Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
charl08

charl08

Joined October 2016

"Then practice losing farther, losing faster..." Lost without a book. ❤ penguins both ??
blurb
charl08
post image

Unexpected link to recent fiction reading (On the Calculation of Volume also feels like a rerun, sadly absent Bill Murray)
"Day one felt like Groundhog Day, the film in which a news reporter awakes each morning to a repeat of what has come before. From the outset, however, it was clear that these seven judges would take a different approach..."

quote
charl08
Behind You Is the Sea: A Novel | Susan Muaddi Darraj
post image

"During the intifada. We don't talk about it. The boys with the stones, yes, we talk about them. But not the girls." She assured him that Rita stayed busy..... Then she returned the conversation to Ibn Hanna's wedding, which was coming up, and to life in America, and how had his people really elected that terrible casino owner as president. Didn't Americans know gambling was haram?

42 likes1 stack add
quote
charl08
Behind You Is the Sea: A Novel | Susan Muaddi Darraj
post image

"The fine arts are always underappreciated." He sighs. "It's a modern tragedy, really."
"Sure." I say it curtly because I'm thinking how that's not a tragedy. Not really. A tragedy is a double homicide. Or a murder-suicide. Or a pileup on 695 when there are kids in the car. That's tragic...

review
charl08
Shutter | Ramona Emerson
post image
Pickpick

Gripping crime.

blurb
charl08
News From Nowhere | Liverpool, United Kingdom (Bookstore)
post image

Visit to one of my favourite bookshops at the weekend. I resorted to taking pictures of shelves because I was interested in so many...

Bookwomble Love NFN 😊❤️📚❤️ 4d
charl08 @Bookwomble every time I go I say "I'll only get one book..." 3d
51 likes2 comments
blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image

Stats on original language of books I've read (so far) in 2025... (books in translation)

Eggbeater Very cool 4d
julieclair Wow! 4d
Texreader Whoa!!🤯 4d
See All 7 Comments
Texreader What languages are the others? 4d
charl08 @eggbeater @julieclair love a pie chart! 4d
charl08 @Texreader Urdu

Tamil, Icelandic, Portuguese

Kannada

Ukrainian

Korean

Chinese
4d
Texreader Incredibly awesome!!! 4d
37 likes7 comments
quote
charl08
post image

Harry was defensive about some of the methods he had used to get his stories. At one point, he turned on the reader, who he imagined censuring him for how he had obtained the Christie exclusive: 'Sit down there, you, that man in the back row, he admonished. 'I'll have no hypocritical comment! How many murderers' stories have you read, sir, in the Sunday papers? If you've never read one, then I'll listen to you. If you have read one, then shut up!

32 likes1 stack add
quote
charl08
post image

According to the constitutional law scholar Carl Bogus, at least sixteen of the twenty-seven law review articles published between 1970 and 1989 that were favorable to the NRA's interpretation of the Second Amendment were "written by lawyers who had been directly employed by or represented the NRA or other gun rights organizations."

charl08 In an interview, former chief justice Warren Burger said that the new interpretation of the Second Amendment was "one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word 'fraud,' on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime." 5d
36 likes1 comment
quote
charl08
The Safekeep | Yael van der Wouden
post image

We took almost nothing when we left. Mum kept saying, Don't worry we'll come back we'll come back so soon, and it was a lie. I think now to how they found that house with everything still in it, Papa's book still left open on the page where he stopped, and I am sick I am sick to my stomach. Whose stuff did they think that was? They must have known I can't imagine they didn't know. Who doesn't know a thing like that? They must've known.

45 likes1 stack add1 comment
quote
charl08
Pupposites Attract 1 | Hono Natsuna
post image

Goodreads (via google) says this is "comforting manga for pet lovers..." I don't disagree.

One of those books that makes me wish for something between "so so" and thumbs up.

34 likes1 stack add
blurb
charl08
post image

(Not) a little light reading.

blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image

Dangerous...

