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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan
@suroora.bsky.social
90 followers 65 following 140 posts
Book blogger, book addict, amateur photographer, lover of music, stories and language, and incorrigible dreamer. Blog at talking-about-books.com. Also write reviews of travel books by women for Women on the Road.
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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 4d
Big news! Check out my new website for #bookreviews of #travelbooks by women. These are the reviews I wrote for Women on the Road that I will now move to my website. Over the next several months, I will publish them here, starting with the oldest, as well as reviews of any new ones that I read.
Women's Travel Books
Reviewing travel books by, and about, women
talkingaboutbookswomenstravel.review
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 12h
This week's #bookreview: The Peacock and the Sparrow, IS Berry's spy thriller set in #Bahrain. Shane Collins is CIA spy posted to Manama. He gets more involved in local politics than he should, with far-reaching consequences. #fiction
@atriabooks.bsky.social
talking-about-books.com/2025/10/11/t...
The Peacock and the Sparrow: I.S. Berry
Published by No Exit Press / Atria Books, 2023, 338 pages. Shane Collins is a CIA spy, posted in Manama, Bahrain. He is coming to the end of his career and merely wants to see his final posting out…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 2d
Congratulations to Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature!
Awarded him the prize for his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. @nobelprize.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025
The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm
www.theguardian.com
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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 4d
Big news! Check out my new website for #bookreviews of #travelbooks by women. These are the reviews I wrote for Women on the Road that I will now move to my website. Over the next several months, I will publish them here, starting with the oldest, as well as reviews of any new ones that I read.
Women's Travel Books
Reviewing travel books by, and about, women
talkingaboutbookswomenstravel.review
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 7d
This week's #bookreview: The first book in Chris Stewart's trilogy about moving to a rundown farm in Andalucía. Funny, moving and thoroughly enjoyable. #memoir
talking-about-books.com/2025/10/04/d...
Driving Over Lemons—An Optimist in Andalucía: Chris Stewart
Published by Sort Of Books, 1999, 247 pages. In 1988, Chris Stewart and his wife Ana bought an old, remote farm in Las Alpujarras in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Andalucía. This is the first book…
talking-about-books.com
Reposted by Suroor Alikhan
worldwildlife.bsky.social
Wildlife @worldwildlife.bsky.social · 10d
Dr Jane Goodall 💚

3 April 1934 - 1 October 2025
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Reposted by Suroor Alikhan
eekhaut.bsky.social
Guido Eekhaut @eekhaut.bsky.social · 10d
Any reason to visit your bookshop will do...
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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 11d
A book for #internationaltranslationday2025: Frankenstein in Baghdad by Iraqi author Ahmed Sadaawi. Saadawi transposes Frankenstein to Baghdad in the 2000s, after the US invasion. A darkly comic novel and utterly original. Translated by Jonathan Wright.
talking-about-books.com/2019/09/28/f...
Frankenstein in Baghdad: Ahmed Sadaawi
Translated from Arabic by Jonathan WrightPublished by OneWorld Publications / Penguin, 2018, 272 pages. Original version published in 2013. Ahmed Sadaawi takes the story of Frankenstein and transpo…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 14d
This week's #bookreview: Caitlin Weaver's Such A Good Family, about the fallout from a rape. And about relationships in all their complexity. Lorrie and Eden are best friends. But how will they cope when Lorrie's son rapes Eden's daughter?
talking-about-books.com/2025/09/27/s...
Such a Good Family: Caitlin Weaver
Published by Storm Publishing, 2024, 352 pages. Two perfect suburban families: Lorrie and Ed, and their children Knox, Archie and Chloé; and Eden and Witt, and their daughter Summer. Summer and Kno…
talking-about-books.com
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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 15d
A #bookintranslation: Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, about a man living in the grey zone in Ukraine, between the Russian army and Ukrainian forces. A political story, told by an innocent. Translated by Boris Dralyuk. #fiction
talking-about-books.com/2022/04/02/g...
Grey Bees: Andrey Kurkov
Translated from Russian by Boris DralyukPublished by MacLehose Press, 2021, 352 pages. Original version published in 2018. Set in the period after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, this book by …
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 21d
This week's #bookreview: Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country, a dreamlike book about the relationship between a wealthy man and a geisha. With a strong sense of place. Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. #fiction #japaneseauthor @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social
talking-about-books.com/2025/09/20/s...
Snow Country: Yasunari Kawabata
Translated from Japanese by Edward G. SeidenstickerPublished by Penguin, 1956, 121 pages. Original version published in 1948. Shimamura takes a train to a town in the mountains of Japan. It is cold…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 25d
A #bookintranslation: Japanese writer Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes, a book set on the coast about a man caught up with the local population. Translated from Japanese by E. Dale Saunders. #fiction #bookreview
talking-about-books.com/2015/06/22/t...
The Woman in the Dunes: Kobo Abe
Translated from Japanese by E. Dale SaundersPublished by Vintage Books, 1964, 239 pages. Original version published in 1962.Review by Benedict Craven I recently put down Kobo Abe’s The Woman in the…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · 28d
This week's #bookreview: The Lost Child by Caryl Phillips, a novel about those who are lost, unmoored and do not fit in. Bookended by chapters on another lost child, Emily Brontë's Heathcliff. @vintagebooks.bsky.social #fiction
talking-about-books.com/2025/09/13/t...
