Weekend Miscellany

It’s been a while since I did one of these miscellanies, I think. In the UK, pandemic restrictions start to lift in a couple of days, so it’s quite an exciting feeling – on the edge of being able to go inside friends’ homes and hug them etc! (My least favourite kind of tweet is the “Weren’t we all doing this anyway?” variety. No, most of us were doing all we could to stop the spread of the virus.) Of course, we shan’t all be dashing back to normal life on Monday, but this weekend does feel like the end of something.

I’m still waiting for my first vaccination, though it should only be a few weeks now. And hoping my current spate of dizziness/eye soreness goes away – it’s now a year since all my health stuff started, and I’m no closer to a diagnosis, but generally it is all very, very slowly improving. Praise God, there were only a couple weeks where I couldn’t read at all – at the moment, I just have to steer clear of small print.

ANYWAY, that’s a whistle-stop update. Let’s get onto the book, the blog post, and the link:

1.) The blog post – It’s a vlog post, but I wanted to share a review of O, The Brave Music from Lil’s Vintage World – one of my favourite Booktubers. I so love seeing people discover this book, particularly, from all the British Library Women Writers series.

2.) The link – On Twitter, Marina Sofia shared an excellent article by Alexander Larman in The Critic: ‘A Radical Proposal: Book reviews should review books‘. It has always irked me that broadsheet reviews, especially of non-fiction, scarcely engage with the quality of the book in question. One of the many reasons I prefer reading bloggers – though the bloggers vs newspaper reviewers debate has died down a little of late, hasn’t it?

3.) The book – One of the few still-publishing novelists I love is Jenn Ashworth. I still have a couple of her back catalogue unread on my shelves, but that doesn’t stop me being excited about Ghosted, coming out in June. Find out more at Jenn’s website.

The season has definitely changed here in the UK. The clocks have gone back, the evenings are getting darker, and the leaves are changing. It’s all very pretty but a little miserable to be dark and cold – especially as covid restrictions are likely to get stricter. Where I live, we’re still in tier one – but I suspect it won’t be long before that changes. Just in time for my birthday…!

For the bleaker weather – and to help deal with the anxiety the world is feeling around the upcoming US election – have a book, a link, and a blog post.

1.) The book – somehow I missed the announcement until now, but on 3 November there will be a new Edward Carey novel! I’ve been following his writing output for well over a decade, and love that Little put him more on the map. The Swallowed Man seems as eccentric and interesting as vintage Carey. Find out more.

2.) The link – I have no idea how catching up with TV works in the US, but if you can watch Superstore at this link, then I heartily encourage you to. It’s on hulu as well, and maybe there are other ways. Just for US folk, I’m afraid, but Superstore is one of my favourite sitcoms and their handling of the pandemic is genuinely moving, as well as very funny.

3.) The blog post – Books and Wine Gums has been enjoying a lot of the British Library Women Writers series – do check out her thoughts on Mary Essex’s Tea Is So Intoxicating.

I hope you have lovely, socially distanced plans for this weekend – maybe the last of our sunny weather here in the UK? Well, there’s already an autumnal snap in the air (and a hole in my roof, leaking water into the living room… thankfully fixed now, and somehow it managed to leak in about the only place where books aren’t piled up. Phew!)

Whatever you have planned, here’s a book, a blog post, and a link. Oh, and make sure you’re registered to vote if you qualify for American elections! Please help protect the rest of us who can’t vote there. And yes, I’ll nail my colours to the mast, that means voting the Biden/Harris ticket. At this point I’ve stopped even pretending to have sympathy for people who would vote for somebody as cruel, narcissistic, ignorant, racist, sexist, and unpresidential as Trump.

Welp, that got more political than this blog has ever been, I suspect! Here’s the normal bookish stuff…

1.) The blog post – please check out Ali’s wonderful list of 10 Vintage Books of Joy. It’s not the usual sort of book list you see, because many of these are a little out-of-the-way – but they’re all brilliant. Well, the eight I’ve read are, and I’ve now bought Something Light to add to my sprawling Margery Sharp collection.

2.) The book – I have a review copy of this on the way, but thought I’d mention now: Felix Unbound by Cathy Gunn. What would happen if your cat turned into a human? I love animal metamorphosis stories (and wrote about them in my DPhil – Lady Into Fox is wonderful) and so I hope this lives up to its premise and its promise.

3.) The link – the British Library shop is doing 3-for-2 on fiction paperbacks and you KNOW that includes the British Library Women Writers series! And, indeed, preorders. So I heartily recommend you get your mitts on them soon – let me know if you want advice about which to choose…

2020 just keeps going, doesn’t it? What a long, long year. I hope you have some good plans this weekend, and that they’re able to go ahead. I’ll be meeting up with my ‘bubble’ (my brother) so I’ll get to hug someone, which we never thought would become a novelty, did we?

Anyway, whatever you’ve got going on, here’s the usual link, blog

post, and book to accompany you on your way.

1.) The link – on my recent review of The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm, Jenny of Reading the End left a link to an NYRB article Malcolm wrote about her libel lawsuits. It is fascinating in a totally Malcolm way.

2.) The blog post – I enjoyed Danielle’s take on a reading prompt of ‘ready for new beginnings’. Aren’t we all, at the moment? And so many excellent novels and memoirs could fit that description. Go and see what Danielle chose.

3.) The book – the latest Slightly Foxed Edition (my goodness, how I love them) is Jessica Mitford’s brilliant memoir Hons and Rebels. It’s about her childhood as part of the notorious Mitford sisters, but also a lot more than that as she grows older and forms her own identity. And you won’t find a lovelier edition than this, because SF Editions are the nicest books in the world.

