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 …

Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses Macduff to symbolise loyalty to the rightful monarch as he is committed to the Divine Right of Kings. It is Macduff who knocks on the gates to the Macbeths’ castle …

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 …

Ten years ago, Joseph Epstein wrote to his friend Frederic Raphael: “I have myself long ago put aside any thought about writing an autobiography. . . . When I became, almost without conscious decision, a …

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 …

In addition to Philip Pullman's substantial fantasies, His Dark Materials (three volumes) and The Book of Dust (two volumes published, the third, at present, forthcoming), Pullman has published some short companion volumes to the series. …

On March 28, more than 300 small presses learned that their distributor, Small Press Distribution, had abruptly closed. The news left many small presses wondering: when, and how, will we get our books back? Will …

The system is broken. The celebrity is brighter than the sun. Only she can decide when it is day. There’s a sentiment amongst Swifies that if you wrong Taylor Swift, you will fall. They call …

The eminent Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki has been called an “ecological prophet.” Please join us for a discussion of his 1933 classic In Praise of Shadows. It’s coming up fast! Another Look will discuss Tanizaki’s …

An end of week recap “A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.” – Charlotte Brontë (born 21st April 1816) This is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR …

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

Cover of “Captain” Mayne Reid’s The Headless Horseman With the arrival of spring break, I’ve managed to find time for a little light reading—purely for the sake of entertainment, no edifying strings attached. This is …

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 …

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting works in South Asian Studies, whose aim is not to “review” but to contextualize, historicize, and promote new scholarship. We …

A Body Made of Glass by Caroline Crampton published 2024 Caroline Crampton will be familiar to many of my blog readers because of her podcast, Shedunnit: a must-listen for all fans of Golden Age crime …

Ridgeline subscribers! Last week I had a new piece for the New York Times go live: “A Japanese Village Wants Tourists to Come for Heat, Soot and Steel”. I took tons of photographs (also, this …

Picture source Dante: Inferno to Paradise is a two-part, four-hour documentary film chronicling the life, work and legacy of the great 14th century Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri, and his epic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, one …

Here goes, it’s time to reveal our shadow panel’s shortlist for the International Booker. This year, for the first time, we have a shortlist of only five: Not a River by Selva Almada, translated from …

More Joy in HeavenMorley CallaghanNew York: Random House, 1937278 pagesIt's been decades since Intro to CanLit II, my second introduction to Canadian literature. Like Intro to CanLit I, the course covered four works; all novels, …