Blogs about Books and literature

Vincennes Review of Books 2023 is here!Key:* = Excellent, highly recommend~ = Actively bad, do not recommendFirst readsThe Book of Form & Emptiness–Ruth OzekiLove in Idleness–Charlotte Mendelson Straight Man–Richard Russo *The Complete Magazine Stories of …

We first see Malcolm in Act 1 Scene 4, when Duncan announces that he is the Prince of Cumberland. This title means that Malcolm is now heir to the throne: in medieval Scotland, the crown …

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki Read Apr 4, 2022 - Apr 10, 2022 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is a lovely book, filled with lovable characters and feeling. It is a novel about food, music, and …

“Auden says, Wordsworth says, Valery says, Shakespeare says. Always the present tense. Of course.”—Geoffrey Grigson, The Private Art: A Poetry Notebook (Allison and Busby, 1982).

Hi everyone! You may have noticed that we’ve slowed down a bit on posting, approving comments, and, well, pretty much our whole end of the deal. We’d like to say we’re just too busy and …

My new poetry pamphlet from Melos Press, The Dictionary Speaks, is now out and can be ordered post-free via this link.From the publisher’s blurb:-NICHOLAS MURRAY’S many books include poetry, two novels, critically acclaimed biographies of …

In addition to Philip Pullman's substantial fantasies, His Dark Materials (three volumes) and The Book of Dust (two volumes published, the third, at present, forthcoming), Pullman has published some short companion volumes to the series. …

Over the years, Bloom has had the pleasure of featuring many wonderful debut authors. But what comes next? A second book, perhaps. Or even a third. This week, we spoke with returning Bloomer Jimin Han, …

Freedom is an online performance by Eva and Franco Mattes. Its setting is the infamous FPS video game Counter-Strike. Eva, as an Avatar/Soldier, roams the battlefield begging everyone she meets not to shoot her because …

Steve Wasserman among his 20,000 books (Photo: Ximema Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight) The story of small publishing houses in today’s world often aren’t happy ones. Here’s the story of one that is. I know Malcolm Margolin, the …

An end of week recap “If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.” – Jean-Paul Sartre I’ve had rather a full-on week and, as a result, neglected my usual Book Jotter …

This is my friend’s lovely cat who died recently.

Cover of “Captain” Mayne Reid’s The Headless Horseman With the arrival of spring break, I’ve managed to find time for a little light reading—purely for the sake of entertainment, no edifying strings attached. This is …

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like …

Remembering Rahul: A tribute by Rohit Chopra Aniruddha Bose, Associate Professor of History at Saint Francis University, passed away on March 31, 2024 from brain cancer. Aniruddha was a remarkable person and brilliant scholar, soft-spoken …

Three and – an Extra by Rudyard Kipling short story, magazine publication 1886, in Plain Tales from the Hills 1888 [excerpt] About half-past five in the evening a large leather-covered basket came in from Phelps’s …

Ridgeline subscribers! Hello! As I wrote last week, my new pop-up newsletter/walk — The Return to Pachinko Road — begins on May 14. Subscribe here if you feel so inclined (almost 3,000 people have already …

Fool: In Search of Henry VIII’s Closest Manby Peter K. AnderssonPrinceton University Press, 2023 The posthumous image of him has been entangled with the real individual, and no one has really fully tried to disentangle …

In her first novel, art historian Penelope Curtis imagines two episodes from her family’s history. The first part concerns Nora (Penelope’s grandmother, whom she never knew), a painter who tries to articulate what her art …

MirandaJan Hilliard [Hilda Kay Grant]New York: Abelard -Schuman, 1960247 pages Miranda is the mother of two daughters, the younger being Rose, the narrator of this novel. Rose calls her mother Miranda, as encouraged by Miranda …