Originally published in 1974 and reissued by NYRB Classics in 2020, Leonora Carrington’s The Hearing Trumpet had been languishing on my shelf for more than a year (I could say that for most of the …| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during February 2024| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Elizabeth Taylor is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. My first of hers was A Game of Hide and Seek, which I loved, followed by Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and The Soul of Kindness. The…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
The whole of April was spent in lockdown. I was somehow drawn towards authors whose books I had loved before, and this plan really worked because almost all the books I read were marvelous. Like la…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during January 2022| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Samanta Schweblin’s masterful Fever Dream was one of my favourite books in 2017 – a short, terrifying, and suspenseful tale set in bleak, rural Argentina featuring an unsettling, precocious child while exploring, among many things, the mother-child relationship and the concept of “the rescue distance.” It was brilliant, and since then, a couple of her…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
October, the heart of the spooky season and culminating in Halloween, is the perfect month to immerse oneself in books that have the power to unsettle. And here is a stack of books I read this year and last that fit the bill, a great accompaniment to chilly weather and warm fires, cozy blankets, candle-lit…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I visited Iceland with my family during the third week of September and it was amazing – what a gorgeous country it is. A MEMORABLE TRIP We spent our days wandering through the charming streets of Reykjavík, our base for the trip, feasting on fresh cod, salmon, and Arctic char, and washing it down with…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Even if it’s October, Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban is my entry for #SpinsterSeptember, and I’m so glad to have discovered this novel thanks to the lovely Nora (@pear_jelly on Insta and Bluesky), w…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Until now I had never read any Anita Brookner but she has been getting a lot of love on Book Twitter. So I decided to jump on the Brookner bandwagon with the novel that had been garnering rave revi…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during February 2025| Radhika's Reading Retreat
2022 turned out to be a superb year of reading. Purely because I wanted another reason to showcase my reading highlights, just like last year, I decided to strike a balance between sticking to a sp…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Elizabeth Jenkins is a new author to me. But a couple of years back I went through a phase of acquiring as many editions as I could of these stunning Virago designer hardbacks (which also includes …| Radhika's Reading Retreat
After having read two excellent books in January – Marina Tsvetaeva’s Earthly Signs and Teffi’s Other Worlds – for #NYRBWomen24, February has churned out another gem, May Sinclair’s Mary Olivier: A…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
1 post published by Radz Pandit during October 2025| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Brandy Sour is the first book published by a new publisher on the block – Foundry Editions – whose mission is to discover new voices with a particular focus on translated literature from the Medite…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
A few years ago, I read and loved my first Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City – a collection of four novellas and two short stories offering a fascinating glimpse into the lives of people in…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Natalia Ginzburg’s range of novels and novellas are simply wonderful and I’m gradually making my way through them, grateful for the steady stream of reissues of her books in recent years. On this b…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I have read some excellent Italian literature in translation in recent years, the likes of which include Elena Ferrante’s marvellous Neapolitan Novels, Natalia Ginzburg’s All Our Yesterdays, and Al…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
3 posts published by Radz Pandit during June 2025| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during September 2025| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I read some excellent books in August – five translated works of literature for #WITMonth covering five languages (Norwegian, German, Korean, French, and Russian), and one novel for the #NYRBWomen25 reading project. All six books were great, and I would definitely recommend them. So, without further ado, here’s a brief look at the six books.…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I read Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz in August for #NYRBWomen25 but only got around to writing about it now. I was going to skip it at first, but my curiosity got the better of me, and after reading three chapters, I knew I was all the way in. Originally published in 1968, Talk is an…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Last year, I discovered, read, and loved A Tiler’s Afternoon by Lars Gustafsson, and it went on to become one of my favourite books of the year. Unsurprisingly, I wanted to read more of his work, but most of his books are sadly out of print; certainly, they weren’t available on Blackwells, and I had…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Han Kang is one of my favourite authors – loved both The Vegetarian and The White Book – but inexplicably I did not read anything by her since then. She came into my orbit once again after being awarded the Nobel Prize, with her recently translated novel, We Do Not Part, peaking my interest. Such…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
The first two books I read for WIT Month in August were excellent – Nothing Grows by Moonlight by Torborg Nedreaas and Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer. While I originally planned to read another novel, as soon as Lili is Crying arrived by post, I suddenly felt I had to read it first. And it…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Here are ten recommendations from me for #SpinsterSeptember, created and hosted by the lovely Nora on Instagram and Bluesky. While curating this list, I selected books with protagonist/protagonists…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
