Recent Acquisitions

I have amassed many books recently through the kindness of publishers and of blogging friends. In fact, as I was drafting this post I realised that I had acquired even more when I discovered a book stack photograph that I had forgotten to share with you. The gifts in this pile are the ones teetering [...]

A Russian Affair

One of my very first reviews on Paperback Reader was of First Love by Ivan Turgenev and soon after I was gifted the complete Penguin Great Loves boxset. When the Classics Circuit announced a tour of Imperial Russian literature, I was given the opportunity to read further about Russian love from the collection by opting [...]

Books, Red Wine and Chocolate

When I’m reading I do like doing it with a cuppa and some chocolate; I have also been known to have a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the other. When I was given the opportunity to review chocolate with red wine, it was an offer I could not decline. I [...]

Claire’s Corner

If you’re in London then you may have noticed some elephants around. Between May and July there are 250 baby elephant sculptures dotted around Central London, each with a unique design by an artist; the Elephant Parade is a “conservation campaign that shines a multi-coloured spotlight on the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian [...]

Wayward Girls and Wicked Women

Angela Carter was enthusiastically involved with Virago Press and collected and edited two volumes of short stories for the publisher of books by women: Wayward Girls and Wicked Women and Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales; the former is the book I wish to discuss today. I have reviewed a few short story collections in [...]

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