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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) Joan Aiken, Black Hearts in Battersea (1964) Joan Aiken, Nightbirds on Nantucket (1966) Joan Aiken, The Whispering Mountain (1968) Joan Aiken, The Cuckoo Tree (1971) I don’t remember what it was that inspired me to do a reread of Joan Aiken’s twelve “Wolves Chronicles” (and a first […]
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Favorite Fairy Tale Retellings. I already did a post on seven of my favorites, but here are ten more that I enjoyed. (As you can tell, this is one of my favorite genres — I’d love more recommendations!) Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (Rapunzel) A Curse Dark as Gold […]