I’ve been wanting to create some new post graphics, and above you can see my latest design. What do you think? I’m especially proud that I figured out how to change the colors of the balloon and some of the books in Photoshop — some of those books went through quite a few changes, and […]
I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with blogging on top of various life responsibilities, not to mention trying to get some actual reading done, so I’m going to take a short break following my monthly wrap-up on Sunday. I’ll be back after Labor Day, hopefully with renewed energy and reading zest! Here are just a few […]
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books that Would Be on Your Syllabus if You Taught [your subject of choice]101. I have Jane Austen on the brain because of Roof Beam Reader’s Austen in August event, so I thought I’d create a syllabus for that. It’s a course I’d love to take myself — […]
To celebrate Women in Translation Month, today I’m highlighting a piece I did earlier this summer for Shiny New Books, in which I reviewed two classics by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren that are now available in lovely new editions from the New York Review Children’s Collection. Lindgren is one of the world’s most-translated authors, but […]
Tove Jansson, The True Deceiver (1982) If all you know of Finnish author Tove Jansson are her Moomin books, delightful as they are, you’re missing out. Jansson also wrote some of the most finely crafted adult fiction to be found anywhere. It’s a shame that not all of her novels and stories are available in […]
It’s time again to play some catch-up, with quick reviews of recent releases that have come my way. All are heartily recommended! Uprooted by Naomi Novik I don’t have much to add to others’ reviews of this stellar new fantasy. If you like immersive, otherworld fantasy, you will want to read it; if you think […]
What makes Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly so great? As I perused the latest issue, I realized that in many ways it’s exactly what I wish my blog to be, and what I appreciate about other blogs. Each issue contains around a dozen and a half essays in which readers of many stripes celebrate […]
Wilkie Collins, Armadale (1864) Having enjoyed Wilkie Collins’s two most famous novels, The Woman in White and The Moonstone, I wanted to read more of this Victorian author’s wildly popular sensation fiction. Recommendations from several quarters led me to Armadale, his longest book and the one of which TS Eliot said “It has no merit […]
Nicole of Feed Your Fiction Addiction tagged me in her impressive Tagapalooza post some time ago. This was a chance to pick one of four tags to play along with, and the idea of making an acrostic of book titles using my name was most appealing. I have a short name, so for extra fun […]
Before I started blogging a year and a half ago, I was not a regular follower of book blogs. I encountered them now and then when I was searching for a review or information about a particular book, but that was about it. So I had no idea of the vast extent of the book […]