The Ghost of Lizzie Deane The grave of Lizzie Deane We had not intended to run into the ghost of Lizzie Deane today, but a routine errand brought us close enough to the Ribble Valley that a visit to the village of Chipping …

The Ghost of Lizzie Deane michaelgraeme.wordpress.com/2026/04/22/t... @michaelgraeme.bsky.social

Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan And three apples fell from heaven: one for the storyteller, one for the listener, and one for the eavesdropper.” This traditional Armenian phrase appears at the end of many folktales. It is both a …

Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2026/04/21/t... @rebeccabudd.bsky.social

How Authenticity Lives We live in an era of extraordinary expression. Moments can be shared instantly. Conversations can travel across the world in seconds. We are able to witness one another’s lives in ways that were on…

How Authenticity Lives rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2026/04/20/h... @rebeccabudd.bsky.social

The #1961Club comes to an end – but what year will we choose next??? 🤔📚 Well, as the saying goes – that’s a wrap! The 1961 Club has come to an end, and what a fabulous week it was! This turned out to be a particularly good year for books and I don’t k…

kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/the-1961club-comes-to-an-end-but-what-year-will-we-choose-next-🤔📚/ @kaggsy59.bsky.social #1961Club

Virginia Woolf and failure is focus of new Miscellany I had never thought about Virginia Woolf and failure until last week when I received the Spring-Fall 2025 issue of the Virginia Woolf Miscellany. To me, Virginia Woolf had always been synonymous wi…

bloggingwoolf.org/2026/04/19/virginia-woolf-and-failure-is-focus-of-new-miscellany/ @bloggingwoolf.bsky.social

#SundayStills ~ Celebrating Earth Day #Nature #Photography Welcome to the Sunday Stills feature hosted by Terri at This week we’re celebrating Earth Day which falls on April 22nd, showcasing the natural beauty of the planet and marking the anniversar…

#SundayStills ~ Celebrating Earth Day #Nature #Photography betweenthelinesbookblog.com/2026/04/19/s... via @bookjotter.bsky.social

Many thanks, @bookjotter.bsky.social

The writing life – Why it has to be alchemy There is a mistake we writers make if we’re not careful. We tell ourselves we write for the love of it, for the craft, for the truth of the thing – and then we check our stats to see how many peopl…

The writing life – Why it has to be alchemy michaelgraeme.wordpress.com/2026/04/19/t... @michaelgraeme.bsky.social

Arthur Broome – The Vicar Who Refused to Look Away Arthur Broome – The Vicar Who Refused to Look Away Every movement that changes society eventually asks something costly of someone. For the early history of the RSPCA, that person was Arthur Broome…

clanmother.ca/2026/04/19/arthur-broome-the-vicar-who-refused-to-look-away/ @rebeccabudd.bsky.social

Faces in the Water by Janet Frame – #1961Club I made a lot of notes on Faces in the Water while I was reading it, but I find that I don’t really know what to write now! It’s a novel about a woman who is in and out of psychiatric in…

www.stuckinabook.com/faces-in-the-water-by-janet-frame-1961club/ @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

Winding Up the Week #467 This week I look at books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature across the blogosphere, keep up with a variety of literary anniversaries (including National Library …

Winding Up the Week #467 bookjotter.com/2026/04/18/w... via @bookjotter.bsky.social

The Mighty and Their Fall by Ivy Compton-Burnett – #1961Club My final 1961 Club read is by an author I’ve loved for years, and the most divisive writer out there – Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett. For those not in the know, her novels are told almost en…

www.stuckinabook.com/the-mighty-and-their-fall-by-ivy-compton-burnett-1961club/ @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

A picture of a canal tow path and canal barge passing by. There is a well-camouflaged duck ‘hiding’ among the flora.

“From the moss-covered old alder stump young leaves are breaking, and close beside the stump there is a wild duck on her nest”
Writer: EL Grant Watson
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
‘What to Look for in Spring’ (1961)

The Elegant Life of the Parisian High Society in the early 19th century by Anne Martin-Fugier The Elegant Life, or the Rise of the Parisian Elite. 1815-1848 by Anne Martin-Fugier (1990). Original French title : La vie élégante. Ou la formation du Tout-Paris, 1815-1848. This essay about…

The Elegant Life of the Parisian High Society in the early 19th century by Anne Martin-Fugier bookaroundthecorner.com/2026/04/19/t... @bookaround.bsky.social

War Isn’t Wonderful by Ursula Bloom – #1961Club It always feels slightly like cheating to pick a club book that is really about an earlier period… but with memoir, it’s kind of inevitable, isn’t it? Ursula Bloom wrote literally…

www.stuckinabook.com/war-isnt-wonderful-by-ursula-bloom-1961club/ @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

Winding Up the Week #467 This week I look at books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature across the blogosphere, keep up with a variety of literary anniversaries (including National Library …

bookjotter.com/2026/04/18/winding-up-the-week-467/ #Booklovers #AmReading #Books #BookReview #Reading #bookbloggers @buriedinprint.bsky.social @lauratisdall.bsky.social

