Ivy & Stevie - Kay Dick

The first book I read from my recent Hay-on-Wye haul was Kay Dick's Ivy & Stevie (1971) about Ivy Compton-Burnett and Stevie Smith.  Dick was friendly with both, and recorded conversations with them as part of a wider project she was researching.  'When' (she writes) 'Stevie Smith died earlier this year, not long after Ivy Compton-Burnett, it occurred to me that public interest in them both was sufficient to warrant publications of these two conversations on their own.'  So the book is divided into two - transcripts of each interview,...

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Forthcoming Dodie Smiths

Following on from my recent enthusiasm about Dodie Smith's autobiography, I was excited when someone (Claire, I think, or maybe Verity) pointed me in the direction of Corsair's new reprints of some obscure Dodie Smith novels.  I wrote about The Town in Bloom a while ago, which I thought started very well and got a bit worse, but lots of folk have told me that I should be reading The New Moon with the Old.  Once these come out on 15th March (or, more precisely, when Lent is over and I'm allowed to buy books again) these will definitely be flying...

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The World My Wilderness - Rose Macaulay

I hope this will turn out coherent.  I wrote most of it a while ago, sent the book away to a friend, and am now trying to complete a review sans book and sans health.  Here goes...Here, ladies and gentlemen, is my first overlap of A Century of Books.  Rose Macaulay's The World My Wilderness was published in 1950, a spot which is already occupied on my list by Margaret Kennedy's Jane Austen.  First come, first reviewed, so it's Kennedy who's on the century list.  But I'm still going to talk about Rose Macaulay, naturally...This...

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Song for a Sunday

I've featured her before, on my first ever Song for a Sunday, and this is my other favourite song by her: it's Vienna Teng and 'Kansas' (apologies that the quality isn't amazing):Still feeling rotten, but I dug out the perfect novel to accompany feeling sorry for myself: Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson.  So far, giggling away to myself in a corner.  Love...

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Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

Hope you all have nicer weekends lined up than I do.  Well, the weekend will probably be fine, it's just that I've come down with a horrible cold... that stage where you feel semi-conscious all the time.  Yeah, not fun.  Lots of bed and Lemsip for me tomorrow... And it's going to be a pretty brief miscellany, so that I can slump in a heap somewhere.  (Cue violins, etc.)1.) You know me, I love a review of Miss Hargreaves - and I especially love this one by Chris.  Go and have a gander - and if, for some strange reason, you've yet to read the novel... get to it!2.) Doesn't...

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Look Back With Love - Dodie Smith

I am growing very fond of those lovely folk at Slightly Foxed.  Last December I had spotted that they were publishing Dodie Smith's first autobiography, Look Back With Love (1974), and was umming and ahhhing about asking for a review copy... when they offered me one!  Although I'm always flattered to be offered books by any publisher, my heart does a little jump for joy (medically sound, no?) when it's a reprint publisher doing the offering.  And even more so when it's one of these beautiful little Slightly Foxed Editions (I covet the *lot*)...

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The Readers and My Life in Books

If you enjoy reading Stuck-in-a-Book but have always thought that it was missing a certain audio quality, then I have just the thing for you!  Simon S and Gav very kindly asked me to contribute my Five Favourite Books to their awesome weekly podcast The Readers - and it's now up!  I'm at the end of the podcast, but obviously you should listen to the whole thing.  Here it is!  Probably not a lot of surprises there for regular readers of SiaB, but I had such fun doing it (and re-doing it when I went on for too long the first time -...

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Another Blogger Meeting

I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of bloggers over the past four or so years - one of these days I must compile a list and see quite how many I have met - but the award for furthest-flung blogger has to go to Karyn of A Penguin A Week, whom I met in Oxford today.  Karyn has come all the way from Australia to Penguin-hunt, as you are probably aware if you read her fab blog.  Well, when I saw that she was heading to these shores, I decided we should definitely have lunch and scour some bookshops together - and she thought it sounded like...

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Right Ho, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse

My book group recently read Right Ho, Jeeves (1934) by P.G. Wodehouse.  I always like an excuse to read some Wodehouse.  A diet of nothing else would be like living on ice cream, but as an occasional snack, there is nothing better.  And it would be a mistake to think that, since PGW makes for such easy reading, that it is easy writing.  I think Wodehouse is one of the best wordsmiths (or should that be wordpsmiths?) I have read, and it is far more difficult to write a funny book than it is to write a poignant or melancholy book.But...

