Quitky read. Beautiful prose, complex characters, beautiful edition. Topping and Co style.
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Quitky read. Beautiful prose, complex characters, beautiful edition. Topping and Co style.
pickSublime. Simply but beautifully written, emotionally driven. I loathed the protagonist in this, yet wept at the ending. Perfectly captures the chaos and grief caused in the aftermath of war.
“By nature all people were if both sexes” - a fairly radical thought for 1939 #carsonmccullers #theheartsalonelyhunter #bookish #discoveringnewwomenwriters
Two Kitchen Table novels from one of the most sensitive writers in print. And Carson McCullers - a debut. Quality reading for a damp summer Sunday
“An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story”. Let‘s hope it meets the expectations of an astonishingly complex and easily moved literary reader! Check out my reading companion: James. 🐾🐾
“The dark religions are depart & sweet science reigns.” Perfect rainy day opportunity to finish this romping summer read.
Compelling, well characterised and a fascinating insight into Steinbeck‘s misogynistic take on women!
An old man sits in a room, with a single door and window, a bed, a desk and a chair. Each day he wakes with no memory, unsure of whether or not he is locked in the room.
Only when enough of them have been torn down, will it be possible to start loving them p.78
“But for the world‘s opinion those experiences would have been simply a liberal education.”
Says it all!
People go through life trying to please some audience. But once you realize there's no audience, life is simple. It's just doing what you know in your gut is right. P. 379 #STACKEDUP
"Had she, out of all the women he'd slept with, seen through his cool and his vanity and understood what he'd long secretly feared: that underneath it all, Aaron Levy lacked the courage for an authentic life? That he had not the slightest idea who he was without praise, without steady advancement toward a degree and a title,without organized competition for some elite goal" p. 215
"The tattoo is so beautiful, so compelling, but I understand why Lydia wrote of a sense of revulsion". Enjoy the sense of mystery, connection, and loss in this intriguing short novel. Published today this would be a feast of sensory collage (given the move towards interactive novels and improved graphic publishing). It lacks the imaginative multimedia skills that produced books such as Fantastic Beasts and the Griffin & Sabine trilogy.
Somehow this fell into my shopping basket at Topping & Company ... a really random purchase but the opening pages are promising a good read. #randombookbuys #toppingandcompanystandrews #independantbookstores #gotmyreadingmojoback
A wonderful ending to a wonderfully light-hearted, well written, and yes, slightly pithy novella. Loved reading it.
#thisorthat #latetotheparty the answer to all of these is "both".
This has been on my "to read" pile for a while. 18 pages in and it's promising to be good. Who doesn't love books about magical bookshops? ? #bibliophilia #booksaboutbookstores #gettingthroughthetoreadpile
A 17th Century spy novel. Not my usual fodder but I ended up with 2 new copies (no idea how!) and felt I should give it a go - I think it was a Waterstones book club read? It won the 2005 Historical Dagger. I am always interested to see how these novels handle gender issues. #feministreading #historicalspythriller #booksacquiredbyaccident
Bedtime reading: book club choice. A psychological thriller that according to The Mail is "head and shoulders above the rest". Given the genre, I am expecting my socks to be duly blown off ... but first impressions have me doubting that prospect. We shall see.
When your words are futile, you‘re better off keeping them to yourself, or never even thinking them in the first place.
"Sarcasm was irony which had lost its soul" p. 175
"She was not fitted for domesticity [...] neither by temperament nor habit."
"The best things come is small packages" - short stories - the literary snack of choice. Bitesize deliciousness ... hedonistic tapas for the mind
"Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes" ~ PLATO 'Republic, BOOK II' (an epigraph of magnificent proportions).
She is never alone when she has Her Books. Books, to her, are Friends. Give her Shakespeare or Jane Austen, Meredith or Hardy, and she is Lost - lost in a world of her own. She sleeps so little that most of her nights are spent reading.
Tales from the bookshop; that treasure trove, time machine, cabinet of curiosities... that possess a unique kind of magic.
What's your bookshop story?
Perfect Christmas gift ... spotted in the bookshop 2 days before ... nimble-footed other-half hot-footed it to get it for my stocking. Looking good so far. Excellent narrative concept.
The "To Read" pile just got bigger!
'Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.'
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
"The book was thick and black and covered with dust." A first line to appeal to any bibliophile.
On the to read pile ... I cannot wait to start this!
pickThis bookish quarterly is just joy for any reader. I wish it was a monthly rather than a quarterly! ❤️
"The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes, never."
"Am I in the picture? Am I getting in or out of it? I could be a ghost, an animal or a dead body, not just this girl standing on the corner…?"
Ps The LRB — not just about books, but a brainy take on world events etc. You have to be a PhD to get it, or at least be a professional intellectual. P. 66
"Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us.
"Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot' : reading this in bed and taking no chances ?
First thing in the morning too ...
Reading this wonderful romp through the hedonistic Bohemia that was the 1920s
pickThis is a delightful,funny meander through small town (and s/t large cities) Britain. It's delivered with the usual Bill Bryson effect: the loud unexpected guffaw that emerges unexpectedly, especially whilst reading in public. Reading it takes no effort other than the ability to control the guffaws
