"we’re all a work in progress, right until the end." www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

A moment that changed me: I painted a man’s portrait – and he hated it

I thought this commission would be straightforward. But my sitter’s response made me question my own attitude to my looks and body image

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I'm writing footnotes to the seventh book of Paradise Lost, as you do, and Gemini in its arrogance insists on prompting me to 'match writing style'. Does it seriously expect me to match my footnotes to Miltonic prose? Is there any way of switching this thing off?

My review of a reading of the playscript of Eugene O'Neill's classic 'The Iceman Cometh': tinyurl.com/j8ypwuja #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O'Neill

This classic play is  set in a bar in New York in 1912; the characters are all failures in life, such as a bent policeman drummed out of t...

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I've just finished 'The Escaped Cock' by D H Lawrence published by @renardpress.com . It's a tiny novella but it is Lawrence at his most muscular ... and most controversial. Well worth a read! tinyurl.com/ddhy84vz #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"The Escaped Cock" by D H Lawrence

This  novella about Jesus (never actually called Jesus) after his resurrection was published, after Lawrence had died, as ' The Man Who Died...

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Finished 'Missing Person' ('Rue des Boutiques Obscures) by Patrick Modiano. A PI seeks his own past, missing due to amnesia. A brilliant exploration of how identity is based on fallible and fading memories. Only 180 pages! My full review: tinyurl.com/8m44bj28 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 💙 #Literaturesky

"Missing Person" by Patrick Modiano

A short novel by a French Nobel Laureate. A list of other winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature can be found here . A private investiga...

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I realised that my blog about 'Death in a Shetland Family' by @marsalitaylor.bsky.social published by @headlinebooks.bsky.social might have given the impression that it was more a novel than a murder mystery, so I've revised it. tinyurl.com/yv5n8vr6 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

@marsalitaylor.bsky.social @headlinebooks.bsky.social Just completed 'Death in a Shetland Family' by Marsali Taylor, the most recent Cass Lynch Shetland Sailing murder mystery, and it is a very good read indeed. My full review: tinyurl.com/yv5n8vr6 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

@drewgum.bsky.social Saw this and thought of you! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

‘Saltburn are the Argentina of local cricket’: victims and neighbours on the ‘Clicky Ponting’ scandal

Laughter, disbelief and outrage over video appearing to show Saltburn player tricking umpire into giving batters out

theguardian.com

I've just finished 'Outside Looking In', a novel about the drug experiments of Timothy Leary in the early 1960s, which focuses on the corrosive effects of hedonism on ordinary life. My full review: tinyurl.com/3pmpea9f #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Outside Looking In" by T C Boyle

A novelisation of the story of Timothy Leary and his promotion of LSD. After a 'Prelude' set in Basel in 1943 in which we learn of the dis...

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Just finished 'Flagey in Winter' by Simon Mundy. My review: davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com/2026/07/flag... #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Flagey in Winter" by Simon Mundy

An ensemble comedy of manners, this novel returns us to the characters established in its precursor, Flagey in Autumn , the staff and cust...

davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com

My blogpage French authors and their books, with links to reviews of over forty French books, is now fully up and running: davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com/p/french-aut...

French authors and their books

The books of French authors I have read and reviewed in this blog (with links to the reviews): Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850) The grand old ...

davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com

I support people who have self-published by buying, reading and reviewing their books and I'm always anxious because sometimes the books are dreadful. So I was relieved when 'Heronsbrook' by Edward Picot turned out to be rather good. My full review: tinyurl.com/2et2fdjc #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚

"Heronsbrook" by Edward picot

A series of nonlinear short stories mingled with a few poems. Apart from the first story,  ‘Cousin Sheila’s Money’, t he stories are told ...

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I bought Flagey in Winter by Simon Mundy and then realised there was a previous book, Flagey in Autumn, so I bought that on kindle to read first. Ensemble fiction. Very enjoyable. My review: tinyurl.com/f94577bj #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Flagey in Autumn" by Simon Mundy

An ensemble novel, much like the Scotland Street series of Alexanderr McCall Smith, such as 44, Scotland Street  (2005) and its sequels suc...

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Just finished 'The Girls of Slender Means', a delightful and elegant novel by Muriel Spark. My full review: tinyurl.com/4wb3jft7 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"The Girls of Slender Means" by Muriel Spark

Set in a charity-run boarding-house, the May of Teck Club, in London towards the end and immediately after the second world war, this deligh...

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“You look at the clock, and it’s eleven. Or you look at the calendar, and it’s March. Or you look at your life, and you’re middle-aged.” 'Heronsbrook' by Edward Picot My full review: tinyurl.com/2et2fdjc #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Heronsbrook" by Edward picot

A series of nonlinear short stories mingled with a few poems. Apart from the first story,  ‘Cousin Sheila’s Money’, t he stories are told ...

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“We want some one to show us what a good man can be. We have Laura and Beatrice, Antigone and Cordelia, but we have no heroic man.” (Ch 12 in Night and Day by Virginia Woolf) My full review: tinyurl.com/ens5kdyu #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Night and Day" by Virginia Woolf

This novel was published in 1919. Woolf published Mrs Dalloway in 1925. What a difference! Mrs D is stream of consciousness; in contrast ...

