What is a Novella? #NovNov

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with Alan Bennett, Caroline Smailes, Claire Keegan, Dimitri Verhulst, Elizabeth Strout, Graham Swift, Gwendoline Riley, Hanne Ørstavik, Ian McEwan, Kent Haruf, Kim Thuy, Lena Andersson, Muriel Barbery, Nancy Mitford, Nora Ephron, Sonya Hartnett, Zadie Smith November 6, 2023

This week’s #NovNov prompt is ‘What is a novella?’, and invites bloggers to share their definition of a novella (and/or list favourites). Continue reading →

The Top 54 from the Best Books of 2022 List of Lists

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2022, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Akwaeke Emezi, Amy Bloom, Barbara Kingsolver, Bonnie Garmus, book list, Celeste Ng, Charmaine Wilkerson, Cormac McCarthy, Douglas Stuart, Ed Yong, Elif Batuman, Elizabeth McCracken, Elizabeth Strout, Emily Henry, Emily St. John Mandel, Gabrielle Zevin, George Saunders, Hanya Yanagihara, Hernan Diaz, Hua Hsu, Ian McEwan, Ingrid Contreras, Jennette McCurdy, jennifer egan, Jessamine Chan, Joanna Quinn, Jonathan Escoffery, Julia May Jonas, Julie Otsuka, Kate Atkinson, Kate Beaton, Kathryn Schulz, Kevin Wilson, Leila Mottley, Lydia Millet, Maggie O'Farrell, Margo Jefferson, Meghan O’Rourke, Morgan Talty, Moshin Hamid, Namwali Serpell, NoViolet Bulawayo, Ocean Vuong, Olga Tokarczuk, R. F. Kuang, Rachel Aviv, Rob Delaney, Sarah Thankam Mathews, Shehan Karunatilaka, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Stacy Schiff, Tess Gunty, Xochitl Gonzalez, Yiyun Li December 22, 2022

Presenting the 2022 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2022-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 54 books.

(This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 52 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2022 – A List of Lists – enjoy!). Continue reading →

Six Degrees of Separation – from Sweet Tooth to A Room with a View

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with E M Forster, Ian McEwan, Natalie Paull, Sarah Winman, Six Degrees of Separation, Sloane Crosley, Victoria Hannan, Zoë Heller September 3, 2022

It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up. Continue reading →

Six Degrees of Separation – from The Book of Form and Emptiness to

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with Adrienne Raphel, Ian McEwan, jennifer egan, Jessica Moor, Katherine Tamiko Arguile, Kimberley Allsopp, Ruth Ozeki, Six Degrees of Separation August 6, 2022

It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up.

This month we begin with The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. Continue reading →

Book vs. Film – The Children Act

Posted by Kate W in Book vs Film and tagged with film, Ian McEwan, movie April 10, 2020

Book, because: Continue reading →

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with 2019, audiobook, book review, British, dystopian, eighties, fiction, Helen Phillips, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, reading challenge, review, science fiction July 12, 2019

Ian McEwan sure does have the corner on the middle-class-white-men-having-existential-crises market, doesn’t he?

In Machines Like Me, McEwan conjures a world not quite like the one we know. It’s the eighties in Britain – the Falklands War has been lost, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Continue reading →

I’m waiting for… 2019 edition

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2019, Angela Savage, Carrie Tiffany, Catherine Knepper, Christos Tsiolkas, Dani Shapiro, David Nicholls, Deborah Levy, Elizabeth Gilbert, Elizabeth McCracken, Elizabeth Strout, Elliot Perlman, Emily Nussbaum, Erin Somers, Halle Butler, Heather Rose, Heidi Diehl, Helen Oyeyemi, Ian McEwan, Jen Beagin, Jennifer Down, Leanne Shapton, Leslie Jamison, Lindsay Stern, Mary Laura Philpott, Maylis de Kerangal, Naja Marie Aidt, Nora McInerny, Polly Rosenwaike, Siri Hustvedt, Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tessa Hadley, TJ Stimson, Yara Zgheib January 14, 2019

Seems there’s lots of good reading to be done this year (have I ever started a year not thinking the same…? No). Continue reading →

Four Quick Reviews

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with 2018, American, Anita Shreve, book review, British, Emma Donoghue, fiction, Ian McEwan, Irish, review, short story, Tracy Barone December 17, 2018

It’s getting to that stage where every spare moment is spent on ‘end-of-year’ stuff, leaving precious little time for writing reviews. I’m taking a short-cut. Continue reading →

Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts

Posted by Kate W in Book vs Film, Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with audiobook, Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts, David Sheff, Elena Ferrante, film, Ian McEwan, Melbourne Writers Festival, movie, Nic Sheff, nonfiction, television October 3, 2018

01. Dragged the children to the MoMA exhibition this week. I didn’t take pics of my favourite pieces (too busy enjoying) – a Le Corbusier scale model of Villa Sayoye and a small Matisse canvas that was amazingly vibrant.

I watched the airport departures board included in the exhibition for ages – you don’t realise what you miss until you see it again… the soft whir of the board clicking over was deeply nostalgic. Continue reading →

Book vs. Film: On Chesil Beach

Posted by Kate W in Book vs Film and tagged with film, Ian McEwan, movie August 24, 2018

Book. Because – Continue reading →