#Offers

blurb
charl08
The Death of Shame | Ambrose Parry
post image

Do love a historical map! Check out these endpapers 😍

readingjedi Can't wait to read this one! 2w
charl08 @readingjedi it only arrived yesterday and I couldn't resist... 1w
44 likes1 stack add2 comments
quote
charl08
Lost on Me | Veronica Raimo
post image

My vulgar language also caused problems when I went to Cecilia's. Her father was a stern, distinguished, imposing man... Though he never missed his chance to intimate that he'd been particularly active in the years of armed struggle in the seventies and eighties, enjoying the astonished look on my face when his stories suddenly mentioned guns or kneecappings, he wasn't as indulgent when it came to another kind of violence: foul language.

quote
charl08
Lost on Me | Veronica Raimo
post image

When we finally discovered books, it wasn't a form of escapism, but rather the reassuring coalescence of boredom. I could almost picture it in my mind, white and miry: reading was like sinking into a pool of milk. I would stay immersed for hours, until even my body grew flaccid, the stagnant liquid seeping into my pores. It felt like everything suddenly acquired meaning, a phenomenon of transubstantiation, my flesh changing into boredom.

35 likes1 stack add
quote
charl08
post image

#Depression (Geneviève Elverum)

blurb
charl08
Drinking at the Movies | Julia Wertz, Janeane Garofalo
post image

Autobiographical GN based on the author's move to New York.

blurb
charl08
Sand Roses | Hamza Koudri
post image

In Bousaada, Algeria c.1930s

32 likes1 stack add
quote
charl08
post image

....there is no objective, capital T Truth about Agrippina. There is only a series of stories, drawn from other people's stories about men. The only way through is to be hon-est about that. This story is as much mine as it is Agrippina's, because I have chosen how to present the information I have. But it is a good story about a woman who deserves her own place in history.

quote
charl08
post image

...made the three sisters the first living women ever to be identified by name on a Roman coin.

blurb
charl08
post image

I wasn't expecting David Cameron to turn up in the first few pages of this....

review
charl08
post image
Pickpick

Beautiful book about Nicholson's paintings of Scotland.

Cathythoughts Loving that painting ❤️ and that it‘s Scottish (edited) 3w
52 likes1 comment
quote
charl08
post image

I find Switzerland most appealing between the ages of fifty-two and seventy-one. Much younger than that, and the clean air, healthy living, reserved manners and somewhat bland cooking puts me off.

---
Probably not for the Swiss tourist board, this one...

quote
charl08
10 Marchfield Square | Nicola Whyte
post image

He put the phone down and tapped his fingers on the desk. The alibi thing was annoying when the video call would so easily prove his whereabouts, but the police clearly hadn't even bothered to check it with his nana yet. A single person, living alone, not going to stupid neighbour fireworks things, and suddenly you were a murder suspect.

Aims42 I couldn‘t click the “add to stack” icon fast enough after reading your blurb! 🤩 3w
37 likes3 stack adds1 comment
blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image

Anna Fleet original. I am outbid. Sadness.
https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/bookmarkproject2025

40 likes1 comment
blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image

Wow - the bookmark auction project has already raised over £7000 for charity - a school in Zimbabwe ??

"Famous" children's illustrators' work going for ££ - Axel Shaeffer was over £150 the last time I looked, but many beautiful ones are less than £15. One of the ones above I've got a bid on- any guesses?

Check out the art https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/auction/detail/auction_id/1754479/

TrishB These are lovely ❤️ 4w
squirrelbrain Hmmm, first I thought the puffins, then the cats…. 🤔 I just bid on 3 of them. 4w
charl08 @TrishB *too* lovely 4w
charl08 @squirrelbrain that seems restrained to me 🫢🤫 4w
35 likes4 comments
blurb
charl08
post image

Gary Younge giving a rousing argument for political engagement (instead of the history talk I was hoping for: but it was excellent anyway).

quote
charl08
post image

Madame Elysé spoke for three minutes and forty-seven seconds. The silence that followed seemed interminable. As I stood at the podium, a gentle sound filled the Great Hall of Justice, the sound of tears.
I waited to address the Court.
Later, after the morning session was over... Madame Elysé... turned to me.....

