Ali Hope 📚📚
@heavenalibooks.bsky.social
Birmingham UK based book lover, former blogger, fan of 20th century women writers. Rheumatoid arthritis warrior. TV binger, jigsaw addict. Here mainly for the book talk. 📚📚
I have been meaning to read this for years. Bobbin Up by Dorothy Hewett. An Australian, working class novel, following the lives of four young factory workers. I'm reading a Kindle version I've had for ages. Funny how different these two cover images are. 💙📚
November 27, 2025 at 12:08 PM
I have been meaning to read this for years. Bobbin Up by Dorothy Hewett. An Australian, working class novel, following the lives of four young factory workers. I'm reading a Kindle version I've had for ages. Funny how different these two cover images are. 💙📚
This is such a fun read. A comedy of manners with bodies getting carted around all over the place. Total chaos. I have no memory of where I got this book, and hadn't even heard of the author before I picked it up. Very silly, but I am enjoying it.
I think I have chosen my next book. A physical book, The Wooden Overcoat by Pamela Branch. Unfortunately, I read so much on Kindle, I seem to have mislaid my favourite bookmark. It will be good to take a physical book off the tbr though. 💙📚
November 26, 2025 at 10:01 AM
This is such a fun read. A comedy of manners with bodies getting carted around all over the place. Total chaos. I have no memory of where I got this book, and hadn't even heard of the author before I picked it up. Very silly, but I am enjoying it.
A nice, cosy Sunday. Pj's and a old jumper, started a new jigsaw, finished my book, watched a silly film, ate some chocolates. Time to choose a new book to read while I drink my tea. 💙📚
November 23, 2025 at 4:52 PM
A nice, cosy Sunday. Pj's and a old jumper, started a new jigsaw, finished my book, watched a silly film, ate some chocolates. Time to choose a new book to read while I drink my tea. 💙📚
Reposted by Ali Hope 📚📚
"Lady L. hated yellow and she wondered how the flowers had found their way into the Ming vase. There had been a time when every bouquet in the house had first to be presented to her for inspection and approval." #NovNov25 #BookSky 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/l...
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/l...
Lady L. by Romain Gary
Twice winner of the Prix Goncourt (once under a pen name), Romain Gary was a French writer, diplomat, film director and WW2 pilot of great repute. His highly engaging memoir, Promise at Dawn, is by…
jacquiwine.wordpress.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:54 AM
"Lady L. hated yellow and she wondered how the flowers had found their way into the Ming vase. There had been a time when every bouquet in the house had first to be presented to her for inspection and approval." #NovNov25 #BookSky 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/l...
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/l...
I enjoyed #Strictly all the more knowing noone else was going home. Gutted for La Voix. So entertaining tonight. 💃🕺
1 vote for Alex
2 votes for Karen
2 votes for Balvinder
1 vote for Alex
2 votes for Karen
2 votes for Balvinder
November 22, 2025 at 8:14 PM
I enjoyed #Strictly all the more knowing noone else was going home. Gutted for La Voix. So entertaining tonight. 💃🕺
1 vote for Alex
2 votes for Karen
2 votes for Balvinder
1 vote for Alex
2 votes for Karen
2 votes for Balvinder
The apartment I moved into a month ago overlooks a large local nature reserve. I am becoming an armchair wildlife spotter. So far I have seen:
Many squirrels, magpies and pigeons.
Small birds hard to identify at a distance.
A few foxes (or same one several times)
A badger
A jay
A parakeet.
Many squirrels, magpies and pigeons.
Small birds hard to identify at a distance.
A few foxes (or same one several times)
A badger
A jay
A parakeet.
November 21, 2025 at 5:22 PM
The apartment I moved into a month ago overlooks a large local nature reserve. I am becoming an armchair wildlife spotter. So far I have seen:
Many squirrels, magpies and pigeons.
Small birds hard to identify at a distance.
A few foxes (or same one several times)
A badger
A jay
A parakeet.
Many squirrels, magpies and pigeons.
Small birds hard to identify at a distance.
A few foxes (or same one several times)
A badger
A jay
A parakeet.
Now reading: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. The third Lucy book. I always forget how much I enjoy reading Elizabeth Strout, and haven't read nearly enough of her books. 💙📚
November 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Now reading: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. The third Lucy book. I always forget how much I enjoy reading Elizabeth Strout, and haven't read nearly enough of her books. 💙📚
Reposted by Ali Hope 📚📚
New on the blog this week, I've written about CHILD OF ALL NATIONS by Irmgard Keun (tr. Michael Hofmann).
