The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), by @rabihalameddine.bsky.social Rabih Alameddine, from @groveatlantic.bsky.social nothing if not unexpected and so, so good. Masterful writer

Does anyone still read the genius Dennis Potter?

You want to stay married? Order two pizzas

Halloween between hardcovers.

Amy Lowell was a BOSS

Anybody still read John Gardner?

I wanted chili. Hottest day of the month. He made me chilli.

Rest in Peace, beautiful and good man.

So happy

It’s at least Halloween adjacent, yes?

Vacation reading plan

Why? I have so much else to read and yet, The Newcomes, again, by William Makepeace Thackeray.

New displays. See if they last

The beloved husband got, in order, a new cookbook, a big new casserole pan, and a new lasagna recipe so… guess what I got for dinner last night!!! favoloso

Breakfast with dear DMcC

Fried zucchini means still summer

Beautiful tomatoes from my old boss, bless him

It’s National Read a Book Day. Can’t you tell?

Wicked and delightful

Read better books. If you don’t know, ask. What I do.

Release date!

Plotting my first actual break from (ahem) a very challenging year with a staycation in September and a nice looooooooooong read. Divine Days, by Leon Forrest, the first fully restored edition the author never lived to see, 1168 pages, 3.4 pounds, Northwestern University Press.

If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich. The Grapes of Wrath

Out Tuesday!

It is a pleasure and a privilege to live at the same time as American historian Eric Foner.

Mmmmm

Go Fish

Trying to get along to go along

Would that I could believe he’d burn as he should

Perfection

And this wicked spider has gone to dust. Good news.

End of summer abundance

48 years ago today I was at summer camp when my greatest hero died. I was heartbroken and asked the camp nurse if there was anything I could borrow to make a black armband. His memory is and will always be a blessing. יהי זכרו לברכה (Richard Avedon photo)

Bless you, John Butt(!) for my Pope Letters

RIP novelist @gregiles.bsky.social Greg Iles. He spent what proved to be his last writing Southern Man, a rich and powerful indictment of the disgraceful state of his beloved country. Well done, good and faithful servant.

"I don't know her" — your 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees

This personal project needs to end. I don’t even like these people.

It’s a banana. No, it’s meant to be an actual banana, in a backpack, in bronze, you filthy animals

Literally all the Andrea Marcolongo I can get. Thanks to @europaeditions.bsky.social

“I do not at all seek to be better loved and esteemed dead than alive.” — Michel de Montaigne, from On the Resemblance of Children to Fathers (“To Madame de Duras.”)

Rayon cravats, cats

Excellent new translation from @liveright.bsky.social

Election Day. Vote. Remember we read better books.

For a sign at work. First one in a long while

Fist full o’ figs, baby

I wanna be evil

Seriously?! Running?! Me?! It’s because it’s Andrea Marcolongo