MadameBibiLophile

@madamebibi.bsky.social

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I like books and I blog at https://madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/

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Today on the blog, starting the second half of my 2024 reading challenge: madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/07/16/l...

“Literature illuminates life only for those to whom books are a necessity.” (Anthony Powell)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk This is the seventh instalment in my 2024 resolution to read a book per month from Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time sequence. Published between 1951 and 1975, and set from the early 1920s...

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bookjotter.com/2024/07/13/winding-up-the-week-384/

Winding Up the Week #384bookjotter.com This week we look at books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature on the blogosphere, look forward to Moomin Week, which straggles the final week in August and the fi…

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"…the mother delivers the girl, the father gives her back. Each leaves her at the other’s door like a parcel bomb, or like the babies teenage girls leave at church doors without knocking or telling anyone." jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/07/11/h...

Hungry for What by María Bastarós (tr. Kevin Gerry Dunn)jacquiwine.wordpress.com If you’re a fan of Mariana Enriquez’s dark, deeply disturbing stories on the horrors rooted in Argentina’s history, you will love Hungry for What, a ferocious collection of short fiction from Spanish ...

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New on the blog today, my thoughts on GREEN WATER, GREEN SKY by Mavis Gallant A shimmering novel featuring snapshots of a young woman's unravelling, all set against the backdrop of Venice, Paris & Cannes. I loved this gem of a book, full of light & shade! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/07/07/g...

Green Water, Green Sky by Mavis Gallantjacquiwine.wordpress.com There’s a scene near the beginning of Mavis Gallant’s 1959 novella Green Water, Green Sky which seems to encapsulate this stunning book. We are in Venice in the height of summer. Seven-year-old Georgi...

Today on the blog, a trip to Malaysia via a modern classic: madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/07/02/t...

“The palest ink will endure beyond the memories of man.” (Tan Twan Eng)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk Continuing my plan to try and take my Around the World in 80 Books reading challenge by the scruff of the neck, today I’m off to Malaysia. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (2012) has been h...

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bookjotter.com/2024/06/29/winding-up-the-week-382/

Winding Up the Week #382bookjotter.com This week we look at books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature on the blogosphere and highlight fascinating features from across the Internet.

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"The cycle begins again: a doleful, lethargic day when I’m unable to do anything creative. Then the waiting returns, the desire, and the suffering, because in the type of relationship we have, I’m at the mercy of his phone calls." #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/26/g...

Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux (tr. Alison L. Strayer)jacquiwine.wordpress.com The Nobel Prize-winning French author Annie Ernaux has risen in prominence in recent years, partly due to Fitzcarraldo Editions’ support for her books. She writes, with remarkable candour, clarity and...

Today on the blog, a summer read from Margaret Kennedy: madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/06/25/t...

“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.” (Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk Summer seems to have finally arrived here in the UK, for a few days at least :-) So I thought I would post about a summer read which I really enjoyed recently. The Feast by Margaret Kennedy was publis...

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New on the blog today, a few thoughts on Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddle, one of my favourite exhibitions from last year. #AliceNeel #art #London jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/23/a...

Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddlejacquiwine.wordpress.com This is the second in an occasional series of pieces about the art books I’ve accumulated over the past few years, mostly from shows I’ve visited in London. One of my reading aims for 2024 is to actua...

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bookjotter.com/2024/06/22/winding-up-the-week-381/

Winding Up the Week #381bookjotter.com This week we look at books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature on the blogosphere, look forward to Witch Week 2024, announce A Summer Party for Sense and Sensibili…

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New on the blog today, I've written about ELIZABETH AND IVY by Robert Liddell. A fascinating account of Liddell's friendships with Elizabeth Taylor and Ivy Compton-Burnett, including extracts from Elizabeth's letters to Robert. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/20/e...

Elizabeth and Ivy by Robert Liddell – on Elizabeth Taylor and Ivy Compton-Burnettjacquiwine.wordpress.com I can’t quite remember how I first came across this book or who recommended it to me, but it must have been during a conversation about Elizabeth Taylor, a writer whose work I adore. Anyway, whoever i...

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My list for Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer. beautyisasleepingcat.com/2024/06/18/2...

20 Books of Summerbeautyisasleepingcat.com I just realized, I'm late to Cathy's 20 Books of Summer. Its' my first time participating and I had no idea it didn't start at the beginning of summer but at the beginning of June. I was always tempte...

Today on the blog: halfway through my 2024 reading project! madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/06/18/l...

“Love is at once always absurd and never absurd.” (Anthony Powell)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk This is the sixth instalment in my 2024 resolution to read a book per month from Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time sequence. Published between 1951 and 1975, and set from the early 1920s t...

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New on the blog today, I've written about THE VILLAGE by Marghanita Laski. A thoroughly absorbing novel that explores class barriers and other related issues at a time of great social change. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/16/t...

The Village by Marghanita Laskijacquiwine.wordpress.com First published in 1952, Marghanita Laski’s novel The Village is an interesting exploration of Britain’s class structure during a time of significant social change – specifically, the months following...

Today on the blog, my first experience of Margaret Drabble, inspired by @heavenalibooks.bsky.social madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/06/15/a...

“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves – a special kind of double.” (Toni Morrison)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk Many of you will know that Ali who blogs at heavenali is doing a year with Margaret Drabble throughout 2024. Ali’s posts of her Drabble reading so far have been really enticing and so I was determined...

