The Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II were officially inaugurated in the UK last month. It’s the centennial of Charles Dickens birth. Plus, the 2012 Orange Prize Longlist will be announced on Thursday. I’m feeling a bout of Anglophilia coming on! And it just so happens that three books – all with connections back to the Isle of Albion – are coming out this … Continue reading Rule, Britannia!
I don’t know that much about Kingsley Amis, other than what was in a 2007 article in the New York Review of Books (NYRB Volume 54, Number 9 · May 31, 2007), most of which I have forgotten. But I own an old, battered copy of Lucky Jim which I apparently paid 90 cents for and never read. The cover states: “No one has been … Continue reading Hmmm….Why do I own this? – Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Voltaire said to cultivate your garden… so what are you waiting for? It’s time to go outside and dig up the backyard. No backyard? Sign up for a community plot. If all else fails, do a little guerrilla gardening. In between pulling up the weeds I recommend Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire & the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf. This very readable book traces how … Continue reading Dig into a good book! (pun intended) Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire & the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf
