And now... Beryl Bainbridge!

A very quick post today - in case you missed it on my previous post, Annabel/Gaskella has taken up the challenge of nominating another author for a reading week, and designing a great badge, and so... Beryl Bainbridge Reading Week will be hitting the blogosphere June 18-24!  More info from Annabel here.  I've been intending to read Beryl Bainbridge for years - at the moment I only have Master Georgie, so it might well be that one I read, but I'll see what the library.  Go over and express your interest, if you are interested, and...

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Muriel Spark Reading Week: Review Round-up

Thanks so, so, SO much for all your contributions to Muriel Spark Reading Week - it's been such fun, and exceeded the highest hopes that Harriet and I held.   I'm especially thrilled for those people who discovered Dame Muriel for the first time, and loved her.  Harriet has already posted a round-up, but I thought I'd do one here too, for handy reference.  We were SO close to covering all her novels - just The Mandelbaum Gate left out.  [EDIT: Thanks Christine, we've now done them ALL!]  I've not included links to more general...

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Discussion, discussion...

Harriet will be doing a proper round-up of reviews on her blog tomorrow, and I might well do something after that, so I have a record here too - but I wanted to throw today's post over for discussion in the comments.  This is especially for those of you participating who don't have blogs, but of course everyone is welcome.1.) How have you found Muriel Spark Reading Week?  What did you read - and was it your first time reading Spark?2.) Which novel/novels have you been inspired to read next in Spark's canon?3.) What themes do you identify across...

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Two More Sparks: The Abbess of Crewe and The Takeover

A couple more Spark novels this morning; later in the day I'll put up a more general post with some questions looking back over Muriel Spark Reading Week for y'all.I decided to try and cover some of the Spark titles which others haven't read this week, and so in the past couple of days I read The Abbess of Crewe (1974) and The Takeover (1976) - consecutive novels from around the middle of Spark's writing career.  Turns out others have now posted about The Abbess of Crewe (including my own mother), but I'm still alone on The...

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Curriculum Vitae - Muriel Spark's autobiography

Another Spark review from me - three books reviewed in one day, gosh!  Although this one I actually read during Muriel Spark Reading Week, and I'm writing about it down in Somerset - where the book group my Mum runs have all been reading Muriel Spark.  I joined in their lovely lunch, chatting about Spark - everyone enjoyed reading her, although one lady (who had read The Abbess of Crewe, apparently one of Spark's weirder novels) was rather bemused.  I'm hoping Mum will write some reviews of the Spark novels she's read this week... hint hint...!Once...

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Two Sparks: The Ballad of Peckham Rye and The Only Problem

Although I'm actually writing this in advance of Muriel Spark Reading Week, I'm confidently going to predict that we're all having a great time, and that you're all putting up brilliant, thought-provoking pieces on this wonderful novelist... yes?  Yes.Since it's my day to post, I'm going to write fairly speedily about two Spark novels that I've read recently - and hopefully by the end of the week I'll have finished at least one more.  (There will be no shortage of Spark reviews around the blogosphere this week, but if you fancy reading all my archive...

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Muriel Spark: the covers

We'll all be doing lots of reading this week, both on blogs and in books, so I thought I'd offer up a different view of Spark - with a selection of covers.  These are all her novels, in order of publication, although the covers are not all first editions.  I just picked a selection to demonstrate the wide variety of styles which she has been given.  Your thoughts, please!I love the quirky old Penguin covers - exemplified by the first one below, The Comforters - which seem to get across something of Spark's style.  But I think my favourite...

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Muriel Spark Reading Week... is here!

Was it really only the beginning of February when I first suggested a reading week for Muriel Spark, and a week later when Harriet had agreed to be co-host, and Thomas had designed us this wonderful badge?It feels much longer ago.  Well, I was thrilled and delighted when (not including my own comments) those posts got over sixty replies between them.  That's a lot of potential posts this week!  My hope is that we'll manage to read all Muriel Spark's twenty-two novels between us - not to mention her short stories, autobiography, plays, poetry,...

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Muriel Spark Reading Week... is coming!

It's really soon, folks!  Indeed, it starts tomorrow.Both Harriet and I will be putting up introductory posts tomorrow, explaining how the week will work on our blogs - but for you lovely people, all you have to do is read a bit of Muriel this week, blog about it, and let one or other (or both) of us know.  Fun!See you tomorrow...

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Zella Sees Herself - E.M. Delafield

This is one of those posts where I'm going to tell you about a book which is impossible to find... so, should this make you desperate to read it, head to your local academic library!  The book in question is Zella Sees Herself (1917) by E.M. Delafield, her first novel (written when she was my age, actually), kindly lent to me by EMD-enthusiast Marie.  Since it can't be bought for love nor money, I'll keep my post pretty brief...  Oh, and this is the first 1910s book I've read for A Century of Books. Zella Sees Herself follows Zella...

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Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

On Tuesday night I went, with my housemate Mel and fellow book-blogger Naomi (aka Bloomsbury Bell - go check out her new Wordpress style!) to hear Jen Campbell talk about Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops.  Quite a few of you will know Jen from her blog, and those of you who use Twitter more than I do might well know her as @aeroplanegirl.  One day I'll fully understand Twitter, and then there'll be no stopping me.Jen had also been a writer in residence at Blackwell's, writing a poem related to each of Blackwell's five floors, and she...

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Year Five: The Sketches

As has become an annual tradition, I have compiled the sketches which featured during my fifth year of blogging (which, incidentally, almost coincides with the tax year.)  It always reminds me that I haven't done as many as I planned.  But also slightly more than I remember doing.  Here they are - clicking on the sketch should take you to the relevant post!   ...

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