Happy Saturday to everyone! I’ve been a bit under the weather this week but I’ve also been really excited by the news that single-adult households can form bubbles with another household, in England. My brother and I have formed a long-distance bubble, which means we can visit and go inside each other’s houses and have a hug! Something I hope I never take for granted again – since it’s now three months since I touched another human. What do humans even feel like??

Anyway, a book, a link, a blog post… in fact, two blog posts.

1.) The blog posts – here’s a great list of black authors published in the Virago Modern Classics series, courtesy of Juliana at The Blank Garden – and here’s a reminder from Helen at A Gallimaufry that Sylvia Townsend Warner Reading Week is coming up again soon. Week beginning 29 June, in fact.

2.) The book – I love the graphic novelist Brecht Evens, and I’m really excited that The City of Belgium is coming out soon. More info – and you can even read it now, if you can read the original Flemish.

3.) The link – how are bookshop owners feeling about reopening? Find out at the Guardian.

We’re having some lovely weather in the UK this weekend, and the roses in my garden are in full bloom, so I can temporarily forget about the world out there with a book and a cuppa. I hope your weekend is going well – let me help it along with a book, a blog post, and a link.

1.) The link – the Hay Festival kicks off in a couple of days! Obviously it’s not happening in real life, but lots of events are happening online – and, even better, the tickets are free. I’ve signed up to see James Shapiro and Jon Sopel. I’m not sure what tickets are left, but check them out!

2.) The book – my friend Matthew recommended The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos – or, rather, heard about it and thought I’d like it. Someone unearths an amazing novel in a library of rejected manuscripts, which starts a publicity hunt for the author. Sounds very up my street – read more.

3.) The blog post – I loved the book recommendations – and the paintings – in the latest round-up over at Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau.

It’s been a while since I did one of these – but also, time no longer has any meaning. April has finished, apparently? What a strange, strange year. I am grateful that my reading abilities came back, though, and I certainly got through a lot of books in April – though I’m not doing so well at writing about them.

I hope you and the people you love are doing well. Stay safe, and enjoy a book, a blog post, and a link.

1.) The book – Chatteron Square by E.H. Young is now out in the British Library Women Writers series! It’s the first one that I chose myself, and it’s great. I had fun reading about 1930s divorce law while writing the afterword, which hopefully adds a layer of interest to the novel – but obviously it’s a wonderful novel without a word from me alongside it.

2.) The link – if you’re in the UK and looking for vegan and gluten-free cakes during the lockdown, I can recommend my friend Amy’s bakery. I’ve received, given, and bought for myself boxes from them during quarantine – check out Brutally Honest Bakery.

3.) The blog post – I always love when Claire at The Captive Reader reads A.A. Milne, it fills me with such joy – and she has made me want to go back and re-read The Romantic Age soon.

Haven’t had one of these for a while, but I think we need some things to cheer us up. Here are three that have caught my attention recently…

1.) The link – is to the site of Simon Palmer, an artist whose work I saw shared on Twitter. They’re country scenes that combine a sense of the magical with a firm understanding of nature. If I saw any of them on the cover of a novel, I’d want to read the novel.

2.) The book – it might seem like an odd time to read about a serial killer, but Dean Street Press have recently reissued Israel Rank by Roy Horniman – under the title of the more-famous film it became, Kind Hearts and Coronets. I’ve not started it yet, but I loved the film many years ago so am looking forward to exploring.

3.) The blog post – I was part of a little group encouraging Ali to try the wonderful Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. And, hurrah, she did!

Happy weekend! Even happier for me, because I’m off work for a week – and off on holiday with my brother. We tend to go away this time of year, because it’s coming up to our birthday, so we always get to enjoy places that are cold and wet. Hurrah! A couple years ago we went to Canada, last year was Northern Ireland, and this year it’s Yorkshire. If there are any bookshops near Harrogate that I mustn’t miss, let me know.

Luckily Hargreaves isn’t being abandoned – Mum is coming up to look after him, with Dad popping in occasionally. They were known as Our Vicar and Our Vicar’s Wife here for many years – and those of you who’ve just read The Diary of a Provincial Lady for the 1930 Club will now know why – but since they’re retired now, what should their nicknames be??

I’m going to be taking a blogging break while I’m away, but I’ll leave you with a book, a link (or two), and a blog post.

1.) The link – I read an interesting take on that Booker prize and its rule-breaking double win, from one of the judges – and then I read an even more interesting take from one of the not-super-pleased publishers with a novel on the shortlist. I have to say, I ended up #TeamPublisher.

2.) The book – Of the making of books about books there is no end, and thank goodness say I. The Secret Life of Books by Tom Mole came through my letterbox recently, and you can colour me intrigued.

3.) The blog post – Scott is running a ‘Possibly Furrowed Middlebrow?‘ event – a virtual one, anyone. Are there books that you’d long to see back in print? There are a few other criteria but that’s the main one.

Happy weekend, y’all! My bro is coming to visit, and one of my besties is having a leaving do, so it’s a weekend of ups and downs… I’m hoping to get some reading in there, and have picked up something for Women in Translation Month. More on that below, with the link, book, and blog post.

1.) The link – is a fun profile with Nina Stibbe in the New York Times that was doing the rounds on Twitter recently. She talks about Persephone and Backlisted, so we like her. AND she talks about Lolly Willowes, though I would dispute that it is a book “nobody reads anymore”…

2.) The blog post – is Paula at Book Jotter and her plan to read more books by and about Tove Jansson. Jansson is one of my all-time faves, and the Women in Translation Month choice I’ve made is Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalaninen. I’ve had it for a few years, and it’s now been long enough since I read Boel Westin’s biography of Jansson that I fancy reading another.

3.) The book – lots of us loved Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller – well, I’m really excited to read Confessions of a Bookseller. And a review copy arrived this week, hurrah!