Claire McAlpine 📚

In Jeanette Winterson's memoir Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal, she refers to the character of her mother as Mrs Winterson. It is a striking act, that says much about the emotional relationship (or lack of) between a woman and child. In Arundhati Roay's memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me, she too, uses this form, as in, Mrs Mary Roy whenever she refers to her mother.

The mother of all mothers, Mrs Mary Roy.

This naming reminds me of #MrsWinterson

“When it came to me, Mrs Roy taught me how to think, then raged against my thoughts. She taught me to be free and raged against my freedom. She taught me to write and resented the author I became.”

#ArundhatiRoy

Saltblood by Francesca de Tores In a rented room outside Plymouth in 1685, a daughter is born as her half-brother is dying. Her mother makes a decision: Mary will become Mark, and Ma will continue to collect his inheritance money…

In a rented room near Plymouth in 1685, a daughter is born as her half-brother is dying.

Her mother makes a decision: Mary will become Mark & Ma will continue to collect his inheritance money.

So it was for #MaryRead b4 a life at sea passing from navy to piracy.

clairemcalpine.com/2025/12/09/s...

Saltblood by Francesca de Tores In a rented room outside Plymouth in 1685, a daughter is born as her half-brother is dying. Her mother makes a decision: Mary will become Mark, and Ma will continue to collect his inheritance money…

In a rented room near Plymouth in 1685, a daughter is born as her half-brother is dying.

Her mother makes a decision: Mary will become Mark & Ma will continue to collect his inheritance money.

So it was for #MaryRead b4 a life at sea passing from navy to piracy.

clairemcalpine.com/2025/12/09/s...

Photo of a snow covered rural landscape viewed from above, the land is covered in large spirals circles and connecting lines drawn into the snow

Land artist Sonja Hinrichsen, epic scale Snow Drawings - Briancon, France, 2014 #womensart

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan I have a ton of reviews to write, having been in a bit of a reading frenzy, so starting with the difficult task of one for whom I loved to begin with and then wanted to throw across the room. Bucke…

Unpopular opinion on popular fiction.

A buck eye gaze on les bons hommes et femmes of Bonhomie.

Started out great but became a dubious projectile.

When a book pushes buttons and I know their mine, but still...
🤬 📖 📕💪 🧱
clairemcalpine.com/2025/12/07/b...

‘Mother Mary Comes To Me’, #ArundhatiRoy ’s memoir of love, loyalty and the larger-than-life Mrs Roy, puts into perspective a whole career of writing about the problem of belonging.
A review essay by Rosie Roti:
https://www.himalmag.com/politics/arundhati-roy-mother-mary-memoir

Arundhati Roy's memoir Mother Mary Come to Me on a table next to a pencil, a green fern plant and a pile of 3 books, Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows and Broken Verses and Ameen Merchant's The Silent Raga.

Totally absorbing read.

“Nothing made me forget the world like reading did. Nothing made me think about the world like reading did. Nothing else filled me up. Nothing else emptied me out. Sentences and paragraphs would drift through my head like clouds.”
― #ArundhatiRoy, Mother Mary Comes to Me

Handiwork by Sara Baume
Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
House of Splendid Isolation by Edna O'Brien
In Ordinary Time by Carmel McMahon
A Ghost In the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Looking forward to reading this.

Seaborne by Nuala O’Connor Formative Years Bring a Taste of Freedom Seaborne is an adventure story about a young girl born in Kinsale, Cork to a maid, who, in order to keep her with her, styles her as a boy growing up, so sh…

When they are raided by pirates she elects to jump ship to escape an overly attentive Captain & joins the pirate Captain Jack Rackman.

Mary Read eventually meets and befriends the younger Anne Bonny, who we encountered in Seaborne by Irish author #NualaOConnor

clairemcalpine.com/2024/05/02/s...

Book cover of Saltblood by Francesca De Tores. Historical Fiction about Mark/Mary Read and her life raised in disguise as a boy, who continued to live as a man in the navy, the army before going to sea on merchant ships and eventually crossing decks and a red line when the works for the Pirate Captain Jack Rackham.

In Saltblood by Tasmanian author #FrancescadeTores we meet Mary Read, raised by her mother as Mark who after duch a beginning then preferred to live as a man, joining the Navy, the Army, then returning to the sea after the death of the man she married.

Initially working as crew for a privateer...

The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson As soon as I read the premise for this historical novel, I knew I wanted to read it. A tale that travels from Iceland to Algiers, inspired by a true story, one that acknowledges the power of imagin…

I had already met those togue Captain in #SallyMagnusson 's The Sealwoman's Gift which tells of an earlier 1627 raid in Iceland of 400 villagers also taken to Algiers and used to demand a ransom from the Danish king. Like those ftom Cork, few would make it home.

clairemcalpine.com/2018/04/23/t...

Book cover of The Stolen Village, Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin, a history of the capture of more than 100 villagers from West Cork, Ireland, in June 1631 by a Dutch Captain turned rogue and his crew of pirates, taken to Algiers and traded into slavery.

Reading The Stolen Village by #DesEkin after just finishing Saltblood by #FrancescadeTores made me realise I've read a few pirate, privateer, corsair themed books.

This one tells of the capture of 107 villagers from West Cork by Dutch born Jan Jansen, alias #MoratRais taken to Algiers and traded.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai It has been twenty years since Kiran Desai published her Booker Prize winning The Inheritance of Loss, so this latest novel has been much anticipated by many. It was one of two Booker shortlisted n…

#KiranDesai blends old fashioned values & dilemmas of India past with a modern take on youth sent abroad for a US education, isolated from their home culture & influences, trying to navigate life & love.

