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A Child in the Theatre by Rachel Ferguson – #NovNov Day 1
It’s time for Novellas in November – run by Cathy and Rebecca – and I have rather unwisely decided to try and read one every day in November. It seemed like a great idea a while ago. I’ve done my 25...
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Amsterdam by Ian McEwan – #NovNov Day 2
I bought Amsterdam (1998) by Ian McEwan around the time I read Atonement – so probably around 2003, i.e. half my life ago, more or less. I’ve been up and down with McEwan, but have somehow never read...
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Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl – #NovNov Day 3
Like Amsterdam that I read yesterday, Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl opens with a death. Now your husband is also dead, Anna. Your husband, our husband. I would have liked him to lie next...
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The Lonely by Paul Gallico – #NovNov Day 4
I bought a book ten years ago that I thought was called Ludmilla and the Lonely – turns out it is two novellas, the second and longer of which is called The Lonely. That’s what I read today – a rather...
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Murder Included by Joanna Cannan – #NovNov Day 5
A murder mystery is a fun choice for my novella-a-day challenge, because I always wants to finish a murder mystery in one day – and it’s only the length that stops me. Quite spontaneously, I took...
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A Wild Swan by Michael Cunningham – #NovNov Day 6
Today is definitely cheating, because A Wild Swan and other tales (2015) is, as the full title suggests, not a novella. It’s very definitely a collection of short stories, but it does come in at around...
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The Birds of the Innocent Wood by Deirdre Madden – #NovNov Day 8
Thank you for all the birthday good wishes for yesterday – Colin and I had a lovely time, successfully escaping an escape room with some friends, then seeing fireworks. There are always handy fireworks...
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The Poor Man by Stella Benson – #NovNov Day 9
I first read Stella Benson when I was writing about witches for my DPhil – Living Alone is perhaps her best known novel, and is certainly well known in particular academic circles. I was so beguiled...
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The Story of Stanley Brent by Elizabeth Berridge – #NovNov Day 10
I read a book published by Michael Walmer yesterday, albeit in a different edition – and today I read one that was published by his imprint and sent to me as a review copy last year: The Story of...
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Notes From An Island by Tove Jansson – #NovNov Day 11
What a lovely book. My brother got me Notes From An Island (1996, translated 2021) by Tove Jansson for my birthday – knowing my love of Jansson – and I couldn’t wait to dive in and enjoy this...
View ArticleHeritage by Vita Sackville-West – #NovNov Day 12
I think Vita Sackville-West is a really underrated writer – because she is still chiefly remembered for her connection with Virginia Woolf. No, she isn’t in Woolf’s league as a writer – who is? – but...
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Tinkers by Paul Harding – #NovNov Day 13
Another late post today, because I was out this evening – seeing the film Early Summer – but today I read 2009’s Tinkers by Paul Harding, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. I bought it in 2012, possibly...
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The Silent Traveller in Oxford by Chiang Yee – #NovNov Day 14
In 2009, I was in the Bookbarn in Somerset and somehow got chatting to someone who worked there. It came up that I lived in Oxford, and he was determined that I should read The Silent Traveller in...
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The White Riband by F. Tennyson Jesse – #NovNov Day 15
A Pin to See the Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse has just come out as a British Library Women Writers title, and I think it’s probably the book for which she is best known – but it is far from her only...
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Tea or Books? #99: Do We Like Essays? and Brook Evans vs The Crowded Street
Winifred Holtby, Susan Glaspell, and essays – welcome to episode 99! https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/tea-or-books-episode-99.mp3 Sorry for an unintended long break, but we’re...
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Still Life by Richard Cobb – #NovNov Day 16
Today’s book is cheating a bit, because I started it in September – and somehow it fell to one side, and I read the second half today. And it is twenty or so pages over the self-imposed 200pp limit....
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Particularly Cats by Doris Lessing – #NovNov Day 17
Particularly Cats (1967) is the third book by Doris Lessing that I’ve read – but nothing in the dystopian Memoirs of a Survivor or the grim The Fifth Child would have led me to expect something like...
View ArticleLudmilla by Paul Gallico – #NovNov Day 18
Earlier in the month I read The Lonely by Paul Gallico, and today I read the other half of the book I have it in – Ludmilla, originally published in 1955. It was printed as a separate book initially,...
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Father Malachy’s Miracle by Bruce Marshall – #NovNov Day 19
What a delightful novel. I bought Father Malachy’s Miracle (1931) early last year because the premise sounded so interesting, and because I had previously read Marshall’s novel High Brows as part of...
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Ignorance by Milan Kundera – #NovNov Day 21
For those keeping track, I didn’t blog yesterday but I DID finish a book. I didn’t write about it because it’s a future British Library Women Writers title and I’m not sure I’m meant to mention it...
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