Weekend Miscellany

My day started with pancakes and went on to pie (a mushroom, spinach, hazelnut and white truffle oil pie, since you ask = bliss), so it’s all going pretty well. My intention to read all day isn’t going great, although I am loving David Sedaris in brief snatches. And not reading the two books I told myself I’d read today. Still, it’s only 5.30pm, so still plenty of reading time left today – and time to give you a few bits of miscellaneous linking.

1.) You may know that Oliver Sacks is one of my heroes, and I love his books (and his humanity). His heroism continues in this beautiful, sad, wise piece for the New York Times about learning that he has terminal cancer.

2.) In a totally different tone, you might enjoy this quiz I put together in honour of Go Set a Watchman being announced: it is titles of books which are taken from elsewhere. Half are from the Bible; half are not. Can you tell which is which? (And thanks Susan for pointing out to me that Go Set a Watchman borrows its title from the Bible! I’m ashamed that I didn’t realise that myself.)

3.) Helene Hanff’s Letter from New York is on my bedside table, so I was excited to see Ali’s review of it – especially since it’s rather glowing.

4.) Do you (like me) love bad films? Not just mediocrity, but the ones with a script, direction, acting, and sound quality so bad that you ask ‘How did this get made?‘ Well, that just so happens to be the title of a hilarious podcast I discovered recently. It’s been going for four or so years, so there should be something in the archives to whet the appetite.

I’ve been rather under the weather this week (those reviews were thankfully pre-scheduled!) so haven’t been around the blogs as much as I’d have liked… but I’m still going to rustle up a few links and whatnot for you.

1.) The Persephone Prize – have you entered? Are you going to? I suppose we should keep these things strictly confidential, so I shall just say that Mum and I have both entered (or are planning on entering) – the mother vs son competition starts right here!

2.) There are lots of Shiny New Books reviews of mine that I’ve not pointed to yet, but I’ll stick one in here that isn’t a date for A Century of Books (which I have officially given up finishing this year, but which will be finished eventually): Bed Manners, a spoof etiquette guide from the 1930s. It’s every bit as fun as that sounds.

3.) Early announcement that My Life in Books will be coming back soon(ish)! I’ve had most of the answers in, so I need to chase some people and match up some partners (which I usually do earlier, but… not this time.)

I’m off for part of the weekend – to visit Jane Austen’s house, no less – and so still haven’t caught up with answering comments yet. I will soon! But I shan’t leave you empty-handed; here are a few bits and pieces to tide you over.

1.) I wrote about A.A. Milne for the OxfordWords blog, which I’ve been intending to do ever since I started working at OUP.

2.) Margaret Kennedy Reading Week was good fun, and I’ve bought a copy of her book The Outlaws on Parnassus: on the art of the novel as a result of it. Enjoy a full round-up over at Jane/Fleur’s.

3.) It’s actually been ages since I submitted my DPhil thesis (last October) was vivaed (in January) and had my corrections approved (May) – but I still haven’t had my graduation (November). I have, though, finally got my thesis bound. One copy has been submitted to the Bodleian; another is here:

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend! There’s still a bit of it left, so there is time for a book, a blog post, and a link… and, you never know, I might even manage to review some books this week. I’m back in the position of reading lots at once, including some chunksters (Sarah Waters, anyone?) so I’ll have to dive into the backlog of unreviewed books. And I will reply to comments soon too, promise…

1.) The link – if you live near Oxford and want to abseil down a church on October 4th in support of Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre, then this link will tell you how. If you either don’t live near Oxford or (like me) could never be brought to abseil for anything, the same link will give more info anyway, if you would like to support. Thanks to my friend Sophie for sharing the link.

2.) The blog post – I adored Dodie Smith’s Look Back With Love, the first volume of her four-part autobiography, and bought a couple of the others immediately. I still hadn’t read any more, but Barb at Leaves and Pages has written lovely and glowing reviews of them. All got 10/10. And now I’m knee-deep in Look Back With Mixed Feelings.

3.) The book – I have heard much of Una Silberrad at middlebrow conferences, but not read anything by her yet – so was delighted to receive a copy of The Good Comrade from Victorian Secrets, and will report back in due course. Find out more here…

Well, the rains, they cometh. Hopefully that means I can curl up indoors and fight off Reader’s Block (I know I keep mentioning it, but it’s a bit of a worry with the pile of Shiny New Books to read, although mine is nothing compared to Victoria’s). But I’ve still rustled up a book, a link, and a blog post…

1.) The link – I put together another quiz for OxfordWords – this time, can you spot titles borrowed from other books? I think this is the post I’ve had most fun creating so far. Let me know how you did!

