Weekend Miscellany

It’s been an emotional week for me, because yesterday was my last day working for OUP and the Oxford Dictionaries department. I’ve been there, off and on, for nearly four years – 2.5 years in a full-time role – and I’ve made some of my best friends there. The idea that I could write about words for social media and get paid for it is still extraordinary to me.

Still, it felt like time for a change. I need to learn my new company’s social media policy before I talk about it (!) but it’s still in Oxford, and it looks like it’ll be a great, encouraging, and exciting place to work. But my OUP leaving do made me very emotional nonetheless! 2012 was really hard for me in various ways, and starting work at OUP in early 2013 was a real gift from God that I will always be grateful for.

S0 – new job on Monday but, before that, here’s a book, a blog post, and a link.

1.) The book – I’ve rather given this one away by putting the image up the top of the post: it’s Books For Living by Will Schwalbe. I saw somebody put it on Instagram, I think, but I can;t remember who… sorry! I’ve not read The End of Your Life Book Club, though intend to at some point, but this book is about why we read and what it means to us, and I can never get enough of that sort of book.

2.) The link – is the farewell speech by Barack Obama. Hey, let’s embed it. Sure, he is a human and thus he isn’t perfect (and he’s had to put up with a Senate from the other side, blocking his changes) – but we are so lucky that the most powerful office in the world has been held by a man of such wisdom, dignity, kindness, and intelligence. Goodbye, Barack, and thank you.

3.) The blog post – having read and loved some of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s short stories last year, I was excited to see Ali reading a collection of them. I haven’t read Scenes of Childhood, but I am all-the-more excited to after reading her review – and you can do the same.

I had big plans to spend the morning lying in bed reading today. Well, guys, I spent the morning in bed. But since I only work up at 10.45, I didn’t do all that much reading… I guess I needed it! It’s definitely been a fairly busy start to the new year – and I did manage to read for an hour or so after that as well. Partly a book I picked up from my Tell Me What To Read shelf, and partly Jennifer Walker’s biography of Elizabeth von Arnim (called, inevitably, Elizabeth of the German Garden). I read half of it ages ago, didn’t finish before I went to a von Arnim conference, and somehow forgot to finish it. Now’s the time!

Now is also the time for the miscellany regulars: book, link, and blog post.

1.) The blog post – is over at my bro’s, as he awards his version of the Oscars to the films of 2016. His podcast (The C to Z of Movies) also does a v funny round of 2016 films here, and you can follow them on Twitter too. Watch this space, as there will be a C to Z of Movies/Tea or Books? crossover at some point in 2017…

2.) The book – before I’m accused of nepotism… no, this one isn’t far off either. My friend Claire’s first novel is coming out in a few weeks. It’s called The Runaway and you can read more about it here. I’ve not read it yet, so can’t give any opinions, but it’s very exciting – I know Claire from church, and didn’t even realise she had completed a novel until I heard it was being published!

3.) The link – sadly I have only a week left at OUP. I’m going to miss it terribly, but it does feel like the right time to move onto other things – which I’m sure I’ll explain in more detail at some point. For now, enjoy probably my final book quiz for OxfordWords: book titles with missing colours. I bet you can get full marks.

I’m off to spend the weekend with Sherpa – ahem, with my family – and to recover from the excitement of Emmerdale’s death week. Seriously, I have struck up conversations with strangers about Emmerdale this week; it’s been amazing. If you watch it, please fill my heart with delight by letting me know and talking about HOW GOOD this week’s storytelling was.

But let’s get back to books for the usual (is it still ‘usual’ when I forget to do it so often?) book, blog post, and link…

1.) The book – Susan’s review of Bookshops by Jorge Carrion, which Annabel pointed out to me in the comments to my previous post, has made me very much want to get hold of it. And I suspect you will feel the same.

2.) The link – an exhibition of Tove Jansson’s paintings is coming to Dulwich (yay!) next October (boo!). Read more about it here.

3.) The blog post – it’s all about writing the introductions to Furrowed Middlebrow books, courtesy of Woman and Her Sphere.

Happy weekend! Hope you’ve got lots of lovely things planned. Mine will hopefully include editing a podcast at some point, so that will be out early next week, but for today… let’s have a book, a blog post, and a link.

1.) The blog post – is the always-funny Jenny from Reading the End being extra specially funny about the Brontes. What’s the Bronte-est thing that happens in Claire Harman’s new biography of Charlotte? Find out…

2.) The link – who doesn’t love interspecies friendship? And etymology? I don’t think I’ve shared this, that I wrote a couple of weeks ago for OxfordWords about words you didn’t know shared an etymological origin.

3.) The book – coming out in a few days (if you’re in the US) and in late April (in the UK) is Helen Oyeyemi’s first collection of short stories, called What is Not Yours is Not Yours. Coming full circle in these three points (triangle?) is that I heard about it on Jenny’s podcast. A proof copy is now in my hot little hands, and I’m looking forward to starting it soon. I think it’s two different publishers on either side of the Pond, and the US and UK covers are very different. Which do you prefer?

Howdy y’all – hope you’re all having lovely weekends. It’s beautifully sunny here in Oxford, but in a few hours I’ll be hopping on a plane for a very short trip to Glasgow (no time to find any bookshops, boo) – I’ll let you know all about that afterwards. For now, here’s a book, a blog post, and a link…

1.) The book – I heard on the Reading the End podcast that Helen Oyeyemi was having a collection of short stories out later this year, and while searching for that (FYI, it’s What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours and is out in April in the UK, possibly earlier in the US) I came across an NYRB she’d written an introduction for. It’s a collection of short stories called Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo, and sounds darkly, weirdly fascinating. Does anybody know anything about it?

