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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 1d

New on the blog today, I've written about A PRIVATE VIEW by Anita Brookner.

A superb novel in which a dull, respectable middle-aged man is tempted to jettison his highly ordered life for a volatile, vampish young woman. I loved it! #BookSky 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/a...

A Private View by Anita Brookner

I’ve been making my way through Anita Brookner’s exquisitely written novels slowly but steadily over the past eight years. As a long-term reading project, I’m finding it fascinating to see how Broo…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 7h

A forgotten writer from France, the startlingly original Helene Bessette, translated by Kate Briggs and published by @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social
1streading.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/l...

Lili is Crying

Helene Bessette is a French writer, supported by Raymond Queneau and admired by, among others, Marguerite Duras (“Living literature, for me, in France today— it’s Hélène Bessette”), who nevertheles…

1streading.wordpress.com

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Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 2d

My new blog post on Russell Hoban’s wonderfully unusual novel, TURTLE DIARY, about two lonely protagonists who partner up to rescue a trio of sea turtles from the zoo. Loved it and it's sure to feature in my year-end highlights.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/t...

Turtle Diary – Russell Hoban

Even if it’s October, Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban is my entry for #SpinsterSeptember, and I’m so glad to have discovered this novel thanks to the lovely Nora (@pear_jelly on Insta and Bluesky), w…

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 2d

UK publishers! Anyone interested in Hervé le Tellier's new novel given the success of The Anomaly? Or what about Lydie Salvayre's latest which only seems to have an Australian publisher?

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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 2d

Ivan Klima has died at the age of 94.

Ivan Klima, the best Czech novelist of his generation, has died.

One of the great Czech writers of the 20th century, Ivan Klima, died over the weekend at his home in Prague, at the age of 94. Klima lived an incredible, principled life, having survived both the N…

buff.ly

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 4d

Particularly looking forward to Repetition and The Witch!

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 4d

Rose is (at least partly) on your recommendation (it may also be on a prize list...). The Burnet is part of the wonderful Darkland Tales series which has yet to let me down.

grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 4d

Another wonderful writer gone.

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 4d

Some new books for October!

We Live Here Now, The Midnight Timetable, Benbecula, The Devil Book, You Glow in the Dark

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 5d

A welcome reissue of Gordon William's From Scenes Like These, shortlisted for the first Booker Prize, and still shocking in its bleak, unflinching portrait of life in 1950s Scotland.
1streading.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/f...

From Scenes Like These

You will perhaps know Paisley-born writer Gordon Williams as the author of The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, the basis for Sam Peckinpah’s controversial (and hated by Williams) film Straw Dogs. Or mayb…

1streading.wordpress.com

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 5d

A welcome reissue of Gordon William's From Scenes Like These, shortlisted for the first Booker Prize, and still shocking in its bleak, unflinching portrait of life in 1950s Scotland.
1streading.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/f...

From Scenes Like These

You will perhaps know Paisley-born writer Gordon Williams as the author of The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, the basis for Sam Peckinpah’s controversial (and hated by Williams) film Straw Dogs. Or mayb…

1streading.wordpress.com

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 5d

And surely Lockjaw's disfigured appearance increases Sean Penn's chances of a supporting actor Oscar!

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 5d

I found Hot Milk a little disappointing (but then I love the novel) but enjoyed almost every minute of One Battle After Another - though I'm not sure I see the point of having a character improbably survive just to kill them in a different way!

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Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings @kaggsy59.bsky.social · 5d

On the blog today, a fascinating new release from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social in which Gorky shares his memories of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev - translated by Bryan Karetnyk - more here! kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/w...

“What a rogue he is.” #gorky #tolstoy #fitzcarraldoeditions

One of the authors who popped up as an option when I was considering what to read for 1925 was the Russian writer, Maxim Gorky. His novel, “The Artamonov Business”, was published in tha…

kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com

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Kathleen Jamie @kathleenjamie.bsky.social · 5d

open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Tony Harrison's 'Study'

Don Paterson on the best room

open.substack.com

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 6d

New on the blog today, I've written about UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD by Hiromi Kawakami (tr Asa Yoneda).

A thought-provoking, speculative novel about evolution, societal structures & the possible extinction of humanity. Lots of interesting ideas here. 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/u...

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (tr. Asa Yoneda)

The award-winning Japanese writer Hiromi Kawakami first came to prominence with her beautiful, meditative novella Strange Weather in Tokyo (tr. Allison Markin Powell), which was shortlisted for the…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 7d

Thirty years ago, in October 1995, I was reading J G Ballard's return to the kind of novels he was writing before the autobiographical Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women.

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 10d

New on the blog today, I've written about THE JEALOUS ONE by Celia Fremlin.

A deliciously compelling novel in which a seemingly happy marriage – a picture of suburban bliss – is upended by the arrival of a flighty single woman. Wonderful stuff! #BookSky 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/t...

The Jealous One by Celia Fremlin

Like her namesake, Celia Dale, Celia Fremlin is fast becoming one of my favourite writers from the mid-20th century. She wrote wonderfully suspenseful domestic noirs, slowly building tension by lev…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 11d

'Bookends' remains one of my favourite poems.

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 11d

Very sorry to hear of Tony Harrison's death. I saw him in Edinburgh back in 2018 as this blurry photograph demonstrates.

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 11d

Latest book club read - and opportunity to discuss treatment of mental illness, presentation of mental illness in literature, and how awful men were (are?).

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 11d

Really interesting use of first/third person narrative voice as well as cleverly arranged chronology. Looking forward to volume 2.

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Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings @kaggsy59.bsky.social · 11d

My final read for #shortstoryseptember is a remarkable collection by Rosalind Brackenbury, reissued by Michael Walmer - No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Why she’s not better known is beyond me! kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/09/27/f...

“Fiction is an attack in the night…” #shortstoryseptember #rosalindbrackenbury

My final read for Short Story September is a collection which only arrived recently at the Ramblings, but which I was very excited to receive – “No Such Thing as a Free Lunch” by …

kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com

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grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 13d

I really enjoyed the extract you read from your book yesterday and I'm looking forward to reading it.

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