The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …
which for me is Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym. The challenge is to read and review it by 4th October 2026.
In 1970s London, Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia work in the same office and suffer the same problem – loneliness.
Lovingly and with delightful humour, Barbara Pym conducts us through their day-to-day existence: their preoccupations, their irritations, their judgements, and – perhaps most keenly felt – their worries about having somehow missed out on life as post-war Britain shifted around them
I’m looking forward to reading it because I’ve read two of Pym’s books, Excellent Women and A Glass of Blessings and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. And it’s a novella, so it won’t take me too long to read!
Before next Sunday, 16 August 2026 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain on your Classics Club list. On that day the Classics Club will post the winning number. The challenge is to read and review whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 4 October, 2026.
I nearly missed this Spin, but saw it just in time I hope before the draw is announced!
Spell the Month in Books is a pretty straightforward meme. On the first Saturday of each month Jana at Reviews from the Stacks opens up a thread welcoming participants to leave a comment with a link to their post, but you can join at any point during the month. Find book titles that start with each letter in the month’s name, make a list, share your list, and that’s it!
Janna is not currently assigning themes. So for this month I’ve chosen books that are either TBRs or books on my wish list. August is always a difficult month for finding book titles beginning with U. I’ve given a very brief description of each book.
A is for Angel by L J Ross, the 4th DCI Ryan mystery in which he investigates the murder of a redheaded woman found buried in a shallow grave. The killer had given her wings, like an angel.
U is for Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller, a book on my wishlist. It’s described on Amazon as ‘a powerful novel of betrayal and resilience, love and survival. It is a portrait of life on the fringes of society that explores with dazzling emotional power how we can build our lives on broken foundations, and spin light from darkness.’
G is for Grave’s End by William Shaw, one of my TBRs. This is thethird book in the DS Alexandra Cupidi series, in which an unidentified corpse is found in a freezer in the garage of an unoccupied house. DS Cupidi is handed a case that is made even colder by no-one seeming to know or care whose body it is.
U is for Unclay by T F Powys, a book on my TBR shelves John Death arrives in the obscure Dorset village of Little Dodder with instructions to ‘unclay’ two of its inhabitants. Unfortunately for him, Death loses the divine chit bearing the names of the doomed pair, and is obliged to stay in Little Dodder until he finds it. And in the course of that summer he acquires a taste for life… Despite several grim scenes, Unclay’s final message is unexpectedly light-hearted.
S is for The Secret of Annexe 3 by Colin Dexter, the 7th Inspector Morse novel. This is another one from my wishlist. Chief Inspector Morse investigates the death of a guest at a New Year’s Eve fancy dress ball found murdered in his bed in the hotel annex the next day.
T is for Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin – Doris Kearns Goodwin study of Abraham Lincoln’s mastery of men. She shows how he saved Civil War-torn America by appointing his fiercest rivals to key cabinet positions, making them help achieve his vision for peace. I bought this after watching the film Lincoln.
Areyou participating in this meme? If you are, let me know, and I will visit your post. Enjoy your reading!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.
Today’s theme is: Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years (taken from Anne @ HeadFullofBooks) Here are the books I was reading on this day, or close to this day.
2016 – The Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland – set in Porlock Weir in 1361 where a village is isolated by the plague during the Black Death, a fascinating tale full of atmosphere and superstition.
2017 – Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley. I am not a great fan of her style – the play acting and dressing up – but she writes in a lively, chatty style. I gained a better understanding of the social history of Georgian England and of Jane’s wider family connections and what her family and friends thought of her both as a person and as an author.
2018 – The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola – historical fiction set on the Isle of Skye in 1857 where Audrey Hart has been employed by Miss Buchanan to collect the folklore and fairy tales of the local community, a novel full of family secrets and unfulfilled desires.
2019 – Gallows Court by Martin Edwards – an intricately plotted murder mystery with plenty of suspense and intrigue set in 1930s London. There’s aheadless corpse; an apparent suicide in a locked room; a man burned alive during an illusionist’s show in front of thousands of people.
2020 – A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry – historical fiction set in the 1870s some years after the end of the Civil War in Tennessee. These are dangerous times. It’s beautifully written, rendering the way the characters speak so that I could hear them, and describing the landscape so poetically and lyrically that the scenes unfolded before my eyes.
2021 – Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope – an evocative portrayal of country life in nineteenth-century England, told with great compassion, humour and an acute insight into human nature. It’s the story of Mark Robarts, a young clergyman with ambitions beyond his small country parish of Framley.
2022 – Nucleus by Rory Clements – mix of historical fact and fiction, set in 1939 when England and Germany are on the brink of war. It is a fast-paced and gripping book, involving murder, IRA bombers, and espionage, with many twists and turns. In Nazi Germany Jews are in fear of their lives, trying to leave the country. Some have made it to England and America. In both countries the race is on to develop an atomic bomb.
2023 – Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively – This won the Booker Prize in 1987, a novel about a historian in her seventies looking back over her life, from a her childhood just after the First World War to the Second and beyond.
2024 – The Voyage Home by Pat Barker – the third book in her The Women of Troy trilogy. At the end of the Trojan War the Greeks and their prisoners eventually set sail for home. This is a well written, brutal, bloody tale of revenge told in a modern, colloquial style, and full of grim detail of horror and squalor.
2025 – The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB by Gordon Corera. It’s about Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who defected to Britain in 1992. Mitrokhin, a quiet, introverted and determined man, was a reluctant defector, because whilst he loved Russia he came to hate the KGB and the Soviet system.
Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Readerwhere you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.
Zeus sits on his throne. He rules the sky and the world.
Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.
Page 56:
She looked down, plucked Alcides from her nipple and threw him disgustedly from her. Milk sprayed from her nipple in a great arc across the night sky, imprinting it with stars, which from that moment, would be known as the Milky Way.
Description from Amazon UK
In this companion to his bestselling Mythos, Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, funny, tragic and timeless tales.
Join Jason aboard the Argo as he quests for the Golden Fleece. See Atalanta – who was raised by bears – outrun any man before being tricked with golden apples. Witness wily Oedipus solve the riddle of the Sphinx and discover how Bellerophon captures the winged horse Pegasus to help him slay the monster Chimera.
Filled with white-knuckle chases and battles, impossible puzzles and riddles, acts of base cowardice and real bravery, not to mention murders and selfless sacrifices, Heroes is the story of what we mortals are truly capable of – at our worst and our very best.
BooksPlease 