An invitation to write about The Blue Castle I’m thrilled that so many of you would like to discuss L.M. Montgomery’s novel The Blue Castle with me! Thanks to everyone who’s responded online and in person. As I mentioned here last month, we’l…

An invitation to write about The Blue Castle sarahemsley.com/2026/04/17/a... @sarahemsley.bsky.social

The Methods of Sergeant Cluff by Gil North – #1961Club It’s always good to throw in some classic crime into a club year – though by the 1960s, we are well past the Golden Age. But thankfully there was still an option from my teetering piles…

www.stuckinabook.com/the-methods-of-sergeant-cluff-by-gil-north-1961club/ @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone – #1961Club It’s Kaggsysbookishramblings‘ and Simon Stuck-in-a-Book‘s Year Club week, and the year in question is 1961. As per the norm I was late starting my book with the result that I am only one-quarter of…

volatilerune.blog/2026/04/17/the-agony-and-the-ecstasy-by-irving-stone-1961club/ @lotus2.bsky.social #1961Club

Quaestio de Centauris | Primo Levi There were two more stories in my copy of The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories that were first published in 1961: one by Primo Levi (1919-87) and one by Luciano Bianciardi (1922-71). I’l…

bronasbooks.com/2026/04/17/quaestio-de-centauris-primo-levi/ #1961Club

In A Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor – #1961Club I have steadily made my way through all of Elizabeth Taylor’s novels, and there’s a strong chance that this is the final one on my reading list? She is very like William Maxwell –…

www.stuckinabook.com/in-a-summer-season-by-elizabeth-taylor-1961club/ via @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) #1961Club Years ago, working in a bookshop and reading reviews for the first time in my life, I learned of a new volume of non-fiction by V.S. Naipaul and decided that I would never read his books. I don’t remember why exactly, but he has been criticized over the years for his depiction of various peoples

www.buriedinprint.com/v-s-naipauls-a-house-for-mr-biswas-1961-1961club/ @buriedinprint.bsky.social #1961Club

Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seichō Matsumoto (tr. Beth Cary) Born in Fukuoka in 1909, Seichō Matsumoto was one of Japan’s most acclaimed crime writers, publishing over thirty novels and several short stories during the course of his prolific career. His book…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/inspector-imanishi-investigates-by-seicho-matsumoto-tr-beth-cary/ @jacquiwine.bsky.social

From Your Own Tove #ToveTrove My latest contribution to the Tove Trove Library is ‘Letters from Tove’, a substantial collection of letters written by Tove Jansson to her closest friends and loved ones during her lif…

I love reading collections of letters written by (exchanged between) writers and artists: @bookjotter.bsky.social makes this collection sound especially satisfying.

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From Your Own Tove #ToveTrove bookjotter.com/2026/04/01/f...

Pen To Paper by Pamela Frankau – #1961Club I’m going to assume it was Brad’s review of Pen To Paper by Pamela Frankau that put it on my radar. I’ve only read a handful of her prodigious output, but I think she can be a bri…

www.stuckinabook.com/pen-to-paper-by-pamela-frankau-1961club/ via @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

“Who could be frightened in as wide and bright, as clean and quiet a house as this?” (Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road) One of the benefits of taking part in events like the 1961 Club, hosted by Kaggsy and Simon this week, is that it encourages me to finally get to novels languishing in the TBR, such as Revolutionar…

madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2026/04/15/who-could-be-frightened-in-as-wide-and-bright-as-clean-and-quiet-a-house-as-this-richard-yates-revolutionary-road/ @madamebibi.bsky.social #1961Club

The Lost Man by Jane Harper : Australian author Jane Harper’s third novel, The Lost Man is a twisty murder mystery that’s as rich in atmosphere as her previous novels. It opens with a horrific image of a man alone in the scorching...

bookertalk.com/the-lost-man-by-jane-harper/ @bookertalk.bsky.social

Abbie and Arthur by Dane Chandos – #1961Club I think my friend Caroline only ever gave me two books. One was A Wreath for the Enemy by Pamela Frankau, and the other was Abbie (1947) by Dane Chandos. Which goes to show that she had exceptional…

www.stuckinabook.com/abbie-and-arthur-by-dane-chandos-1961club/ @stuckinabook.bsky.social #1961Club

Winding Up the Week #464 This week I seek out books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature on the blogosphere, keep up with a variety of literary anniversaries (including Shakespeare Week and…

Once more, Paula @bookjotter.bsky.social serves up a generous helping of #bookish chatter from 'round the interwebs. Including a mention of Thirty-Two Words for Field, which has been getting a lot of good press overseas here.

Winding Up the Week bookjotter.com/2026/03/28/w...

Diet for a Small Planet: A Book That Still Sits at the Table In the 1980s and early 1990s, after we had moved to Vancouver, the cookbook, Diet for a Small Planet, lived quietly but confidently in our orbit. My mother, Frances, and my sister, Sarah, were deep…

Diet for a Small Planet: A Book That Still Sits at the Table rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2026/04/14/d... @rebeccabudd.bsky.social