A striking coming-of-age story of exile in 1930s Europe, told through an engaging narrative voice. #GermanLitMonth #BookSky 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/c...
A striking coming-of-age story of exile in 1930s Europe, told through an engaging narrative voice. #GermanLitMonth #BookSky 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/c...
Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun (tr. Michael Hofmann)
Born in Berlin in 1905, the German writer Irmgard Keun rose to prominence in the early 1930s with her striking novels Gilgi, One of Us (1931) and The Artificial Silk Girl (1932), both of which I lo…
jacquiwine.wordpress.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:12 AM
New on the blog this week, I've written about CHILD OF ALL NATIONS by Irmgard Keun (tr. Michael Hofmann).
A striking coming-of-age story of exile in 1930s Europe, told through an engaging narrative voice. #GermanLitMonth #BookSky 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/c...
A striking coming-of-age story of exile in 1930s Europe, told through an engaging narrative voice. #GermanLitMonth #BookSky 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/c...
How wonderful is this!! Thank you so much @buriedinprint.bsky.social for sending me this. ❤️
November 17, 2025 at 2:00 PM
How wonderful is this!! Thank you so much @buriedinprint.bsky.social for sending me this. ❤️
Reposted by Ali Hope 📚📚
Lovely review on Instagram for Furrowed Middlebrow's The House Opposite by Barbara Noble. #bookreview #booksky
www.instagram.com/p/DRAhRtWgaCE/
www.instagram.com/p/DRAhRtWgaCE/
League of Lexicographers on Instagram: "THE HOUSE OPPOSITE by Barbara Noble is another great war time novel. Although not a memoir as Frances Faviell's A Chelsea Concerto - but rather a fictionalized ...
5 likes, 1 comments - leagueoflexicographers on November 13, 2025: "THE HOUSE OPPOSITE by Barbara Noble is another great war time novel. Although not a memoir as Frances Faviell's A Chelsea Concerto -...
www.instagram.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Lovely review on Instagram for Furrowed Middlebrow's The House Opposite by Barbara Noble. #bookreview #booksky
www.instagram.com/p/DRAhRtWgaCE/
www.instagram.com/p/DRAhRtWgaCE/
It seems my world weary soul needs certain kinds of 'nice' books at the moment. Having to try and not just read vintage middlebrow and golden age mystery. I'm craving them. However, I just started The Mingham Air by Elizabeth Fair. The last of her books I had to read. @deanstpress.bsky.social 💙📚
November 13, 2025 at 7:36 PM
It seems my world weary soul needs certain kinds of 'nice' books at the moment. Having to try and not just read vintage middlebrow and golden age mystery. I'm craving them. However, I just started The Mingham Air by Elizabeth Fair. The last of her books I had to read. @deanstpress.bsky.social 💙📚
Well I finally finished (it hurt my brain) with help from @piedwarbler.bsky.social 😁
The #Hiddenbooksgame is here. It's totally fiendish. After getting 5 in ten minutes, I feel I may be stuck for several hours now. @nationalbooktokens.bsky.social 💙📚
November 13, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Well I finally finished (it hurt my brain) with help from @piedwarbler.bsky.social 😁
The #Hiddenbooksgame is here. It's totally fiendish. After getting 5 in ten minutes, I feel I may be stuck for several hours now. @nationalbooktokens.bsky.social 💙📚
November 13, 2025 at 12:26 PM
The #Hiddenbooksgame is here. It's totally fiendish. After getting 5 in ten minutes, I feel I may be stuck for several hours now. @nationalbooktokens.bsky.social 💙📚
Reposted by Ali Hope 📚📚
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025! "Each of these books arrives in English in expert and accessible translations that honour the art and voice of their original authors."
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
November 11, 2025 at 12:08 PM
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025! "Each of these books arrives in English in expert and accessible translations that honour the art and voice of their original authors."
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
I put a call out on FB for jigsaws - so I didn't have to buy any more. I'm now in the midst of a jigsaw explosion, think I may enough to last me until about February maybe even longer. 😁 It's little things that keep me happy these days.
November 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I put a call out on FB for jigsaws - so I didn't have to buy any more. I'm now in the midst of a jigsaw explosion, think I may enough to last me until about February maybe even longer. 😁 It's little things that keep me happy these days.
Reposted by Ali Hope 📚📚
New on the blog today, I've written about CROOKED CROSS by Sally Carson.
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
Crooked Cross by Sally Carson
For a novel first published in 1934, Sally Carson’s Crooked Cross feels remarkably timely, charting, as it does, the rise of Nazism in the early 1930s, the falling apart of a country’s fundamental …
jacquiwine.wordpress.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:17 AM
New on the blog today, I've written about CROOKED CROSS by Sally Carson.
