Eva

The 41 books I read in 2025 …

36. Mrs Bridge by Evan S Connell
37. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
38. The Power by Naomi Alderman
39. The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron
40. Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
41. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

29. Swamplandia by Karen Russell
30. Strangers by Taichi Yamada
31. Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
32. A Month in the Country by JL Carr
33. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
34. How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup by J.L. Carr
35. The Rachel Incident by Carol O’Donaghue

21. Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban
22. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
23. Connection by Kae Tempest
24. The Leaf-Sweeper by Muriel Spark
25. All Fours by Miranda July
26. Martyr by Kaveh Akbar
27. Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
28. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

15. What We Tried to Bury Grows Here by Julian Zabalbeascoa
16. Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
17. Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
18. The History of Time by Kaliane Bradley
19. Eden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan
20. Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

8. The People’s Act of Love by James Meek
9. Orbital by Samantha Harvey
10. Butter by Asako Yuzuki
11. Milkman by Anna Burns
12. Looking at Women Looking at War - A War and Justice Diary by Victoria Amelina
13. This Immaculate Body by Emma van Straaten
14. Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

What I’ve been reading in 2025:

1. The Bees by Laline Paull
2. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
3. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
4. Goodlord by Ella Frears
5. Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie
6. Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
7. The Visitor by Maeve Brennan

Eimear is sitting in a chair wearing a black and gold trouser suit, black shirt and emerald green tie with a thick knot. She is speaking and appears animated.

Kevin is sitting in a chair. He is dressed casually in a light green shirt. In front of him is a low table with a water jug and glasses and a copy of his book The Heart in Winter. He is talking and gesticulating.

Tom and Eimear sit on either side of a low table with a red tablecloth in which sits a jug of water and glasses. Tom and Eimear are laughing.

Fantastic afternoon hearing from two of my favourite contemporary writers, Eimear McBride and Kevin Barry, at the Cambridge Literary Festival, lead expertly in conversation by @newstatesman.com’s Tom Gatti 📚

But available in public libraries, it seems - New Yorkers can borrow it!

Email screenshot: “Today’s Book of the Day is quiet yet thought provoking” Ghost Mountain by Rónán Hession

@ronanhession.bsky.social well done - New York Public Library’s book of the day!

Which animals have you spotted on our pondcam?

Our pondcam live stream focuses on one of the Hampstead Heath ponds. It is played for patients to ease the stresses of waiting to be seen in the oncology clinic at the Royal Free Hospital.

📺Watch live at the link in our bio!

#NHS #nature #Hampstead

Sure, I get that - though we can read books for reasons other than enjoyment …

Virginia Woolf, Vanessa’s sister, did the same artistic magpie act: her novel Mrs Dalloway - stream of consciousness covering one day in one woman’s life - “inspired by” James Joyce’s Ulysses despite Woolf declaring it ”an illiterate, underbred book … the book of a self-taught working man…”

First exhibition of 2025 - Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour. Superbly-curated but Bell’s work felt hugely derivative - her style veering erratically between Rembrandt, Cézanne, Matisse, even a nod to Kandinsky - without mastering any.

Textbook class privilege.

📸 @davidbevan.bsky.social

Bus ticket showing £2.50 fare to Northampton town centre

Loving the 25% increase on the cost of a bus trip into town.

Happy Back To Work Day to all who are participating - and a shout out to all the bus drivers explaining government price caps to disgruntled passengers.

Really love the NHS text message updates telling me where my donated blood has gone. Genius idea.

#GiveBlood

Books 2024 … continued:

55. The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes
56. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
57. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
58. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Black and white illustrated Christmas card by Harry Clarke featuring the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus

✨ "With Sincere Good Wishes" ✨

We love this beautiful #Christmas #card from the #HarryClarke and #MargaretClarke Papers, 1860-1991; catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls0....

A needle is inserted into a bare arm. A tube of blood leading from the needle is visible in the background

A pint of plain is yer only man

#GiveBlood 🩸

A work colleague, who drew my name in our team Secret Santa, heard me raving about the @britishlibrary.bsky.social
Irish Writers Weekend so he researched which writers took part to help his book buying for my present 📚
What wonderful choices!

Ah, you’d miss the subeditors all the same …

A copy of the latest edition of the Stinging Fly literary magazine

Oooooooooooh look what was in today’s post 💕

@stingingfly.bsky.social

Screenshot of the audiobook cover of The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes

A poignant coincidence to have been reading Caoilinn Hughes’ The Wild Laughter as UK politicians voted in favour of assisted dying.

Gorgeously written, as you’d expect from a poet-turned-writer, with deliciously dislikeable characters and laugh-out-loud dark humour.

a man with his hand on his chin is wearing a watch and a ring Alt: Actor Cillian Murphy stokes his chin pensively

So, Small Things Like These - a Christmas film?

Screen shot of a BlueSky account which on first glance looks like the Irish word “focal” which means word followed by the word data.

Oh.

Foe-cal

Not Fuh-cal.

Disappointing.

🇮🇪

Thanks for the recommendation! Btw I think you accidentally photobombed my photo of Eimear McBride on Saturday 😁

What a gorgeous photograph!!

@ronanhession.bsky.social I audio-consumed Gospodinov’s Time Shelter earlier this year while staining and varnishing floorboards; not long after, at a roadside in Nice awaiting the Tour de France, I had a lovely conversation with a Bulgarian woman also waiting for cyclists, about him 📚 ❤️

Books 2024 … continued:

51. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
52. James by Percival Everett
53. The Racial Code: Tales of Resistance and Survival by Nicola Rollock
54. Just Kids by Patti Smith

Books 2024…continued:

45. Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
46. The long way to a small angry planet by Becky Chambers
47. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
48. The Girl from the Fiction Department by Hilary Spurling
49. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
50. Free by Lea Ypi