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Rachael B

@flossieteacake.bsky.social
348 followers 283 following 54 posts

Fond of books: incapable of leaving house with fewer than 5 vols. I read, I sing, I edit, and sometimes I also run (slowly). Cambridge, UK or Bloomsbury (@londonreview.bsky.social - misc non-editing stuff - disclaimer etc). Unpaid PA @bealelab.bsky.social.

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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I am not a Goldfinch fan. Bits of it were great. Bits of it should have been left behind, imnvho. On the other hand I remember loving The Little Friend which was universally panned and loathed so <shrug>.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I re-read TTTW before I started and it really holds up.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Not AS good. It's not a total dead loss. But it's too long and there's too much going on and it doesn't quite deliver on a load of stuff it seems to be setting up for much of the book and oh a whole host of other just-not-quite-nesses.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Freaked the cat 100% out by smacking this in frustration because oh how I loved The Time Traveller’s Wife This is me chasing the Secret History vibe for eternity all over again only with scifi
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
when Dave & R have shuffled onward we can reconvene
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I mourn Old Twitter on the regular. @lucyfishwife.bsky.social
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
🫂 🫂 🫂 hope results are encouraging x
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Sadly it was all so hectically compressed (and the traffic SO AWFUL on the way up) that I never made it... another time, though. Hope all is well with you all!
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
@likewinterblue.bsky.social hello, I hope you are well. I can't DM you but we're heading vaguely your way this weekend, wondered if you were around & therefore worth planning a detour via Grasmere to do some shopping?
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Hmmm I think I may indeed have an unread copy of Underland somewhere...
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
(Preference likely to be given to things I already own, as a useful clearing-out step, but realistically I'll acquire anything that sounds compelling enough.) <appends standard throat-clearing about being a bit useless at this app, sorry etc etc>
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Readers, writers, editors, publicists, other book people not covered by those categories: I have a month off coming up. WHAT SHOULD I READ? Old or new, fiction or non, any genre pretty much apart from horror. I do like good sentences, but also plain ones with a strong plot. Please advise!
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
THIS IS SO GOOD: Adam Shatz on Messiaen in the new issue of the @londonreview.bsky.social. Did you know Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood was nuts about Messiaen? Now you do. Read on for more including synaesthesia, weird instruments, Catholicism and French composers being incredibly rude to each other.
lrb.co.uk
Adam Shatz · Wash out your ears: Messiaen’s Ecstasies
While few would question Messiaen’s importance in 20th-century music, his religious modernism has always been met with...
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
As opposed to sober and considered at all times IRL...?
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Hi Nick! I am unexpectedly cheered by your punctuation.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Not exactly either of those: but I found Evan Ratliff’s Shell Game completely fascinating - www.shellgame.co/podcast - essentially he went in search of the bleeding edge of AI voice technology, created an AI version of himself, and then sent it into various wild conversations. Thought-provoking!
shellgame.co
Shell Game | Evan Ratliff | Substack
A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. In Season One, that thing is Evan’s voice. By creating a voice clone and hooking it up to an AI chatbot, Evan set...
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
ooh ooh can I be the first pedant to say, this wasn't Desmond Tutu? And thereby entirely miss your point?
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Anyone remember the story of the Magic Porridge Pot? Because my washing machine seems to be like that today, only with SOCKS. I have therefore decided that everyone in my household should go barefoot henceforth, which seems to me entirely proportionate.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
He always seems like such a Good Literary Citizen.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Helping out at Cambridge Literary Festival today & starting off by slipping into the back of David Nicholls’ event with Hattie Crisell - packed! Nearly everything sold out today but the odd ticket around if you’re quick… plus livestreams for some. cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/whats-on/
David Nicholls and Hattie Crisell at Cambridge Literary Festival
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
There was a bio-ish sort of book that came out sometime in the last five years that I DEMANDED for Christmas and then never read because, you know, books, life, time. I can see the typography on the spine in my mind’s eye but it’s not on my shelves where I expected it to be. Curses.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
WOW. The yellow copies are the best, I think only have about 2 or 3; most of mine - although not all - are 80s paperbacks (Anchor Books? possibly?). But the yellow spines are how I first encountered them, in my school library.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Honestly I don't think I've read ANY of those. I was a devotee of the Whispering Statue, and one that was set in Hawaii whose title I can't remember. But they were all pure joy.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Awww Bethanne, thank you! You make my life better too.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
OMG SO ESSENTIAL But do you get ALL of them as one of your 20? Which is your favourite?
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Only downsides being (1) now I really REALLY want to read The Proof of My Innocence but I won't be back in @lrbbookshop.bsky.social until Tuesday & no I simply cannot take my custom elsewhere (2) added another counterexample to the pile to argue with my brain saying STAY IN GOING OUT IS NEVER FUN.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
