Episode 130: Opening Movements: Entering the World of a Book In this episode, we begin a three-part series on the movements of a novel, starting with the opening.

I love the promise of a new book, but the opening movement is often the hardest for me. It’s so nice when an authors voice or the plot or something helps me know I’m in good hands. In this week’s episode @bibliopaul.bsky.social and I talk about the opening movement. substack.com/@mookse/note...

THE UNFORGIVABLE AND OTHER WRITINGS by Cristina Campo (tr. Alex Andriesse)

#NYRBWomen26 page guide for THE UNFORGIVABLE AND OTHER WRITINGS by Cristina Campo (tr. Alex Andriesse)

Annual schedule for #NYRBWomen26

April's #NYRBWomen26 read (starting today!) is THE UNFORGIVABLE AND OTHER WRITINGS by Cristina Campo, translated from the Italian by Alex Andriesse.

"This is not a collection of essays. This is a dwelling place, a gathering of rooms, of turns of mind, winding hallways..." - Intro by Kathryn Davis

A photo of me, holding up a copy of The Times which features a review of my book, accompanied by the headline: ‘A genius with claws - the picaresque life of Muriel Spark’

Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark is BOOK OF THE WEEK in The Times, and it's frankly outrageous that a small marching band hasn't trundled into my house to make some little celebratory parps in my honour 😤

Thanks for the kind feedback and happy listening :-)

Episode 129: Reading with a Plan: The Joys and Complications of Reading Projects This week, we’re joined by Luis Panini to talk about reading projects.

Happy Thursday. @bibliopaul.bsky.social and I were delighted to talk to @luispanini.bsky.social about reading projects in our latest episode. I myself love sitting down and making a reading project! Carrying through is much harder, but I’m getting better at it! open.substack.com/pub/mookse/p...

Not true, James. You look so hot.

Spirits, a seven-year-old and a death camp | John Self | The Critic Magazine A unique form developed: voice-driven, absurdist, but always compassionate for put-upon characters

"It has an intensity and force which puts it in the front rank of Holocaust fiction"— @john-self.bsky.social in The Critic on Friedrich Torberg's Vengeance is Mine, out on March 31 in the Recovered Books series from @bhousepress.bsky.social.

This goes straight onto my list of favourite modern novels A ‘thick-skinned philistine’ takes over a fading literary magazine … The Palm House establishes Gwendoline Riley as one of our foremost fiction writers

Rave review of Gwendoline Riley's new book, The Palm House in @thetimes.com

"I read it in a single sitting, then immediately read it again to test its spell, which grew stronger. It establishes Riley as one of our most brilliant fiction writers"

In our newest episode, @mookse.bsky.social and I are joined by @ofbooksandbikes.bsky.social of @onebrightbook.bsky.social to talk a favorite topics: books that blur boundaries and resist easy classification. I loved this conversations and (surprise) added a ton to my TBR. You’ve been warned…

This is a good episode because they talk about us all the time

Oh have you not recorded on Orlando yet?! I thought that was last Sunday and we’d all have to wait a month for the fallout! Oh boy this will be fun!!

I got to be a guest on the Mookse and the Gripes podcast and it was a blast!

Getting out my popcorn for the when the next recorded episode drops!

A delightful conversation about those unique books that defy description. I loved every moment of it even when Rebecca said she was the best of the @onebrightbook.bsky.social crew and called Dorian “basic” again. Best, basic…. Imagining which “b” word I am. 😊

Episode 127: No One Knows Where to Shelf This: On Unclassifiable Books We tend to think of books as belonging somewhere: novel, memoir, biography, fantasy, history.

Happy Thursday! @bibliopaul.bsky.social and I got a chance to talk with @ofbooksandbikes.bsky.social about unclassifiable books, and I had a great time! Here is our new episode! open.substack.com/pub/mookse/p...

Episode 127: No One Knows Where to Shelf This: On Unclassifiable Books

An excellent listen!! ofbooksandbikes.bsky.social joined @mookse.bsky.social & @bibliopaul.bsky.social to talk about my favorite type of book, unclassifiable ones.

What are your favorite books that blend genres? open.spotify.com/episode/6Uwh...

I had not, but now I will! Thanks!

An ARC of New Directions upcoming Five Novels by César Aira.

CONTENTS Introduction by Jeff VanderMeer (to come) Margarita (A Memory) 3 The Dream 51 The Hormone Pill 205 Musical Brushstrokes 215 Princess Springtime 271

Second, the upcoming Aira collection, Five from New Directions! This has five novellas/stories by Aira, all translated by Chris Andrews. Aira is an all-time favorite for me, so I’ve been anxiously waiting for this treat to get here! The cover says “novels” but these are short.

