Litlove

LATEST ARTICLES ( 372 )

• Critical Theory; A Life

  Early in October 1988, I rocked up to the inaugural lecture of the modern critical theory paper, a module I’d signed up for because it sounded new and... Read more

  Posted on 28 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Jamaica Inn

  

  was the novel Daphne du Maurier wrote before she produced her masterpiece, Rebecca. She had been married a few years and was trying to adapt herself to life as... Read more

  Posted on 24 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Chance Encounter

  Just the other day I was stopped at traffic lights when I noticed a man with a bike at the side of the road, adjusting the chin strap of a very silly hat – the... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Sisterland

  

  In 1811, in the Louisiana Territory that would eventually become Missouri, a terrible earthquake hit, the earth ‘undulating like the ocean’. Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Secret Life of Gardens

  ‘I wonder what temperature grass grows at?’ Mr Litlove said the other day. ‘I must check on the internet.’I am quite used to my husband starting a conversation... Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Murakami: Imagination Overload

  

  Reading your first Haruki Murakami novel is a bit like trying lobster for the first time. It’s got quite a culinary reputation: you know it’s a sophisticated... Read more

  Posted on 10 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Catching Up With Reviews

  

  The Blind Contessa’s New MachineItaly, the nineteenth century, and the young contessa, Carolina Fantoni, is facing triumph and disaster: imminent marriage to th... Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Landscape of Colette

  

  I have been a very bad blogger of reviews lately, choosing far too often to witter on about life (because it is shamefully easy to do) rather than make the smal... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• It’s A New Year, Again

  Happy New Year, dear blogging friends!  I didn’t intend to take quite such a long blogging break, but just as Christmas was feeling properly passed, I fell ill... Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2014 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Season’s Greetings!

  

  I wanted to leave something festive up here for the next few days and thought I’d find something by the wonderful Sulamith Wulfing, the German artist and... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• In Which Litlove Tries To Party

  I did have a book review scheduled for today, but as I was eating a packet of crisps this morning and realising that the sound of crunching was actually... Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Trip To Echo Spring; Why Writers Drink

  

  This book is a beguiling mix of biography, travelogue and memoir, that focuses on the life and work of six of America’s finest twentieth century male writers:... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Best Books of 2013

  This may not have been a fabulous year for me personally, but it was a great reading year. I had very few reading slumps and enjoyed a bumper number of good... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Signature of All Things

  

  When this book arrived for review I had a mixed reaction. I thought, Elizabeth Gilbert, yay! Because I very much enjoyed Committed and think she is generally a... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• So, The Writing Course

  For all the uncertainties I had at the start, I am very glad that I did the writing course. There is nothing like being forced outside of your comfort zone to... Read more

  Posted on 04 December 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Hit and a Miss

  

  It feels like an age since I’ve written about any books. This must be partly because the books I’ve been reading lately have often left me uncertain how I feel... Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• How I’d Sell Books

  I’ve had a fair amount of time to think lately, and musing about publishing issues made me consider the haphazard way books get publicized at present and how I’... Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• And This Time It’s My Arm…

  Last weekend I went to see the osteopath. I’d had a sore left arm, on and off, for several weeks, that seemed to be gradually getting worse. It felt like I’d... Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Publishing, A Writer’s Biggest Headache

  Unsurprisingly, the issues surrounding publishing and our sense of ourselves as writers have provoked the longest discussion of the whole writing course. It... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• An Evening with Donna Tartt

  

  A week ago, Mr Litove and I swallowed our dinner in double quick time then rushed over to the Cambridge Union with our tickets for Donna Tartt. We were surprise... Read more

  Posted on 15 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE