before my Best of 2025 list. I went into this one blind and loved it - so twisty and turny and meta, it made me want to reread it the instant I reached the last page. Book: Merky Books. Drink: some green cocktail I can’t remember the name of from Da Nang

Christmas book haul! What are you reading/drinking today? Books: @nottinghilleds.bsky.social @andotherstories.bsky.social @picadorbooks.bsky.social @prototypepubs.bsky.social Brazen, MCD, Hamish Hamilton Drink: Leon Perdigal 2013 Chateauneuf du Pape

While I’m still in moving hell, let’s catch up on some books from the last few months. First, the very definition of tight, terse European prose. Book: @andotherstories.bsky.social Drink: Lady Trieu Hoi An Spice Road Gin & Tonic

. @alexshephard.bsky.social continues to post the very best writing about the Nobel (and not just because he’s also a big Julian Barnes fan)

Sometimes I think I’m overstimulated, and then sometimes I’m trying to read in my second language with a screaming baby and a shouting child and their multiple noisy toys and I’m trying to meet a deadline before dinner with my in laws and I forgot the point I was trying to make here, pls send help.

I had an idea awhile back to try to get a Bluesky prompt going asking people to share photos of their desks/workspaces (I still want to see them all, share yours with me!) so I’m absolutely in heaven with this @wallpapermag.bsky.social feature www.wallpaper.com/design-inter...

Happy #ITD2025!

A belated addition to #womenintranslationmonth: this eerie, engrossing novel that absolutely lives up to the hype, brilliantly (re)translated by the legendary Ros Schwartz.

If you’re looking for one last read for #womenintranslationmonth, may I suggest this slim but powerful novella from Argentina? A moving exploration of loss and grief, translated beautifully as ever by the remarkable @jenniferlcroft.bsky.social Book: @charcopress.com Drink: Limewood Fresca #witmonth

Good reading for hunkering down at home during a T10 typhoon 🌀 Book: Chatto & Windus Drink: Four Pillars Gin Gimlet with a Louis Roederer Champagne reduction (a clever @adamawhite.bsky.social trick for using up flat champagne)

"No, what AI can do is not yet a threat to human translators and human readers of sophisticated, textured human writing. The threat is what some people think it can do." Daniel Hahn nails it as per usual observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Aussie restaurant, Aussie wine, and a sumptuous, unsettling Aussie classic that is well worth your time. I’m too scared to watch the movie adaptation though 🫣Book: @vintagebooks.bsky.social Drink: Hugh Hamilton The Trickster Pinot Grigio 2024

Amig@s hispanohablantes, me hace mucha ilusión que el segundo libro de mi amigo @jamestgriffiths.com, ya está disponible en español, traducido por Cristina Macía.

Can’t get over how good this one was. Inventive and funny and life-affirming, although maybe not the best decision for me to have read a novel based around child death right now. Book: Random House Drink: Paco Mulero Albariño 2021

For Mother’s Day I can think of no better book to recommend than this, which I’ve been reading one-handed during long nights of newborn feeds. A brilliant dissection of how becoming a mother profoundly changes a person & all the ways society lets them down. A must-read whether you’re a mother or not

Welcome home beautiful Baby Daniel, welcome back delicious proper champagne. Reading material for stellar big brother Ben. Book: Scholastic Drink: Foxey’s Hangout Brut Sparkling White

Also for this reason I am begging. I do not want to see that horrible man’s face.

One month to go til the birth of my second child, figured I should brush up on some motherhood tips. Book: @vintagebooks.bsky.social Drink: 凍檸茶

Thank fuck for new music from Self Esteem www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgVq...

Occasional reminder that whenever you say "sparks joy" you are not quoting Marie Kondo. You are quoting her translator, Cathy Hirano. She invented "sparks joy" out of whole cloth. What Marie Kondo says is "This makes my heart go pitter pat."

It works so well it is crazy! What a superb surprise open.spotify.com/track/43y7ax...