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I'm still reeling from watching a film entitled 'Virginia Woolf's Night and Day'. If you want a film about modern feminist issues, watch this. But, ironically for a film which trumpets the right of women to own their own work, don't mistake it for the Woolf novel.

I've just watched the film 'Virginia Woolf's Night and Day' which has very little to do with the Virginia Woolf novel 'Night and Day'. False pretences? My review of the novel: tinyurl.com/ens5kdyu

"Night and Day" by Virginia Woolf

This novel was published in 1919. Woolf published Mrs Dalloway in 1925. What a difference! Mrs D is stream of consciousness; in contrast ...

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Heronsbrook is a collection of short stories by Edward Picot, many of them told from multiple PoVs allowing a 360 degree perspective. Facinating. My full review: tinyurl.com/2et2fdjc #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Heronsbrook" by Edward picot

A series of nonlinear short stories mingled with a few poems. Apart from the first story,  ‘Cousin Sheila’s Money’, t he stories are told ...

tinyurl.com

“Music that sounded like bed springs creaking under the bouncing of overexcited children.” ('C'est la vie' by Pascal Garnier) Not a genre that I recognise. Any suggestions? My review of the novel: bit.ly/4wP048x

"C'est la vie" by Pascal Garnier

A prize-winning author gets into trouble in this unconventional novella which mixes detective noir with Kafka. The plot, at times farcically...

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“The gun hung between her knock-knees like useless genitals.” An ineradicable image from Pascal Garnier's 'C'est la Vie' My full review: bit.ly/4wP048x #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"C'est la vie" by Pascal Garnier

A prize-winning author gets into trouble in this unconventional novella which mixes detective noir with Kafka. The plot, at times farcically...

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Delightful new whodunnit from Jon Neal: 'A Deadly Fall', the third in the Stanley Messina series. My full review: bit.ly/4b3tZl7 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚

"A Deadly Fall" by Jon Neal

Not just a classic cosy murder mystery but a beautifully written exploration of the relational dynamics in a small secluded group.  With thi...

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Last night I watched on Amazon Prime 'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont', a 2005 film starring the late, great Joan Plowright. So refreshing to see a gentle antidote to the prevalent action films of today. It really captured the spirit of the original novel by Elizabeth Taylor. Not that one.

I'm a bit surprised by those who thought 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts was a true-life story; it seemed to me very much a novel. Was it worth 933 pages and seven days reading? My full review: tinyurl.com/y6s34956 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts

'Shantaram' means 'man of peace'. The title is, presumably, ironic. While the first half of this sprawling novel establishes the possibility...

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“At this point in the narrative, it might be as well to state that the characters in this novel are all fictitious.” Muriel Spark leaves the disclaimer to chapter three! My review of The Comforters: tinyurl.com/ycxwhkmm

"The Comforters" by Muriel Spark

In this clever meta-fiction,  C aroline is haunted by the sound of typing and voices repeating her thoughts to her; she realises she is a ch...

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In the run-up to tonight's match, why not read 'The Story of the Night' by Colm Toibin in which a half-English young man living in Argentina negotiates issues including his sexuality during the time of the military dictatorship. My review: bit.ly/3ZMJbgR #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"The Story of the Night" by Colm Toibin

A gay young man in Argentina at the time of the Generals and the part he plays in his country's transition to democracy.  After his Argent...

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May I add, on Bastille Day, Virgine Despentes (Vernon Subutex): bit.ly/4jYyaQD

"Vernon Subutex One" by Virginie Despentes

A collage of stories, written with no-holds-barred, depicting Paris. Shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize .  Vernon is a li...

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Rachel Malik@rachelmalik.bsky.social · 3w ago

Haven’t yet decided on what I’ll read for women in translation month in August, but here are some recommendations Fleur Jaggy, Anna Seghers, Tove Ditlevsen, Colette, Shahrnush Parsipur, OlgaTokarczuk, Lalla Romano Titles, translators and original languages in alt text. #WITMonth

Recently I have discovered (in translation) fantastic French writers: Virginie Despentes (Vernon Subutex) bit.ly/4jYyaQD Baptiste Thery-Guilbert (At the End of the Sidewalks) bit.ly/4ucepKN Natalie Sarraute (Tropismes) bit.ly/3BML1VJ #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"Vernon Subutex One" by Virginie Despentes

A collage of stories, written with no-holds-barred, depicting Paris. Shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize .  Vernon is a li...

bit.ly

Marina Sofia@marinasofia.bsky.social · 3w ago

Vive la France! Some More Reading for Bastille Day findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/v...

Vive la France! Some More Reading for Bastille Day findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/v...

Reading a short story by C D Rose. A disjointed narrative prompts the reader to construct both object character and the narrator, a technique much like that in his Goldsmith's prize-winning novel 'We Live Here Now' davesbookblog-daja.blogspot.com/2026/05/we-l... #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

"We Live Here Now" by C D Rose

Winner of The Goldsmiths Prize in 2025, this remarkable novel is made of fourteen sections, each recounting strange occurrences. Many of th...

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