Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1847) January 17, 2020 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anne Brontë, bringing the attention of the world to the youngest and least celebrated of the three literary sisters from Yorkshire. The Folio Society has marked the occasion by releasing a new edition of Anne’s second […]
Having finished my goal of reading 50 books from my Classics Club list, I have a hankering for another classics-based challenge. And so I return to Back to the Classics, which I’ve participated in in the past and enjoyed very much. The categories chosen by Karen of Books and Chocolate give an added layer of […]
At this time of year there are loads of lists of favorite books from the previous year, and of titles anticipated for this one. I’ve generally not read most of the former, nor do I tend to immediately stuff the latter onto my already groaning TBR list. I just do not keep up with […]
Well, we’ve made it to another year. In our unsettled world every day feels like a gift to me, not least because I can keep reading! So I hope to make good use of my time this year, and to that end some reviewing and updating of my priorities is always helpful. In 2019 my […]
December was a fantastic reading month! From my Classics Club list, I read Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and immediately had to go on to devour the sequels (three of them so far). This is an astonishing story that I can’t believe I never got around to reading before. I also […]
It is nearly the end of 2019, and thus time for my yearly list of books that I loved best during the year. Usually, if a book is good enough to be on this list, I try to review it. But this year I just did not have time to do all the reviews I […]
I’ve been doing the Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight since it began five years ago. That means I’ve posted more than 50 discussions so far, and I still haven’t run out of ideas! I always enjoy the lively conversation generated by these posts, and so […]
How do I know a book is going to be good? Well, I can tell you what does not necessarily help: A description that sounds good A blurb by an author I like Reviews that make it sound great I’m always getting sucked in by these marketing ploys, but even when they are from trustworthy […]
Susan Alice Kirby, Miss Carter and the Ifrit (1945) One of the latest of the ongoing series of Furrowed Middlebrow books from Dean Street press, Miss Carter and the Ifrit is a grown-up fairy tale that reminded me of the works of E. Nesbit (another FM author with The Lark). As so often with Nesbit, […]
This month, I read a book in French! I was not blown away by Coeur de Cristal by Frédéric Lenoir, a fairy-tale style novel about a prince who is unable to love, but it was easy to read and helped me with my efforts to improve my French skills. I hope to move on to […]