“Death, after all, is not a great thing to want for.” #nightjarpress In my post on Nicholas Royle’s “Finders, Keepers” I mentioned that he was the man behind Nightjar Press, publishers of some very striking little chapbooks. I’ve read a few o…

On the Ramblings today - an unnerving pair of Nightjar chapbooks! @nightjarpress.bsky.social @nicholasroyle.bsky.social "Death, after all, is not a great thing to want for." #nightjarpress kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2026/04/21/d...

Wonderful! Congratulations Dorian!!

I tend to agree - we'd just be doing the same things for longer, and I think you're right about the momentum. The dynamic is very different when you do a longer event, and I like the fact that everything is packed into a week! I feel it's definitely more manageable.

It's not - I do that too and I'm sure Simon does as well!

I don't know what @stuckinabook.bsky.social thinks about the idea, because it would need to fit in with his blogging plans. There's also our real life commitments to thing about! 🤣🤣🤣 2

A month would be definitely too much, but a lot of is it fitting things around other plans we have for the blogs too. Doing a month for ReadIndies is already a big commitment for me, and with all of the clubs the time-consuming bit is chasing down everyone's postings and linking and commenting. 1/

That would be fun, but the clubs are a lot of work for us so I suspect we would burn out a bit!! 🤣 The next year is going to stretch me when it comes to choosing as there are so many good options...

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While THE CHILDREN’S HOUR looks at the damage gossip and hearsay could do, especially when manipulated by vindictive individuals, VICTIM explores blackmail, extortion and criminality.

A fascinating pairing from my #1961Club viewing! (3/3) #FilmSky

@kaggsy59.bsky.social @stuckinabook.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…

The #1961Club comes to an end - but what year will we choose next??? 🤔📚 kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/t...

Book cover. The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart. A woodland scene with fields beyond.

Just over halfway through my second read for the #1961club The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart. Which I wasn't sure about at first but now I'm liking it well enough. The first book I have read by her.

The 1961 Club: The Mighty and Their Fall / Ivy Compton-Burnett I’ve written about dear Ivy before, when I read Daughters and Sons for the 1937 Club. The Mighty and Their Fall is the sixth novel of hers I’ve read, and I have now reached the point at…

It's Ivy Compton-Burnett o'clock in my #1961Club journey, and I'm not sure I've enjoyed any of her novels more than THE MIGHTY AND THEIR FALL! #BookSky

The 1961 Club: Household Ghosts / James Kennaway The Scottish writer James Kennaway (1928-1968) is best remembered for his 1956 novel Tunes of Glory, the bleak story of a power struggle in a Scottish army barracks. I’ve long meant to read i…

For years I've meant to read the Scottish writer James Kennaway, and the #1961Club gave me the push I needed with his novel HOUSEHOLD GHOSTS. Maybe I'll have better luck next time... #BookSky

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

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

Read: Stanisław Lem: Solaris (1961. Beautifully translated by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox).
A totally fascinating book. Not especially for its language, characters or plot, but for the ideas coming out of Lem's brain. I have to read more of him.
#1961Club

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…

For the #1961Club, I nervously go back to a Sergeant Cluff murder mystery, after having a pretty shaky time with the first one www.stuckinabook.com/the-methods-...

LEON MORIN, PRIEST (4 stars) CASH ON DEMAND (4 stars) VIRIDIANA (4 stars) WENDY & LUCY (4.5 stars, rewatch at the cinema).

My #LastFourWatched for #LetterboxdFriday, with 3 out of 4 for the #1961Club.

Faith, religion & doomed love in Occupied France; A CHRISTMAS CAROL spun as a tense heist movie; Spaniards behaving badly in a surrealist classic; and a heartbreaker from Kelly Reichardt. Another excellent week! #FilmSky

A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch (With An Introduction By Miranda Seymour) April 13th-19th: The 1961 Club #1961Club A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch With An Introduction ByMiranda Seymour Book blurb Martin believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly le…

A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch (With An Introduction By Miranda Seymour) April 13th-19th: The 1961 Club #1961Club lovebooksreadbooks.com/2026/04/17/a...

Two children’s classics: #1961Club North American lakeside. Little Bear’s Visit by Else Holmelund Minarik, pictures by Maurice Sendak. An ‘I Can Read’ Book, No 14. World’s Work Children’s Books, 1962 (1…

Two children's classics from 1961: reviews of Else Holmelund Minarik's 'Little Bear's Visit' and Roald Dahl's 'James and the Giant Peach' for the #1961Club. #Booksky wp.me/sezD85-jgp

The 1961 Club: My Sad Captains / Thom Gunn Whenever I post about poetry I come down with impostor syndrome. ‘Sir, I don’t always understand poetry!’ I’m not wholly ignorant, but my knowledge is patchy: I can tell an …

Today's #1961Club offering is an excursion into poetry (with a diversion into film) as I return to an old favourite, Thom Gunn, and his collection MY SAD CAPTAINS #BookSky

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…

My thoughts on Ursula Bloom's wartime memoirs (for the #1961Club) www.stuckinabook.com/war-isnt-won...

As ever, I am very behind in collating and reading #1961Club reviews - this time, blame wisdom tooth surgery! I'll make sure to gather them all up tomorrow, promise.

Clock Without Hands I read Carson McCuller’s debut, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, for the 1940 Club so it only seems appropriate that I take the chance to read her final novel, Clock Without Hands, when the featured y…

My second review for the #1961Club, Carson McCullers' final novel Clock Without Hands:
1streading.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/c...

After a busy week, enjoying a sunny morning and vignettes from Italy for the #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…

'His school and the city had also been largely destroyed during the war. There were traces of his past, but nowhere was there concrete proof to establish his personal history, a history he had taken such pains to hide.' #BookSky 💙📚 #1961Club

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/i...

My brain’s too frazzled this week to get a review written but I’ve been enjoying Franny and Zooey by J D Salinger for the #1961Club which is a book I’ve been meaning to read for years, it’s brilliant so far! #BookSky #audiobook

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…

Finishing off the #1961Club with a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett: www.stuckinabook.com/the-mighty-a...

Book Review – Thunderball by Ian Fleming #1961Club About the Book James Bond is in disgrace. His monthly medical report is critical of the high-living that is ruining his health, and M packs him off for a fortnight in a nature-cure clinic to be tun…

On @whatcathyreadnext.bsky.social

Book Review - Thunderball by Ian Fleming #1961Club whatcathyreadnext.co.uk/2026/04/19/b...

Oh, isn't it great? All hail Queen Ivy! #1961Club