Blogs about Books and literature

Vincennes Review of Books 2023 is here!Key:* = Excellent, highly recommend~ = Actively bad, do not recommendFirst readsThe Book of Form & Emptiness–Ruth OzekiLove in Idleness–Charlotte Mendelson Straight Man–Richard Russo *The Complete Magazine Stories of …

Stevenson first introduces Dr Hastie Lanyon when Utterson goes to seek his help. Lanyon is described as a “hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman… [with] a boisterous and decided manner”. Here, Stevenson is at pains to …

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki Read Apr 4, 2022 - Apr 10, 2022 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is a lovely book, filled with lovable characters and feeling. It is a novel about food, music, and …

A thought that never occurred to me but feels self-evidently right: “In the course of a reading life, one often stumbles on excellent prose writers never before encountered; such discoveries, however, are less likely in …

Hi everyone! You may have noticed that we’ve slowed down a bit on posting, approving comments, and, well, pretty much our whole end of the deal. We’d like to say we’re just too busy and …

My new poetry pamphlet from Melos Press, The Dictionary Speaks, is now out and can be ordered post-free via this link.From the publisher’s blurb:-NICHOLAS MURRAY’S many books include poetry, two novels, critically acclaimed biographies of …

Jackal, Jackal is a collection of some eighteen stories ("tales of the dark and fantastic" according to the book's subtitle) by Nigerian physician and writer Tobi Ogundiran, who wrote his first two stories (both collected …

Valerie Nieman spoke with Marjorie Hudson about her debut novel Indigo Field. To understand Marjorie Hudson, you must walk with her—through the huge garden where she and husband Sam raise a lot of their food …

On the 31st of May 2024, Dos Monos, the experimental hip-hop group formed by Zo Zhit, Taitan, and NGS, returns to the music of the past in order to plunder it. If the American theorist …

I paid a visit to an old friend today. Last time we visited was six years ago at her temporary digs in Wawel Castle, on a bitterly cold winter day in Kraków – and Polish …

An end of week recap “To be ill adjusted to a deranged world is not a breakdown.” – Jeanette Winterson This is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my …

This is my friend’s lovely cat who died recently.

Mary Custis Vezey in Harbin, 1920s A couple of days ago, on Twitter, I broke some splendid news about Vernon Duke. His memoir, Passport to Paris, which has been out of print since 1955, will …

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like …

Remembering Rahul: A tribute by Rohit Chopra Aniruddha Bose, Associate Professor of History at Saint Francis University, passed away on March 31, 2024 from brain cancer. Aniruddha was a remarkable person and brilliant scholar, soft-spoken …

The Loop by Anabel Donald published 1996 Having recently read and blogged on two of Anabel Donald’s books, I ended up reading all her crime stories. I seem to have been writing about London a …

Ridgeline subscribers — Hello! It’s been ages (well, a month or so) — I’m in constant scramble mode (or is it burnout mode?) these days. Finishing up the Random House edition of Things Become Other …

Fool: In Search of Henry VIII’s Closest Manby Peter K. AnderssonPrinceton University Press, 2023 The posthumous image of him has been entangled with the real individual, and no one has really fully tried to disentangle …

Noémi Kiss-Deáki is a writer from Åland who writes fiction in English. Galley Beggar Press have recently published her debut novel, which is inspired by the story of Mary Toft, a poor eighteenth-century Englishwoman who …

Harsh EvidencePamela FryLondon: Wingate, 1953172 pagesBecause this is a Canadian country house mystery, the house isn't terribly old and servants not so numerous. Rocky Crest is located on a private island in a lake somewhere …