Litlove

LATEST ARTICLES ( 399 )

• The New Year Approaches…

  And this is how we are: Scenario 1: The day before yesterday, I went downstairs around lunchtime to find Mr Litlove sprawled over the sofa in front of the... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Christmas Isn’t Just For Extroverts

  

  Well the extrovert uberlords seem to have taken over the world this December. I can’t walk through town without being blasted by ‘Frostie the Snowman’, the shop... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• And The Worst…

  

  I get cold feet before writing negative reviews. Just because I didn’t like a book doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. There are so many variable influences on readin... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• It’s A Jungle Out There

  

  Every so often a non-fiction book becomes surprisingly popular, as I understand The Orchid Thief did after the release of Adaptation, the Charlie Kaufman film... Read more

  Posted on 15 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Best Books of 2014

  

  I thought I’d read quite a few books this year, and a lot of newly-published ones, too, and yet the best-of lists remain full of titles I haven’t got around... Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Amnesia

  

  I first read Peter Carey in 1988, when Oscar and Lucinda won the Booker Prize. I wasn’t sure I could say I liked him exactly, but I knew I was in the presence o... Read more

  Posted on 08 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Festive Update

  

  Our latest ‘inbetweenie’, the update we put out between issues of Shiny New Books is now live and lovely! Publishers brought out so many fantastic books in the... Read more

  Posted on 04 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Some Luck

  

  When I first began this blog back in 2006 I had scarcely read any American fiction. I had had a shameful but unrestrained passion for Sweet Valley High books... Read more

  Posted on 02 December 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Giving Up the Ghost

  

  I often think it’s harder to write about a book you’ve really loved than one you haven’t liked at all. Just as it takes more muscles to smile than to frown... Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Balthasar’s Gift

  

  There’s a back story to this one. Once upon a time, now many years ago, a group of women writers, all friends online, came together over a feminist blog: What W... Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Last Minute on Friday

  I am so sorry for my absence from the blogworld this week; things have just been really busy around here. But I’m hoping that next week will be a lot better. I... Read more

  Posted on 21 November 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Thursday Reading Notes

  

  Looking back over the past month or so I see that my reading has been all over the place, rather like the golden rose in our back garden that will suddenly shoo... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Wish I Could Be There

  

  The feeling of panic that overwhelms the sufferer of a phobia must be one of the most unpleasant feelings that we are routinely forced to endure. Read more

  Posted on 10 November 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• House Party

  When I was a very small child and happened to be off school for the day, my mother and I would watch a television programme in the early afternoon that was... Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Mentor

  

  This memoir of the tortured trajectory of the writer’s life was completely fascinating, if not always for the right reasons. Tom Grimes’ brave and excruciatingl... Read more

  Posted on 30 October 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Strangers on a Train

  

  Too many psychological thrillers these days think they’ve done sufficient work by placing their female heroine under multiple threats of peril. Read more

  Posted on 28 October 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• On Patrick Modiano

  

  Yesterday I put two and two together and realised that the reason I’d seen a lot of brief but extremely unusual mentions of Patrick Modiano online was that... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

  

  In contrast to the modern caricature of the bookseller – in cardigan with cat and tea – for centuries the bookseller was regarded as a rogue, a hell-raiser,... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Gossip

  

  The question of whether we ever know when we are being cruel runs through this darker-than-you’d-expect novel by Beth Gutcheon. Read more

  Posted on 20 October 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• On Teaching Literature

  The following is something I wrote initially for SNB before thinking that it really didn’t suit the magazine at all. And so I thought I might as well stick it u... Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE