John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Just finished reading Emily St John Mandel’s new novel: Exit Party. I was blown away by the last 100 pages, which pulled everything together in a fantastically satisfying way. Very likely to be my Book of the Year. 120
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Remembering my first bookgroup when we read about Margaret Cavendish. Her portrait and her books at the Harley Gallery #happy 010
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Apologies if this is already known. But I dine out on my friendship with Lucy norla.no/en/news/news...norla.noLucy Moffatt - Translator of the MonthOur Translator of the Month for August is London-born Lucy Moffatt, who has been translating professionally since the mid-1990s, first from Spanish, later from Norwegian. Since 2017, she’s translated ... 010
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 09/08/2026I am really excited by @naomialderman’s Couch to 5k programme for getting back to reading. She explains on Substack naomialderman.substack.com/p/lets-do-a-... naturally I thought I would follow track 3 but when I saw the level of reading she set out, i decided that track 2 was better 😀📖naomialderman.substack.comlet's do a 'couch to 5k' for readingwe're going to work ourselves back to good 'reading fitness' over the next eight weeks. come and join us. 010
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 04/05/2026@lucytranslator.bsky.social thanks for sending me down the rabbit hole of Richard Dawkins and his Pygmalion adventure 😁 good thing I was in the mood for a good laugh 130
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 20/04/2026Volume 4, On the Calculation of Volume, by Solvej Balle, translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell takes up almost the entire tweet. Just to say it is wonderful, nice return to the small, more ish chapters, and a real plot twist at the end. Can’t wait for vol 5: Nov 020
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 13/04/2026Very excited to learn that volume 4 of the sequence On the Calculation of Volume is now awaiting me at @BromleyHouseLib Just need to plan my reading, past volumes have been very “more ish” 110
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Late, but here are my Best Books of 2025 Crime/Thriller Pleasers Zoe Sharp The Girl in the Dark Jo Callaghan Human Remains Simon Mason A Voice in the Nightj Henry Porter The Enigma Girl Secret Barrister CutThroat Trial 110
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 23/12/2025Happy Xmas to all my followers 🎅🏻🎄and special thanks to the librarians, staff and the wonderful libraries which keep me going: Brighton&Hove libraries, @BromleyHouseLib , @DerbyshireLibs , @NottmLibraries , @NottsLibraries 📚 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 27/11/2025I am currently enjoying 4 books from 3 libraries: Thanks to: @DerbyshireLibs for Doctorow’s picks & shovels @BromleyHouseLib for Holland’s After Oscar And @NottsLibraries two ebooks via @BorrowBox and @kobo Barr’s The Two Roberts Merkel’s Freedom My Xmas has come early 🎄🎅🏻 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 24/11/2025My first thought, is s/he called Lefty? Still grieving for my favourite for the Booker Prize #Endling 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 11/11/2025I loved Dur e Aziz Amna’s first novel, American Fever, and I have enjoyed this one, A Splintering, about a young woman seeking to create a life independent of the men who would rule her, and the costs to her mental well being. Recommended 010
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 23/09/2025Just knocked over a glass of water on the kitchen table, splashing the power connection of the kindle but fortunately missing the library book. How is your day going ? *think kindle okay 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 22/09/2025Just finished reading @KadiatuKM Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason’s book To Be Young, Gifted, and Black. Not true, I skimmed some sections, tears in my eyes. We in Nottingham have been truly blessed by the Kanneh-Masons. I was very depressed by some of her accounts of their treatment 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 11/08/2025 My apologies to my followers, I am not here very often, though I try to have a quick read every day. This due to my slowness in dealing with my non reading life. . I hope to return to normal posting later this year. Enjoy your reading!📚 010
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 16/06/2025Volume II of Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, trans by Haveland, continues and expands on the plight of Tara, <spoillers> trapped in 18 Nov. Much more philosophical than vol I, Tara creates a “year” by visits eg northern Sweden = winter. with a classic cliff hanger ending. 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 08/06/2025Wynn-Williams’ Careless People, starts as amusing storyof a NZ woman lawyer who joins Facebook To Do Good. We laugh at the gauche USA Tech Bros but the journey soon turns black as misogyny rises and Facebook prepare to give the Chinese gov access to user data. mesmerising read. 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 16/05/2025Sad news for readers of top class crime novels, especially those set in Bath, England. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m... I met him once, he was a truly nice man. RIP Peter, and thanks for giving me so much reading pleasure. 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 04/05/2025On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara Haveland, is one of my Books of 2025. An amazing account of a woman who always wakes up on 18 November. The novel is written in short sections, so very hard to stop reading, always want to read “just one more" 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 26/04/2025First went to @sohotheatre in 2000. Memorable was the brilliant Roaring Trade in 2009, Andrew Scott explaining credit default swaps to his son in MacDonalds using ketchup and mustard packets. Turns out that also saw Phoebe Waller-Bridge in early role www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/a... 