You Ruin It When You Talk by Sarah Manvel
very funny novelette from hipstertopia’s Open Pen
Tag: sex
The Trespasser by DH Lawrence
unambitious, uncomplex, wish it had been sexier
The Future Won’t Be Long by 🙏Jarett Kobek 🙏
one of the best normal books you’ve never read
POETRY MONTH: 81 Austerities by Sam Riviere
objectively brilliant, yes, but not not not so good for me?
POETRY MONTH: Rotten Milk by Karina Bush
latest chapbook from one of my favourite writers
POETRY MONTH: The Tinder Sonnets by Jennifer LoveGrove
a masterpiece of contemporary sonnetteering
POETRY MONTH: ANTHOLOGY 2018 by Broken Sleep Books
an excellent anthology from friend of the blog broken sleep books
Licence Renewed by John Gardner
reading more of John Gardner’s James Bond so you don’t have to
Martha Quest by Doris Lessing (Children of Violence #1)
“the classic coming of age novel… for women”
Tales from Earthsea by Ursula le Guin
reading more earthsea, hating everything else
The Once and Future King by T. H. White
astounded by the brilliance of this mid-20th century arthurian novel
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
vampires don’t count as supernatural horror because they’re too sexy aha
On The Beach by Nevil Shute
repression at the end of the world
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
in early Jan I was quoted in the New Yorker and read a perfect novel
The Letters of Mina Harker by Dodie Bellamy
an excellent – near flawless – novel
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
an excellent novel; in footnotes my concluding thoughts on the TV series The Affair
The End of Obscenity by Charles Rembar
interesting book of the legal history of removing literary censorship
WAR #1: Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy
read some great fiction for the first time in a while; still bored bored bored tho boohoo
The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, And Five (As Narrated by the Chroniclers of Zone Three) by Doris Lessing
part two of doris lessing’s sci-fi quintet
on sleaze via Saul Bellow
sleaze is not a synonym for prurience
Four Short(ish) Novels from 2020
can’t stop reading / can’t start doing anything else
James Baldwin Threeway
baldwin, baldwin, baldwin
Winter in July by Doris Lessing
short stories about non-monogamous colonial types
Out of Time by James P Hogan
descends into a rant about frottage
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
well, it’s a “classic” and now i’ve read it
Surrender by Joanna Pocock
big post on privilege, re-wilding, ageing; a phenomenal read
Ian Fleming’s James Bond in Role of Honor [sic] by John Gardner
a comfort: Gardner’s ignorance of affluence shows he never got rich from these terrible books
This Is Where I Get Off by KIRBY
great poetry, i whinge about lockdown innit
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
truly one of the greatest recent works of fiction
The Triple Echo by H. E. Bates
a surprisingly great short novel that might be hateful
Baby, I Don’t Care by Chelsey Minnis
great book of pomes
Story of O by Pauline Réage
a real dirty french novel
People I’ve Met From The Internet by Stephen van Dyck
an essential contemporary memoir
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer
powerful novel that should be better known
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
some naughty naughty monks
Cruising by Alex Espinoza
Are you done with the sofa, floor, kitchen table, baby?
Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford
a very very very good big book on WAR
Happening by Annie Ernaux
feeling sad so read a sad book on abortion
Human Tetris by Vi Khi Nao and Ali Raz
a great, new, collection of short poems about love ‘n’ sex
My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi
it’s good though it’s very optimistic
Fludd by Hilary Mantell
an early novel from a writer who’d get more exciting with age
Normal People by Sally Rooney
rooney rooney
The Blood Miracles by Lisa McInerney
a good but simpler follow up to The Glorious Heresies
Sex In Society by Alex Comfort
hubba hubba hubba
Vibrator by Mari Akasaka
a great Japanese novel
I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
a little bit of Vitamin D…
Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine
who is this for?
Death In Venice by Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann, Thomas Mann, Thomas Mann, What A Very Thom Man
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
shellshock and amnesia and different kindsa love
Triumph Of The Now 