Category Archives: Fiction

Proust drops in at 44 Scotland Street

Posted on August 8, 2016 by

Alexander McCall Smith, 44 Scotland Street series (2005 – no end in sight) If you like your soap operas literate, breezy, quirky, and in book form, then the prolific Mr. Smith* has a few options for you. I settled into … Continue reading →

Posted in 2016 Goals, Art, Fiction, Humorous, Roman fleuve, Series, Travel | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Proust, the perfect beach-read

Posted on July 31, 2016 by

Within a Budding Grove, pp. 534-714 Although I’m not a beach person, a 10-second video online sold me on this place in Mexico. Shade was the key. I can sit on a beach all day, if sun is not involved. … Continue reading →

Posted in 2016 Goals, Beach books, Fiction, Memoir, reading | Tagged | 1 Comment

Funny how time changes everything

Posted on June 12, 2016 by

Reblogged (and updated) from my earlier blog, The Ineluctable Bookshelf (originally posted May 10, 11, 2010) Parnassus on Wheels (1917) and The Haunted Bookshop (1919), Christopher Morley When I asked the dealer in the used bookshop about these books, he said … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Bibliiomania, Fiction, Mystery, Reblog | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Best Beloved Writers – thank you for all those books…!

Posted on April 6, 2015 by

Originally posted on Joan Aiken:
 Always a favourite of course, her first and her last.   There have been a spate of ‘Top Ten’ children’s book lists lately, voted for by readers and critics, but all seem to go for…

Posted in Adventure, Fantasy, Favorite books, Fiction, Lists | Tagged | 2 Comments

Walkabout in Suffolk

Posted on September 22, 2014 by

W. G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn (1995/1998), tr. Michael Hulse. Is this book fiction or non-fiction? memoir or history? travelogue or invention? random stream-of-consciousness or carefully constructed exploration of ideas? Each time I read it, I struggle to understand Sebald’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, History, Travel | Tagged | 2 Comments

Any news?

Posted on August 31, 2014 by

Watch out, friends and colleagues: I plan to start speaking like a true Tillingite, asking “Any news?” when I run into people, and replying with an astonished “No!” if they reveal something gossipy and exciting. My recent trip to Rye made me eager to … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Humorous | Tagged | 4 Comments

“Please lie about this book”

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

e. lockhart, We Were Liars (2014) This post’s title is what Lockhart wrote when she signed my copy of We Were Liars at her book launch last night. I’m usually willing to comply with authors’ requests, but any lie I told would be a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Mystery, YA Lit | Tagged | 5 Comments