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She looked at David’s waiting face. He was no longer mysterious to her. She watched him talking sometimes, eating & drinking with gusto, bouncing through life on the solid ground beneath him, and she was struck by the distance that exists between people. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/11/b...

Barcelona by Mary Costellojacquiwine.wordpress.com The award-winning Irish writer Mary Costello seems equally at home with novels and short stories. Her deeply affecting novella, Academy Street, was one of my favourite reads in 2015, while her first c...

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New on the blog today, I've written about BARCELONA by Mary Costello. Some standout stories here exploring the distances between people, how fault lines can develop in the closest relationships & man's capacity for cruelty. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/11/b...

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The Temz Review #27 now published: #poetry and #stories, #interviews and #bookreviews. www.thetemzreview.com/issue-twenty... (I review books pub. by @biblioasis.bsky.social and #QCFiction.) Their next Call for Sub's is up too: www.thetemzreview.com/submissions.... Photo=Humber, not Thames, River

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On the Ramblings today, for Reading the Meow I revisit The Master and Margarita - and it's a stunning experience!! kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2024/06/10/i...

“…it’s just the housing question that’s spoiled them…” #ReadingTheMeow #MasterAndMargaritakaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com When I shared an image of my "The Master and Margarita" collection recently on Twitter/X (after a new arrival, courtesy of the wonderful @pigiron) it occurred to me that a reread would be lovely, part...

Today on the blog, a post for #ReadingtheMeow2024 madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/06/10/t...

“The cat is, above all things, a dramatist.” (Margaret Benson)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk This is my contribution to Reading the Meow hosted by Mallika at Literary Potpourri, a fantastic week-long celebration of literature inspired by our feline friends! A Cat, A Man and Two Women by Junic...

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New on the blog today, I’ve written about MRS MINIVER by Jan Struther. A charming collection of vignettes detailing an ordinary woman’s life in the run-up to #WW2. I loved this book, which is light on its feet and laced with gentle humour. 💙📚 #BookSky jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/06/m...

Mrs Miniver by Jan Strutherjacquiwine.wordpress.com This is a charming book full of warmth, wisdom and common sense – a delightful collection to dip into or read at a clip, depending on your preference. Jan Struther was the pen name of Joyce Maxstone G...

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New on my blog today: 2 literary events and some thoughts on translation findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2024/06/05/l...

Literary Events in May: #CapitalCrime and #EUWritersFestivalfindingtimetowrite.wordpress.com I was lucky enough to attend two excellent literary events this past month, namely the EU Writers Festival at the British Library, curated by Rosie Goldsmith of the EuroLitNetwork, and the crime writi...

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New on the blog today, I've written about SISTERS BY A RIVER by Barbara Comyns, an autobiographical novel based on the author's childhood. By turns shocking, amusing, unpredictable and macabre – a highly original text by a highly imaginative writer. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/06/02/s...

Sisters by a River by Barbara Comynsjacquiwine.wordpress.com I’ve become rather fascinated by Barbara Comyns over the past few years – a startlingly original writer with a very distinctive style. Her novels have a strange, slightly off-kilter feel, frequently b...

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Blog post: Tales from my reading chair - May in review. All in all not a bad month at all. 💙📚

Tales from my reading chair – May in reviewheavenali.wordpress.com I have not had a particularly good blogging month – I seem to be saying that every month this year. I keep promising myself that I will write more reviews and then failing to do so. Blogging …

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bookjotter.com/2024/06/01/winding-up-the-week-380/

Winding Up the Week #380bookjotter.com This week we look at books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature on the blogosphere and highlight fascinating features from across the Internet.

Today on the blog, a trip to an Icelandic village: madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/05/31/i...

“I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.” (Queen)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk My final novella of May is And the Wind Sees All by Guðmundur Andri Thorsson (2011, transl. Björg Árnadóttir and Andrew Cauthery 2018), published by the ever-reliable Peirene Press. The entire novel t...

Today on the blog, my first encounter with Maeve Brennan: madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/05/30/s...

“Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.” (Victor Borge)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk I received my copy of The Visitor by Maeve Brennan (written in the 1940s, published after her death in 2000) from lovely Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, having read her wonderful review. I’d not ...

Today on the blog, New York and dachshunds: madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/05/29/b...

“Being the owner of Dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humour.” (EB White)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk I might not have picked up Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment (2009) ordinarily, but it is published by the marvellous Pushkin Press and they’ve never done me wrong so far 😊 It turned out to be a nice boo...

Today on the blog, a trip to Uruguay via a diary: madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2024/05/28/t...

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.” (JM Barrie)madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk Continuing my endeavour to try and get some momentum back in my Around the World in 80 Books reading challenge, today I’m off to Uruguay, with Mario Benedetti’s The Truce: The Diary of Martín Santomé ...

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New on the blog today, my thoughts on DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING by Penelope Mortimer. A brilliantly observed novel about the horrors of suburban domestic life - unflinching, penetrating & razor-sharp. 💙📚 #BookSky jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/d...

Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimerjacquiwine.wordpress.com Unflinching, penetrating and razor-sharp in its depiction of the horrors of suburban domestic life, Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting is one of Penelope Mortimer’s better-known novels, and rightly so. It’s a tru...