2.) The book – Can I be mammothly indiscreet for a moment? Almost every publisher has been wonderful about providing books for Shiny New Books – either to us or to a band of willing reviewers. The exception is Fourth Estate, who have ignored all of our emails – but, damn their eyes &c., they also publish some very intriguing-sounding books (and I’m sure they have v good reasons for not being able to reply!) It’s played in their favour, as we’ve ended up buying the books ourselves and sending them off to reviewers – and today I ordered a beautiful reprint of Penelope Fitzgerald’s Charlotte Mew and Her Friends. They’ve also reprinted lots of her novels in equally striking covers.

3.) The blog post – my Shiny New Books co-editor has done her own Q&A – you’re too late to ask the Q, I’m afraid, but you can read the A – part one and part two.

Another busy weekend coming up for me – I really must arrange one where I just lie around reading books – so I’ll leave you with a quick trio!

1.) The blog post – it’s been ages since I read a Richmal Crompton book, and Leadon Hill isn’t one of the 26 I have read (not including the William series), but Claire’s review has whetted my appetite for more.

2.) The link – I watched Twenty-Twelve long after everyone else (the BBC sitcom about a committee preparing for the Olympics), but I’m on board with W1A.  It’s a sort-of sequel, with Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Stevenson reprising their roles, set at the BBC – Bonneville’s character has become ‘Head of Values’. It’s just as brilliantly believable as before, with lots of verbal ticks (tics?) offering the most comedy. Watch here on iPlayer, if you can.

3.) The poll results – a slight change from the usual miscellany! Thank you for so many results; I found it really interesting to see how the different Penelopes fared (and loved the comment from Jill, on the poll, that her favourite was Penelope!)  The results are above – so far, anyway; the poll is still open – and I will report back on The Pumpkin Eater when I’ve finished it.

Hope you’re having a nice weekend – in the UK we finally have SUN!  It’s amazing.

1.) The book – have you read any of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s short stories? NYRB Classics have brought out a few with lovely covers (as per) and I’m currently reading The Autobiography of a Corpse, and finding it… interesting. Jury’s out at the moment. Anybody know anything more about his writing?

2.) The review – one of my biggest surprises in recent years was when Claire/Captive Reader didn’t love the (oh-so-lovely) Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton. So she’s moved down to my second favourite book read in 2012 – although I suspect that is a coincidence – and did end up loving the equally-lovely Blue Remembered Hills by Rosemary Sutcliff. Go and enjoy her review here. And then make sure you read the book.

3.) The link – this one has been doing the rounds in various places, so this is just the most recent place I’ve seen it. First brought to my attention by my friend Hannah, there is an app which will cleverly scroll through words, enabling you to read a book much more quickly than you would moving your eyes across a page.  Now, when it comes to reading novels I remain a technophobe, and I certainly shan’t be getting one, but I’m still impressed by the idea…

I’m off to Bristol for the weekend (as mentioned the other day) – but my quiz ability might be hampered by the fact that I’m not feeling very well.  Doh.  (That’s my excuse if I do badly, anyway.)

Here’s your usual (ahem) round-up of book, blog, and link!

1.) The book – I don’t know much about this one, but it arrived through my letterbox and looks interesting… Grace and Mary by Melvyn Bragg, from Sceptre. A quick google tells me that it was actually out in hardback and I missed it completely (or, more likely, read about it and forgot it).  Well, more info here!

2.) The blog – you probably all know and love Thomas of My Porch and The Readers.  Well, he can add a third string to his violin (which is, incidentally, the number of strings my violin has had for three years) with Lucy’s Forever Home.  It documents the transformation of his home (which was, frankly, already sublimely beautiful) – all the planning, reasons behind choices, diagrams, mood boards, and pictures of machinery that you could wish for.  I lived for property programmes during my teens, and still love them now when I’m in at the right time – and this is like watching one about people I know.

3.) The link – a neat segue. Terry’s Fabrics sent me a link to a fun infographic they’d made about homes in classic literature, from Jane Eyre to The Secret Garden.  Enjoy!

Short intro… enjoy!

1.) The blog post – don’t forget to be checking out Kim’s advent calendar of bloggers’ best books of 2013!  That link takes you to Kim’s blog Reading Matters so you can scroll through the choices; to see mine, which appeared on day one, click here.

2.) The book – another reprint publisher which got in touch recently was Turnpike Books, who sent A.E. Coppard’s short stories Weep Not My Wanton, which I’m excited to read as soon as I possibly can.

3.) The link – these are probably faked, at least some of them, but funny notes written by kids are always going to be funny, yes?