Happy weekend, everyone! I’m feeling in a good mood as I write this on Friday night, because I went back to the first chapter of my DPhil thesis for the first time in 3 years, and I still felt inspired to see how I could edit and re-frame it! It’s been so long since I had time to work on my DPhil properly that I’d forgotten the thrill when planning goes right. The only academic thing to compare is the thrill when archives turn up something wonderful. There are plenty of downsides to spending four years earning very little money and working alongside very few people, but it has its upsides too.
So that’s put me in a cheery frame of mind for sharing a book, a link, and a blog post!
1.) The book – is one I was offered by the author. I know I won’t have time to read it, so I haven’t accepted the review copy, but I still think it sounds very intriguing. It’s A Bright Moon For Fools by Jasper Gibson, and the cover art is enough to catch my attention…
I like the quick synopsis Jasper put in an email to me: “Though it is (I hope) funny in parts, it’s really about an ageing man, unable to get over the loss of his wife, crashing around rural Venezuela and getting into serious trouble.”
2.) The blog post – was a very easy choice this week, as it’s about a book I adored, but never wrote about: Economy Must Be Our Watchword by Joyce Dennys. I didn’t write about it, because it was impossible to find and I didn’t want to fill people with hopeless desire to read this gem! But I mentioned it when I took part in Lost in the Stacks over at A Work in Progress, and Danielle, marvellously, managed to find a copy through her library – and wrote a brilliant review here. Go and check it out; it also includes lots of Dennys’s brilliant illustrations.
3.) The link – this video had my office in fits of laughter this week:
Instead of reading all the blog posts of those I follow, I've spent all morning camped out here and only scratching the surface I am sure.
Love your reading journey and support for the lesser known gems there are out there, despite how dangerous it is for an already precarious TBR pile.
Happy to have stumbled across Stuck in a Book, now I'm Stuck in the Blog Stuck in a Book.
Bonne Continuation!
Thank you so much, Claire, that's very nice of you! I'm afraid there are over 1600 posts to read, so you might not be able to get through the whole backlog ;)
You would think that publishers would be rushing to reissue a book entitled "Economy Must be Our Watchword" in the present climate. As for the Jasper Gibson book, whilst it is original to see the phrase "very unpleasant" in a cover quote, it would tend to put me off. This may be fortunate, as I have enough to read already. Have a good weekend.
It takes a brave writer! I think I would enjoy this, but… no time!
Should the folk in your office be, y'know, working? My tax dollars better not be being misspent.
Ha! Talk me through how you think OUP is tax funded?
Hi Simon–thanks so much for linking to and mentioning my post. I hope that others can track the book down, too, if only to borrow and then return to the library. I'd be curious to know if it gets another request to 'travel' to another library somewhere. It is a charming and funny book–just what I needed and now I look forward to reading more of Joyce Dennys's books. By the way–plan on reading Mapp and Lucia (I have two or three of the books) but in the interim I have pulled out a PG Wodehouse. Maybe reading it will make the dreary days just a little more cheerful! :) And I agree–it is a book that is ripe for a reissue I'd say!
I do hope some other people can join in the fun, Dani! Such a lovely book.