Today I had an action-packed day in London, and I did get through quite a lot of a book on the train to and from, but not a whole book. Luckily I only had 40 minutes left on an audiobook of Joe Cin…

Stuck In A Book Blog

05.05.2024

A delightful reread for #ABookADayInMay – Day 4 – Stuck in a Book

I read Ashcombe (1949) by Cecil Beaton back in 2012, sitting in the Bodleian Library. I quickly knew I needed my own copy – and this beautiful edition arrived. Here we are, 12 years later, an…

Stuck In A Book Blog

04.05.2024

The Camomile by Catherine Carswell #ABookADayInMay – Day 3 – Stuck in a Book

Off to 1920s Scotland for the latest in my A Book A Day In May journey – and The Camomile by Catherine Carswell. The narrator is Ellen Carstairs, a clever, slightly cynical woman in her early…

Stuck In A Book Blog

03.05.2024

Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg #ABookADayInMay Day 2 – Stuck in a Book

Happily, day two of A Book A Day in May was much more successful – and, somehow, even shorter. Only 62 pages! And yet Ginzburg gets a whole world into Valentino (1957), translated by Avril Ba…

Stuck In A Book Blog

02.05.2024

#ABookADayInMay is back! And I didn’t like the first one! – Stuck in a Book

It’s May again, and that can only mean one thing – I’m doing A Book A Day in May again! I don’t know if Madame Bibi is planning to do a novella a day in May again, as I am m…

Stuck In A Book Blog

29.04.2024

Summer Half by Angela Thirkell – belated #1937Club guest post! – Stuck in a Book

I normally don’t post ‘club’ reviews after the week has finished – but we all make exceptions for our mothers, and here is my Mum (Anne – also known as Our Vicar&#8217…

Stuck In A Book Blog

26.04.2024

Tea or Books? #127: Do We Have Guilty Pleasures? and A Clergyman’s Daughter vs The Vicar’s Daughter – Stuck in a Book

George Orwell, E.H. Young, guilty pleasures – welcome to episode 127! In the first half of the episode, we ask: what is our guiltiest reading pleasure? Has that changed over time? Do we feel …

Stuck In A Book Blog

23.04.2024

The next club will be… – Stuck in a Book

Thank you to everyone who made the 1937 Club such a success. I think it’s our highest number of reviews yet. Karen and I have chatted and the next club year, in October, will be… the 19…

Stuck In A Book Blog

22.04.2024

No Peace for the Wicked by Ursula Torday – #1937Club – Stuck in a Book

In the final afternoon of the 1937 Club, I’m writing about the most obscure of my choices this week – Ursula Torday’s No Peace for the Wicked. It’s one of three novels that …

Stuck In A Book Blog

20.04.2024

Two #1937Club murder mysteries – Stuck in a Book

I am so behind with gathering up and reading 1937 Club posts – what else is new for a club week? – but I’m loving seeing them flood in, and will catch up. For today, I am writing …

Stuck In A Book Blog

19.04.2024

Virginia Woolf – 14 March 1937 – Stuck in a Book

Today’s contribution to the 1937 Club is something I used to often do with the club years, where relevant – find out what Virginia Woolf was writing in her diary that year. I flicked th…

Stuck In A Book Blog

17.04.2024

I Would Be Private by Rose Macaulay – #1937Club – Stuck in a Book

For a long time, I tended to see Rose Macaulay only mentioned in relation to her final novel, The Towers of Trebizond. That shifted a bit when Vintage brought back some of her novels, and other pub…

Stuck In A Book Blog

16.04.2024

Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham – #1937Club – Stuck in a Book

My first stop for the 1937 Club is Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. I bought my copy in 2011, drawn (as ever) to any novel about the theatre. And what could be more about the theatre than a novel wh…

Stuck In A Book Blog

15.04.2024

#1937Club: your reviews! – Stuck in a Book

The 1937 Club kicks off today! Until Sunday, we’d love to know your thoughts and reviews of any book published in 1937 – whatever genre, format, language etc. Together, we can put toget…

Stuck In A Book Blog

10.04.2024

Happy blog birthday to me! – Stuck in a Book

For once, I remembered to celebrate – today is the blogiversary of StuckinaBook. And it’s old enough to get a driving licence in the UK – 17 years old!! It’s seems quite ext…

Stuck In A Book Blog

06.04.2024

The novel that turned into All Of Us Strangers – Stuck in a Book

I loved Andrew Haigh’s film All of Us Strangers and think it’s criminal that Andrew Scott and Jamie Bell haven’t won every award under the sun (and Paul Mescal and Claire Foy can have some too). It…