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 16/04/2025Azem’s short novel, Book of Disappearance, trans by Antoon, published in Arabic in 2014 has no plot but describes from several characters point of view, what happens when all Palestinians in Jaffa disappear. I found the lack of plot difficult. But the scenes linger in my mind. 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 15/04/2025Lalami’s Dream Hotel,longlisted for the Women’s Prize, is very topical. The protagonist arrives back in USA, is arrested: ‘algorithms” analysed her dreams and believe she will commit murder. Sent to a camp for 21 days, then longer. Very upsetting in parts. Recommended 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 08/02/2025Sven Holm’s Termush, translated by Sylvia Clayton, is just 119 pages of sparse prose. Written in the late 1960s, it tells about a group of people living in a hotel after an atomic war. It reads relevant to post pandemic life, and reads in eerie detail about the claustrophobia of existence. 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 02/02/2025Made the mistake of picking up Ben Macintyre’s latest: The Siege [of the Iranian embassy in 1980] Riveting from the first paragraph. Brilliantly written. I remember watching the snooker as the story broke. Problem: it is late but I can’t go to bed till I read just a bit more . . 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 01/02/2025Really enjoyed the latest William Boyd novel: Gabriel’s Moon. The enmeshing of the protagonist in the complex spying world of the early 1960s, is brilliantly done. More than a spy novel, reminded me of Graham Greene. 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 21/01/2025Always enjoyed the spy novels of Henry Porter, well plotted with a left wing slant. His latest, The Enigma Girl, is the best yet. Long, and a bit complicated, but nicely plotted with a great female protagonist 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 22/12/2024Happy Xmas to all ! * and, no, that isn’t my TBR in the background 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 19/12/2024After DNF-ing several books and generally being unhappy at what I was reading, I am very happy to have found a novel I am simply enjoying. The pleasure of a comforting read. 📚❤️😀 *Clare Chambers Shy Creatures 010
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 18/12/2024I declare 2024 reading is over, here are my lists for top books for 2024: Fiction: Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors Percival Everett, James Samantha Harvey, Orbital Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings Hari Kunzru, Blue Ruin Agri Ismail, Hyper …c/ 110
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 01/12/2024 Sobel’s new book: Elements of Marie Curie, How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science is light on the science. Excellent on her life, the book also explores the backgrounds of the women scientists who worked with Marie Curie, and who struggled against the misogyny of science 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 22/11/2024Very grateful to the staff at #LongEaton library who have wrapped up warm so as to keep the library open. When will the heating be fixed @DerbyshireLibs ? 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 20/11/2024I was very pleased to go to @BromleyHouseLib and collect Ali Smith’s new novel Glift. After starting to read it, I was told she has a second novel, Glyph, linked to Griff, coming out next year. Have decided to abandon Glift and read it next year when I can read them together. 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 19/11/2024Was very moved by Hollinghurst’s Our Evenings, which traces the life of Dave Win, a British biracial actor. The author brilliantly shows us how Dave, born about 1945, grows his sexuality as the UK grows up. The descriptions of the loneliness of the outsider really affected me. Highly recommended 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 19/11/2024@natmarshall88.bsky.social hello! Do you intend to post each tweet in both places? That’s what I do at the moment. Actually three as I am also on Mastodon in order to keep in touch with two dear friends who left Twitter and are only there. 🤔 100
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 23/12/2023Happy Xmas to all my followers and followees. Not been here very much, the splintering of Twitter has meant you lovely people are scattered to so many apps. Best wishes for 2024 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 04/12/2023Poor, by O’Sullivan is one of the most amazing memoirs I have ever read. Her account of growing up: two serious addicts for parents, extreme poverty, raped age 7, single mother at 15, is hard to read. The kindness of a few teachers & wide reading led to Trinity Access Prog & out 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 02/12/2023Connelly’s latest, Resurrection Walk is another great legal crime novel. With Bosch and Haller (Lincoln lawyer) taking turns to narrate the story, it is fascinating legal case and even has some cutting edge AI bits. Recommended 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 17/11/2023Adania Shabli’s Minor Detail, translated by Elisabeth Jacquette, is a short novel which took me into the mind of an Israeli soldier 25 years ago and a young Arab woman of today. The prose is clear, matter of fact. Recommended * thanks to @LucyTranslator & @FitzcarraldoEds 010
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 05/11/2023Finished Groff’s Vaster Wilds today. First time I have managed to read the @lonesomereader book group book in the right month 💪. Interesting and enjoyable, an account of a plucky young woman in 1600 North America, on the run 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 15/10/2023With Berlin Red I have come to the end of Eastland’s seven book series of historical crime featuring Insp Pekkala. Spanning the Tsar to Stalin, the series has been cleverly plotted and a pleasure to read. farewell Emerald Eye! 000
John @booksandjohn.bsky.social · 14/10/2023Lapena’s Everyone Here is Lying is another excellent page turner of a crime novel. Nine year old girl goes missing, everyone is hiding something. Slightly cheesy ending but I found it hard not to read Just One More (short) Chapter. 030
