Stuck in a Book

Today I had an action-packed day in London, and I did get through quite a lot of a book on the train to and from, but not a whole book. Luckily I only had 40 minutes left on an audiobook

https://www.stuckinabook.com/joe-cinques-consolation-by-helen-garner-abookadayinmay-day-5/

I read Ashcombe (1949) by Cecil Beaton back in 2012, sitting in the Bodleian Library. I quickly knew I needed my own copy – and this beautiful edition arrived. Here we are, 12 years later, and...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-delightful-reread-for-abookadayinmay-day-4/

Off to 1920s Scotland for the latest in my A Book A Day In May journey – and The Camomile by Catherine Carswell. The narrator is Ellen Carstairs, a clever, slightly cynical woman in her early ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-camomile-by-catherine-carswell-abookadayinmay-day-3/

Happily, day two of A Book A Day in May was much more successful – and, somehow, even shorter. Only 62 pages! And yet Ginzburg gets a whole world into Valentino (1957), translated by Avril Bar...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/valentino-by-natalia-ginzburg-abookadayinmay-day-2/

It’s May again, and that can only mean one thing – I’m doing A Book A Day in May again! I don’t know if Madame Bibi is planning to do a novella a day in May again, as I am

https://www.stuckinabook.com/abookadayinmay-is-back-and-i-didnt-like-the-first-one/

I normally don’t post ‘club’ reviews after the week has finished – but we all make exceptions for our mothers, and here is my Mum (Anne – also known as Our Vicar’s Wife, for longterm ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/summer-half-by-angela-thirkell-belated-1937club-guest-post/

George Orwell, E.H. Young, guilty pleasures – welcome to episode 127! In the first half of the episode, we ask: what is our guiltiest reading pleasure? Has that changed over time? Do we feel gu...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-127-do-we-have-guilty-pleasures-and-a-clergymans-daughter-vs-the-vicars-daughter/

Thank you to everyone who made the 1937 Club such a success. I think it’s our highest number of reviews yet. Karen and I have chatted and the next club year, in October, will be… the 1970 Clu...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-next-club-will-be/

In the final afternoon of the 1937 Club, I’m writing about the most obscure of my choices this week – Ursula Torday’s No Peace for the Wicked. It’s one of three novels that Torday wrote ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/no-peace-for-the-wicked-by-ursula-torday-1937club/

I am so behind with gathering up and reading 1937 Club posts – what else is new for a club week? – but I’m loving seeing them flood in, and will catch up. For today, I am writing about two

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-1937club-murder-mysteries/

Today’s contribution to the 1937 Club is something I used to often do with the club years, where relevant – find out what Virginia Woolf was writing in her diary that year. I flicked through ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/virginia-woolf-14-march-1937/

For a long time, I tended to see Rose Macaulay only mentioned in relation to her final novel, The Towers of Trebizond. That shifted a bit when Vintage brought back some of her novels, and other ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/i-would-be-private-by-rose-macaulay-1937club/

My first stop for the 1937 Club is Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. I bought my copy in 2011, drawn (as ever) to any novel about the theatre. And what could be more about the theatre than a novel...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/theatre-by-w-somerset-maugham-1937club/

The 1937 Club kicks off today! Until Sunday, we’d love to know your thoughts and reviews of any book published in 1937 – whatever genre, format, language etc. Together, we can put together a ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1937club-your-reviews/

For once, I remembered to celebrate – today is the blogiversary of StuckinaBook. And it’s old enough to get a driving licence in the UK – 17 years old!! It’s seems quite extraordinary tha...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/happy-blog-birthday-to-me/

I loved Andrew Haigh’s film All of Us Strangers and think it’s criminal that Andrew Scott and Jamie Bell haven’t won every award under the sun (and Paul Mescal and Claire Foy can have some ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-novel-that-turned-into-all-of-us-strangers/

The Baron in the Trees (1957) is my first novel by Italo Calvino – and the description of it is a real tussle between something that really appeals to me and something that really doesn’t. On...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-baron-in-the-trees-by-italo-calvino/

I wrote on Instagram that What’s For Dinner? (1978) was ‘like Ivy Compton-Burnett’s characters leapt forward a century and took to drinking cooking sherry’ and I’m half-tempted to leav...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/whats-for-dinner-by-james-schuyler/

Banned books, Bonnie Garmus and A.J. Pearce – welcome to episode 126! In the first half of the episode, we discuss banned books – should books ever be banned? Does a book being banned make us...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-126-should-books-be-banned-and-lessons-in-chemistry-vs-dear-mrs-bird/

When I discovered there was a new collection of essays out about the philosophy of twins, and that it was written by an identical twin, I couldn’t resist. Having tweeted my excitement, Manchest...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/how-to-be-multiple-by-helena-de-bres/

I picked up Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts in a wonderful, cavernous bookshop in Whitehaven, Cumbria, when I was there last year. I bought it off the strength of the title, and the fact that I...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/lady-living-alone-by-norah-lofts/

  Since it’s International Women’s Day, I thought I’d commemorate the occasion by… ranking books by women! Yes, putting successful women up against each other probably isn’t the MOST #...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-british-library-women-writers/

Many of you may have read Esther Rutter’s brilliant This Golden Fleece about the historical, cultural and social significance of knitting and wool – it’s not a topic I knew anything about, ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/come-to-esther-rutters-online-book-launch-with-me/

Nancy Spain has been having a new lease of life recently, with the re-issue of her detective novels. To a certain generation, she is also remembered as a regular on radio and TV panel shows. For ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/why-im-not-a-millionaire-by-nancy-spain/

I’ve just been away for a week to a lovely cottage on the Dinefwr National Trust estate with some friends. It’s in Wales, and only just over an hour away from Hay-on-Wye… so naturally we to...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-books-i-bought-in-hay-on-wye-it-was-a-lot/

My ‘Unnecessary Rankings!‘ series have quickly become my favourite blog posts to write, and I love reading your comments – sometimes in agreement, but usually not, and that’s the most fun...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-stella-gibbons/

Celeb memoirs, Michael Cunningham, Elizabeth Fair – welcome to episode 125! In the first half, Rachel and I discuss celebrity memoirs – do we read them? What do we count as a celebrity memoir...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-125-do-we-read-celeb-memoirs-and-day-vs-landscape-in-sunlight/

It’s not often that I buy a book and read it straightaway, but I was so intrigued by The Oracles (1955) by Margaret Kennedy when I picked it up in Chipping Camden last weekend that I immediate...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-oracles-by-margaret-kennedy/

I don’t normally write about every book I read, but A Century of Books project means that… well, I do! So here are three short takes on books that I don’t want to write about in full. There...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/three-quick-reviews-2/

With a title like Death and Mary Dazill (1941) and the cover you see above, I knew I couldn’t resist reading this novel. It went on my wishlist, and my friend Clare gave it to me for my birthd...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/death-and-mary-dazill-by-mary-fitt/

I think my friend Kirsty first mentioned Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, and it falls in a genre I particularly like – the sort of essay that is both personal and well-researched. When they le...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/trick-mirror-by-jia-tolentino/

I go to my village book group because I enjoy discussing books and getting to know people. I don’t particularly expect to enjoy the novels. It leans much more modern than my taste, and often to...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-dictionary-of-lost-words-by-pip-williams/

It’s actually surprising that it’s taken me this long to rank Jane Austen in my Unnecessary Rankings series. Because surely we’ve all had this conversation with fellow Austenites at some po...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-jane-austen/

If you read my Top Books of 2023 or listened to the ‘Tea or Books?’ episode where Rachel and I shared our favourite reads, you’ll have already heard that I really loved Day by Michael Cunn...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/day-by-michael-cunningham/

When I read R.B. Russell’s very good Fifty Forgotten Books, there were a handful of books that particularly appealed – and one of them was Phyllis Paul’s much-admired but out-of-print Twi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/twice-lost-by-phyllis-paul/

I don’t usually stand behind the idea that the books we read in school are ruined for us – but I have to admit that I have no long-lasting love for Of Mice and Men. It was rewarding to analy...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-winter-of-our-discontent-by-john-steinbeck/

When Scott (aka Furrowed Middlebrow) raves about a novel, you take notice. Katherine Dunning’s little-known 1934 novel was his favourite read of last year and he wrote extremely enthusiasticall...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-spring-begins-by-katherine-dunning/

When I was in Toronto, I met up with a listener to Tea or Books? – Debra – and, after a lovely dinner, we went book shopping. I told her I was on the lookout for Canadian authors writing abou...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/bellevue-square-by-michael-redhill/

Our favourite books from 2023 – or reads, because of course we mostly read ‘backlisted’ titles. Always a fun one to record – this time with the added bonus that we were each going to choo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-124-our-favourite-reads-of-2023/

Every Christmas, I seem to read a book I was given for the previous Christmas. Partly that’s me looking at a particular book and thinking, “Gosh, I’ve wanted to read that for a whole year.�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-world-between-two-covers-by-ann-morgan/

Reading people’s favourite books of the year, and their reading stats, is always my favourite period of the book blogging calendar. Here are mine – and here’s the link to the 2022 stats, wh...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/2023-some-reading-stats/

  I’ve set myself a 2024 reading challenge! Long-time StuckinaBook readers will remember a few previous times I’ve done ‘A Century of Books’ – reading a book published every year for a...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-century-of-books-1925-2024/

For the first time, in 2023, I kept a list of the films I watched. I discovered that most of what I want from movies is to be silly and fun and usually short – I watched maybe three disposable

https://www.stuckinabook.com/my-top-films-of-2023/

I’m delighted to unveil my top reads of the year – as ever, considering how much I enjoyed them and how good I think they are, wrapped up into one. Apparently I usually do 12, but this year i...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/top-books-of-2023/

Happy Betwixtmas! And welcome to the final weekend miscellany of 2023. Tomorrow, I’ll be posting my favourite reads of the year – I always enjoy the little ritual of sitting down with my year...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-49/

I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrate – indeed, I hope you are still having it, since we are still in the 12 days. I love Christmas and I intend to make the most of every ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-persimmon-tree-by-marjorie-barnard/

Regular visitors to StuckinaBook will know how much I adore Margaret Laurence, and particularly here Manawaka sequence of novels. They have a little overlap, though can be read independently – ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-bird-in-the-house-by-margaret-laurence/

I try to stick to writers I’ve read most or all of, for these unnecesary rankings – so how has it taken me this long to include Shirley Jackson? Join me as I rank all her books, as I am

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-shirley-jackson/

One of the interesting and fun things about friends writing books is that they take you in all sorts of places you wouldn’t necessarily expect. Would I have picked up a novel described as folk ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/blight-by-tom-carlisle/

Beryl Bainbridge, Celia Dale, critical and charitable reading – welcome to episode 123! In the first half of the episode we use a suggestion from Susannah – do we read charitably or criticall...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-123-critical-or-charitable-reading-and-sheeps-clothing-vs-harriet-said/

A quick post to say there is a new collection of stories out from the British Library Women Writers series, and it’s perfect for Secret Santa, stockings, or any festive gift: Stories for Winte...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stories-for-winter-new-british-library-women-writers-collection/

As per, I’ve been listening to an awful lot of audiobooks recently – some very good, some enjoyable trash, some in between. Here’s a quick overview of some of them (…minus the trash, whic...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-whole-bunch-of-audiobooks-ive-listened-to-recently/

I wanted to write about Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar (translated by Jerry Pinto) before the end of Novellas in November – hosted by Rebecca and Cathy. It’s only as I sit down to review it...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/cobalt-blue-by-sachin-kundalkar/

Mary Lawson joins us to talk about all her novels – welcome to episode 122! I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but THE Mary Lawson – Canadian author of Crow Lake, The Other Side of...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-122-mary-lawson-novels-w-mary-lawson/

It was a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I’d share the books I got for my birthday – some from my wishlist, and others surprises. I might be missing some, but these are the ones in a pile�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-books-i-got-for-my-birthday-2/

For years I’d heard three things about Vera (1921) – that it was Elizabeth von Arnim’s darkest novel, that it was autobiographical, and that it was possibly the inspiration for Daphne du ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/vera-by-elizabeth-von-arnim/

It was my birthday yesterday and I’ll my bookish gifts at some point (it will surprise nobody to know I got a few), but for today let’s do some more Unnecessary Ranking! This time I’ve pick...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-r-c-sherriff/

One of the authors I’d been advised to look out for in Canada was Helen Humphreys. I did find a few of her novels, but they were almost all set in England, and I’d much rather read a Canadian...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/nocturne-by-helen-humphreys/

The Jasmine Farm (1934) isn’t one of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novels that I see discussed very often. It was her penultimate novel, and I will say at the outset that it is far from her best – ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-jasmine-farm-by-elizabeth-von-arnim/

I hadn’t heard of Robert Farquharson or Cindy Gambino, or their children Jai, Tyler, and Bailey, before I started Helen Garner’s This House of Grief (2014). I suspect the same wouldn’t be t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/this-house-of-grief-by-helen-garner/

I’m delighted that Recovered Books is making G.E. Trevelyan’s novels available again, because they have been so very difficult to get hold of. The next (after they published Two Thousand Mil...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/williams-wife-by-gertrude-trevelyan/

Thank you so much for all your 1962 Club reviews! What a fun year it has been, and with such variety. I only managed to read three books, but I got a lot out of them, with the bonus that