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London (Part Two)

Ok, we've looked at the spoils I bought - but those were not the only books I dragged home on the train, because there were some lovely books handed out to us at the Bloomsbury event - more anon.  (I'm afraid uploading photos broke halfway through writing this, hence lack of pictures.)There are quite a few publishers who have been in touch with me over the years, and although review copies do not flow at the rate they once did -  a combination of (for the world) the recession and (for my blog) a focus away from modern literature - I am very lucky...

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London (Part One)

Sorry I've been a bit quiet on the blogosphere this week (although perhaps it won't have felt like that to you!) - I seem to have been utterly exhausted all week, hitting the hay as soon as I get in through the door.Of course, that hasn't been oh-so-early every night.  On Thursday I got home at about 9.30pm after a day packed with fun in London.  Well, actually, my morning was spent having a lovely conversation with my friend Clare, who used to work at the Bodleian with me, and now lives in my third favourite city in Britain (I think), Edinburgh...

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Elizabeth Taylor is coming to Stuck-in-a-Book...

A little early, since the conversation about Palladian is in full swing over at Rachel's, but I thought I'd let you know that the Elizabeth Taylor Centenary celebrations are coming over to mine for March.  Laura has organised monthly readalongs at different blogs (more info here) and I believe there is still opportunity to sign up to host a month.Anyway, March's book is A View of the Harbour (1947), and I'd love you all to join in.  I'm planning on posting my own thoughts about A View of the Harbour, and opening up a discussion, somewhere...

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Mr. Allenby Loses The Way - Frank Baker

This is one of those books I probably wouldn't blog about if it weren't for A Century of Books.  Under the terms and conditions of this challenge, I promised (er, sort of) to read a book from every year of the 20th century, and post a review of each one.  I didn't think that would be the tricky part.  The paltry figure I currently have stated as completed is not quite so paltry as it appears, since there are three or four books which I've read but have yet to review.Sorry, side-tracked.  I wouldn't normally blog about Mr. Allenby Loses...

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Muriel Spark Reading Week (23-29 April)

I was so thrilled with all your responses when I suggested Muriel Spark Reading Week the other day - although I was pretty sure I was onto a winner when the idea struck me, since Spark seems so perfect for this sort of blog readlong.  Two comments especially delighted me - Harriet's offer to be co-host, and Thomas's offer to make us a badge to accompany the Reading Week, which I proudly unveil below.  Didn't he do a fantastic job?  Thanks very much, Thomas! As you can see from the badge, we've decided upon dates: 23rd-29th April. ...

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Song for a Sunday

A lovely Sunday to you, friends, and a song to accompany it.  This slightly melancholy, but very beautiful, take on The Korgis' 1980s hit 'Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime' was recorded by Beck for the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which is also brilliant.)...

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Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

Happy weekend, everyone!  Mine will be a little less fun than yours, at least to start off with, since I'll be at work.  But then I'm off to London to see a film that's so bad it's become a cult hit - you can read more about it here.It's been a while since I last did a Weekend Miscellany, so I'm going to be casting my mind back a bit for some of these...1.) Claire (Captive Reader) continues to delight me with her reading choices, mostly because they're books I love too.  I have longed for the day when a fellow blogger would fall in love with...

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Sixty Wonderful Years!

It's a bit late in the week for celebrations, but some of you will, like me, have been celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on Monday.  My housemates and I went down to the pub and toasted HRH (indeed, I stood up and sang the National Anthem, but quite quietly.)And today I went to Boswell's in Oxford and bought this:Here's to another sixty years!  Well, probably not, but I'm hoping she makes the 75th Jubilee.  Or at least chalks up another four years and becomes our longest reigning monarch.I don't want to turn my blog into a political...

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The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

I try to remember sometimes, when I'm waving my arms left and right, dividing books into sheep and goats and making my pronouncements about them, that quality is largely subjective.  We all know this, of course.  When I say a book is good, it's shorthand for "I thought it was good."  When I say a book is bad... well, sometimes it's just bad.  But more often than not, I mean: "I didn't like this book, and here are the reasons why.  If these don't bother you, then you might still enjoy it.  Thanks, love Simon."I'll be keeping...

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A Resource For The Trickier Part of the 20th Century

It's no secret that the second half of the twentieth century is more likely to prove a headache for me, during A Century of Book, than the first half.  I'm rather dreading getting to October and finding only post-1950 years left to read.  But then I was reading dovegreyreader (not to be confused with dovegreybooks, the lovely online book group I'm in) the other day, and spotted that Lynne had posted about a book called The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950, edited by Carmen Callil (of Virago fame) and Colm Toibin (of, y'know,...

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