Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Radz Pandit

@radzpandit.bsky.social

1.3K followers 660 following 1.2K posts

Avid reader, book reviewer & amateur book photographer. I write about books on my blog Radhika’s Reading Retreat. Love art and travel too. Website: https://readersretreat2017.wordpress.com Also on: linktr.ee/radzpandit

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · Dec 17

These are MY BEST BOOKS OF 2024 featuring Lars Gustafsson, Barbara Comyns, Celia Fremlin, Mathias Enard, Barbara Pym and more. New blog post here:
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2024/12/17/m...

A stack of the best books I read in 2024.

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Simon Thomas @stuckinabook.bsky.social · 10h

I ranked Rose Macaulay's books, because someone has to do it

Unnecessary Rankings! Rose Macaulay

Time for some more rankings! Today is a very prolific writer – Rose Macaulay – so I’ve read 12 of her books, but barely dinted the surface. I have a lot more waiting on my shelves…

www.stuckinabook.com

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 17h

New blog post on the books I read in September.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/i...

Iceland and A Month of Reading – September 2025

I visited Iceland with my family during the third week of September and it was amazing – what a gorgeous country it is. A MEMORABLE TRIP We spent our days wandering through the charming streets of …

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Faber Books @faberbooks.bsky.social · 10h

'If you think you’ve heard this kind of story before, think again.’ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Breathtaking, immensely beautiful and impossible to stop reading.’ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

On the Calculation of Volume III is nearly here! Publishing 18 November 📚

www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 12h

Loved THE SKIN CHAIRS, top-tier Comyns for me. Very difficult to find but I was lucky to finally get a second-hand copy. Apparently publishers are hesitant because of the title and what it implies, but I still hope it gets reissued.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 17h

New blog post on the books I read in September.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/i...

Iceland and A Month of Reading – September 2025

I visited Iceland with my family during the third week of September and it was amazing – what a gorgeous country it is. A MEMORABLE TRIP We spent our days wandering through the charming streets of …

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 20h

#NYRBWomen25 Who's ready to read some more Eve Babitz?!! Starting Thursday!

"gathers nearly 50 pieces written between 1975 and 1997, including the full text of Babitz’s wry book-length investigation into the pioneering lifestyle brand Fiorucci"

I'll post the page guide tomorrow. :)

Cover of I USED TO BE CHARMING: THE REST OF EVE BABITZ (NYRB Classics)

Photo of Eve Babitz taken by Mirandi Babitz

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 20h

Me🙋‍♀️

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 1d

#NYRBWomen25 I finished THE JUNIPER TREE this morning, Barbara Comyns’s final novel published when she was 77yo. It’s everything I love about her writing. Here are a few rabbit holes I went down while reading this enchanting retelling.

Barbara Comyns and her daughter, Caroline, circa 1937

Barbara Comyns later in life

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 1d

Russell Hoban’s TURTLE DIARY was amazing - strange, dark, beguiling, wise, and rich with self-deprecating humour. My thoughts here:
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/t...

Published by @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 8d

"Two of the turtles at the Aquarium are green...The sign said: 'The Green Turtle, Chelonia mydas, is the source of turtle soup.' I am the source of William G. soup if it comes to that. Everyone is the source of his or her kind of soup. In a town as big as London that's a lot of soup walking about."

TURTLE DIARY by Russell Hoban. NYRB Classics.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 1d

It reminds me of Lion Feuchtwanger's haunting and powerful THE OPPERMANNS, set in Berlin in 1933 - a tremendous novel that was also written as events were unfolding.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2023/12/15/t...

The Oppermanns – Lion Feuchtwanger (tr. James Cleugh, revised by Joshua Cohen)

I don’t recall how I first heard about Lion Feuchtwanger’s The Oppermanns but I knew I wanted to read it as soon as I did. Although published by Persephone Books in the UK and McNally Editions in t…

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 1d

Starting this today.

On Persephone's site: "CROOKED CROSS describes, through the eyes of one ordinary family, the Nazis’ growth in power between December 1932 and August 1933. It is extraordinarily prescient, anticipating all the horrors they were about to inflict on the world." Published in 1934.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 5d

I've read three wonderful books by Persephone this year, and next up is Sally Carson's CROOKED CROSS.

Next Persephone book I plan to read is CROOKED CROSS by Sally Carson.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for sharing, I entered:) Although I never win these things!

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 1d

Russell Hoban’s TURTLE DIARY was amazing - strange, dark, beguiling, wise, and rich with self-deprecating humour. My thoughts here:
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/t...

Published by @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 8d

"Two of the turtles at the Aquarium are green...The sign said: 'The Green Turtle, Chelonia mydas, is the source of turtle soup.' I am the source of William G. soup if it comes to that. Everyone is the source of his or her kind of soup. In a town as big as London that's a lot of soup walking about."

TURTLE DIARY by Russell Hoban. NYRB Classics.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 1d

"A turtle doesn't have to decide every morning whether to keep on bothering, it just carries on. Maybe that's why man kills everything: envy."

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

Reposted by Radz Pandit

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

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Laura Frey-tening @lauratfrey.bsky.social · 2d

Great review and just a coincidence that I read it within minutes of it being posted :)

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

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you, Laura:)

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

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 3d

Haha! I think the US edition probably has a better cover. But yes, overall the covers for her books are not as striking as those for Mariana Enriquez.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 3d

#CurrentlyReading

GOOD AND EVIL AND OTHER STORIES by Samanta Schweblin. Translated by Megan McDowell.

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Catherine Eaton @sparrowpost.bsky.social · 4d

It has come.

Cover of Time Tunnel by Eileen Chang

Reposted by Radz Pandit

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

Reposted by Radz Pandit

Maylin @blithespirit4.bsky.social · 9d

Novels by Alison Moore are perfect to take on vacation because you're guarenteed to have a better time than her characters. There are sad scenes of cringe worthy of a Mike Leigh film and an underlying menace akin to a subtler Celia Fremlin. I find them weirdly entertaining. @saltpublishing.com

A copy of Death and the Seaside by Alison Moore sits on a windowsill with transparent curtains behind it. The cover has the title and author in a circus like font on white paper stuck to glass windows looking on to a rainy day.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 4d

I loved the Buzzati. One of my highlights this year. Though my edition was The Tartar Steppe translated by Stuart C. Hood.

Radz Pandit @radzpandit.bsky.social · 5d

Looking forward to this discussion! I abandoned it after a few pages but I'm willing to give it another try.