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-the-next-club-6/

Wow, there are so many 1962 Club reviews coming in! I am behind with updating the page and not even managing to read all the reviews at the moment, but will go back and explore them. And I did ma...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-cat-in-the-window-by-derek-tangye-1962club/

I didn’t manage to read a huge amount for the 1962 Club, and I seem to have specialised in authors better remembered for other books. After Lynne Reid Banks, I’ve turned my attention to Letti...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-double-heart-by-lettice-cooper-1962club/

(I wrote this review before the recent shocking violence in Israel and Gaza, and that’s why it isn’t mentioned.) One of my favourite books is Lynne Reid Banks’ The L-Shaped Room, which was...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/an-end-to-running-by-lynne-reid-banks-1962club/

I’m delighted that the 1962 Club is here – join Karen and me in reading and reviewing books from 1962. Any language, format, genre – we’d love to build up a picture of 1962 between us. We...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-1962-club-your-reviews/

Jane Gardam and messages in books – welcome to episode 121! In the first half of the episode, Rachel and I discuss whether or not we think books should have a message. In the second half we pit...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-121-should-books-have-a-message-and-two-jane-gardam-novels/

Whenever the Six Degrees of Separation tag starts with a book I’ve read, I try to join in – and this month’s starts with a favourite, Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. Find out more ab...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/six-degrees-of-separation-from-i-capture-the-castle-to-william/

I’m back with two of my favourite things – ranking, and needlessness! I have lots of fun with this occasional series of ranking the works of authors I’ve read a fair bit by – and by seein...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-barbara-comyns/

First things first – your reminder that the 1962 Club is coming up around the corner! Join in a week of reading books published in 1962 and share your thoughts wherever you share bookish though...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-48/

Reader, I am distraught. I have read all the Mary Lawson novels there are to read – which, admittedly, is only four. Given that there are usually long gaps between them, it will probably be a w...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/road-ends-by-mary-lawson/

I haven’t actually read very much of the book I had decided to read for Spinster September – a brilliant brainchild of Nora aka pear.jelly – but one of the other books I was reading also qu...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/love-and-salt-water-by-ethel-wilson-spinsterseptember/

I am now back from two jam-packed, sunny, lovely weeks in Canada. Naturally I did not see all of Canada in that time, but my brother and I spent a week in Vancouver and a week in Toronto – both

https://www.stuckinabook.com/canada-the-book-haul/

I’m going to take a blogging break while I go on holiday (again, burglars, someone is looking after my cat so it’s no good trying to break in) – before I go, I’ll leave you with a few bit...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/its-not-a-weekend-but-heres-a-miscellany/

D.E. Stevenson, Eva Ibbotson, travel inspo – welcome to episode 120! We have our first returning guest – the wonderful Claire, who blogs at The Captive Reader. In the first half of this episo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-120-travel-inspiration-from-fiction-or-non-fiction-and-the-english-air-vs-the-morning-gift-with-claire-the-captive-reader/

I can’t remember where I first heard about All Roads Lead To Austen (2012) by Amy Elizabeth Smart – but it certainly ended up on my wishlist at some point, and my parents kindly gave it to m...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/all-roads-lead-to-austen-by-amy-elizabeth-smart/

Sorry I’ve been quiet recently – I got Covid, and while it wasn’t a bad bout of it, I have been quite low on energy since and have spent my evenings watching TV rather than blogging. But I�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/in-the-dream-house-by-carmen-maria-machado/

Throughout the year, Brad at Neglected Books has been running a series of (free) online events highlighting neglected books that have been reprinted by various different reprint publishers. I’m...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/join-me-at-an-online-sally-on-the-rocks-event-tues-29th/

Happy weekend, everyone! I’ve spent much of this week championing Tove Jansson in an online poll of NYRB Classics authors, and I’m delighted to say that she won the overall competition – ev...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-47/

I’m delighted that One Year’s Time by Angela Milne has been out for a month now, and I realise I’ve mentioned it a few times but haven’t ever actually written a review of it. I’ve only...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/one-years-time-by-angela-milne-british-library-women-writers/

After reading Rolling in the Dew, I was keen to read more of Ethel Mannin’s fiction  – particularly something in a non-satirical mode. I wondered if something she wrote could be suitable fo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/cactus-by-ethel-mannin/

It’s the weekend, and I’ll be preparing for my first ever sermon/talk at my church – that I’m giving in a couple of weeks, on Jesus healing a blind man in John 9. I’ve done talks in oth...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-46/

I mentioned Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau is a recent weekend miscellany, and I might have mentioned there that I tend to say no to offers of review copies nowadays. I realised years ago that I w...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/mrs-harts-marriage-bureau-by-sheena-wilkinson/

Miriam Toews, Olga Tokarczuk and detective fiction – welcome to episode 119! In the first half of this episode, we discuss detective fiction – do we prefer the mystery-solver to be a professi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-119-amateur-sleuths-or-professional-detectives-and-women-talking-vs-drive-your-plow-over-the-bones-of-the-dead/

Happy weekend one and all. I will be spending some of my Saturday at Charlbury Old Shed, which I heartily recommend to anybody visiting Oxfordshire. There’s cake AND donkeys (and other things, ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-45/

R.C. Sherriff has had something of a renaissance in the past few years, thanks to the good people at Persephone Books. They’ve published A Fortnight in September, Greengates, and The Hopkins...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/r-c-sherriffs-wonderful-autobiography/

I’m up at the Keswick Convention this week, in the Lake District, and one of the things on my list was to visit Michael Moon’s bookshop in Whitehaven. It’s perhaps not as well known as near...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/some-books-from-michael-moons-in-whitehaven/

I think I started buying Elizabeth Jolley books because Kim at Reading Matters made them sound really interesting – I bought a few but never got around to reading any under Lisa at ANZ LitLover...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/foxybaby-by-elizabeth-jolley/

It’s that time again when I look at a big pile of books I’ve been intending to review, and don’t really have a full-post’s worth of things to say… so here they all are, in a round up. H...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-bunch-of-books-ive-read-recently/

It’s fully summer now, and we have our annual village drinks this Saturday. Fingers crossed for sunshine? I hope you’re also enjoying suitably summery activities – unless, of course, you ar...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-44/

Julie Otsuka, Jamaica Kincard, adults’ and children’s books – welcome to episode 118! In the first half – a topic suggested by Aileen, where we discuss authors who wrote both children’s...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-118-do-we-read-children-and-adult-books-by-the-same-author-and-lucy-vs-the-buddha-in-the-attic/

Another in my Unnecessary Rankings series – and another of my favourite authors (and one that so much of the book blogging world loves too). I haven’t read everything by Margery Sharp by any ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-margery-sharp/

Japan truly seems to love a book about a cat, and I am here for it. Two of the other books I’ve read for the #ReadingTheMeow themed week are short Japanese novels with ‘cat’ in the title �...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-japanese-books-about-cats-readingthemeow/

When I saw that Mallika was inaugurating a week devoted to books about cats, you know I had to join in. Books! Cats! Basically my two favourite things, as anyone who follows my Instagram will at...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/seven-cats-i-have-loved-by-anat-levit-readingthemeow2023/

We all say it often, but it really is true that our bookshelves can hold hidden gems just waiting to be discovered. Back in 2009, Bloomsbury kindly sent me all six of Barbara Trapido novels that ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/temples-of-delight-by-barbara-trapido/

I’ve been buying some books online and in-person over the past few weeks – quelle surprise – and I thought I’d talk you through the recent arrivals Chez StuckinaBook. Here we go, from the...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/rumour-has-it-that-hes-been-buying-books/

Ursula Parrott, Winifred Boggs, unnamed characters – welcome to episode 117! We are so delighted to welcome Lucy Scholes as a guest for this episode. She’s is a reprint/old books superstar �...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-117-w-lucy-scholes-do-we-like-unnamed-characters-and-ex-wife-vs-sally-on-the-rocks/

Much of the weekend has gone, but it’s not too late for a weekend miscellany. Here in the UK it is very sunny, so I’m going to take my book off to a park to find an ice cream in

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-43/

We have got to the end of May! Thank you for all your encouragement and comments as I’ve finished my book each day – and particular thanks to Madame Bibi for creating the challenge and leadin...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/finishing-abookadayinmay-with-the-finishing-touch-by-brigid-brophy/

What a way with titles Mary Essex had! One of Ursula Bloom’s many pennames, she seems to have saved her best titles and best books for when she was writing in Mary Essex mode – though, confus...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/divorce-of-course-by-mary-essex-abookadayinmay-no-30/

I’ve been e-friends with Sarra Manning for years, and have read some wonderful books on her recommendation – but somehow I have never got around to reading one of her own books. There are lot...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/london-with-love-by-sarra-manning-abookadayinmay-no-29/

After a few days of feeling a bit lukewarm, or worse, about the books I’ve been reading, it was great today to read a really brilliant little novella. Sagittarius (1957) is my first Natalia Gin...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/sagittarius-by-natalia-ginzburg-abookadayinmay-no-28/

I haven’t read any Ali Smith before, and I got sent Artful as a review copy when it was published in 2012 – and I decided on a whim this morning that it would be today’s book. And what a s...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/artful-by-ali-smith-abookadayinmay-no-27/

I normally have little interest in historical fiction, particularly set during the medieval period, but I decided to have a gamble on The Leper’s Companions (1999). That was partly because it ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-lepers-companions-by-julia-blackburn-abookadayinmay-no-26/

I meant to read Nothing Dies (1940) during the 1940 Club earlier this year – somehow, even though it is only 98 pages, I didn’t get around to finishing it. And now I have! J.W. Dunne is one ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/nothing-dies-by-j-w-dunne-abookadayinmay-no-25/

When Madame Bibi read Alfred Hayes’ In Love earlier in the month, it reminded me that I had My Face For The World To See (1958) on my shelves. I’d bought it because I’ll always pick up a ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/my-face-for-the-world-to-see-by-alfred-hayes-abookadayinmay-no-24/

Back in 2012, lots of us were excited when Corsair reprinted some hard-to-find Dodie Smith novels – and with lovely cover illustrations by Sara Mulvanny. I’d already read The Town in Bloom (b...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/it-ends-with-revelations-by-dodie-smith-abookadayinmay-no-23/

Super quick post tonight, because it’s late. In fact, let’s do it in bullet points. I read To Let by John Galsworthy, originally published in 1921 (In fact, I listened to the audiobook – w...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/to-let-by-john-galsworthy-abookadayinmay-no-22/

In case anybody is counting – yes, I did read No.20 in A Book A Day in May and didn’t blog about it. The book I read is Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott, and it’s one of the books in the next

https://www.stuckinabook.com/amaryllis-night-and-day-by-russell-hoban-abookadayinmay-no-21/

I think I picked up The Buddha in the Attic (2011) at a day that Penguin ran for book bloggers back in 2013 and it has survived numerous culls of my shelves since then on account of its brevity....

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-buddha-in-the-attic-by-julie-otsuka-abookadayinmay-no-19/

I knew Noreen Masud a bit when our paths overlapped in Oxford, and we’ve stayed in touch on social media, so I was really interested when I saw she’d published A Flat Place: A Memoir (2023) ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-flat-place-by-noreen-masud-abookadayinmay-no-18/

I didn’t know anything about The Premonitions Bureau (2022) by Sam Knight when it turned up in the Audible sale – but the title, the cover, and the unexpected subtitle telling me that it was...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-premonitions-bureau-by-sam-knight-abookadayinmay-no-17/

Today’s book is so short that it is almost a short story – 88 pages, or an hour and half as an audiobook (which is how I read it – indeed, since I listen to audiobooks fast, it was a

https://www.stuckinabook.com/foster-by-claire-keegan-abookadayinmay-no-16/

I bought Making Love (2002) by the Belgian novelist Jean-Philippe Toussaint back in 2014, in an edition translated by Linda Coverdale – unusually, and pleasingly, her name even makes the cover...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/making-love-by-jean-philippe-toussaint-abookadayinmay-no-15/

I love Magnus Mills and have been reading him for years, and have a few on the shelves that I thought would be likely to come up in my May reading. The Forensic Records Society (2017) was a gift...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-forensic-records-society-by-magnus-mills-abookadayinmay-no-14/

A short review as I’m just off to a Eurovision party! I think Palladian (1946) might be my final Elizabeth Taylor novel (though, now I write that, unsure I’ve read In A Summer Season) – i...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/palladian-by-elizabeth-taylor-abookadayinmay-no-13/

I usually try to join in Ali’s Daphne du Maurier Reading Week, though I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it work with finishing a book a day in May, since none of the candidates on my shel...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/gerald-a-portrait-by-daphne-du-maurier-abookadayinmay-no-12/

John Dickson Carr, Alan Melville, sports – welcome to episode 116! In the first half, we talk about sports in books – do we like them? Will we be able to think of any? Thank you to Lindsey fo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-116-do-we-like-books-about-sport-and-quick-curtain-vs-it-walks-by-night/

Today I finished the audiobook of History Is All You Left Me (2017) by Adam Silvera. I first came across his writing when I stumbled upon the title They Both Die At The End. It shows the power ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/history-is-all-you-left-me-by-adam-silvera-abookadayinmay-no-11/

