
#tagyoureit ! @Daisey
You posted a review of this book that is on my (TBR) shelf. 😁
Find a book & post to play along!
@Deblovestoread @Chrissyreadit
#tagyoureit ! @Daisey
You posted a review of this book that is on my (TBR) shelf. 😁
Find a book & post to play along!
@Deblovestoread @Chrissyreadit
4.5⭐️
I enjoyed listening to The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson. It's set at the end of WWI on the seaside in England. I thought the characters were well developed. I loved Poppy and the way she stood up for women's rights. She was my favorite character in the book. This was my first book by Simonson, but it won't be my last.
#bookspinbingo ##Serieslove2025
Just a word doodle from last night that became a rough haiku.
#haikuhive #haikuaday
A little while ago Richard Osman chose this as his favourite ever short book / novella. (on The Rest is Entertainment podcast with Marina Hyde). It just appeared as an audiobook on my library app so I thought I‘d give it a go.
WW1 veteran, Tom, arrives in a Yorkshire village to restore a medieval mural in the church and finds restoration himself. It‘s such a beautiful but sad story - reminded me rather of The Remains of the Day.
Why did the 9th Duke of Rutland, owner of the spacious Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, die on a couch in a cramped. cold, suite of rooms in the servants' quarters? In 1940, in poor health & fading fast, the Duke refused to be removed to more comfortable surroundings & insisted on being left alone in the rooms, which were then locked up & left untouched for 60 years after his death. But why?
It is an astonishing fact that, in 1914 & 1915, as Europe approached & then began a devastating war, the married, 60+ British Prime Minister was so besotted with a 27 year old society girl that he wrote letters to her during cabinet meetings that contained state secrets along side gushing professions of love & sent her top secret documents. This book is a fictionalised account of the relationship & of the government‘s conduct of the war. ⬇️
In the Absence of Men, by Philippe Besson (2007, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: In 1916 Paris, a queer teenager experiences love for the first time in very different relationships with a middle-aged writer and a soldier on leave from the War.
Review: Once again, Philippe Besson has demonstrated his knack for exceptional, short, melancholic, queer fiction. Cont.
Oof. It feels a little weird to still be championing Daniel Mason's writing, when in other hands, I'd be explaining that this novel lived up to every expectation of a tragic war-torn novel and its predictable plot beats. Did I see everything coming? No. But did I guess exactly how it would end just over halfway through? Yes. We can have the discussion about an author skillfully leading you towards a conclusion, 1/?