Useful to have Bluesky now saying if followers have found you via a Starter Park. We have done four (the 1st three may need updating): Publishers in Ireland: go.bsky.app/GS15SpY Literary Journals in Ireland: go.bsky.app/EdG3Ruv Bookshops in Ireland: go.bsky.app/G4kmxVq #WITmonth go.bsky.app/KEkwYR6

My 3rd Read for #WITMonth Gilgi, One of Us #IrmgardKeun tr. #CarolineWaight (german) An unforgettable character, Gilgi's awakening begins the day she turns 21, when a truth is revealed. The exploration of who she is + consequences of how she feels shock her into unconventional, change. Brilliant.

This prolonged summer heat means working later in the day. Homeward bound, I pass a field of fresh cut hay at dusk, witness to the changing light and contrast of colours. These two, companionable, hold me in thrall, present and future nourishment. #haybales #dusklight #provence

My 2nd #witmonth read was a graphic novel by Iranian author #marjanesatrapi #Persepolis is a moving portrait of childhood throughout huge change and restraint on freedoms within a family that encourages education, honesty and expression. A riveting cultural insight, humanely told, unforgettable.

Red Poppy, 1927 by Georgia O'Keeffe #Womensart #Monday

Sarah Jane Brown, contemporary Welsh land and seascape painter #WomensArt

"The only true silence Is a silence shared." #CesarePavesi #lallaromano explores daily life, & the evolving unspoken intimacy developing between Guilia & the couple she visits, amid an everpresent sense of unease, in the stillness of wartime Italy under occupation. A Shared Silence #witmonth

It's #WITMonth here's what I'm looking forward to reading, a few thanks to reviews @jacquiwine.bsky.social that top up my WIT TBR annually. 1st up #LallaRomano A Silence Shared 'A thoroughly hypnotic novel, full of beauty & sadness, written with such brilliance & meticulous care' says #SaraBaume

Sara Baume is one of my favourite authors. Her fiction is excellent & her narrative nonfiction is considerate, thought-provoking, and as enticing as any novel. Opening Night is a beautiful consideration of #MollieDouhit 's art and their friendship.🎨 Ideal companion to #ArtCure by #DaisyFancourt 🎭

Interesting to see the large number of little known names on the list, with just a few of the predictable appearing. New judges bring new perspectives. I've only read 1, and you? Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2026 longlist | The Booker Prizes share.google/mvadqecHoU8k...

Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2026 longlist | The Booker Prizes

From humour to history to heartbreak, and from satire to sci-fi to surreality, here’s the lowdown on this year’s ‘Booker Dozen’

share.google

What are the books you yammer on about to anyone who'll listen? THE BRIDGE OF BEYOND, Simone Schwartz-Bart HANDIWORK, Sara Baume M TRAIN, Patti Smith SOMEBODY IS WALKING ON YOUR GRAVE, Mariana Enriquez HER SIDE OF THE STORY, Alba de Céspedes BEYOND BLACK THERE IS NO COLOUR, Maryam Diener

JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 4w ago

What are the books you yammer on about to anyone who'll listen? CASSANDRA AT THE WEDDING, Dorothy Baker MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT, Elizabeth Taylor THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Edith Wharton THE BEGINNING OF SPRING, Penelope Fitzgerald IN A LONELY PLACE, Dorothy B. Hughes BALKAN TRILOGY, Manning 💙📚

New on the blog today, a mid-year round-up featuring my favourite books from Jan to June 2026 - highlights from 6 months of reading. Including novels by Anita Brookner, Penelope Mortimer, Rumer Godden, Olivia Manning, Henry Van Dyke & more! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/m...

My favourite books from Jan – June 2026

Now that we’re well into July, I thought it might be interesting to put together a mid-year review, summarising my reading highlights from January to June. I seem to say this every year, but 2026 i…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

Enjoyed seeing a number of iconic works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec depicting his fascination with theatre & the many characters frequenting & participating in Moulin Rouge performances during the Belle Epoque era, Paris, Montmartre. Also the lithograph process used in his infamous poster style.