I haven’t read any of Louise Erdrich’s novels, which I know are well-regarded, but that didn’t stop me being very interested in Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country (2003), which Daunt Book...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/books-and-islands-in-ojibwe-country-by-louise-erdrich-abookadayinmay-no-10/

Last year everyone seemed to be reading My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. I couldn’t decide if it was likely to be my cup of tea or not, but I decided to take a chance on Cold Water (2002) wh...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/cold-water-by-gwendoline-riley-abookadayinmay-no-9/

Hayley/Desperate Reader gave me her copy of How To Be A Deb’s Mum (1957) by Petronella Portobello a couple of years ago – she wrote about it on her blog – and rightly thought that it would...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/how-to-be-a-debs-mum-by-petronella-portobello-abookadayinmay-no-8/

Today was a lovely sunny day, and I spent quite a lot of it sat in the garden reading Margery Allingham’s 1931 detective novel Police at the Funeral. Something I discovered in previous book-a-...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/police-at-the-funeral-by-margery-allingham-abookadayinmay-no-7/

My friend Matt recommended Cannery Row (1939) by John Steinbeck back in 2009, and I ordered a copy which has sat on my shelves for 15 years. Now it is neglected no longer! And I really enjoyed t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/cannery-row-by-john-steinbeck-abookadayinmay-no-6/

Today’s book is a curio by a relatively well-known writer. Lots of us love Rose Macaulay’s novels, whether that be her famous Towers of Trebizond or the delightfully funny, wry books she wro...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/mystery-at-geneva-by-rose-macaulay-abookadayinmay-no-5/

A boy ran down a hill path screaming. The boy was I. He held his hands up and out in front of him as if he’d dipped them in paint and was coming to make a picture, to press them

https://www.stuckinabook.com/this-census-taker-by-china-mieville-abookadayinmay-no-4/

I bought The Portrait (2005) by Willem Jan Otten because of that beautiful cover, which is blending in well with my throw. I also fancied reading something translated from Dutch – in this inst...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-portrait-by-willem-jan-otten-abookadayinmay-no-3/

Day two of this project will reveal two things that I had previously left unstated. My aim is to finish a book each day in May, but that doesn’t mean that I have also started that book. I did n...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/empire-of-pain-by-patrick-radden-keefe-abookadayinmay-no-2/

I was really hoping that Madame Bibi Lophile would do her A Novella a Day in May challenge again, and lo and behold the first post has gone live. I’ve joined in the past couple of years – I�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-self-portrait-of-a-literary-biographer-by-joan-givner-abookadayinmay-no-1/

I’m continuing my series on ranking all the books I’ve read by authors I like – I kicked off with Michael Cunningham, and now I’m onto the much more prolific Elizabeth von Arnim. With Cun...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-elizabeth-von-arnim/

When I was on holiday recently I took a trip to Treasure Chest Books in Felixstowe, Suffolk – one of my all-time favourite bookshops, though I’ve only been there three times, each time about ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/some-books-from-suffolk-and-elsewhere/

I’m realising that I haven’t mentioned the successor to the 1940 Club on here yet! Ooops. You might have seen it on Karen’s blog, or on my social media – in October we will be doing *drum...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-next-club-and-a-minor-podcast-announcement/

Barbara Pym, May Sarton, and bookshops – welcome to episode 115! In the first half of the episode, we take up Sally’s suggestion of topic – and discuss whether or not we like books set in b...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-115-do-we-like-books-about-bookshops-and-quartet-in-autumn-vs-journal-of-a-solitude/

There are so many P.G. Wodehouse books in the world, and so many of them are sitting unread on my bookshelves, that I try not to buy more. But I think I must have been tempted by the intriguing t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/eggs-beans-and-crumpets-by-p-g-wodehouse-1940club/

The title to M.V. Hughes’s A London Family Between the Wars is only half accurate, and belies the fact that it is part of a series. You might be familiar with A London Child of the 1870s, whi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-london-family-between-the-wars-by-m-v-hughes-1940club/

I think it shows extraordinary restraint that we are five or so years into these ‘reading the club’ years before we chose the year that Miss Hargreaves was published. You might think I inaugu...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/revisiting-miss-hargreaves-1940club/

Goodness knows when I bought Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck, but it was probably the best part of 15 years ago. Thank goodness for these reading clubs for making me pay attention to the book...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/bewildering-cares-by-winifred-peck-1940club/

The Bird in the Tree (1940) is the third Elizabeth Goudge novel I’ve read, after The Middle Window and The Scent of Water, but it was the first one I ever owned. Embarrassingly, I was given...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-bird-in-the-tree-by-elizabeth-goudge-1940club/

I have read E.F. Benson novels for previous club years, and they’re always a frothy and fun addition to any reading project. When I saw that 1940 also had a Benson book, and I had it on my shel...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/final-edition-by-e-f-benson-1940club/

Here’s the page where I’ll be gathering all the 1940 Club reviews – pop your link in the comments. If you don’t have anywhere online to put your review, then feel free to write it out in ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1940-club-all-your-reviews-1940club/

I’m heading away from the blog until just after Easter, so I will give warning now that the 1940 Club is just around the corner – time to ready your book or books, if you haven’t done yet! ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/coming-soon-the-1940-club/

There is exciting news about a new Michael Cunningham novel coming out next year – called Day – and it has prompted me to do the first in a series that I’ve been thinking about for a while...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/unnecessary-rankings-michael-cunningham/

Last year, one of my favourite reads was Penelope Mortimer’s darkly funny 1970s novel The Home. Such is the surprising speed of things, sometimes at least, that less than a year later it is av...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/penelope-mortimers-the-home-now-available/

When we look for what we’re about to read next, there are probably a few things going on in our minds. I try not to plan too far ahead, because I find that putting books on an immediate to-read...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/free-air-by-sinclair-lewis/

Sylvia Townsend Warner, Elizabeth Bowen, linear narratives – welcome to episode 114! In the first half of this episode, we use a suggestion from listener Sarah – do we prefer linear or non-li...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-114-linear-vs-non-linear-narratives-and-winter-in-the-air-vs-a-world-of-love/

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Sunday Song, but I can’t stop listening to Nanci Griffith’s ‘Midnight in Missoula’, so now you can listen to it too.

https://www.stuckinabook.com/song-for-a-sunday-30/

Writing about my latest Furrowed Middlebrow / Dean Street Press read, I have to mention the recent, tragically early death of Rupert Heath – the brainchild behind Dean Street Press. He leaves b...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/babbacombes-by-susan-scarlett/

When I saw that Kim and Cathy announced that they were running a year of reading William Trevor, I was keen to join in. While I hadn’t read any of his books, he had long been on my peripheries ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-story-of-lucy-gault-by-william-trevor/

I went to Draycott Books in Chipping Campden today – a bookshop I first visited last year. That was during Project 24, so I had to be very restrained. And it was just the sort of bookshop where...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/another-saturday-another-pile-of-books/

Here are some quick reviews of other books that I’ve had waiting on my finished-but-not-blogged-about pile. All three are enjoyable, and I’d recommend hunting them out – though only one of ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/three-quick-reviews/

I took a trip to the excellent bookshop in Wantage this morning and, as ever, came away with a lovely little haul. Here’s what I bought… Aftermath by Rachel Cusk I have to admit that I didn�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-little-saturday-bookshopping/

  There is always something rather fun about spontaneously choosing a book to read next. You can forget the urgent pile of books that should logically be the next on the list and go, instead, fo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-house-by-the-sea-by-may-sarton/

After I enjoyed J.E. Buckrose’s novel The Privet Hedge, my friends Kirsty and Paul bought me a few other of her novels. She’s one of those writers who could so easily be a Persephone or a Vi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-bachelors-comedy-by-j-e-buckrose/

Elizabeth Gaskell, Winifred Holtby, and more – welcome to episode 113! In the first half of this episode, we look at literary retellings – by which we mean authors using fairy tales or Greek ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-113-do-we-like-literary-retellings-and-south-riding-vs-ruth/

About ten years ago, John Murray did some rather lovely reprints of L.P. Hartley’s novels – and it was around that time that I read their edition of his brilliant novel The Boat. And then Ha...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-perfect-woman-by-l-p-hartley/

Has it really been a year and a half since I did an Overhaul post? How did that happen? For those who haven’t seen the others in the series (click the tag for more), I go through previous ‘ha...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-overhaul-8/

If you read my favourite books of 2022 list, you’ll know that Margaret Laurence came out on top – with A Jest of God, a brilliant short book about a woman called Rachel living a claustrophobi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-fire-dwellers-by-margaret-laurence/

If I told you I had read an Elizabeth von Arnim novel in which a woman decides to invite three other women she’s never met to live with her in a European country, and that they all start off a

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-benefactress-by-elizabeth-von-arnim/

It’s been a busy week, and eyes have been a little ropey again, so haven’t really done any reading. It’s going to be up and down, I’m sure, but hopefully it will continue to tend towards ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuck-in-a-books-weekend-miscellany-53/

Eyes are steadily improving (though the cold weather isn’t helping), so I’m tentatively ending my blogging hiatus. We’ll see how it goes! And I’m starting with a meme I used to use a fair...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/one-book-two-book-three-book-four-and-five/

Dorothy Whipple, May Sinclair, and favourite books of 2022 – welcome to episode 112! Happy new year! Welcome to the first episode of Tea or Books? for 2023 – recorded on two different days, s...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-112-best-books-of-2022-and-they-were-sisters-vs-the-three-sisters/

I always enjoy reading other people’s reading stats, and I’m coming out of my hiatus to put mine out. I also managed to read for a bit today, which was wonderful, and gives me a bit of hope f...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/2022-some-reading-stats/

It’s my favourite time of the book blogging year – seeing everyone’s Best Of lists, and compiling my own. As usual, I have stuck to one book per author, and haven’t included re-reads. I�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/top-books-of-2022/

I hope you’ve had a lovely Christmas! I’ll be honest, my ongoing eye issues are making book blogging a bit tricky – so I’ll pop in with my Best Books of 2022 on New Year’s Eve, and othe...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-the-final-book-and-all-the-books/

My blogging has been a bit minimal of late, and that’s because I’ve been having ongoing issues with my eyes – including not really being able to read. Which, I’m sure you’ll understand,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-book-23/

Molly Keane, M.J. Farrell, and characters’ appearances – welcome to episode 111! In the first half, Rachel and I discuss what characters look like – do we care, do we notice if it’s menti...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-111-do-we-care-what-characters-look-like-and-good-behaviour-vs-full-house/

I keep an eye on the 6 Degrees of Separation meme from Books Are My Favourite And Best, and was pleased to see it kicked off this month with a book I’ve read and loved – The Snow Child by Eo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/six-degrees-of-separation-from-the-snow-child-to/

I went for quite a while without buying any of my allotted 24 books under Project 24. And then, dear reader, the dam burst. I couldn’t stop buying. Three of these four were online, and one was ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-19-20-21-22/

One of the questions asked about Gertrude Trevelyan (the artist formerly known as G.E. Trevelyan) is why she has disappeared, when her writing is so good and her early reviews were glowing. One a...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-thousand-million-man-power-by-gertrude-trevelyan/

One of the books I took on holiday to read was also one of the books I’ve bought under Project 24 – Fifty Forgotten Books (2022) by R.B. Russell. It’s exactly the sort of book I can’t res...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/fifty-forgotten-books-by-r-b-russell/

I’m back from my holiday – staying on the Menabilly estate, which is where Manderley from Rebecca is based on! We weren’t in the old house, so no need to worry about unhinged housekeepers ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-books-i-got-for-my-birthday/

Tove Jansson, Celia Dale, jobs in books! Welcome to episode 110 A bit of a longer break than usual because I lost my voice. But we’re back, asking – in the first half of the episode – wheth...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-110-do-we-care-where-characters-work-and-a-helping-hand-vs-the-true-deceiver/

Happy weekend! I’m off on holiday so won’t be blogging for a bit. But, dear burglars, there will be someone in my house while I’m away. No burgling please! Or burglarising, for my American ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-42/

It’s been another really great club year! Thank you to Karen for co-hosting and for all the people who submitted reviews. I think we got to about 85 reviews between us, which is brilliant – c...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-the-next-club-5/

It’s the final day of the 1929 Club and I have three books I haven’t reviewed – I really went to town on 1929 titles! Indeed, one of them I only started yesterday. Here are some quick thoug...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/three-more-1929club-books/

Stephen Leacock is one of the authors I first got really into, and I’ve put together quite a collection. Like a lot of the authors I loved around 2002-2005, I binge-read a lot at the time and n...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-iron-man-and-the-tin-woman-by-stephen-leacock-1929club/

For years, the only novel by Mollie Panter-Downes that was available was her last – One Fine Day – which is also her masterpiece. By comparison, her earlier novels were extremely scarce. The...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/storm-bird-by-mollie-panter-downes-1929club/

I’ve been meaning to read some Gladys Mitchell for years, and have had a couple on my shelves for at least eight years – what better opportunity than the 1929 Club, where I can encounter her ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/speedy-death-by-gladys-mitchell-1929club/