...not to mention reminiscences of my former teacher, the legendary (notorious?) Dr Eric Griffiths. And then afterwards I met several lovely people who turned out to know several other lovely people I know, and yes, Cambridge is small, but still when these things happen, it delights me beyond words.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
#oneofthosenights for serendipity (coincidentally my favourite word). Went to old college to hear @jonathancoe.bsky.social discuss his new book with Adrian (NB definitely not John) Poole, an event I only learned about on Weds: nostalgia, comedy, Proust by way of Pinter.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
For obvious reasons I have not read the book itself, but I heartily endorse your first clause.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
I've finished The Sequel now, anyway, so that’s one fewer to worry about. Perfect for you if you are rendered helpless by a completely preposterous yet somehow compelling plot with many in-jokes about books and publishing.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
The thing about losses like that is they never completely go away, we just find different ways of carrying them. xx
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
That sounds super hard, Sam. I'm so sorry.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I love this kind of walk 😍
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
The Orange One appears to be diligently working his way through a list entitled ‘celebs that have been debunked by Maintenance Phase’
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
That thing you wrote about living in Venice for a bit lodged in my brain so firmly that I am always taken by surprise when your posts make it clear you’re now in the UK. I’m sorry.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Jorie Graham: the GOAT, as the yoof say. (You can have actual Jorie read it to you on that poem’s LRB page too, if that is in any way helpful, though I appreciate it may not be: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...)
lrb.co.uk
Jorie Graham · Poem: ‘Then the Rain’
after the hard seedspushed in as deep aspossible & kept alive on dew...
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
*mops entirety of kitchen floor with soggy socks*
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Today in Rejected Lyrics from Alanis Morrisette’s ‘Ironic’: It’s skipping a run on Monday / then waking up to Tuesday’s RAIN 💦 💦 💦 💦 💦
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Reposted by Rachael B
Canongate @canongate.co.uk · 18/11/2024
Also, if you're looking for an entry-level Editorial role in publishing, based in Edinburgh, then boy do we have just the entry-level Editorial role in publishing based in Edinburgh for you! Deadline 28 November, details including salary here: canongate.co.uk/about/jobs/
canongate.co.uk
Jobs at Canongate
Current vacancies at Canongate – the award-winning independent book publisher based in Edinburgh and London.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Someone will put you in a starter pack soon, I don't doubt! My former boss pointed me to a browser plugin, Sky Follower Bridge, which goes through your Twitter following & tries to find BlueSky matches. It's far from perfect, but it helped me find a decent number of loved ones who'd made the jump.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
I was definitely finding that interesting and engaging but... there's so MUCH of it! As well as feeling that I started it so early in the year that I've now forgotten most of it and would have to start all over again.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
I'm SO far through it, though. Like 3/4 done. But I can just tell it's not going to end well, and certainly not for the one or two characters I care about. And I am sorry about Nina. She is my favourite Victoria-Wood-School-of-Specificity kind of funny writer, usually.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
I love the Powers cerebral/intellectual approach to fiction SO much and yet... I have stalled on Playground. Theorising that there are too many boys in it, as far as I have got. Probably set Dear Friend aside because it was a bit too close to home, I shall try again. Thank you.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Thank you - I was finding Geek Love hard going, so it's most completed but also probably longest since picked up. I think I need a more pronouncedly hopeful character arc than it has so far been able to provide.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
OK I have to stop now because my not-very-inner completer-finisher is quite distressed. If you're a massive fan of any of the above, pls reply with reasons and help me overcome my decision fatigue, thank you so much.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Oh crikey this is worse than I thought. Teenage-me, who considered it a mortal sin to leave books unfinished, would be rocking in a foetal ball in ambient lighting. How to Be Perfect - Michael Schuur The Bass Rock - Evie Wyld Sequel - Jean Hanff Korelitz - which in fact I will definitely finish.
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn Transitions - William Bridges Went to London, Took the Dog - Nina Stibbe Dear Friend, from My Life... - Yiyun Li This Too Shall Pass - Julia Samuel Eve - Cat Bohannon Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo Neurotribes - Steve Silberman Playground - Richard Powers
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Keeping my first ‘real’ post here on-topic for my ‘personal brand’ (ugh): I have a number of books I am technically partway through. Which ones should I prioritise for finishing before 2024 is out, please? In order of percentage completed, list follows in replies (hope that works here).
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
@victoriamoul.bsky.social very much want to connect you and @johnclegg37.bsky.social re your recent Substack post - vamoul.substack.com/p/whats-the-... - because I think he will have OPINIONS.
vamoul.substack.com
What's the point of pamphlets?
And does anyone actually read them?
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Rachael B @flossieteacake.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Is this where we all are now? Those of us that can remember 2008?
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