'May I ask a question?'
'Yes.'
'Why did it take so long for us to come to The Hague?'

BarbaraBB Wow… 1mo
35 likes1 comment
blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image

So many cute, original works-of-art bookmarks... I can't choose!

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/bookmarkproject2025

blurb
charl08
post image

Apple TV Release date is tomorrow! Woo! 😍

ChaoticMissAdventures So excited. But a little nervous. I saw an interview with Alexander Skarsgård and it felt like he was talking about a totally different thing. Kept calling MB a robot? And just the whole vibe about it was off. 1mo
ImperfectCJ @ChaoticMissAdventures The more I hear about the series, the more skeptical I am. But then, I don't have Apple TV, so it will be a while before I'm likely to see it anyway. 1mo
deirdrebeecher @ChaoticMissAdventures Very nervous, this one will hurt if it's bad. That being said delighted for Martha Wells and hope she's having the time of her life. She has given me so many hours of pleasure. 1mo
39 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
charl08
Somewhere Else | Jenni Daiches, Sara Trevelyan
post image
Mehso-so

Mixed feelings about this one. Covering the 100 years of Rosa's life, from a Polish pogrom to a garden in Morningside in the early 2000s. Wonderfully Scottish (well, mostly Edinburgh), and with a message surely no one can argue with: conflict is bad.

For me, a bit too ambitious - and heavy on the historical exposition.

Edinburgh skyline (near Dean Village)

#WomensPrizeLL25

sarahbarnes I have this one on my list but am on the fence about it. 1mo
53 likes1 comment
quote
charl08
Somewhere Else | Jenni Daiches, Sara Trevelyan

'Things will get better now, won't they, Mummy?' says Jan. 'Now that we have a Labour government.'
Muriel smooths a sleeve with her left hand and plies the iron with her right. 'Yes, things will get better.'
'I like Mr Attlee. He has a nice face.'
'They'll have to work fast,' Bruce says. 'Five years isn't very long to make everything happen that they've promised.'
>>>>>
Did you get that at the back? A new Labour Government! Fancy that!

BarbaraBB I liked this book a lot more than I expected 1mo
charl08 @BarbaraBB I like it, but honestly this bit just made me roll my eyes so hard. 1mo
27 likes2 comments
blurb
charl08
post image

A book I bought in Edinburgh and couldn't resist picking up to read straight away.

Cathythoughts ❤️💔 love the title 1mo
50 likes1 comment
blurb
charl08
Miss Mole | E. H. Young
post image

Reading my own shelves!

sarahbarnes Such a struggle to read the books I already have and not get distracted by all the new ones! 1mo
charl08 @sarahbarnes always... 1mo
47 likes2 stack adds2 comments
quote
charl08
post image

Nora looks out at the priceless view. There‘s a break in the cloud and enough blue to clothe any number of sailors.
----

My gran used to say this - an expression I've not heard in a while.

quietlycuriouskate My Nan used to say if there's enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers then it means fine weather is coming. 1mo
charl08 @quietlycuriouskate it's funny what sticks with you, isn't it. 1mo
45 likes1 stack add2 comments
quote
charl08
The Paris Express | Emma Donoghue
post image

On the platform below, the bookstall's yellow awning
reads Hachette: Banish Monotony and Ennui. The word banish makes Maurice think of villains sent abroad and never allowed to return to France. Georges says if Maurice listens to his elders and reads every spare minute he gets, one day he'll know all the words there are and could even be a school-teacher.

blurb
charl08
post image

More #Glasgow crime (fiction).

blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image

Part of a piece by Ciara Phillips as part of "Undoing It"

https://galleryofmodernart.blog/exhibitions/

"This is not just a grab bag candy game. This is the time for every artist in every genre to do what he or she does loudly and consistently.... This is about being a complex human being in the world, not about finding a villain..."

sarahbarnes ♥️♥️♥️ 1mo
41 likes1 comment
blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image
Leftcoastzen Nice ! 1mo
45 likes1 comment
quote
charl08
post image

During victory marches, captured enemy warriors walked along as proudly as they could... but with their hearts in their throats: dying on the sacrifice stone was no picnic...