I suspect E.F. Benson is like toffee – a little is a total delight, but you wouldn’t want to have too many in a row. It’s been a few years since I last picked up an EFB, and so I

https://www.stuckinabook.com/paying-guests-by-e-f-benson-1929club/

Considering I wrote about David Garnett substantially in my doctorate thesis, it is a bit embarrassing how few of his novels I’ve read. In my defence, I wrote about his first books (Lady Into F...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/no-love-by-david-garnett-1929club/

And here is the 1929 Club! I’m excited that the club is starting again, and in my beloved 1920s. Pop your links to your 1929 book reviews in the comments here, and I’ll put together a list du...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1929club-your-reviews/

Happy weekend, everyone! I have lost my voice! It now seems to be a stage I get during most colds, which is super fun. It means a bit of a delay to ‘Tea or Books?’, which is probably fine bec...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-41/

I’m a bit behind with updates on Project 24, but I have been adding to my piles – including a couple of books arriving through the post this week. I’ve only got six books left for the year,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-15-16-17-18/

I almost never read science fiction, but one of the good things about the Audible Plus catalogue is that I can explore all manner of books that I probably wouldn’t race to pay money for or have...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/immortality-inc-by-robert-sheckley/

I am so behind with updating you on what’s going on with the British Library Women Writers series! There is good news, bad news, and some more good news. No more Angela Milne… for now Let’s...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/an-update-on-british-library-women-writers-series/

Penelope Lively, Helen Hull, boarding houses and isolation – welcome to episode 109! In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I compare boarding houses novels and novels where people live ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-109-boarding-house-novels-vs-living-alone-and-heat-wave-vs-heat-lightning/

It’s not often that I’ve read the starting book for the regular meme of a Six Degrees of Separation post (from Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best) – but, when the stars align, I can’...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/six-degrees-of-separation-from-notes-on-a-scandal-to-the-heir/

A lot of people know and love Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough, but fewer people have gone on to discover Cornelia Otis Skinner’s collections of humoro...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/excuse-it-please-by-cornelia-otis-skinner/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. For some reason it took me a while to think who I could write...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/n-is-for-nichols/

Happy Sunday – I can’t stop listening to ‘Sister of Nostalgia’ by Joanna Serenko, so now I’ll give you a chance too.

https://www.stuckinabook.com/song-for-a-sunday-29/

Is it summer? Is it autumn? Is it winter? The weather in the UK this week is very unsure on that point, and so am I. But the windows are still open, and the blankets are out, so I’m making

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-40/

Here’s the latest episode of the (very) occasional podcast I do with my brother Colin! I honestly don’t remember what we said. Enjoy!

https://www.stuckinabook.com/would-you-trust-a-canal-peas-in-a-podcast-16/

Quite a large percentage of the non-fiction I read or listen to is accounted for by memoirs and biographies. While glancing at my pile of books to be written about on here, I realised that five o...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/five-memoirs-ive-read-recently/

House Happy (1958) by Muriel Resnik is one of the books I’ve bought for my Project 24 – I’d seen it every time I’ve been to Astley Book Farm, and I finally couldn’t resist and had to sp...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/house-happy-by-muriel-resnik/

Somehow five months have passed since I read A Town Called Solace (2021) by Mary Lawson and I haven’t written about it yet – but that’s not because I disliked it. On the contrary, Lawson i...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-town-called-solace-by-mary-lawson/

At my book group last month, we talked about novels about friendship – how surprisingly few of them there are. It’s something Rachel and I often mention on ‘Tea or Books?’. While there ar...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-novels-about-female-friendship/

Join me in wishing Our Vicar’s Wife a very happy birthday today – it’s a big one, though I won’t say which because I’m a GENTLEMAN. Since I last wrote here I’ve had a weekend trip to ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-39/

Bite, E.M. Delafield, Elizabeth Taylor – welcome to episode 108! In the first half of this episode, we discuss a topic suggested by Gina – do we prefer books with bite or without bite? All wi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-108-books-with-bite-or-no-bite-late-and-soon-vs-a-game-of-hide-and-seek/

I’m glad I’ve finished Violeta Among the Stars (2005) by Dulce Maria Cardoso in time to include it in Women in Translation month – it’s also one of the European Union Prize for Literatur...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/violeta-among-the-stars-by-dulce-maria-caroso-eupl/

  This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. I can’t believe I haven’t done anything in my ‘A is ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/m-is-for-milne/

When I saw that Manderley Press had reprinted Appointment With Venus (1951) by Jerrard Tickell in the beautiful new edition pictured, I decided I had to get my own copy off the shelf. Mine isn�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/appointment-with-venus-by-jerrard-tickell/

Yikes, it’s hot. Here in the UK, we are not built to deal with these muggy temperatures (and almost no homes have air-conditioning), so I am spending my time feeling enervated in front of a fan...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-38/

You might remember that, last year, I read and reviewed a few of the books that had won the European Union Prize for Literature, also known as the EUPL. Among them was Selja Ahava’s Things Tha...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/kokoschkas-doll-by-afonso-cruz-eupl/

Here’s a blog post that might get me in hot water – but I recently listened to the audiobook of Anne of Avonlea and, let me tell you, I felt let DOWN. Anne of Avonlea (1909) is the second bo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/anne-of-avonlea-isnt-very-good/

Books in books and Stella Gibbons – welcome to episode 107! In the first half, we continue our ‘do we care…’ series with ‘do we care what characters read?’ By which we mean we’re lo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-107-do-we-care-what-characters-read-and-two-stella-gibbons-novels/

When I was in the Lake District recently, I paid a visit to a couple of bookshops. In fact, I made a day trip to visit one – Michael Moon’s Bookshop in Whitehaven. My goodness, what a wonderf...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-books-12-13-14/

During the recent heat wave in the UK (and elsewhere, but I experienced it in the UK) I decided to get two relevant novels off my shelves – Penelope Lively’s Heat Wave and Maggie O’Farrell...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-books-about-heatwaves/

You won’t find much mention of Golden States (1984) by Michael Cunningham online – or even in the next novels that were published, which silently erased his debut novel. In an interesting an...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/golden-states-by-michael-cunningham/

E.M. Delafield is right up there with my favourite authors, but there are still some of her books on my shelves that I’ve had for the best part of 20 years. I recently took down The Optimist (...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-optimist-by-e-m-delafield/

I’m going to take a little break from blogging, as the next couple of weeks are quite hectic – but before I go, here are five books I’ve read recently (or, in one case, not that recently) t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/five-recent-reads/

Margaret Kennedy, Vita Sackville-West, and film adaptations – welcome to episode 106! In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I discuss whether you should read the book before you watch t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-106-book-or-movie-first-and-the-feast-vs-grand-canyon/

Somehow it’s apparently July? 2022 is rushing past as quickly as 2021 was SLOW. Reading continues apace, and I have sailed past my 100th book of the year – helped, as with last year, but the ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-37/

There are some authors I think of as ‘break glass in case of emergency’ authors. And I didn’t have a particular emergency the other day, only nothing I was picking up felt right. I had a fe...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/uneasy-money-by-p-g-wodehouse/

I go through periods where I watch a lot of movies, and other periods where the idea of watching something for about two hours seems like a colossal amount of time. I could read half a book in th...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/some-films-ive-watched-recently/

On Monday I had the day off, so I decided to go to Hidcote National Trust because I’m young and vibrant. It is a really beautiful garden and June seems like the perfect time to see it. After a ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-books-10-and-11/

I think I got sent Suddenly, a Knock on the Door (2010) as a review copy in 2012, when it was translated from Hebrew into English – by Miriam Shlesinger, Sondra Silverston and Nathan Englander...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/suddenly-a-knock-on-the-door-by-etgar-keret/

I picked up Embers (1942) by Sándor Márai in a London bookshop a little while before the pandemic, drawn by the striking cover design and intrigued by the premise. Not many books are primarily...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/embers-by-sandor-marai/

Haven’t done one of these for a while, but I’ve recently had ‘Death With Dignity’ by Sufjan Stevens on repeat, and thought I’d share it with you. Enjoy…  

https://www.stuckinabook.com/song-for-a-sunday-28/

A very happy weekend to you! Hope you are spending it well, and not panicking about the fact that we are somehow almost halfway through the year even though I’m pretty sure it only just began? ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-36/

George Orwell and families – welcome to episode 105! Rachel is busy this month, so I put a shout-out on our Patreon page to see if anybody would be willing to step in and take her place. I was ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-105-big-families-v-small-families-and-animal-farm-vs-nineteen-eighty-four/

I continue to listen to lots of audiobooks, many of them from the Audible Plus free catalogue, and here is a round up of some recent listens… I’ve marked them with an asterisk if they’re in...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-whole-lot-of-audiobooks/

I have been buying some of my allotted 24 books for Project 24, but didn’t want to interrupt Novella a Day in May with the spoils – but I am now up to nine books. That only takes me halfway

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-books-7-8-9/

Twins! Podcasting! In June 2021! Yes, it has taken me a whole year to get around to editing this episode. That’s why Colin is banging on about football. But what even is time – enjoy episode ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/peas-in-a-podcast-15-yes-we-recorded-this-a-year-ago/

Happy jubilee weekend to those who are celebrating! I love the Queen and I am certainly celebrating. And what more fitting way for me to celebrate than to pick a book I love for every year of her...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/jubilee-a-book-for-every-year-of-the-queens-reign/

I made it! 31 days, and 31 books – admittedly some of them played fast and loose with the definition of ‘novella’, not least this final one. But what a fun time it has been, and has brought...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/anne-franks-diary-the-graphic-adaptation-novella-a-day-in-may-31/

If you read about middlebrow women writers of the interwar years, you’ll doubtless have come across Ethel Mannin’s name. I don’t know if she had one book that was particularly well-known, b...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/rolling-in-the-dew-by-ethel-mannin-novella-a-day-in-may-30/

Day 28: Sleepless Nights (1979) by Elizabeth Hardwick Elizabeth Hardwick is one of those authors who has been published both as Virago Modern Classic and a NYRB Classic, and there can few greater...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-28-and-29/

I love Robert Nathan novel(la)s for when I need something simple and lovely. He is best remembered now for the film adaptations of his works – The Bishop’s Wife, The Preacher’s Wife, and...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-colour-of-evening-by-robert-nathan-novella-a-day-in-may-27/

Look, yes, I’m cheating again – The Home (1971) isn’t a novella, since it’s 230 pages, but I had a bit more time to read today, and I thought I’d spend it here. And I’m so glad I did...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-home-by-penelope-mortimer-novella-a-day-in-may-26/

Whenever Karen and I run a club year, there is a Georges Simenon – and every time I comment that I must read something by him. And as I was glancing around my shelves, I spotted that Maigret�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/maigrets-revolver-by-georges-simenon-novella-a-day-in-may-25/

I was inspired by the latest Backlisted episode to pick up a Bowen – specifically the one they covered, Death of the Heart, but it turns out that I don’t own it – so I substituted a novell...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/friends-and-relations-by-elizabeth-bowen-novella-a-day-in-may-24/

Day 22: Grand Canyon (1942) by Vita Sackville-West I re-read Vita Sackville-West’s novella set in an alternative 1942 where Nazi Germany has successfully taken over Europe, and refugees have fl...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-22-and-23/

There’s a bit of a theme to the two novellas I’ve read in the past two days… or at least their titles. Day 20: The Year of the Hare (1995) by Arto Paasilinna This novella, translated from F...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-20-and-21/

Day 18: The Nymph and the Nobleman (1932) by Margery Sharp When I was in Hay-on-Wye last year, I stumbled across The Nymph and the Nobleman, one of Margery Sharp’s first books. And – gasp �...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-18-and-19/

Day 16: Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes (1987) by Per Petterson This 1987 book was translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett in 2013, which is when I think I got it as a review copy. Well, he...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-16-and-17/

Wow. A Jest of God (1966) by Margaret Laurence is absolutely brilliant. I bought it in 2007, and 15 years later it has come off my shelf and been devoured in a couple of sittings. It might not q...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-jest-of-god-by-margaret-laurence-novella-a-day-in-may-15/

I’m watching Eurovision; I’m typing up thoughts about novellas. What a day. Day 13: Elizabeth Finch (2022) by Julian Barnes Ooof. I’ve read a couple of Barnes novels before this one, and ne...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-13-and-14/

I have read a novella today, but I’ll write about it tomorrow alongside whatever I pick up for Day 13. I hope you have good plans for the weekend? I’ll be heading to my godson’s first birth...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-35/

When Brad of Neglected Books started recommending titles for a new series of reprints, from Boiler House Press, I knew we would be in for something special. Few people know more about overlooked ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/gentleman-overboard-by-herbert-clyde-lewis-novella-a-day-in-may-12/

When I was looking at how to double up Novella a Day in May with Ali’s Daphne du Maurier Reading Week, there weren’t a lot of options my shelves. If du Maurier wrote any novellas, then I don�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-rebecca-notebook-by-daphne-du-maurier-ddmreadingweek-novella-a-day-in-may-11/

I will try to keep doing these daily, and I am reading novellas daily, but I had so little to say about Day 9 that I thought I’d better roll these into one… Day 9: Every Eye (1956) by Isobel

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-9-and-10/

Olivia Manning, Cicely Hamilton and dreams – welcome to episode 104 of ‘Tea or Books?’! In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I discuss whether or not we like dreams in books, and h...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-104-do-we-care-what-characters-dream-and-william-an-englishman-vs-the-great-fortune/

