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"Living is a horizontal fall." #ParisinJuly2026 #20BOS26 Book 13
As I hinted in my end of June post and my review of “Women of Iron and Velvet”, I’ve been off down a number of rabbit holes recently, particularly with French authors. Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet were involved, and Margaret Crosland added complications as I did have to pick up a reasonably priced copy of her Cocteau biography! So when I was casting around for a book to read after my failure with…
"...her form of liberation..." #ParisinJuly2026 #20BOS26 Book 12
July is a month with a lovely event, hosted by Emma at Words and Peace: “Paris in July“, where we read books about all things pertaining to France and its capital. Now I have all manner of possibilities to choose from (so many French books!) and I thought I had two titles lined up and ready to go. However, for some reason they didn’t quite grab me recently, and I got distracted by mention…
"...lost in the muddied waters of memory..." @SarabandBooks #20BOS26 Book 11
Back in 2024, I stumbled across a random book find in my local Oxfam, which turned out to be a marvellous read – “Writing Landscape” by Linda Cracknell, published by the lovely indie, Saraband. I enjoyed the book so much that I’ve had her work on my list of those to be explored for some time, but I had somehow missed that she issued a new title, “Sea Marked”, in 2025. The Book Gods were looking…
"...what time destroys...it again revives..." #twistedspoonpress #20BOS26 Book 10
Prague-based publisher Twisted Spoon Press release some wonderful and fascinating books, and I’ve been happy to cover a good number of their titles here on the Ramblings. So when I saw that they were publishing a new volume of stories by Ladislaw Klima entitled “Visions and Apparitions”, I was intrigued! I’ve rarely heard of the authors or titles they put out but I’ve not been disappointed with…
....in which I *finally* get #hoteldulac #anitabrookner #20BOS26 Book 9
Amongst the various unfinished reading projects I have going on, one is an informal read-through of the novels of Anita Brookner in publication order. I’ve absolutely loved her first three books, but approaching the fourth one I became a little nervous. “Hotel du Lac” was the title which catapulted her to fame when she won the Booker Prize for it in 1984, and I’ve read it twice: at the time of…
Exploring the fate of the banana... @melvillehouse #FUTURES #20BOS26 Book 8
It’s probably fair to say that bananas are something which most of us take for granted. A staple in the fruit and veg aisle, we’re used to them being readily available and most likely never think about the processes which have to be gone through to get the popular curved fruit to our tables. However, the humble banana we know and love, the Cavendish, is only one of the many (over 1000 I believe!)…
"The dead may always be biographically immortal" #richardholmes #20BOS26 Book 7
I guess we all have authors who are our own personal literary catnip, and a writer who’s become that for me is Richard Holmes. I’ve written about him a number of times here on the Ramblings, and his books about the art of the biographer and his life pursuing this are some of my favourites. For some reason, I was recently compelled to pick up what could be regarded as the third in a trilogy, after…
Scorchio! A month of books as a distraction... ☀📚 #20BOS26
Well, June has been something of a month, hasn’t it? The phrase ‘Flaming June’ definitely applied here, and like many I have been suffering in the heat (I’m a spring and autumn gal myself…) There’s also been lots of stuff going on with an Ageing Relative and so frankly I have needed the solace and escape of books. It has been a mostly good month for reading, however, and here is a pile of the…
A few further thoughts relating to "Mrs Dalloway" #dallowayday #20BOS26 Book 6
In my #DallowayDay post on Mark Hussey’s biography of the book, I mentioned that I’d been intrigued to learn that Virginia Woolf had written an introduction to the US Modern Library edition of “Mrs Dalloway”; and I was even more pleased to learn that I had this in “The Mrs Dalloway Reader”, a volume I’d picked up many years ago (2015!!) but somehow never read. Truth be told, I was a little wary…
"...all I could see was death..." #jozefczapski #nyrbclassics #20BOS26 Book 5
Jozef Czapski is an author whose books have made a couple of appearances on the blog previously. Back in 2019, I wrote about “Lost Time“, a collection of lectures he gave on Proust whilst incarcerated in a Soviet concentration camp; and in 2022 I shared my thoughts on his “Memories of Starobielsk“, covering his time in that camp. Both titles were issued by NYRB Classics, and they’ve also…
A Recent Renard Roundup! #20BOS26 Books 2, 3 and 4
It’s a while since I featured any of the regular Renard arrivals on the Ramblings, but they continue to pop through the letterbox (as part of my subscription with them) and each book is a little gem. So I thought I would share a few recent incomings, which were wonderful to dip into when I needed a little distraction. One thing I love about Renard is the variety of the titles they issue, and…
"...a cat's egoism..." #colette #readingthemeow2026
Over at the Literary Potpourri blog, lovely blogger Mallika is running her Reading the Meow event this week; I’ve been able to take part a couple of times before and I was determined to do so again this year. I wasn’t initially sure what I was going to choose, as I always try to pick something off the TBR for reading events, until I suddenly had a flash of inspiration. I have tentatively started…
Sharing some reactions to "Ulysses" for #bloomsday!
June is a month where two significant works of literature are celebrated, and I’ve already taken part in one of these events with my last post on the genesis of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway”. However, today is designated as “Bloomsday”, for the very good reason that James Joyce’s “Ulysses” takes place over one day – 16th June 1904 – and the main protagonist of his story is one Leopold Bloom.…
Celebrating one of my favourite novels for #dallowayday
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Virginia Woolf, and I’ve written before (more than once, no doubt!) about how “Mrs Dalloway” was a pivotal book in my life, as well as sharing my thoughts on a re-read. As is known, the story takes place over one day in June, and there has been a dedicated “Dalloway Day” for some time now; I’m not sure this always on the same date, but this year it’s today,…
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Gritty stories in a harsh landscape - over @ShinyNewBooks!
I mentioned in my post on Denis Johnson‘s “Train Dreams” that I had also read his collection, “Jesus’ Son” for Shiny New Books and that review is up today. This was the book which really catapulted Johnson into the public eye, and it’s a dark, captivating collection of stories from the underbelly of life. It made for compelling reading, and my review is here.
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Celebrating the centenary of a Beat Poet #allenginsberg #20BOS26 - Book 1
Although I revisited one of Allen Ginsberg‘s seminal poetry collections earlier in the year, for our 1961 Club reading week, I had somehow missed that 2026 is the centenary of his birth. However, a good number of social media posts alerted me recently to the fact that his 100-year celebration was on 3rd June and so I decided I must mark the day by reading some of his work! Fortunately, I…
Some fun with early detective stories! #rivalsofsherlockholmes #PickUpAPageTurner
Books CONTINUE to lead to other books!! My reading of Peter Ackroyd’s “London Under” was inspired by Nicholas Royle’s “Finders, Keepers“; and there’s a bit of a story attached to today’s book! In Ackroyd’s chapters about the London Underground system, he discussed a number of murder mysteries set there and one of these was a story by Baroness Orczy – “The Mysterious Death on the Underground…