Clik here to view.
The Literary Conference – César Aira
I guess my blog is, if anything, a bit of a celebration of well-written middlebrow, mostly English, mostly oldish, and mostly about tea cups and cats. Fair? Well, I also love to try things that are a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
My book group recently read The Soul of Kindness (1964) by Elizabeth Taylor – I have a feeling I recommended it, although can never quite remember – and I don’t think we’ve ever had a more divided...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford
Apparently I bought Pigeon Pie (1940) by Nancy Mitford in Clun on 15th August 2011. I have no idea where Clun is and no recollection of having gone there, but I suppose I must have done! I read the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Love Insurance by Earl Derr Biggers
Time for another link to a Shiny New Books review. And this one is an absolute joy – any fans of P.G. Wodehouse or early Hollywood will love this one. It’s the 1914 novel Love Insurance by Earl Derr...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Marrying Out – Harold Carlton
You know that I love Slightly Foxed Editions – I don’t shut up about it – and the latest one I read is up there with my favourites now. I pretty much read it all in one setting. It’s Marrying Out...
View ArticleIn praise of Ivy Compton-Burnett…
…longterm SIAB readers know that I love Dame Ivy, but I’m spreading the joy over at Vulpes Libris today. It’s also sort of about A Heritage and Its History (1959) which is the latest one of hers I’ve...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Land’s End – Michael Cunningham
While I was cat-sitting for a friend recently, I read (or finished) five books in quick succession, and it wasn’t until I got there that I realised that three of them were books I got when I was in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Day in Summer by J.L. Carr
Quite a few of us in the blogosphere are fans of J.L. Carr’s 1980 novel A Month in the Country – that gentle tale of a man who goes to help restore a rural mural. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars
A little while ago I got a very nice email from someone called Vicki, saying how much she enjoyed reading Stuck-in-a-Book, and asking if she could send me one of the books she loved as a sort of thank...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Siren Years by Charles Ritchie
One of the greatest pleasures I have had in blogging is getting to know Claire’s blog. We all know and love her as The Captive Reader, and I am lucky enough to have very similar taste to Claire – we...
View ArticleA review round-up
I’ve made my peace with not getting to the end of my Century of Books by the end of 2014 – that’s fine; the rules are very flexible – but I will bolster out the list with some of the others I have read...
View ArticleWho Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
I’m over at Vulpes Libris today, sharing my love of the glorious Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead (1954) – which is also, shockingly, my first addition to A Century of Book in 2015. And a re-read at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg & Madeleine Stern
You know what it’s like with book reviews on Stuck-in-a-Book – they’re like buses; you wait a month for one, and then three come along at once. (If you’ve ever waited a month for a bus, then – please –...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Fur Person by May Sarton
I can’t remember exactly how it came about – begging, borrowing, or stealing (or, y’know, a present), but when I stayed with Thomas in Washington D.C. about 18 months ago, he gave me The Fur Person by...
View Article