I did read my novellas (…sort of) on days 7 and 8, but I didn’t write yesterday because I was in London overnight. (I saw the musical &Juliet, and if you get a chance then please do so – it...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/novella-a-day-in-may-days-7-and-8/

When Madame Bibi and I realised we both had In Pious Memory (1967) by Margery Sharp on our shelves, we decided to put it down for the same day of Novella a Day in May – the only forward-planni...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/in-pious-memory-by-margery-sharp-novella-a-day-in-may-6/

I bought Screens Against the Sky (1990) by Elleke Boehmer in 2008 – just weeks before I started my Masters, because Elleke was running the course and I thought it would be fun to read her book...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/screens-against-the-sky-by-elleke-boehmer-novella-a-day-in-may-5/

Oops, I keep cheating on this novella challenge – though today’s cheating was accidental, since I was about 30 pages into Journey Through A Small Planet (1972) by Emanuel Litvinoff when I re...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/journey-through-a-small-planet-by-emanuel-litvinoff-novella-a-day-in-may-4/

I’m playing cold-or-Covid roulette at the moment – it would be unlucky to get Covid again so soon, but you never know – and Penelope Mortimer accompanied me while I wasn’t working or napp...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/my-friend-says-its-bullet-proof-by-penelope-mortimer-novella-a-day-in-may-3/

William – an Englishman (1919) by Cicely Hamilton isn’t really a novella, coming in at 226 pages, but I needed to reread it for Tea or Books? so I thought a Bank Holiday Monday was a great op...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/william-an-englishman-by-cicely-hamilton-novella-a-day-in-may-2/

I’ve done a few book-a-day projects – for 25 days, for Novella – but they’re all inspired by Novella A Day In May, which Madame Bibi Lophile has done for a few years. And since May was ro...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/murder-on-the-second-floor-by-frank-vosper-novella-a-day-in-may-1/

Happy weekend – and, if you’re in the UK, happy long, bank holiday weekend. Hope you have a lovely one. I’ll be going to a bookshop on Saturday, so Project 24 might bulk out a bit. Watch th...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuck-in-a-books-weekend-miscellany-52/

Having rationed my book buying severely in the early days of the year, I have tumbled through my first six books quite quickly – even more quickly than posts appear, because I bought this one m...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-book-6/

What fun the 1954 Club has been! At the time of writing, we are very close to 100 reviews (see them on this round-up post) – and more still to come as Sunday finishes across the world. I’m al...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-the-next-club-4/

Let’s rattle through some other books I read for the 1954 Club which possibly don’t warrant full reviews… they range from ok to bad, so come on a journey with me. Doctor’s Children by Jos...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/three-more-1954club-books-i-read/

My friend Barbara bought me a whole pile of Furrowed Middlebrow books a while ago, and one of them was The Native Heath by Elizabeth Fair – my third novel by Fair, and one with the most beauti...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-native-heath-by-elizabeth-fair-1954club/

Few things in life represent the triumph of hope over experience as much as my continued attempts to find an equal to Miss Hargreaves among Frank Baker’s other output. My attempts have ranged ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/lease-of-life-by-frank-baker-1954club/

When I was in Toronto in 2017, I was keen to buy books that wouldn’t be so easily available back home – and it made sense to pick up Canadian authors, where possible. It was also during anoth...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/swamp-angel-by-ethel-wilson/

One of the books I loved last year was Leo Walmsley’s Love in the Sun, a very autobiographical novel about living and loving in poverty beside the sea in Cornwall. You can read my earlier revi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-golden-waterwheel-by-leo-walmsley-1954club/

The 1954 Club has started! Karen and I are asking everyone to read one or more books published in 1954 – in any language, format, or place – and share your reviews. Together, we’ll put toge...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1954club-post-your-reviews/

This morning at church, I read this poem which I wrote in response to a verse in Isaiah. The verse is about God holding our hand – I love the intimacy of it. I wrote it a while ago, but

https://www.stuckinabook.com/hands-a-poem-for-good-frida/

For the last book spin, I ended up reading and loving The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill, so it is definitely in my good books at the moment. This time, lovely Rick is encouraging us to do someth...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/booktube-spin-6/

I downloaded an ebook of the complete(ish) works of E. Nesbit a few years ago, and I have it for emergencies on my phone’s Kindle app. Since it really is only for emergencies (I usually have a ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-red-house-by-e-nesbit/

I can’t remember if I’ve ever previously joined in with a Top Ten Tuesday, run by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s been going since 2010, so it’s about time – when better to join than with ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/toptentuesday-authors-i-havent-read-but-want-to/

Penelope Lively, Margaret Laurence, thinking and feeling – welcome to episode 103! Apologies for the unexpected delay in recording. Blame Rachel! But we are here and raring to go. In the first ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-103-thinking-vs-feeling-and-moon-tiger-vs-the-diviners/

Is it spring? Maybe? Almost? My apple tree is showing some lovely blossom, my wisteria is refusing to do anything, and my hay fever has kicked up a notch. So I would conclude – on balance, yes,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-34/

When I originally wrote about Strange Journey by Maud Cairnes in 2020, I ended with ‘Strange Journey is not at all easy to find – but I am certainly mulling it over as British Library choice...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-14-strange-journey-by-maud-cairnes/

Sometimes it isn’t that I really need a particular book that makes me add to my Project 24 list – sometimes it’s just that it’s been too long since I went to a bookshop. So on Saturday I ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-books-4-and-5/

You might know that I’m a fan of the graphic novelist Brecht Evens. The City of Belgium (2021) is his fourth or fifth book and I’ve read and enjoyed all the others to differing extents – f...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-city-of-belgium-by-brecht-evens/

Occasionally I post a book on Instagram which gets a chorus of approval from people who’ve loved it. Never more so than when I posted that I was reading Susan Hill’s 1982 The Magic Apple Tree...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-magic-apple-tree-by-susan-hill/

Happy weekend – and, if you’re in the UK, happy sunshine! Well, there may well be sunshine elsewhere too, but it has been a long time coming here. I never realise what a difference it makes u...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-33/

I think A Pin To See The Peepshow (1934) is probably the British Library Women Writers title that was best-known before being republished. It wasn’t a household name, of course, but a lot of p...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-13-a-pin-to-see-the-peepshow-by-f-tennyson-jesse/

Two new British Library Women Writers titles have just been published, and I’m quite behind with keeping up to date with my posts about the previous ones. The new ones will turn up here before ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-12-which-way-by-theodora-benson/

I bought two copies of Fifty Sounds (2021) by Polly Barton in the year it was published – one for a friend and, because I couldn’t resist it, one for me. Not only was it that beguiling Fitzca...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/fifty-sounds-by-polly-barton/

Here are some very quick thoughts about a couple of non-fiction books I’ve read in the past few months. I expect a similar round-up of recent fiction reads will follow before too long – watch...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-non-fiction-titles-ive-read-recently/

I can’t remember why I bought The Dogs Do Bark (1948), but it’s possible it was seeing a mention in passing on Scott’s Furrowed Middlebrow blog. There, he talked about it being a novel se...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-dogs-do-bark-by-barbara-willard/

Every time Karen and I run a ‘club’ year, I know there are people who wish they’d been warned earlier – so here you go! There is just over a month to go until we ask everyone to read and

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1954club-not-long-now/

I thought I’d read The Priory by Dorothy Whipple quite recently, but apparently it was more than four years ago – so I wasn’t exactly rushing onto my next Whipple when I read Because of t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/because-of-the-lockwoods-by-dorothy-whipple/

I can’t quite remember why I bought The Initials in the Heart (1964) by Laurence Whistler back in 2012. It might be because of his connection with his brother Rex Whistler – though I didn’...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-initials-in-the-heart-by-laurence-whistler/

That was a longer break than intended – but don’t worry, Covid didn’t hit me all that hard. The fatigue was the worst part, but the whole thing was over within a week. Thank goodness for va...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-books-2-and-3/

Friends, I have Covid. At the time of writing (Friday evening) it isn’t too bad – coldy symptoms and exhausted – so hopefully it’ll stay that way. Hopefully the days of isolation will hel...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-32/

As mentioned, I’m only buying 24 books this year. Two a month. We’re nearly halfway through February, and I have bought my first book – so I am doing well with my rations! It’s always int...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-book-1-2/

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about Project 24 in 2022 yet – basically, I’m only going to buy 24 books (for myself) this year. I’ve done it a few times in the past, and succeeded by t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/project-24-have-i-read-the-books-i-bought-last-time/

I’m going to do a slightly different weekend miscellany this week, largely because I had so many contenders for the blog post that I wanted to include. So this is just a round-up of reviews tha...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-31/

D.E. Stevenson, Margery Sharp – and a special guest! In this episode, we have a special guest in the form of Claire – you’ll know her blog The Captive Reader. We were delighted to have her ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-102-do-we-read-books-about-grief-and-five-windows-vs-four-gardens-with-claire-the-captive-reader/

I don’t seem to be finishing many paper books at the moment, but I am tearing through audiobooks. If I continue at this rate, I might end up listening to as many books this year as physically r...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/more-audiobooks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. Some of the letters of the alphabet, in this ongoing project,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/l-is-for-leacock/

I had a little blogging absence because I had a nasty cold – which I presumed might be Covid, given how everyone seems to have it at the moment, but a zillion tests turned out negative. Just a ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-murder-of-my-aunt-by-richard-hull/

I made my list, I checked it twice – and Rick has done the spin. As you’ll have seen in that video, there are two numbers – the second for those who really want to go for it. I haven’t

https://www.stuckinabook.com/booktube-spin-5-what-am-i-reading/

You may well know Rick’s BookTube Spin – pick 20 books, he gives us a number and we have a couple of months to read. Think the Classics Spin but not necessarily classics, and with the additio...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/booktube-spin5-my-list/

Just clearing some books from my pile to be reviewed – and while the blog post is called ‘some more recent reads’, let’s be SUPER lax with what we mean by ‘recent’. A few of these hav...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/some-more-recent-reads/

Rachel takes a look at Simon’s bookshelves – will she take any books away with her?? Way back in episode 70, I was in Rachel’s flat in London and took a look around her bookcases. We planne...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-101-rachel-explores-simons-shelves/

When I was two essays into this collection, published in 2013 but collecting pieces from across several decades before, I was certain it would be one of my best books of 2021. The first two essay...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/forty-one-false-starts-by-janet-malcolm/

When I bought The Small Room (1961), it was because I thought it might be about a house. I’m a simple man: I love books about houses, particularly if this would end up being about a hitherto u...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-small-room-by-may-sarton/

I’ve posted my Top Books of 2021, and now it’s time to turn my attention to some reading stats – the sort of blog post that so many of us love reading. And as I get older, increasingly a te...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/2021-some-reading-stats/

I always wait until New Year’s Eve to compile my best reads of the year, because you never know when something brilliant will sneak in, do you? As it happens, this year has had lots of Very Goo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/top-books-of-2021/

I usually get at least a few books for Christmas, and I like to start one of them immediately – there is something lovely about starting a brand new book on Christmas Day. Particularly if it is...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/enbury-heath-by-stella-gibbons/

Happy Christmas! I hope you had a lovely time – hopefully better than last year. I went to my parents’ house, as did my brother, so it felt like a lovely family Christmas. Very relaxed, if yo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/what-i-read-at-christmas/

I was offered a review copy of The Beatles: Get Back to accompany the TV documentary about them. I absolutely don’t like The Beatles, but my brother Colin is a big fan… so I got it sent to hi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-beatles-get-back/

I go back and forth with my Audible subscription. I’m currently back in – and have discovered the Audible Plus catalogue, where you can download free audiobooks that have been added to that c...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-couple-of-recent-audiobooks/

It’s time for another haul post. But this teetering pile isn’t all from one trip – it’s from various different bookshops I’ve been to over the past month or two. That makes it ok, right...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/look-yes-ive-been-buying-books/

For our special hundredth episode, Rachel and I are doing a question and answer. Thanks so much to everybody who sent in questions – we didn’t get to all of them, but hopefully we answered at...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-100-qa-special/

I went a bit quiet on here, but I *did* continue reading a novella a day, and I have now completed my Novellas in November challenge! Here are the final five days and what I read – except where...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/finishing-off-novellasinnovember-novnov/

Rachel and I are recording episode 100 of Tea or Books? soon and, like episode 50, it’s going to be a special Q&A. So we’d love to hear your questions – and many thanks to those who’ve al...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-any-questions/

It is very brave to call your novella something so broad and essential as Love – as Angela Carter did in this book from 1971 – because it necessarily seems to give a grand universality to so...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/love-by-angela-carter-novnov-day-25/

I live in a house built entirely from tin, with four tin walls, a roof of tin, a chimney and door. Entirely from tin. My house has no windows because there’s nothing to see. Oh, there are shutt...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/three-to-see-the-king-by-magnus-mills-novnov-day-24/

I went to my reliable books-about-reading shelf for today’s book – well, it’s not so much a shelf as the worktop in my kitchen, because readers in small flats have to use every spare inch o...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/id-rather-be-reading-by-anne-bogel-novnov-day-23/

I was sent The Invisible Host (1930) by husband-and-wife authors Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning the other day, a review copy from Dean Street Press. It isn’t actually released until 6 December...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-invisible-host-by-gwen-bristow-and-bruce-manning-novnov-day-22/