Here's the unlikely century-long story of how a non-gendered pronoun became gendered, and then got itself re-de-gendered. This one's got everything! Poetry! Grammar! Love songs! Queer communities! Unicode! and ... Y.R. Chao! What more could you want? #langsky 🀄️📚 1/

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Translator: The cup is half full/half empty/partially filled/semi full/half drunk (?check?)/mostly gone [FIX IN NEXT DRAFT]

We are so back

Publisher: Do you want to put an LLM clause in the copyright statement? Me: Definitely. How specific can we get? Publisher: As specific as you like.

My cartoon for this week’s Guardian books…

Are you a non-fiction book agent? I'm currently seeking representation for a couple of projects I'm working on, please get in touch: [email protected] My previous two works were respectively an FT Book of the Summer and New Yorker Book of the Year.

With the T8 being dropped at 1030am to get everyone back to work, here is satellite evidence of the Li Ka-Shing forcefield around #HongKong, ensuring no working day is lost to typhoon.

Time was I’d read each new issue of Granta as soon as it came out. Now I’m having to wait for a couple of childfree days to catch up on the Winter 2020 edition. Turns out it was a pretty good one! Book: Granta Magazine Drink: Jamu Sling from Potato Head Bali

[laura branigan voice] gloria (gloria) in excelsis deo (gloria) et in terra pax homínibus (gloria) bonae voluntáaaa-ti-i-is

I feel like this site's demographics can be described as "still mad about the loss of Google Reader"

I’ve read a lot of books about grief over the past two years, and this is one of the best. Beautiful and real and heartfelt, and not nearly as depressing as you might think. I recommend for any and all types of grief. Book: Serpent’s Tail Drink: just a really big coconut

Time to come clean about my recent posts: I haven’t actually had a proper drink in months. The sequel to Tiny Gentle Eurasian is arriving March 2025. Time to brush up on leaps… Book: Kiddy World Publishing Drink: Martini Non-Alcoholic Vermouth & Tonic

My cartoon for Guardian Books’ autumn reading special.

"In the 1980s, Auberon Waugh predicted that no one would be reading Barnes in 20 years’ time. He was wrong." I wrote about Julian Barnes's best books, inc the one Barnes told a fan not to read, the cheerfully nasty crime novel, and the one "undoubtedly much too good to win the Booker Prize."

You know how people talk about writer’s writers? Jennifer Croft is a translator’s writer. I LOVE this meta mystery novel so much, not least because it is wickedly on-point about this strange and unusual job. Book: Scribe Drink: Gimlet ft. Saneha Gin.

I’m a massive nerd when it comes to categorisation, putting things in order etc, so you can imagine how much I love the concept of 10 years of diaries with the sentences organised alphabetically. Probably not for everyone, but for me it’s👌Book: Fitzcarraldo Editions Drink: Veuve Clicqout

I’d somehow never heard of Janet Frame until learning about her in a book I’m currently translating 🤫 but now I’m obsessed. Delighted to have found her full autobiography at Pegasus Books in Wellington. Book: Century Hutchinson Drink: The Landing 2022 Boathouse Vino Rossi

Deeply inside baseball but I would love to read a story detailing the calls between the lawyers for the USOC, Snoop, and the IOC about this pin.

A buttery chard for a buttery book. Book: Fourth Estate Drink: Craggy Range 2022 Gimblett Gravels Vineyard Chardonnay #WITMonth

I walked into Arty Bees Bookshop in Wellington looking for Eleanor Catton’s third novel (having already read and loved The Luminaries), came out with her first instead, absolutely delighted by this turn of events because it turns out her debut is a stunner.

I took @cacrampton.bsky.social’s previous book to India with me, so thought it only fair I bring her second somewhere just as far-flung. This is such an interesting examination of the history of hypochondria: highly recommend to all. Book: Granta Drink: Beerlao

I continue to be terrible at picking relaxing poolside reads, but the writing is VERY beautiful. Book: Granta Drink: Herbistii from the Elephant Bar at Rosewood Luang Prabang

Just to say this book lived up to all the hype in that it totally destroyed me. Read the second half on a plane gripping my son’s arm so hard he had to complain. Book: Tinder Press Drink: Thai Negroni from Capella Bangkok

Every day for the past two months