Stuck In A Book Blog

04.04.2024

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino – Stuck in a Book

The Baron in the Trees (1957) is my first novel by Italo Calvino – and the description of it is a real tussle between something that really appeals to me and something that really doesn&#82…

Stuck In A Book Blog

21.03.2024

What’s For Dinner? by James Schuyler – Stuck in a Book

I wrote on Instagram that What’s For Dinner? (1978) was ‘like Ivy Compton-Burnett’s characters leapt forward a century and took to drinking cooking sherry’ and I’m hal…

Stuck In A Book Blog

19.03.2024

Tea or Books? #126: Should Books Be Banned? and Lessons in Chemistry vs Dear Mrs Bird – Stuck in a Book

Banned books, Bonnie Garmus and A.J. Pearce – welcome to episode 126! In the first half of the episode, we discuss banned books – should books ever be banned? Does a book being banned m…

Stuck In A Book Blog

14.03.2024

How To Be Multiple by Helena de Bres – Stuck in a Book

When I discovered there was a new collection of essays out about the philosophy of twins, and that it was written by an identical twin, I couldn’t resist. Having tweeted my excitement, Manche…

Stuck In A Book Blog

12.03.2024

Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts – Stuck in a Book

I picked up Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts in a wonderful, cavernous bookshop in Whitehaven, Cumbria, when I was there last year. I bought it off the strength of the title, and the fact that I&#8…

Stuck In A Book Blog

09.03.2024

Unnecessary Rankings! British Library Women Writers – Stuck in a Book

Since it’s International Women’s Day, I thought I’d commemorate the occasion by… ranking books by women! Yes, putting successful women up against each other probably …

Stuck In A Book Blog

04.03.2024

Come to Esther Rutter’s online book launch (with me!) – Stuck in a Book

Many of you may have read Esther Rutter’s brilliant This Golden Fleece about the historical, cultural and social significance of knitting and wool – it’s not a topic I knew anythi…

Stuck In A Book Blog

01.03.2024

Why I’m Not A Millionaire by Nancy Spain – Stuck in a Book

Nancy Spain has been having a new lease of life recently, with the re-issue of her detective novels. To a certain generation, she is also remembered as a regular on radio and TV panel shows. For me…

Stuck In A Book Blog

28.02.2024

The books I bought in Hay-on-Wye (it was a lot) – Stuck in a Book

I’ve just been away for a week to a lovely cottage on the Dinefwr National Trust estate with some friends. It’s in Wales, and only just over an hour away from Hay-on-Wye… so natur…

Stuck In A Book Blog

16.02.2024

Unnecessary Rankings! Stella Gibbons – Stuck in a Book

My ‘Unnecessary Rankings!’ series have quickly become my favourite blog posts to write, and I love reading your comments – sometimes in agreement, but usually not, and that’…

Stuck In A Book Blog

11.02.2024

Tea or Books? #125: Do We Read Celeb Memoirs? and Day vs Landscape in Sunlight – Stuck in a Book

Celeb memoirs, Michael Cunningham, Elizabeth Fair – welcome to episode 125! In the first half, Rachel and I discuss celebrity memoirs – do we read them? What do we count as a celebrity …

Stuck In A Book Blog

09.02.2024

The Oracles by Margaret Kennedy – Stuck in a Book

It’s not often that I buy a book and read it straightaway, but I was so intrigued by The Oracles (1955) by Margaret Kennedy when I picked it up in Chipping Camden last weekend that I immediat…

Stuck In A Book Blog

08.02.2024

Three quick reviews – Stuck in a Book

I don’t normally write about every book I read, but A Century of Books project means that… well, I do! So here are three short takes on books that I don’t want to write about in f…

Stuck In A Book Blog

05.02.2024

Death and Mary Dazill by Mary Fitt – Stuck in a Book

With a title like Death and Mary Dazill (1941) and the cover you see above, I knew I couldn’t resist reading this novel. It went on my wishlist, and my friend Clare gave it to me for my birth…

Stuck In A Book Blog

31.01.2024

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino – Stuck in a Book

I think my friend Kirsty first mentioned Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, and it falls in a genre I particularly like – the sort of essay that is both personal and well-researched. When they lean too…

Stuck In A Book Blog

26.01.2024

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams – Stuck in a Book

I go to my village book group because I enjoy discussing books and getting to know people. I don’t particularly expect to enjoy the novels. It leans much more modern than my taste, and often …

Stuck In A Book Blog

24.01.2024

Unnecessary Rankings! Jane Austen – Stuck in a Book

It’s actually surprising that it’s taken me this long to rank Jane Austen in my Unnecessary Rankings series. Because surely we’ve all had this conversation with fellow Austenites …