For those keeping track, I didn’t blog yesterday but I DID finish a book. I didn’t write about it because it’s a future British Library Women Writers title and I’m not sure I’m meant to...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/ignorance-by-milan-kundera-novnov-day-21/

What a delightful novel. I bought Father Malachy’s Miracle (1931) early last year because the premise sounded so interesting, and because I had previously read Marshall’s novel High Brows a...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/father-malachys-miracle-by-bruce-marshall-novnov-day-19/

Earlier in the month I read The Lonely by Paul Gallico, and today I read the other half of the book I have it in – Ludmilla, originally published in 1955. It was printed as a separate book in...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/ludmilla-by-paul-gallico-novnov-day-18/

Particularly Cats (1967) is the third book by Doris Lessing that I’ve read – but nothing in the dystopian Memoirs of a Survivor or the grim The Fifth Child would have led me to expect someth...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/particularly-cats-by-doris-lessing-novnov-day-17/

Today’s book is cheating a bit, because I started it in September – and somehow it fell to one side, and I read the second half today. And it is twenty or so pages over the self-imposed 200pp...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/still-life-by-richard-cobb-novnov-day-16/

Winifred Holtby, Susan Glaspell, and essays – welcome to episode 99! Sorry for an unintended long break, but we’re back and Rachel even has a new mic – hopefully has helped with the sound i...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-99-do-we-like-essays-and-brook-evans-vs-the-crowded-street/

A Pin to See the Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse has just come out as a British Library Women Writers title, and I think it’s probably the book for which she is best known – but it is far from

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-white-riband-by-f-tennyson-jesse-novnov-day-15/

In 2009, I was in the Bookbarn in Somerset and somehow got chatting to someone who worked there. It came up that I lived in Oxford, and he was determined that I should read The Silent Traveller i...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-silent-traveller-in-oxford-by-chiang-yee-novnov-day-14/

Another late post today, because I was out this evening – seeing the film Early Summer – but today I read 2009’s Tinkers by Paul Harding, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. I bought it in 2012,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tinkers-by-paul-harding-novnov-day-13/

I think Vita Sackville-West is a really underrated writer – because she is still chiefly remembered for her connection with Virginia Woolf. No, she isn’t in Woolf’s league as a writer – w...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/heritage-by-vita-sackville-west-novnov-day-12/

What a lovely book. My brother got me Notes From An Island (1996, translated 2021) by Tove Jansson for my birthday – knowing my love of Jansson – and I couldn’t wait to dive in and enjoy t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/notes-from-an-island-by-tove-jansson-novnov-day-11/

I read a book published by Michael Walmer yesterday, albeit in a different edition – and today I read one that was published by his imprint and sent to me as a review copy last year: The Story ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-story-of-stanley-brent-by-elizabeth-berridge-novnov-day-10/

I first read Stella Benson when I was writing about witches for my DPhil – Living Alone is perhaps her best known novel, and is certainly well known in particular academic circles. I was so be...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-poor-man-by-stella-benson-novnov-day-9/

Thank you for all the birthday good wishes for yesterday – Colin and I had a lovely time, successfully escaping an escape room with some friends, then seeing fireworks. There are always handy f...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-birds-of-the-innocent-wood-by-deirdre-madden-novnov-day-8/

Today is definitely cheating, because A Wild Swan and other tales (2015) is, as the full title suggests, not a novella. It’s very definitely a collection of short stories, but it does come in ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-wild-swan-by-michael-cunningham-novnov-day-6/

A murder mystery is a fun choice for my novella-a-day challenge, because I always wants to finish a murder mystery in one day – and it’s only the length that stops me. Quite spontaneously, I ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/murder-included-by-joanna-cannan-novnov-day-5/

I bought a book ten years ago that I thought was called Ludmilla and the Lonely – turns out it is two novellas, the second and longer of which is called The Lonely. That’s what I read today...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-lonely-by-paul-gallico-novnov-day-4/

Like Amsterdam that I read yesterday, Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl opens with a death. Now your husband is also dead, Anna. Your husband, our husband. I would have liked him to ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/often-i-am-happy-by-jens-christian-grondahl-novnov-day-3/

I bought Amsterdam (1998) by Ian McEwan around the time I read Atonement – so probably around 2003, i.e. half my life ago, more or less. I’ve been up and down with McEwan, but have somehow ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/amsterdam-by-ian-mcewan-novnov-day-2/

It’s time for Novellas in November – run by Cathy and Rebecca – and I have rather unwisely decided to try and read one every day in November. It seemed like a great idea a while ago. I’ve...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-child-in-the-theatre-by-rachel-ferguson-novnov-day-1/

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve just read Small Wonder, a collection of essays by Barbara Kingsolver published in 2002, some or all of them gathered from the places they’d been publis...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/small-wonder-essays-by-barbara-kingsolver/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. I don’t have a lot of candidates for ‘K’ in the alphabe...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/k-is-for-kingsolver/

When the British Library Women Writers series was first suggested, one of the titles I thought about first was The Love Child (1927) by Edith Olivier. Not only is it one of my favourite novels, �...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-11-the-love-child-by-edith-olivier/

In Mrs Alfred Sidgwick’s 1923 novel, None-Go-By is the fanciful title of the Cornish cottage that Mary and Thomas decide to move to, to escape the hustle and bustle of relatives, friends and ne...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/none-go-by-by-mrs-alfred-sidgwick/

It’s not the first time I’ve said it, but there is always such a sense of achievement in reading a book that has been on the shelves for a long time. Particularly if it turns out to be a good...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/anne-severn-and-the-fieldings-by-may-sinclair/

If you read my blog, I’m almost certain you already know about the Backlisted podcast. ‘Giving new life to old books’ is their tagline, and Andy and John (and editor/producer Nicky) do a wo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/i-got-to-be-a-guest-on-backlisted/

This is sort of a haul post, but the books have come from quite a lot of different places on many different occasions over the past month or so. I’ve decided to do Project 24 next year – wher...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/some-books-ive-got-recently/

The 1976 Club has been great fun – and you only have to wait six months until we do it all again. After some discussion, Karen and I have nominated 1954 Club for next time. I don’t know about...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-the-next-club-3/

It’s been another great week of seeing lots of reviews crop up across the blogosphere – thank you everyone for joining in. I haven’t read all the contributions yet, but will make sure to do...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1976-club-review-round-up/

I’ll finish off my reviews for the week with a couple of 1976 books that I didn’t really like or dislike. Both had pluses and minuses, but were really just mediocre and so I shan’t say too

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-unsuccessful-1976club-reads/

Blaming was Elizabeth Taylor’s final novel, written while she knew she was dying – and death and mourning are very much at the heart of the book. It opens with Amy and Nick on a cruise. It is...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/blaming-by-elizabeth-taylor-1976club/

Some bloggers and books are inextricably linked. Someone talks about a book with such passion, and perhaps often, that they and the book become united. I think that’s probably true of me and M...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/bear-by-marian-engel-1976club/

Sheila Redden has come to France to celebrate her anniversary with Kevin, the doctor of the title. She has come ahead of him, as he has been caught up with work – and they’ve returned to the ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-doctors-wife-by-brian-moore-1976club/

The 1976 Club is here! It’s time for the bi-annual event where Karen and I ask readers across the internet to join together to build up a picture of a particular year in books. This week, we’...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1976-club-post-your-reviews-here-1976club/

It’s less than a year since I first blogged about Sally on the Rocks here (though I read it earlier in 2020, and only blogged after my re-read) – and here we are, it’s the tenth book publi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-10-sally-on-the-rocks-by-winifred-boggs/

The L-Shaped Room is one of my favourite novels, and I’ve read it and its sequels quite often over the years – but have read oddly little of Lynne Reid Banks’ other novels since a brief spa...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-warning-bell-by-lynne-reid-banks/

If you click that ‘Cunningham’ tag above, you’ll see how much I love his writing. He is one of my favourite living writers, and I am getting unsettlingly close to having read everything he ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/specimen-days-by-michael-cunningham/

Two new British Library Women Writers titles are out YESTERDAY in the UK – Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs and The Love Child by Edith Olivier, which are both up there among my favourite...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-9-mamma-by-diana-tutton/

Nature writing and some favourite novels by prizewinning women – welcome to episode 98! As mentioned in the podcast – we’d love to hear your questions as we gear up for our hundredth episod...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-98-nature-writing-yes-or-no-and-favourite-women-prize-winners/

About a minute after reading Susan’s review of White Spines by Nicholas Royle, I had ordered my copy – directly from the publisher Salt, which perhaps explains why it came with a surprise au...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/white-spines-by-nicholas-royle/

For those who like reminders – here is your reminder that the 1976 Club is only a month away! Karen and I will be asking everyone to read and review books published across the world in 1976. I�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1976-club-one-month-to-go/

As I probably said when I wrote about The Remarkable Life of the Skin, I would probably never read popular science if it weren’t written by Oliver Sacks – or by one of my friends. And it wou...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-painful-truth-by-monty-lyman/

Sometimes you see news about an exciting book coming out, and then you realise you have a year to wait. Well, not today friends – I’m going to tell you about the four new British Library Wome...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-4-new-british-library-women-writers-novels/

I’m slipping into the final hours of Women in Translation Month with Dry Season (2015) by Gabriela Babnik – originally in Slovenian, and translated by Rawley Grau. It won the European Union ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/dry-season-by-gabriela-babnik/

My book group does a Secret Santa every year at our Christmas meal. Everybody wraps a book and puts it in a bag, and you pick one out. They’re not chosen specially for you, but I’ve come away...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-gap-of-time-by-jeanette-winterson/

I bought Sun City by Tove Jansson in 2007, at which point there wasn’t that much of Jansson’s work available in English. This was one of two novels that had been translated in the ‘70s...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/sun-city-by-tove-jansson-witmonth/

It’s one of those times where my pile of ‘to review’ books has got a bit teetering, so I’m going to write a little bit about five books I’ve read recently. And ‘recently’ goes back ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/4-good-books-and-1-piece-of-fluff/

Mary Lawson’s latest novel is on the longlist for the Booker Prize. Seeing her name there finally prompted me to read the novel she was longlisted for in 2006 – and which I bought in 2009: T...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-other-side-of-the-bridge-by-mary-lawson/

How do we choose our reading, and E.M. Delafield – welcome to episode 97!   In the first half of the episode, we debate whether to read spontaneously or plan our reading. In the second half, t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-97-spontaneous-or-planned-reading-and-tension-vs-thank-heaven-fasting/

This is some exciting news I didn’t know was coming – six of the British Library Women Writers series are now available as audiobooks! I’ve got really into audiobooks in the past 18 months....

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-now-available-as-audiobooks/

If you look at Jane’s 2010 review of Love in the Sun (1939) by Leo Walmsley, you’ll see a comment from me saying that I’d like to read it. And, indeed, I bought a copy in 2012, still remem...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/love-in-the-sun-by-leo-walmsley/

I spent Saturday in Hay-on-Wye – the bookshop town in Wales, as I’m sure you know. I was meeting up with some friends who moved to Wales near the beginning of the pandemic, and it was wonderf...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/so-i-bought-some-books-in-hay-on-wye/

Happy weekend everyone! And it’s a VERY happy weekend for me, because – so long as I’m not pinged after I schedule this blog post – I’ll be spending my Saturday in Hay-on-Wye! While the...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-30/

My book group recently read Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, from 2016 and shortlisted for the Booker prize that year. Let’s experiment with a review in bullet points. This doesn’t reflect the s...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/eileen-by-ottessa-moshfegh/

I love looking behind the scenes at books, and I’m particularly fascinated by the process of biography – because it’s a type of book that I can’t get my head around attempting. How to cap...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/dreaming-of-rose-by-sarah-lefanu/

I’m continuing my read through winners of the European Union Prize for Literature (as ever, a video at the bottom explaining the prize), which has been a really interesting and varied experienc...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/catch-the-rabbit-by-lana-bastasic/

Wow, it has been unbearably hot since the last weekend miscellany. UK houses weren’t built for heat – none of us have aircon – and even my thick-stoned flat only stayed cool for a couple of...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-29/

One of the flourishing genres that I like is the personal essay. I love it when they’re funny (Casey Wilson’s The Wreckage of My Presence is one of the best things I’ve read this year), bu...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/notes-to-self-by-emilie-pine/

The sun is out! I’ve been delighting the neighbourhood with my neon teal garden lounger, and some bright yellow short shorts. Summer clearly brings out the classy in me. Hope you’re having a ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-28/

Sometimes it does feel like the corner of the book internet I occupy is really just Scott’s kingdom, and we live in it. Scott being Furrowed Middlebrow, of course, both blog and the series of r...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/mrs-lorimers-quiet-summer-by-molly-clavering/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. It was really difficult to decide whether to use Tove Jansson...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/j-is-for-jansson/

The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen (1904) by Elizabeth von Arnim was the result of my BookTube Spin #2, and a book I bought back in 2012. It’s the second sequel to Elizabeth and Her German ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-adventures-of-elizabeth-in-rugen-by-elizabeth-von-arnim/