Coming of age abroad

The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny 📚💙

clairemcalpine.com/2025/12/01/t...

Geopolitical Cultural Intersects

Yu first met Laszlo Krasznahorkai in Hungary in 1992. They immediately started a discussion about the great Chinese poet Li Bai, whom Krasznahorkai deeply admired.

This meeting marked the beginning of a mentorship that led Yu into the world of literary translation.

It was as if
[...]
the landscape had a syntax
similar to that of our language
and as I moved along
a long sentence was being spoken
on the right & another on the left
and I thought
Maybe the landscape
can understand what I say too.

#RonPadgett

#FedericoFalco The Plains

A Roundup of Book Award Winners 2025 It’s nearing the end of the year and some of the book awards I have been following have made their announcements, while others like the Dublin Literary Award 2026 are sharing their nomination…

Round Up of 3 📚 Book Awards & Winners of

The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 Winner + Highly Commended

The An Post Irish Book Awards Best Novel of the Year

The Booker Prize

Do you recommend any of these winners?

#WIT #BookerPrize #IrishBookAwards

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/28/a...

A Roundup of Book Award Winners 2025 It’s nearing the end of the year and some of the book awards I have been following have made their announcements, while others like the Dublin Literary Award 2026 are sharing their nomination…

Round Up of 3 📚 Book Awards & Winners of

The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 Winner + Highly Commended

The An Post Irish Book Awards Best Novel of the Year

The Booker Prize

Do you recommend any of these winners?

#WIT #BookerPrize #IrishBookAwards

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/28/a...

The WINNER of the 2025 Eason Novel of the Year is...

Nesting, Roisín O'Donnell (Scribner, @simonandschuster.bsky.social)

#APIBA #StoriesMakeUs

The book, Too Great A Sky, is stood upright on a table against a blank background. The cover is facing the camera.

The judges have also highly commended ‘Too Great A Sky’ by Liliana Corobca, translater from Romanian (Romania) by Monica Cure and published by @sevenstoriesuk.bsky.social.

Read the full announcement here: warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...

The book, And the Walls Became the World All Around, is stood upright on a table against a blank background. The cover is facing the camera.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 is ‘And the Walls Became the World All Around’ by Johanna Ekström and Sigrid Rausing, translated from Swedish (Sweden) by Sigrid Rausing and published by @grantabooks.bsky.social !

Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 Checkout out this list on Bookshop

The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation will be awarded at a ceremony this evening in London. Browse the titles on the shortlist and longlist in 2025 - and all years - on our @bookshop.org page: uk.bookshop.org/lists/warwic.... The winner will be announced at 7.30pm!

Morning walk through the vineyards of Puyricard on a cold day. Love the autumn 🍂 sun and colours, the spindly shadows and the road tunnels made by the overhanging branches of the oak trees.
#briskwalk #Provence #trees

A collage of close-up photographs of dandelion seed heads. The images show the pale, spherical seed heads in detail, with their fine white parachute seeds radiating from the central disc. One photo shows a partly dispersed head with seeds blowing away, and another shows a meadow filled with many dandelion clocks.

“Magical things happen every day, if we allow it. Think of daylight, of the stars at night, a flower. A dandelion is a miracle.” - P. L. Travers (1899-1996). #Thanksgiving #nature

Dublin Literary Award Longlist 2026 The Dublin Literary Award nominations have been revealed, an award that allows international libraries to nominate one work of fiction, therefore achieving its aim to promote excellence in world li…

69 nominated novels for the Dublin Literary Award from
36 countries, 20 debut authors, 30 translated titles in 17 languages
I created a list by country with the nominating library

A longlist up to 20 titles, to be announced on 17 Feb

@dublinlitaward.bsky.social

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/24/d...

Dublin Literary Award Longlist 2026 The Dublin Literary Award nominations have been revealed, an award that allows international libraries to nominate one work of fiction, therefore achieving its aim to promote excellence in world li…

69 nominated novels for the Dublin Literary Award from
36 countries, 20 debut authors, 30 translated titles in 17 languages
I created a list by country with the nominating library

A longlist up to 20 titles, to be announced on 17 Feb

@dublinlitaward.bsky.social

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/24/d...

Is a River Alive by Robert Macfarlane book cover

Reading Is A River Alive by #RobertMacfarlane
The 1st part about the cloud forest Los Cedros in Ecuador is an incredible collaboration btwn 4 people, a fungi expert, a musician & a social justice lawyer advocating for the Rights of Nature.
Amazing.

The Mothers (2016) by Brit Bennett The third novel in my reading about mothers and motherhood is Brit Bennett’s The Mothers, the story of two young people, Nadia and Luke, who have both encountered significant turning points i…

The 3rd novel on motherhood in my recent reads is The Mothers by #BritBennett a nod to the collective voice of the mtherly elders who've been through it all.

But youth need to experience it first, so we follow them through their losses, grief, and growth.

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/22/t...

Song of the Cedars

Then I listened to the song co-created with the forest.🌳

The Song of the Cedars🎶

Blown away.

Listening to it as I read the accompanying text was a moving experience, especially when it gets to the drumbeat refrain about 2.30 minutes in.

✨️CLOUDS DEEPEN MY SIGHT✨️

open.spotify.com/track/3H182D...