The only other of the Oz books that I’ve read other than The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (which was the only one I knew as a child) is The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) but on revisiting it now after many years, I was surprised to find how, besides being a fun and imaginative adventure…
🎄🎄Book Review: Christmas with the Savages (1955) by Mary Clive🎄🎄(and a new favourite word)
The second set of Savages back-to-back, though not linked with the first at all, except that both books have children in them with this one focusing on them more than on the adults. But before I say anything about the book itself, I just have to say that my new favourite word (noun/adjective, whichever one…
Book Review: Unlawful Occasions (1962) by Henry Cecil #1962Club
Today I have my first pick for the #1962Club hosted by Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings and Simon at Stuck in a Book. Born in 1902, Henry Cecil Leon who wrote as Henry Cecil was a county court judge and also wrote humorous woks of fiction set around the absurdities and oddities of the law.…
Book Review: An Academic Question (1986) by Barbara Pym
Light-hearted and delightful, yet with that tiny stand of melancholy (not as pronounced as in some of her others) that one finds in her books, An Academic Question by Barbara Pym was published posthumously in 1986, with Pym’s literary executor (and novelist in her own right) Hazel Holt actually putting the book together from an…
Book Review: Our Cats in Amsterdam (2022) by Julian Worker #ReadingtheMeow2023 #15BooksofSummer
Today I’m sharing my third pick for #ReadingtheMeow2023. I’ve read a story featuring catectives earlier in the week, so it was only right that I also read one with catspionage. And here it is! My thanks to BooksGoSocial for a review copy of this book via NetGalley. Last year I had read and absolutely loved…
Guest Post: Book Review: The Calico Cat (1908) by Charles Miner Thompson #ReadingtheMeow2023
Today for #ReadingtheMeow2023 we have a guest post from my mother whose first pick is The Calico Cat (1908) by Charles Miner Thompson, a comic novella where all the action begins with a cat of course! * * * A delightful and humorous novella about life in small- town America. The cat motif runs through…
Book Review: The Windmill Murders (2023) by Mandy Morton #ReadingtheMeow2023
To open up #ReadingtheMeow2023, The Windmill Murders (2023) by Mandy Morton felt in every way the purrfect book. This is for starters part of a mystery series, and mysteries are my staple reading, but it just happens to be set in a world of cats, so what better book could there be. My thanks to…
Book Review: Snobs (2004) by Julian Fellowes
As busy days continue with little to no writing time, here's a review from the (not very old) archives. I read and reviewed Snobs by Julian Fellowes in 2018, but I'd posted this only on Goodreads. The review below is what I wrote back then! This is the first book I’ve read by Fellowes though…
Book Review: The Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten (2022) by Philipp Schott
My thanks to ECW Press for a review copy of this book via NetGalley. The Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten (2022) is the third volume of memoirs/anecdotes by German-born, Canadian veterinary doctor and writer, Dr Philipp Schott (I have previously read and reviewed the second volume, How to Examine a Wolverine, as well…
Book Review: Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans
My thanks to Pushkin Press and Edelweiss for a review copy of this book. First published in 1941, Hotel Splendide is a slightly fictionalized memoir of the time author and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans spent working at the Ritz in New York, which in the book becomes the Hotel Splendide. Written in the form of short…
Literary Potpourri 