literary hoohah
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here's an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,000 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people. Click here to… Continue reading 2015 in review (official WordPress report!)
My apologies for the mixture of photos in this post - I have lent out some of the books featured so wasn't able to take a nice photo of them and had to find images of the covers online. Not ideal, but there you go... Somehow 2015 is over, and I have naturally been… Continue reading The best books of 2015
Hello all just a quick note to say Merry Christmas! I've been a bit off grid as I was away in Copenhagen until Christmas Eve and this is the first moment I have had to myself since then! Not that I'm complaining, we have had a lovely Christmas. I recently finished After You'd Gone by… Continue reading Oh is it Christmas?
On the publisher's website, Sagan, Paris 1954 is described as am "intimate narrative" and I think that is the best way to describe it. "Intimate" because it is a deeply personal book for the author, Anne Berest, and it explores her relationship with Francoise Sagan as a reader; and "narrative" because it tells a story.… Continue reading Sagan, Paris 1954 by Anne Berest
How do we know what is true, and what is not? How do we know that people really are who they say they are? Are you ever only one person? These were questions I asked myself while reading Lady Audley's Secret recently. The novel starts off simply enough with a few chapters to set things… Continue reading Truth and Identity in ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’ by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Any reader of Victorian literature, or any student of the history of the period, will be aware of the concept of the fallen woman. If not, the Wikipedia page is a good place to start. It's a depressingly detailed page. For an era in which society began to move away from the government of Christianity… Continue reading ‘Alias Grace’ and the Concept of the Fallen Woman
Hello all, my apologies for not posting for almost a month! I have been busy at work which = super tired, plus I have been reading quite slowly recently for some reason, so I haven't had many books to review. I did finish Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood the other week, and have a brilliant… Continue reading Kind of a random blog post that’s kind of related to Christmas
I'm not usually one for celebrity autobiographies. I think Anjelica Huston's memoir was the first I actually read (that I can remember), and I only read that because I love Huston's work, and the book seemed down to earth and non-sensationalist, which it was. It was a journey through a life. I decided to read… Continue reading Wildflower by Drew Barrymore
I had been wanting to read this for a while and finally got round to it last week... and it was just so brilliant. So weird. So good. Suffice to say, I gave it five stars on GoodReads. Even before reading I loved the premise, what I knew of it, and as with The Haunting… Continue reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
I have some very exciting news, and I'm going to get right to the point. I am launching a new blog that will be dedicated to the most important things in life outside of the world of books (I know, hard to believe there is life beyond books). I have a small team of fellow… Continue reading Calling all writers – I need YOU!
These Little Words 