The Lost Child: Caryl Phillips
Published by Vintage, 2015, 260 pages. Lost children: children without an anchor to steady them, to keep them safe. The main characters in this book are adrift and just about manage to survive. It …
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Sep 11
A #bookintranslation for this week: The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo by Germano Almeida, from Cabo Verde. A man's life told through his will, which is 378 pages long. Translated by Sylvia Glaser. #fiction
talking-about-books.com/2020/08/08/t...
The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo: Germano Almeida
Translated from Portuguese by Sylvia GlaserPublished by New Directions; 2004, 152 pages. “The reading of the last will and testament of Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo ate up a whole afternoon. When…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Sep 6
This week's #bookreview: Playground, a brilliant novel by Richard Powers, which follows four people whose lives are in some way intertwined with the #ocean. Powers writes about big issues: the ocean, the effect of AI, the fate of small islands and much more.
talking-about-books.com/2025/09/06/p...
Playground: Richard Powers
Published by Hutchinson Heinemann, 2024, 381 pages. The ocean: a vast expanse that covers nearly 71 per cent of the earth. The deep sea still holds many mysteries and as we are discovering them, we…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Sep 4
Over the month, I'll share some good #booksintranslation. Starting with Uruguayan author Daniel Mella's Older Brother, a novel about a man trying to come to terms with his brother's death. A book about grief and loss. Transl. Megan McDowell
@charcopress.com
talking-about-books.com/2022/10/22/o...
Older Brother: Daniel Mella
Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowellPublished by Charco Press, 2018, 148 pages. Original version published in 2017. In the summer of 2014, during one of the biggest storms to hit the coast of …
talking-about-books.com
Reposted by Suroor Alikhan
writeforwellbeing.bsky.social
Writing for Wellbeing @writeforwellbeing.bsky.social · Sep 2
Words are magic
My seven-year-old asked for a dictionary this week. We went to the bookshop today to buy one. She walked home hugging it, pausing every so often to look up a word, grinning as though she had been given a book of spells, the key to wonders. (Credit: Ann Morg)
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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 31
For the last day of #WomeninTranslationMonth, here are a series of recommended books: from India, Africa and Latin America.
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 30
This week's #bookreview: Seamus Heaney's Station Island, a collection of #poems , many of them on the role of the poet in politics and history: observer or participant? Complex and rich, poems that yield more with each reading. @faberbooks.bsky.social #poetry
talking-about-books.com/2025/08/30/s...
Station Island: Seamus Heaney
Published by Faber & Faber, 1984, 123 pages. “I was stretched between contemplationof a motionless pointand the command to participateactively in history.”—Away from It All, quote from Czesław …
talking-about-books.com
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Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 28
I had to share this...
realjfairclough.bsky.social
I Post Animal Vids... 😊 @realjfairclough.bsky.social · Aug 27
Sheep dog puppy's first day on the job... 🐑

#dog #dogday #bluesky
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Reposted by Suroor Alikhan
afterdinnerconversation.com
After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · Aug 27
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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 26
A book for #WomeninTranslationMonth: Narine Abgaryan's Three Apples Fell from the Sky, a story about an Armenian village. Gentle, very enjoyable. Translated by Lisa C. Hayden. A book to escape into, especially now. #fiction #booksintranslation
talking-about-books.com/2023/10/07/t...
Three Apples Fell from the Sky: Narine Abgaryan
Translated from Russian by Lisa C. HaydenPublished by Oneworld Publications, 2020, 255 pages. Original version published in 2014. One Friday, Anatolia Sevoyants put her affairs in order and lay dow…
talking-about-books.com
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suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 23
This week's #bookreview: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas, a historical #gothic novel set in 1800s Mexico. Beatriz hopes that her husband's home will be her refuge, but the house does not want her there. Chilling
@isabelcanas.bsky.social @solarisbooks.bsky.social
talking-about-books.com/2025/08/23/t...
The Hacienda: Isabel Cañas
Published by Solaris, 2023, 345 pages. Beatriz marries Rodolfo Solórzano, a wealthy landowner, to escape her circumstances as a poor relative who is treated by her aunt as a servant. But when she a…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 21
"The veil of politeness often hides the negative undercurrents within families."
Talking About Books interviewed @usharaman.bsky.social on her debut novel, her poetry, and the effect of media on reading #books. #authorinterview
talking-about-books.com/2025/08/21/b...
Breaking the Veil of Politeness: An Interview with Usha Raman
Usha Raman is an Indian author and poet. She is also a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad. Her first novel, Polite Conversations, was published in 2024. Her…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 21
A book for #WomeninTranslationMonth: Maja Lunde's The History of Bees, a novel that centres around the disappearance of bees. It follows three people: William in 1852 England; George in 2007 US; and Tao in 2098 China. Translated by Diane Oatley. #books
talking-about-books.com/2019/05/25/t...
The History of Bees: Maja Lunde
Translated from Norwegian by Diane OatleyPublished by Scrivener UK / Simon & Schuster, 2017, 352 pages. Original version published in 2015. We are in the midst of the sixth extinction and are l…
talking-about-books.com
suroora.bsky.social
Suroor Alikhan @suroora.bsky.social · Aug 19
Photos for #WorldPhotographyDay. The big freeze in February 2012 along Lake Geneva; my Ayahma; and the Chowmahallah Palace in Hyderabad.
Boats covered in ice An old Indian lady Chowmahallah Palace in India