Helen at A Gallimaufry is hosting another Sylvia Townsend Warner Reading Week, and I think I’ve managed to join in every year – my bookshelves are nothing if not replete with unread STWs. I h...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-spirit-rises-by-sylvia-townsend-warner-sylviatownsendwarnerreadingweek/

I bought I Ordered a Table for Six (1942) by Noel Streatfeild in a lovely secondhand bookshop in Ironbridge, just a few weeks before the pandemic hit the UK. It feels like another lifetime. It�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/i-ordered-a-table-for-six-by-noel-streatfeild/

You might be familiar with Rick’s BookTube Spin – I’ve joined in the previous two rounds, reading The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi and The Adventures of Elizabeth in Ruegen by Elizabet...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/booktube-spin-3-my-list/

In March, I posted my first of four reviews of books that have won the European Prize for Literature (EUPL) – the amazing Things That Fall From the Sky by Selja Ahava, which it one of the best...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-boarding-house-by-piotr-pazinski/

It’s summer! Unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, of course. But England is finally getting some sunshine and heat – though it has been raining all day today, but plus ça change. Or p...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-27/

Novels about missing people seem to be a genre in themselves. So many crime novels that I read about (and never read) are about missing children or missing women – massive turn-offs for me, par...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/ghosted-by-jenn-ashworth/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. ‘I’ was always going to be a tricky letter of the alphabe...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/i-is-for-isherwood/

In this episode, we ask whether or not offensive books should be republished – you might remember the same conversation happening here on StuckinaBook a while ago, and it was interesting to vis...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-96-should-offensive-books-be-republished-and-two-barbara-pyms/

What fun it has been to watch the blog tour for the new British Library Women Writers! There have been wonderful reviews on blogs, YouTube, and Instagram – I recommend visiting the people on th...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-blog-tour-farmorethanfiction/

I haven’t done a proper trip to a secondhand bookshop for such a long time. I did pop into Barter Books in Alnwick last August, but my trip to Regents in Wantage this morning really felt like a...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-book-haul-after-all-this-time/

Whenever Karen and I run a ‘club’ year, somebody reads a Georgette Heyer novel. I don’t know how many she wrote, but my guess would be thousands. And every time I say ‘How on earth have I...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/april-lady-by-georgette-heyer/

If you click on the tag above, you’ll be able to see my posts about all the British Library Women Writers books as they come out – or, more often, some time after they come out. But Tension ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-8-tension-by-e-m-delafield/

My dear friend Lorna got me The Butterfly Lampshade (2020) for my birthday last year, after the bookseller in Kramer Books, Washington DC, told her it was similar to our beloved Marilynne Robins...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-butterfly-lampshade-by-aimee-bender/

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 bein...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-26/

I’ve read quite a few of Daphne du Maurier’s novels, but I don’t think I’d previously read any of her short stories – some of which are, of course, very famous from the film adaptations...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/not-after-midnight-and-other-stories-by-daphne-du-maurier-ddmreadingweek/

When I reviewed Miss Linsey and Pa by Stella Gibbons earlier in the year, I said that it was one of my favourite reads of 2021 so far – but that I couldn’t recommend it to the British Librar...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/should-offensive-books-be-republished/

A few weeks ago, I decided to do a mystery book haul – picking four books I knew absolutely nothing about, from mid-century female authors I’d never heard of, to see if I could find some hidd...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-privet-hedge-by-j-e-buckrose/

Since the pandemic hit the UK, I have only been in one bookshop – a quick look around Barter Books in Alnwick, as I was there for a wedding and couldn’t miss the opportunity. Other than that,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/i-went-back-to-a-bookshop/

My friends Lorna and Will gave me a copy of The Unexpected Professor by John Carey in 2014, the year it came out – fast forward seven years and its time has finally come. I took it away on hol...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-unexpected-professor-by-john-carey/

You might remember Rick MacDonnell’s BookTube Spin earlier in the year – in brief, make a list of 20 books you want to read – he’ll get a random number from one to twenty, and you have a ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/booktube-spin-2-my-list/

Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Margery Sharp, Helen Ashton – welcome to episode 95. In the first half, we take a detour from our usual practice and pit two authors against each other. And it’s ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-95-woolf-vs-austen-and-the-foolish-gentlewoman-vs-the-half-crown-house/

What a fun week it has been! The 1936 Club has been so fruitful – fascinating to see what the world was reading on the cusp of war, and what variety there is, as always. For the next club in

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-the-next-club-2/

I’ve never read more books for a club year – for the first time, I’ve read more than there are days in the club week. (Or, indeed, in any week.) So I’m going to double up with a couple of

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-final-1936club-titles/

Of all the authors Scott at Furrowed Middlebrow has talked about over the years, Ursula Orange is the one who appealed most. So it was very exciting when he got three of her novels reprinted thro...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/begin-again-by-ursula-orange-1936club/

Little G is a terrible title but rather a lovely book. It is a 1936 title from E.M. Channon who is apparently well-known as a children’s writer and a detective novelist – this was one of her ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/little-g-by-e-m-channon-1936club/

When I wrote about Strange Journey by Maud Cairnes, a body-swap comedy, I was wondering which others there were. Malie and Constance both mentioned Laughing Gas by P.G. Wodehouse which, as luck...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/laughing-gas-by-p-g-wodehouse-1936club/

Reading Robert Nathan is one of the relatively rare times when I know what it must be like to be an Anglophile-bibliophile outside of the UK. His books are pretty easy to stumble across in the US...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-enchanted-voyage-by-robert-nathan-1936club/

There are a whole bunch of British Library Crime Classics from 1936, and I have quite a few of them on my shelves. Which to choose? Murder in Piccadilly, The Sussex Downs Murder, and The Santa ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/thirteen-guests-by-j-jefferson-farjeon-1936club/

Lots of Stella Gibbons’ novels have come back into print in recent years – from Vintage and from Dean Street Press – but Miss Linsey and Pa (1936) has been notably missing from their lists...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/miss-linsey-and-pa-by-stella-gibbons-1936club/

I’m very excited that the 1936 Club starts tomorrow – a week, run by me and Karen, where we invite everyone to read and review books published in 1936. It’s definitely been a bumper year of...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1936club-starts-tomorrow/

2021 is 100 years since the novelist Brian Moore was born – and 22 since he died – and Cathy at 746 Books is helping lead a year of celebrations in the blogging world. You can read the detail...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-great-victorian-challenge-by-brian-moore/

It’s now less than two weeks until the next club year, where Karen and I encourage everybody to read books published in the same year. I’ve lost track but we’ve done LOADS of them. This tim...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1936club-reminder/

Rosamond Lehmann, Antonia White, and authors’ houses – welcome to episode 94! In the first half of this episode, we do a topic suggested by Gillian – do we care where authors live? That is,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-94-do-we-care-where-authors-live-and-dusty-answer-vs-frost-in-may/

The team behind the European Prize for Literature (EUPL) got in touch to ask if I’d highlight some of the winners of the prize over the past few years, and I was really interested in exploring ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/things-that-fall-from-the-sky-by-selja-ahava-eupl/

My old housemate, and dear friend, Kirsty has three abiding passions: dogs, lexicography, and talking about how great Josephine Tey is. It was she who gave me a copy of Brat Farrar (1949) last ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/brat-farrar-by-josephine-tey/

Ever since I read Claire’s review of Two-Part Invention by Madeleine L’Engle (1988), I’ve been keen to read it. That was back in 2012, and I bought a copy while I was in Washington D.C. in...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/two-part-invention-by-madeleine-lengle/

As it’s International Women’s Day, the British Library publishing team have been putting an especial focus on the Women Writers series today – hurrah! And that has culminated in unveiling t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-two-new-british-library-women-writers-titles/

Next Wednesday, at 7pm, I’m delighted to say I’ll be chatting with Gill at Lindum Books about the British Library Women Writers series. Lindum Books is based on Lincoln – but, of course, th...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/hear-me-speak-about-british-library-women-writers/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. How many books do I have by Susan Hill? As always, I haven’...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/h-is-for-hill/

Summer, Winter, names – welcome to episode 93. In the first half, we ask: ‘Do we care what characters are called?’, looking at the strange and ordinary names that characters are given. In t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-93-do-we-care-what-characters-are-called-and-two-tove-jansson-novels/

There were several independent publishers I knew I wanted to read for #ReadIndies month, and of course Persephone was among them. But which one? Well, I was most excited about One Woman’s Year...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/one-womans-year-by-stella-martin-currey/

I will read any book about reading, as you might be aware if you’re a regular reader of Stuck in a Book. Some of them are among my all-time favourites, and some of them are a little more – if

https://www.stuckinabook.com/dear-reader-by-cathy-rentzenbrink/

I got sent Helen Oyeyemi’s second novel, The Opposite House, by the publisher in… 2008, the year after it was published. Oops, sorry Bloomsbury. I’ve read four of her other books, and have...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-opposite-house-by-helen-oyeyemi/

For #ReadIndies month, I had to pick up one of the many unread British Library Crime Classics I have on my shelf. Or, more precisely, piled high on top of a bookcase. Quite a lot of people have r...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-poisoned-chocolates-case-by-anthony-berkeley/

Arnold Bennett is perhaps one of those names who is more remembered than read nowadays, though I know there is a very active Arnold Bennett Society that always seems to notice when I review one o...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/riceyman-steps-by-arnold-bennett/

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that Janeites will read anything about Jane Austen – and it’s also a truth universally acknowledged that this opening ‘bit’ is wildly overused. Sor...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-jane-austen-education-by-william-deresiewicz/

I’ve been busy reading for Karen and Lizzy’s #ReadIndies month, and here are three of the books that came off my tbr pile for it. They could scarcely be more different! The book: Bramton Wic...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-round-up-of-readindies-books/

#ReadIndies naturally made me think of my unread pile of Fitzcarraldo Editions. I’ve yet to buy any of the blue fiction titles, but am amassing the white non-fiction – mostly spurred on by ho...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/notes-from-no-mans-land-by-eula-biss/

This month, Karen and Lizzy are running #ReadIndies – encouraging us all to read books published by independent publishing houses. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got loads waiting on th...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/interview-will-from-renard-press/

Bernadine Evaristo, Kate Atkinson, and clothes – welcome to episode 92. In the first half of the episode, Rachel and I discuss clothes in books – do we care what characters wear? I forgot to ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-92-do-we-care-what-characters-wear-and-girl-woman-other-vs-life-after-life/

Last year, Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs was one of my favourite reads, and I’ve made no secret about the fact that I’d love it to be a British Library Women Writers title at some poi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-indignant-spinsters-by-winifred-boggs/

Look, I’m not on BookTube – where people talk about books on YouTube, for the uninitiated. Nobody needs to see my shoddy camera angles and poor editing technique. But I do enjoy watching a fe...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-booktube-spin/

I imagine you’ve probably read Shaun Bythell’s very funny accounts of running a secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland – Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller. I love th...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/seven-kinds-of-people-you-find-in-bookshops-by-shaun-bythell/

I am trying to be the sort of person who likes poetry, and picking some of the poems off my bookshelves. If I’m honest, it hasn’t been an enormous success yet – though I did enjoy some of t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-land-by-vita-sackville-west-or-a-bit-of-it/

What a curious novel, which has left rather an impression on me, even though I find it a little complex to untangle. I bought For All We Know in 2011, based on having enjoyed her books on Jane ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/for-all-we-know-by-g-b-stern/

I absolutely loved Molly Fox’s Birthday a year or so ago, and so over Christmas I thought I’d treat myself to one of the other Deirdre Madden novels that I’d since been stockpiling. I went...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/nothing-is-black-by-deirdre-madden/

Elizabeth von Arnim and settings of novels – welcome to episode 91! In the first half of the novel, we look at the settings of novels, and ask whether we prefer familiar or unfamiliar settings....