...they would watch the crowd waving their little flags and tossing flowers, imagining that eventually one of these bastards would buy a strip of warrior arm or loin in the marketplace to eat in magic tomato salsa on a tostada.😪😬🤮🔪🥣🍖

Suet624 Ugh!! 1mo
32 likes1 comment
blurb
charl08
Reservoir Bitches: Stories | Dahlia de la Cerda
post image

Quick visit to Mexico...

quote
charl08
post image

You who take so much for granted, with your sound walls, rich food and fine jewels and books, especially books do you truly begrudge the people of this or any other lowly parish their little scraps of coloured glass, their painted saints, their confidence in prayer? How cruel you are, if you do.

41 likes1 stack add
blurb
charl08
No Title | None
post image

Got all the way to paying: and the voucher code Doesn't Work! Argh...

Can anyone help?! What am I doing wrong...☹️

Ruthiella Is the voucher from a previous purchase? Normally they only give them on any subsequent sale. To entice you to buy more. 1mo
charl08 @Ruthiella that would make sense, but nope! Was in their newsletter. 1mo
charl08 @Ruthiella after complaining, they've come back to me today with a code that works 🎉🎉 1mo
Ruthiella Yahoo! 👏👏👏 1mo
24 likes4 comments
quote
charl08
post image

These blue flowers obey no man; they come to no one's bidding and they die in their own season, their beauty while they live a careless rapture.

Cathythoughts 🩷 1mo
Cathythoughts Careless rapture 🩷 1mo
39 likes2 comments
quote
charl08
BIRDING. | ROSE. RUANE
post image

Acute and poignant noticing has always helped her out of herself, escorted her away from pain and the past and coupled her to small, instrumental wonders outside herself.

Look to the beauty.

38 likes1 stack add
quote
charl08
BIRDING. | ROSE. RUANE
post image

Stripped of the bleak comforts of such an illusion, she has simply been done to, which makes her a victim.

She doesn't know if she'd give it a lower-case or capital V if.she had to write it down unsure if it's an identity, a predicament or both. All she's certain of is that decades of defying the definition have ended, so that things which used to seem inevitable now feel intolerable.

It hurts so much to realise she deserved better...

35 likes1 comment
review
charl08
Theres a Monster Behind the Door | Galle Blem, Latitia Saint-Loubert, Karen Fleetwood
This post contains spoilers
show me
post image
Mehso-so

I picked this up as it had been LL for the Booker international prize for fiction, and I've not read anything by an author from Reunion before (pictured, via Unsplash).

Relentless book that simultaneously describes a child growing up and events in the surrounding community, from weddings to violence. I thought it was going in the direction of the typical "but I made good" narrative, so the ending caught me out!

quote
charl08
Theres a Monster Behind the Door | Galle Blem, Latitia Saint-Loubert, Karen Fleetwood
post image

So when nothing's going right, when the walls get so high that even prayers can't help you scale them, I open a comic book. As if leaning over a precipice, I dive right in, seeking a different world where no one can find me and I can forget. I have a book on my bedside table. Because I don't have a gun.

Leftcoastzen 👍👏 2mo
Ruthiella 😹😹😹 2mo
sarahbarnes 💯 2mo
Reggie Lolol relatable. 2mo
45 likes4 comments
blurb
charl08
Theres a Monster Behind the Door | Galle Blem, Latitia Saint-Loubert, Karen Fleetwood
post image

And a train behind the book...

quote
charl08
Theres a Monster Behind the Door | Galle Blem, Latitia Saint-Loubert, Karen Fleetwood
post image

From then on, I demanded that the Dessaintes call me Ratus, much to their dismay! And I began to regularly commit a crime that neither of them would have dreamt of: I read! Worse still, I enjoyed it! Thoroughly. So thoroughly that I worked out how to beat those scoundrels: I would read, and invent stories, and make my own books. I would rise above my station and go places people couldn't imagine me in.