4 posts published by Radz Pandit during October 2020| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during August 2025| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall is one of my favourite novels of all time; if you haven’t read it yet, it is certainly a worthy choice for the currently ongoing WIT Month. However, the novel that intro…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I hadn’t heard of Norwegian author Torborg Nedreaas until Penguin published a rather enticing edition of her novel Nothing Grows by Moonlight this year and I decided to make it my first book …| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Posts about NYRBWomen25 written by Radz Pandit| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Published in 1976, The Stepdaughter is Caroline Blackwood’s first novel and also the first book I’ve read of hers. It’s pretty impressive and has whetted my appetite for her more well-known novel G…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during May 2025| Radhika's Reading Retreat
4 posts published by Radz Pandit during January 2019| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during October 2023| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Multi-volume Danish series seems to be quite the fad at the moment; I loved Solvej Balle’s excellent On the Calculation of Volume 1, and now we have Asta Olivia Nordenhof’s seven-part ‘Scandinavian…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
5 posts published by Radz Pandit during April 2025| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I seem to be in the mood for some Persephone books at the moment having recently read and loved Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins, followed by Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton which turned out to be…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Elizabeth Jenkins’ superb The Tortoise and the Hare was one of my favourite books in 2022. I was therefore keen at some point to read Harriet, published by the wonderful Persephone Books, a copy of…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I read Caroline Blackwood’s marvellous Great Granny Webster for #NYRBWomen25, the fifth book I’ve now read as part of this terrific reading project. I read this in April but could not write about i…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Celia Dale is a new author to me and now a wonderful discovery thanks to Daunt Books’ recent reissue of A Helping Hand. As I write about this terrific book, another of her titles just published tit…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
May Sinclair’s Life and Death of Harriett Frean is a pitch-perfect study of a woman’s life traced from cradle to grave compressed into a taut 180 pages. With quiet precision, Sinclair distills the …| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I had read Elizabeth Hardwick’s essay collection Seduction and Betrayal many years ago but unfortunately did not write about it at the time, although I have a vague recollection of being impressed …| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Sybille Bedford was a German-born English writer of non-fiction and semi-autobiographical fiction, particularly well-known for her books A Legacy and Jigsaw. When a recent Backlisted episode focuse…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
To quote Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” Well, certainly in 2019. But there was nothing quite as therapeutic and rewarding as reading for me this year. On the surfa…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I read my first Anita Brookner in 2020, the superb Look at Me, a book that found a place on My Best Books of 2020 list, but for some inexplicable reason I haven’t read more of her work since. To co…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
As I write this, Daunt Books Publishing announced on Bluesky that it will reissue another Celia Dale novel this year – Other People – with another terrific cover. I am excited, I love her novels, a…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Toddler-Hunting, Taeko Kono’s terrific story collection is my first review for WIT Month, and a book that is sure to find a place on my year-end list. Taeko Kono’s Toddler-Hunting and Other S…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
For some inexplicable reason, I had never read Muriel Spark before. A few of her novels were languishing on my shelves, but I never felt compelled to open any of them. But then, last year was Murie…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Sadie Stein, in her introduction to the novel, states: Among Comyns devotees, The Juniper Tree is divisive. Having read only one Comyns (The Vet’s Daughter) prior to The Juniper Tree, I can’t reall…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I read Jessica Mitford’s wonderful memoir Hons and Rebels in August as part of Kim’s ‘NYRBWomen24’ reading project but have only gotten to write about it now. I’ve always been fascinated by the Mit…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Barbara Comyns has deservedly seen a revival of sorts in recent years; quite a few of her books have been reissued by Virago, NYRB Classics, Turnpike Books, and Daunt Books. And yet, there are a co…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I read some wonderful books from NYRB Classics in September and because I am rather behind in my reviews, I decided to write about two of them – The Gate and Our Spoons Came from Woolworths –…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
Posts about NYRBWomen24 written by Radz Pandit| Radhika's Reading Retreat
2020 was so terrible, the less said about it the better. The best thing though was all the reading I did. Books kept me sane. With more time on my hands, I read much more than what I had done in pr…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
It was only a few years ago that I discovered the writing of Elizabeth Taylor. It didn’t help that she shared the same name with the famous actress. At the time, NYRB Classics had reissued her nove…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I love Barbara Comyns. Her books are so strange and wonderfully addictive, her writing and imagination so unique. Every Comyns that I’ve read has been marvellous – The Vet’s Daughter (which I plan …| Radhika's Reading Retreat
I am steadily making my way through Elizabeth Taylor’s novels, such a terrific writer she is. All the novels I’ve read so far – A Game of Hide and Seek, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, The Soul of Ki…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
X (erstwhile Twitter) might be a ghastly place nowadays, but it continues to remain a great source of book recommendations (for me at least), and thanks to Andrew Male (who writes wonderfully about…| Radhika's Reading Retreat