Stuck In A Book Blog

20.01.2024

Day by Michael Cunningham – Stuck in a Book

If you read my Top Books of 2023 or listened to the ‘Tea or Books?’ episode where Rachel and I shared our favourite reads, you’ll have already heard that I really loved Day by Mic…

Stuck In A Book Blog

16.01.2024

Twice Lost by Phyllis Paul – Stuck in a Book

When I read R.B. Russell’s very good Fifty Forgotten Books, there were a handful of books that particularly appealed – and one of them was Phyllis Paul’s much-admired but out-of-p…

Stuck In A Book Blog

14.01.2024

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck – Stuck in a Book

I don’t usually stand behind the idea that the books we read in school are ruined for us – but I have to admit that I have no long-lasting love for Of Mice and Men. It was rewarding to …

Stuck In A Book Blog

12.01.2024

The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning – Stuck in a Book

When Scott (aka Furrowed Middlebrow) raves about a novel, you take notice. Katherine Dunning’s little-known 1934 novel was his favourite read of last year and he wrote extremely enthusiastica…

Stuck In A Book Blog

11.01.2024

Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill – Stuck in a Book

When I was in Toronto, I met up with a listener to Tea or Books? – Debra – and, after a lovely dinner, we went book shopping. I told her I was on the lookout for Canadian authors writin…

Stuck In A Book Blog

09.01.2024

Tea or Books? #124: Our Favourite Reads of 2023 – Stuck in a Book

Our favourite books from 2023 – or reads, because of course we mostly read ‘backlisted’ titles. Always a fun one to record – this time with the added bonus that we were each…

Stuck In A Book Blog

08.01.2024

The World Between Two Covers by Ann Morgan – Stuck in a Book

Every Christmas, I seem to read a book I was given for the previous Christmas. Partly that’s me looking at a particular book and thinking, “Gosh, I’ve wanted to read that for a wh…

home›Stuck In A Book Blog›Books & Literature

Stuck In A Book Blog - Books & Literature

Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner #ABookADayInMay Day 5 – Stuck in a Book

A delightful reread for #ABookADayInMay – Day 4 – Stuck in a Book

The Camomile by Catherine Carswell #ABookADayInMay – Day 3 – Stuck in a Book

Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg #ABookADayInMay Day 2 – Stuck in a Book

#ABookADayInMay is back! And I didn’t like the first one! – Stuck in a Book

Summer Half by Angela Thirkell – belated #1937Club guest post! – Stuck in a Book

Tea or Books? #127: Do We Have Guilty Pleasures? and A Clergyman’s Daughter vs The Vicar’s Daughter – Stuck in a Book

The next club will be… – Stuck in a Book

No Peace for the Wicked by Ursula Torday – #1937Club – Stuck in a Book

Two #1937Club murder mysteries – Stuck in a Book

Virginia Woolf – 14 March 1937 – Stuck in a Book

I Would Be Private by Rose Macaulay – #1937Club – Stuck in a Book

Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham – #1937Club – Stuck in a Book

#1937Club: your reviews! – Stuck in a Book

Happy blog birthday to me! – Stuck in a Book

The novel that turned into All Of Us Strangers – Stuck in a Book

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino – Stuck in a Book

What’s For Dinner? by James Schuyler – Stuck in a Book

Tea or Books? #126: Should Books Be Banned? and Lessons in Chemistry vs Dear Mrs Bird – Stuck in a Book

How To Be Multiple by Helena de Bres – Stuck in a Book

Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts – Stuck in a Book

Unnecessary Rankings! British Library Women Writers – Stuck in a Book

Come to Esther Rutter’s online book launch (with me!) – Stuck in a Book

Why I’m Not A Millionaire by Nancy Spain – Stuck in a Book

The books I bought in Hay-on-Wye (it was a lot) – Stuck in a Book

Unnecessary Rankings! Stella Gibbons – Stuck in a Book

Tea or Books? #125: Do We Read Celeb Memoirs? and Day vs Landscape in Sunlight – Stuck in a Book

The Oracles by Margaret Kennedy – Stuck in a Book

Three quick reviews – Stuck in a Book

Death and Mary Dazill by Mary Fitt – Stuck in a Book

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino – Stuck in a Book

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams – Stuck in a Book

Unnecessary Rankings! Jane Austen – Stuck in a Book

Day by Michael Cunningham – Stuck in a Book

Twice Lost by Phyllis Paul – Stuck in a Book

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck – Stuck in a Book

The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning – Stuck in a Book

Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill – Stuck in a Book

Tea or Books? #124: Our Favourite Reads of 2023 – Stuck in a Book

The World Between Two Covers by Ann Morgan – Stuck in a Book

home
›
Stuck In A Book Blog
›
Books & Literature