#SaraBaume discovers the work of artist #MollieDouthit at an exhibition in County Cork. 'Opening Night' explores the connection between two women, consideration of the artist's work, growing into support of a woman grappling with a tumultuous period of her inner life. So looking forward to this.

T'keyah Ware is a young Antikirinya-Yankuntjatjarra and Wirangu/Kokatha/Narrunga, Indigenous Australian artist #WomensArt

Monday

Relocated to the lake to escape the ever increasing temperature, as day by day, walls, floors, interiors of cupboards, everything keeps getting hotter.🌡 Reading Remarkably Bright Creatures by #ShelbyVanPelt another popular fiction novel of 2022. 🐙 Seen: less remarkable creature on a paddle board.🐾

A serendipitous reading moment while reading the closing pages of #DouglasStuart 's John of John. I come across a reference to a meeting time and place. Thursday 16th July at 8pm. "The date was today. The time was less than two hours away." 🤔 📚💙

A Bloom🌺 Under suffrance of a canicule, You choose this day to grow & bloom. Your life so short, of beauty unfolds, crimson, carmine, ruby bold. Shades of scarlet, burgundy crease I can but admire this nature release, that gifts us her bloom on this baking day, making mine brighter In every way.

After #jancarson 's The Raptures, I read #MiriamToews novel, A Complicated Kindness & was surprised to find a common theme #Rapture Teenage Nomi is Mennonite trying to work out why her sister & mother have disappeared and begins to question this eternal life belief system that shuns so easily. 💙📚

I'm immersing in the riveting 'Land' by #MaggieOFarrell, the cover depicting a water source, a welcome representation on yet another very hot day. Now 34°C rising to 37°C. Incredibly descriptive, full of love for language, both Irish and English. Here, we encounter theodolite and pellucid.

Maija Isola (1927– 2001) Finnish designer of printed textiles who created over 500 patterns, including Unikko ("Poppy") #womensart

N. Ireland 1993. When children from a class in a small town begin dying from a mysterious illness, locals react, exposing the realities of family life in a community amidst "the Troubles." One family seems to be immune. A thought-provoking portrayal of an affective legacy The Raptures, #JanCarson

Kenojuak Ashevak Birds from the Sea, 1960 Inuk artist #WomensArt

"As an adoption social worker at that time, I remember the trauma suffered by birth parents when their babies were removed for adoption. However, I’m afraid that the parents of these women cannot be let off the hook." www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...?

Forced adoptions in Britain were to everybody’s shame | Letters

Letter: As well as a government apology, parents, charities and mother and baby homes should take responsibility, writes Christine Hayes

theguardian.com

Hattie is called back from Paris by her 11 yr old niece due to hospitalisation of unstable mother Min. When 15 yr old Logan gets expelled, they hit the road to find a long departed father. Ideal summer read, pacy, dramatic, funny, total feel good. The Flying Troutmans #MiriamToews 🇨🇦 #roadtrip 📚💙

Hattie is called back from Paris by her 11 yr old niece due to hospitalisation of unstable mother Min. When 15 yr old Logan gets expelled, they hit the road to find a long departed father. Ideal summer read, pacy, dramatic, funny, total feel good. The Flying Troutmans #MiriamToews 🇨🇦 #roadtrip 📚💙

Morning sun, 1999 by Yayoi Kusama #WomensArt #heatwave

Strategy for a heatwave. The White Book by #HanKang, evoking images of show, cold & plummeting air temperatures. Short vignettes of past & present evoking white, cold, death, memory, a dead sister, a dog named Fog. The many unanswered questions of existence, the in-between of sleep & wakefulness.

Strategy for a heatwave. The White Book by #HanKang, evoking images of show, cold & plummeting air temperatures. Short vignettes of past & present evoking white, cold, death, memory, a dead sister, a dog named Fog. The many unanswered questions of existence, the in-between of sleep & wakefulness.