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-91-familiar-or-unfamiliar-settings-and-two-elizabeth-von-arnim-novels/

Hopefully you’ve already seen my Top Books of 2020 – and now its time to do one of those fun reading stats posts, that delight other bloggers and blog readers and probably totally baffle norm...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/2020-some-reading-stats/

We recorded this before Christmas, but look where we are. Still the 12 Days of Christmas! As usual, we talk sticky rice, remote control cars, and cigarette lighters. And that’s all in the first...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/peas-in-a-podcast-14-christmas-special/

Thanks to everyone who entered my Christmas giveaway of British Library Women Writers titles – I’ve done a draw via random.org, and the winners were Neva L, Margaret L, and Deborah V. I’ve ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-winners/

In 2019, Rosemary joined me in #ProjectNames – one of the most rewarding reading projects I’ve done. Last year, she decided to keep going with #ProjectPlaces. I asked if she wouldn’t mind s...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/rosemarys-review-of-project-places/

It’s been a terrible year, but it’s been a great reading year. I always wait until December 31st before I let myself compile this list – and going through the year’s reading, picking out ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/top-12-books-of-2020/

You don’t need me to tell you that this has been a weird and sad year, and it’ll be a weird Christmas. I don’t know what the restrictions are where you are, but this will be the first Chris...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/happy-christmas-giveaway/

I recently finished a memoir, read by the author as an audiobook. It was a really striking portrayal of growing up as a mixed-race child in America in the ’70s, with violence, poverty, and unce...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-moving-memoir-of-racism-poverty-and-abuse/

I was VERY excited when I saw that the Furrowed Middlebrow series from Dean Street Press will be reprinting many Margery Sharp and Stella Gibbons titles in January. Do I have many books by both t...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-stone-of-chastity-by-margery-sharp/

Mini reviews – you know the drill. Let’s do this. Limbo by Dan Fox I bought this from Fitzcarraldo’s enviable essay series because it starts with mention of the 25-foot shark that seems to ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/four-more-mini-reviews/

I haven’t felt much like writing book reviews recently, but my pile of books to review keeps piling up – so I’ll do another couple of mini round-ups. For some reason, I feel like I have to ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/three-mini-reviews-2/

Betty Smith, Dorothy Evelyn Smith, and a review of our reading years… In the first half, we look back over a very unusual year and ask – was it a good reading year or a bad reading year? We�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-90-good-or-bad-reading-year-and-a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-vs-o-the-brave-music/

Right, I’m up to date with British Library titles now! This is the one I’m most excited to have brought back into print – I only read it for the first time last year, but O, The Brave Musi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-7-o-the-brave-music-by-dorothy-evelyn-smith/

I bought a couple of books by Winifred Boggs, as she sounded like the sort of author I’d like, from the scant information I could find online – and the gamble has paid off. Sally on the Rock...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/sally-on-the-rocks-by-winifred-boggs/

When I was first asked to suggest titles for the British Library Women Writers series, one of the first titles that came to my mind was Tea is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex. Some authors are lov...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-6-tea-is-so-intoxicating-by-mary-essex/

You probably know about Sybille Bedford, and maybe have even read some of her novels. She had a welcome resurgence of interest in the blogosphere when Daunt republished a few of her books a while...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-faces-of-justice-by-sybille-bedford/

I was intrigued when I first read Scott’s review of Pin a Rose on Me (1958) by Josephine Blumenfeld, mostly by this line of his: “a bit like one of E. M. Delafield’s Provincial Lady diari...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/pin-a-rose-on-me-by-josephine-blumenfeld/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. If it’s a numbers game, then Gallico is an easy choice for ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/g-is-for-gallico/

I think Esther Forbes is a name to conjure with in America, but I hadn’t heard of her when I bought O, Genteel Lady!(1926) seven years ago. I picked it up because I’m keen to read anything b...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/o-genteel-lady-by-esther-forbes/

My pile of books to write about has been rather piling up again. So much reading this year! So I’m probably going to do a few mini posts where I jumble a few different books together… Love, I...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-trio-of-mini-reviews/

It’s no secret that I adore Virginia Woolf, so I was pleased when I was given the opportunity to watch What Was Virginia Woolf Afraid Of?, which was shown on Sky Arts last year and is now avai...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/what-was-virginia-woolf-afraid-of/

The body-swap comedy is one of those tropes that is often talked about as if there were millions of them about, but in truth I can only think of a handful. In the world of literature, I’m down ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/strange-journey-by-maud-cairnes/

I am getting behind with writing about these books – there are seven out, and I’m only on number five – but slow and steady wins the race! Much like when I chose Dangerous Ages by Rose Mac...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-5-father-by-elizabeth-von-arnim/

Marilynne Robinson and gardens – welcome to episode 89! We are scraping the barrel a little in our first half, and arguably repeating ourselves, but please enjoy our musings on gardens. In the ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-89-do-we-care-about-gardens-and-gilead-vs-home/

Fresh off reading The Snow Queen, I went to my Cs shelf to see what else was waiting by Michael Cunningham. Well done for stockpiling, past Simon – I had a couple to choose from, and opted for...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/flesh-and-blood-by-michael-cunningham/

Because it was a nicer copy of a book I already loved Because it had a painting I liked on the cover Because of the lovely musty smell Because my friend was so enthusiastic (even though I knew I ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/27-genuine-reasons-i-have-bought-books/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. I wasn’t immediately sure where to go with F – Rachel Fer...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/f-is-for-fitzgerald/

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...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuck-in-a-books-weekend-miscellany-51/

It seems odd to me that Noel Coward wrote something in 1960. To me, he seems hermetically sealed within the 1930s. As it happens, he lived until 1973. but it’s still quite bizarre to read a nov...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/pomp-and-circumstance-by-noel-coward/

One of the most important things about a holiday, I’m sure we can all agree, is choosing which books to bring. If I’m going on holiday by car, I bring wildly too many – because then I can h...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-snow-queen-by-michael-cunningham/

The publication of a new novel by Marilynne Robinson is always an event. She is one of the few authors whose output I eagerly await, and I had Jack preordered – it arrived a couple of weeks be...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/jack-by-marilynne-robinson/

Colin and I are back with crucial discussions about Chicken Tonight, being trapped on an island with a fox, and some maths stuff I didn’t understand. Listen below or via your podcast of choice ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/twin-primes-and-prime-twins-peas-in-a-podcast-13/

Thank you for all your suggestions for the next club year! Karen and I looked through them all and had a discussion, and decided to go with Marina’s suggestion of 1936, which has a good range o...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-the-1936-club/

Let’s do another Overhaul! It’s where I look at some books that I bought, and see how many of them I’ve read, how many I’ve not kept, and how many are still to read. I basically shame mys...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-overhaul-7/

(Firstly, sorry to people who get emailed all my posts – you’ll just have received my ‘about me’, because I realised I didn’t have one and wanted to link to it in the sidebar. But nice ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-club-is-dead-long-live-the-club/

Thank you for some additional 1956 Club reviews since I updated the page recently – I will make sure the list is fully updated at the end of the week. And will read all the reviews too! This we...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/thin-ice-by-compton-mackenzie-1956club/

It is well documented that I want to own every single one of the Furrowed Middlebrow titles from Dean Street Press, and I’m doing my best to achieve that goal. I bought Spam Tomorrow by Veril...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/spam-tomorrow-by-verily-anderson-1956club/

I’ve been buying up Dorothy Evelyn Smith’s novels, because I’m worried that when O, The Brave Music is published by the British Library later in the year, there will suddenly be none of th...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/beyond-the-gates-by-dorothy-evelyn-smith-1956club/

Another book that’s been on my shelves for at least 15 years is Talk of the Devil by Frank Baker . It’s no secret that his earlier novel Miss Hargreaves is all all-time best-beloved book, bu...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/talk-of-the-devil-by-frank-baker-1956club/

One of the reasons I love these club years is that it makes me delve into the books that have sat on my shelves for donkey’s years. I bought Tea at Four O’Clock by Janet McNeill in 2005, an...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-at-four-oclock-by-janet-mcneill-1956club/

The 1956 Club starts tomorrow – this is the place to leave your review links, or feel free to put your review in the comments if you don’t write reviews anywhere. For the uninitiated – ever...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/1956club-ready-set-go/

I bought Family Skeletons (1986) in 2011, shortly after seeing Henrietta Garnett give a talk about her life at a bookshop in Oxford. It was a fun evening, not just because her life is interestin...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/family-skeletons-by-henrietta-garnett/

Earlier in the year, I read and really loved the odd, cold, psychologically fascinating novel Told in Winter by Jon Godden (sister of the more famous Rumer). So I was keen to try more of her thi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/mrs-panopoulis-by-jon-godden/

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 roo...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuck-in-a-books-weekend-miscellany-50/

Blurbs and Kazuo Ishiguro – welcome to episode 88! In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I talk about whether we want blurbs – i.e. do we do research on what we’re reading before we...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-88-blurbs-or-no-blurbs-and-the-remains-of-the-day-vs-never-let-me-go/

I have a whole pile of books I’ve read recently, but quite a lot of them are ones I don’t feel inspired to write whole posts about. Not least because my memory for what happens in books seems...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/three-mini-reviews/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. There are going to be a handful of letters in this series tha...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/e-is-for-essex/

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 broth...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuckinabooks-weekend-miscellany-25/

I intend to write about each of the British Library Women Writers titles as they come out, though I’m already a bit behind because the brilliant Father by Elizabeth von Arnim is also out now! ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-library-women-writers-4-dangerous-ages-by-rose-macaulay/

My love for Janet Malcolm continues apace. I’ve been buying up her books but initially hadn’t bothered with The Silent Woman (1993) because I’m not especially interested in Sylvia Plath. T...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-silent-woman-sylvia-plath-and-ted-hughes-by-janet-malcolm/

It’s The Overhaul! The latest in a series where I look back on previous book shopping trips and see what I’ve read, what I’ve got rid of, and what is embarrassing me by the length of time i...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-overhaul-6/

I’ve recently read two books by Arnold Bennett about being an author, both published in 1903 – one fiction and one non-fiction. He’s one of those authors who was ubiquitous during his lifet...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-couple-of-arnold-bennetts/

I love Muriel Spark’s strange, unpredictable, funny novels – and she seems like a fascinating person, too. So I was intrigued by Alan Taylor’s Appointment in Arezzo (2017) and delighted wh...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/appointment-in-arezzo-by-alan-taylor/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. If you were guessing which author I’d be using for D in thi...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/d-is-for-delafield/

A lot of the books I’m reading this year are ones I bought in 2011 – and I’m remembering that I bought a lot of books that year, because I only bought 24 in 2010 and I was making up

https://www.stuckinabook.com/my-phantom-husband-by-marie-darrieussecq/

Jane Austen, Jane and Mary Findlater, and – it’s episode 87!   We recorded this episode a little while ago and I have been lazy at editing – but here we are. Hope you like our lovely new l...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-87-biographies-vs-novels-about-real-people-and-emma-by-jane-austen-and-crossriggs-by-jane-and-mary-findlater/

Gosh, I love Margery Sharp. The more I read by her, the more I think she is one of the great underrated novelists of the twentieth century. I first read her fifteen or sixteen years ago, buying ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-nutmeg-tree-by-margery-sharp/

It’s always exciting when there’s a new set of Furrowed Middlebrow titles from Dean Street Press, and I always want to read all of them. I got a couple as review copies, and went straight to�...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-house-in-the-country-by-ruth-adam/

Apologies if you got an automated email about a new blog post on pancreatitis in dogs… it is a really weird hacking that I don’t understand. I’ve changed my password and hopefully it won’...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/weird-hacking/

Colin and I are back with another episode – this time, traffic laws, forks you hate, and all the other pressing issues of the day.

https://www.stuckinabook.com/peas-in-a-podcast-12/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. I’m going through the alphabet, and had a bit of a choice f...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/c-is-for-crompton/

Thank you SO much for all your kind words and support recently. I’m not out of the woods yet, but I’m going to make a gradual return to book blogging. And I wanted to clear the decks on the b...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/ranking-14-books-ive-read-recently/

Thanks so, so much to everyone for your prayers and kind words. I wanted to give a quick update – still no diagnosis, and still doing various tests etc., but I have been back to more-or-less no...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/quick-update/

First, a quick aside – I’m going to take a little break from blogging, I think, because I’ve had an ongoing and mysterious illness for a couple of months that has many and various symptoms,...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/announcing-the-next-batch-of-british-library-women-writers/

Marilynne Robinson, Francis Spufford, empathy and sympathy! Welcome to episode 86, in which we talk about characters we feel empathetic towards and those we feel sympathetic towards. And if you a...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/tea-or-books-86-empathy-vs-sympathy-and-the-child-that-books-built-vs-when-i-was-a-child-i-read-books/

This week is Sylvia Townsend Warner Reading Week, organised by Helen at A Gallimaufry – I was mulling over which collection of short stories to take off the shelf when I decided to do a bit mor...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/t-h-white-a-biography-by-sylvia-townsend-warner/

This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here. Thanks for your lovely comments on my first post in this serie...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/b-is-for-baker/

You know those books that are always on the cusp of being read? Like a word on the tip of your tongue, you’ve constantly been ‘about to read it’, even if always remains fourth or fifth or f...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-city-and-the-city-by-china-mieville/

I thought I’d start a little alphabetical series, where I pick an author for each letter of the alphabet – sharing which of their books I’ve read, which I own, how I came across them etc. I...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/a-is-for-athill/

I’ve always been intrigued when I saw mid-century novels by authors I’ve not heard of, and that’s particularly true since I’ve been scouting for titles for the British Library Women Write...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-unnatural-behaviour-of-mrs-hooker-by-eileen-marsh/

I can now claim to have read all the novels from Mauritania that have been translated into English – because it is one: The Desert and the Drum by Mbarek Ould Beyrouk, originally published in ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-desert-and-the-drum-by-mbarek-ould-beyrouk/

In 2011, I bought an enormous book called Recapture by Clemence Dane – largely because her name was familiar to me from my research into the Book Society of the 1930s – a book of the month c...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/regiment-of-women-by-clemence-dane/

That was the question that Sheree from Keeping Up With The Penguins asked me, and a whole bunch of other bloggers – you can find all our answers in a really interesting and entertaining (though...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/which-book-should-i-have-read-by-now/

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 ...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/stuck-in-a-books-weekend-miscellany-49/

It’s not a particularly difficult quiz, but can you spot what connects the books in this picture? Yes, I suspect you noticed it immediately – the titles are all questions! At my working-from-...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/what-connects-these-books/

I read a review of Crossriggs (1908) by Jane and Mary Findlater back in my early days of blogging, and I now have no idea where – but I bought it in 2008, and it’s only taken me twelve years...

https://www.stuckinabook.com/crossriggs-by-jane-mary-findlater/