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
Last night, I started reading a book that I have had for ages. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff. My goodness, it's sooooo charming. 😁 No idea why I hadn't read it before. 💙📚
November 11, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Last night, I started reading a book that I have had for ages. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff. My goodness, it's sooooo charming. 😁 No idea why I hadn't read it before. 💙📚
Trying to get my book group book read for Monday evening. My First Murder by Leena Lehtolainen - I really need to commit to long reading periods, but it really isn't very good tbh. So get distracted by other things.Oh well, at 42%now. 💙📚
November 8, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Trying to get my book group book read for Monday evening. My First Murder by Leena Lehtolainen - I really need to commit to long reading periods, but it really isn't very good tbh. So get distracted by other things.Oh well, at 42%now. 💙📚
I finished Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy this afternoon. I spent several days reading this as I have had so much going on since moving. I absolutely loved it, the ending was superb! Such a fab novel to spend a week with. 💙📚
Will be very interested to hear what you think of this one.
November 6, 2025 at 5:22 PM
I finished Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy this afternoon. I spent several days reading this as I have had so much going on since moving. I absolutely loved it, the ending was superb! Such a fab novel to spend a week with. 💙📚
Oh gosh! I adore Muriel Spark, I shall definitely need to get this when it comes out. 😍
Here’s the cover for LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, out 16 April with @sceptrebooks.bsky.social
Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove...
Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious
🐈⬛ 🐈⬛ 🐈⬛
Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove...
Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious
🐈⬛ 🐈⬛ 🐈⬛
November 2, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Oh gosh! I adore Muriel Spark, I shall definitely need to get this when it comes out. 😍
It's been quite a slow reading month. Moving upheaval had an impact. I still managed to read some good books. In addition I'm a third of the way through Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy on Kindle. That will go into November's pile. In the meantime here's my October reads. List in alt text. 💙📚
November 1, 2025 at 11:26 AM
It's been quite a slow reading month. Moving upheaval had an impact. I still managed to read some good books. In addition I'm a third of the way through Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy on Kindle. That will go into November's pile. In the meantime here's my October reads. List in alt text. 💙📚
Beryl Bainbridge is such a good writer, The Bottle Factory Outing was the first novel I read by her. I can't remember now, if An Awfully Big Adventure is one I have waiting somewhere on my shelf. So delighted she is getting reissued.
The sharp, dark, dazzling fiction of Beryl Bainbridge is being reissued by @dauntbookspub.bsky.social, starting next year with ‘The Bottle Factory Outing’ and ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’ with new introductions by Yiyun Li and A.K. Blakemore.
October 29, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Beryl Bainbridge is such a good writer, The Bottle Factory Outing was the first novel I read by her. I can't remember now, if An Awfully Big Adventure is one I have waiting somewhere on my shelf. So delighted she is getting reissued.
Started reading Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy. I have previously read several of her novels, and this one seems to have been newly reissued. My version is the Kindle edition, but I do love this new cover art. 📚💙
October 29, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Started reading Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy. I have previously read several of her novels, and this one seems to have been newly reissued. My version is the Kindle edition, but I do love this new cover art. 📚💙
I have moved into an overview 55s retirement village.
At 57, with chronic illness and serious mobility issues it seemed a good idea. I'm the youngest here! 🤷🏽
Yesterday, I had lunch with my mum and sister in the bistro, then mooched around the stalls of the craft fair they had on.
At 57, with chronic illness and serious mobility issues it seemed a good idea. I'm the youngest here! 🤷🏽
Yesterday, I had lunch with my mum and sister in the bistro, then mooched around the stalls of the craft fair they had on.
October 26, 2025 at 6:32 PM
I have moved into an overview 55s retirement village.
At 57, with chronic illness and serious mobility issues it seemed a good idea. I'm the youngest here! 🤷🏽
Yesterday, I had lunch with my mum and sister in the bistro, then mooched around the stalls of the craft fair they had on.
At 57, with chronic illness and serious mobility issues it seemed a good idea. I'm the youngest here! 🤷🏽
Yesterday, I had lunch with my mum and sister in the bistro, then mooched around the stalls of the craft fair they had on.
I moved to my new flat on Friday!
Already, my books and I are feeling very much at home!
Already, my books and I are feeling very much at home!
October 26, 2025 at 6:28 PM
I moved to my new flat on Friday!
Already, my books and I are feeling very much at home!
Already, my books and I are feeling very much at home!