The cover of the new Bellevue Literary Press edition of Andrew Krivak’s Mule Boy

I AND ON THAT DAY HE WALKED THE DIRT ROAD from the patch past the colliery toward the entrance of the shaft, the only light visible coming from the breaker with its multitude of filament bulbs inside and outside and along each apparatus that drove it shining brighter than any constellation any man or boy who labored within, around, or below that breaker would ever see, and he could hear it, alive and throbbing with its steady heartbeat throb that pounded away while he slept, pounded away when he woke, pounded away the length of every day there was work in that mine, he even remembering as a boy, sick in bed in the clapboard patch house and gazing out the window at the behemoth, asking his mother if it would ever stop, and without turning to look at the structure that hulked there lit and monstrous against the banks of culm and Blue Mountain hills and sky, she said, When all cre-

II AND I WAKE HERE TO THE SOUND OF TERRITORIAL robins from the open window before the sun even breaks the horizon to the east of the pond and the whisper of breeze out of the cool night into a warming day approaching autumn, no blasts or buzzers or humming breakers, though creation has not ceased to groan, and I rise from my bed and go into the kitchen and lift the stove lid with the lifter to raise a small fire for my tea and breakfast with the coals that have burned down overnight, even though it is late August, raise them back to life with some birch-bark kindling and wood I cut and split last fall and will have to do again this fall before winter, and the fire catches and the sound of wind is the sound of draft down the flue to the firebox, and I place a kettle for hot water on the stove and leave it and go wash my face and put on a clean shirt and trousers and slide my rosary into my pocket and come back to the kitchen, and by now the sun has

It was an exciting book mail day! First up, a new release: Andrew Krivak’s Mule Boy. I loved The Bear and I’m already loving Mule Boy. As you can see, Krivak is doing this without periods, but I’m already about 50 pages in and loving it.

Holding up a copy of the Arden Shakespeare of King Lear

For years I’ve meant to spend time with an Arden Shakespeare, and I’ve been loving their King Lear. I see now why readers swear by these editions. The depth here is remarkable!

Do I need to warn my wife that another shelf may soon be required?

I have been looking for my next Calvino! I bought a few after loving Invisible Cities, but I’m not sure if this was one of them. I know I tried but I feel like the bookstore didn’t have it. I will see if

A good way to put it! Of course, sometimes you gotta go out and make your soul feel the beat!

I read one chapter of Faulkner’s Light in August before vacation and loved it. For the past week I’ve been oddly nervous to return. I think I’m waiting for the “perfect” headspace, when what I really need to do is just open the book. Maybe I’m romanticizing the conditions of reading.

Who knows: maybe it did come directly from your brain! I need to find your interview! I still think he is such an insightful and humane individual. I just don’t get the kick from his fiction!

George Saunders: Vigil - The Mookse and the Gripes I always approach a new George Saunders book with hope. Vigil returns to the afterlife, moral reckoning, and the fragile possibility of redemption. But it left me frustrated. Here are my thoughts.

I wanted to love George Saunders’s Vigil. Instead, I found myself wrestling with its fatalism and wondering whether it comforts us into complacency.

Here’s my full review: mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2026...

Episode 126: Is That a Good Book? Is that a good book?

Today @bibliopaul.bsky.social and I have a new episode up! In it we try to figure out just what we mean when we say a book is “good,” and how can examining that help us engage in new and deeper ways with our reading. open.substack.com/pub/mookse/p...

Oh nice! Thanks for the link, Grant!

The Best of Muriel Spark In 2018, on the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark’s birth, I decided to spend the year reading her 22 novels in order. With rather less efficiency than Spark herself, who wrote a novel a year betwe…

This is something I did a few years ago -a fantastic experience. Here are my favourites:
1streading.wordpress.com/2021/09/14/t...

Muriel Spark: Robinson - The Mookse and the Gripes I continue my chronological trek through Muriel Spark's work with her second, 1958's Robinson.

I continue my chronological trek through the work of Muriel Spark with her second, 1958’s Robinson. What a trip! mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2026...

I put this in my review: “Perhaps I was anticipating too much and anticlimax was a foregone conclusion, but in the end, I have to say, I still found it more clever than deep.” I actually didn’t read anything else by Calvino after until about a year ago when I read Invisible Cities which I loved!