stuck in a book

I got sent Helen Oyeyemi’s second novel, The Opposite House, by the publisher in… 2008, the year after it was published. Oops, sorry Bloomsbury. I’ve read four of her other books, and have finally read this one...

For #ReadIndies month, I had to pick up one of the many unread British Library Crime Classics I have on my shelf. Or, more precisely, piled high on top of a bookcase. Quite a lot of people have recommended The Poisoned...

Arnold Bennett is perhaps one of those names who is more remembered than read nowadays, though I know there is a very active Arnold Bennett Society that always seems to notice when I review one of his books. Hello! And...

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that Janeites will read anything about Jane Austen – and it’s also a truth universally acknowledged that this opening ‘bit’ is wildly overused. Sorry about that. Anyway, I...

I’ve been busy reading for Karen and Lizzy’s #ReadIndies month, and here are three of the books that came off my tbr pile for it. They could scarcely be more different! The book: Bramton Wick by Elizabeth Fair The...

#ReadIndies naturally made me think of my unread pile of Fitzcarraldo Editions. I’ve yet to buy any of the blue fiction titles, but am amassing the white non-fiction – mostly spurred on by how brilliant This Little...

Bernadine Evaristo, Kate Atkinson, and clothes – welcome to episode 92. http://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Tea-or-Books-episode-92.mp3 In the first half of the episode, Rachel and I discuss...

Last year, Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs was one of my favourite reads, and I’ve made no secret about the fact that I’d love it to be a British Library Women Writers title at some point. But it wasn’t the...

Look, I’m not on BookTube – where people talk about books on YouTube, for the uninitiated. Nobody needs to see my shoddy camera angles and poor editing technique. But I do enjoy watching a few of the channels, and...

I imagine you’ve probably read Shaun Bythell’s very funny accounts of running a secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland – Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller. I love them and I’m hoping they...

I am trying to be the sort of person who likes poetry, and picking some of the poems off my bookshelves. If I’m honest, it hasn’t been an enormous success yet – though I did enjoy some of the Yeats I read, and...

I absolutely loved Molly Fox’s Birthday a year or so ago, and so over Christmas I thought I’d treat myself to one of the other Deirdre Madden novels that I’d since been stockpiling. I went on Twitter for advice,...

Elizabeth von Arnim and settings of novels – welcome to episode 91! http://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/tea-or-books-episode-91.mp3 In the first half of the novel, we look at the settings of...

We recorded this before Christmas, but look where we are. Still the 12 Days of Christmas! http://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/PiaP-14.mp3 As usual, we talk sticky rice, remote control cars, and...

In 2019, Rosemary joined me in #ProjectNames – one of the most rewarding reading projects I’ve done. Last year, she decided to keep going with #ProjectPlaces. I asked if she wouldn’t mind sharing her experiences...

You don’t need me to tell you that this has been a weird and sad year, and it’ll be a weird Christmas. I don’t know what the restrictions are where you are, but this will be the first Christmas I haven’t spent...

I recently finished a memoir, read by the author as an audiobook. It was a really striking portrayal of growing up as a mixed-race child in America in the ’70s, with violence, poverty, and uncertainty. The narrator...