2.) The blog post – it’s got to be the link round-up post for Margery Sharp Day over at Beyond Eden Rock.

3a.) The link – thanks to Biana the publicist for sending me this link, to a video of the highlights from the Costa Book Awards, which seems like a fun thing to embed:

3b.) The sneaky second link – can you match the grammar abilities expected of 7 year olds under the new curriculum? I’m sad to say I got 10/11 – I feel like by now I should be able to ace a test for 7 year olds…

I hope you’re enjoying some Christmas shopping, carols round the fire, egg nog and whatnot. We’ve put our Christmas tree up at Argyle Street, accompanied by carols played on the piano – albeit arrangements of carols, which made for rather confusing singing-along-to. I think I did the last of my Christmas shopping today (though have also come down with a cold, which made a wander into town rather exhausting). Still, should be germ-free by Christmas itself, right? And here are some links to enjoy if you’re also under the weather…

1.) Queen of Crime: this is quite an old New Yorker article, but I haven’t read it before, all about Agatha Christie.

2.) A really interesting article about reading Virago Modern Classics as a man.

3.) 100 Best Novels: another list! But this one has a different spin; 81 non-British literature experts were asked to choose the best British novels. It’s a very good list, with some surprises (both in terms of inclusion and exclusion) and not just the usual suspects.

4.) Struggling with Christmas gift ideas? Let Jenny and Jenny at Reading The End help you out! More details here.

I’ll be spending my weekend reading 1924 books in preparation for the 1924 Club kicking off on Monday – I unwisely decided to start quite a few books at once, but I’m hoping to finish at least one of them by Monday. Of course, the club readalong will be going on over a fortnight, so plenty of time!

1.) The blog post – speaking of readalongs, Ali has come up with a really brilliant Woolf readalong plan for 2016. It’s a very thoughtful look at Woolf’s life and career, with plenty of opportunities for the Woolf devotee or the Woolf newbie. I’m looking forward to lots of Woolf re-reading, and maybe even finally getting around to reading her letters and diaries.

2.) The link – Koko the gorilla had a birthday and picked some kittens to be her pets. Then she signed ‘put it on my head’. Koko is the gorilla we all deserve.

3.) The book – I’ve had my eye on this for a while, in my Amazon wishlist, but just spotted it in a shop the other day. I resisted (partly because my birthday isn’t too far away!) but this Princeton University Press reprinted edition of Alice with illustrations by Salvador Dali looks like a must for my small but beautiful Alice collection (featuring thus far Tenniel and Tove Jansson).

Here is a whole bunch of things to delight you this weekend. Truth be told, I noted most of these down last weekend – but hopefully they’re still relevant!

1.) I’ve only read one Josephine Tey novel (which I don’t think I’ve reviewed yet, have I?) but others of you with more Tey knowledge might well be excited by this article in Vanity Fair (and a forthcoming biography!)

2.) The Booker shortlist came out a while ago. And Lila wasn’t on it. Which is rather embarrassing for them. C’mon, Booker judges, history is gonna think you were rather silly about this one.

3.) Cartoons that imagine what would happen if your CEO were a cat.

4.) If you have access to Channel 4 online, then Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages is a must-see. The series has finished now but plenty of episodes are available online. It sounds like a spoof, but it’s not: Penelope Keith wanders from village to village, marvelling over their histories and meeting old folk who remember the good old days. Plus everywhere is beautiful.

5.) Do check out a fascinating essay Victoria/Litlove has written in Numero Cinq on four types of liars.

Oh, and I’m very excited at the response to The 1924 Club! I’m hoping for lots of unexpected books to be unearthed – so do keep hunting on your bookshelves.

Well, I’ll be spending my weekend writing a conference paper for the Elizabeth von Arnim conference which is (ahem) next weekend. Excellent planning, Si. I’m speaking about Father, which (since Virago didn’t reprint it during their flurry of E von A reprints) isn’t particularly well known – but it’s rather fab. More on that soon; for now, a book, a blog post, and a link.

1.) The book – I’ve been meaning to read it for ages, but since I haven’t managed it yet, I thought I’d just let you know it exists. It’s 43 writers writing about how much they love reading. Blissful, no? Thanks Bloomsbury for sending me a copy – I am really looking forward to finding time to read it.

2.) The blog post – exciting news from Ali about Bello and Mary Hocking.

3.) The link – anybody who loves the entirely lovable Humans of New York might also have fun over at Felines of New York…

Hope you’re enjoying the sunshine this weekend! I’m mourning the fact that my lovely boss has left OUP, and she’s pretty much the most fab boss ever, so we should probably just close OUP and start again. BUT a link, blog post, and book never hurt anybody.

Before I go further, though, the winner of the Cornelia Otis Skinner book Nuts in May is – Rosemary Hopkins! Well done, Rosemary! I’ll be in touch soon. For everybody else – do make sure you track down something by her.

1.) The book – I treated myself to the beautiful In Search of Rex Whistler by Hugh and Mirabel Cecil after reading Lyn’s very persuasive post about it, and (of course) Anna Thomasson’s A Curious Friendship. It’s definitely spoiling myself, but Anna’s book left me super keen to see more of Rex Whistler’s work, and this book has lots of images.

Oh, another book – I really enjoyed Maggie Gee’s Virginia Woolf in Manhattan (and reviewed it for Shiny New Books, where I also interviewed Maggie Gee): the paperback is now out!

2.) The blog post – you’ve got time to join in Mary Hocking Reading Week! Let Ali explain it all… (Oh, and Sylvia Townsend Reading Week has been extended to a month, so I should manage to at least finish the short story I started.)

3.) The link – I couldn’t really think of a link this week, but the most recent xkcd cartoon is one that gets my full support…