Posts

Today in Bookish and Literary History, August 13

1605 | 📖 Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston | United Kingdom | 446 pages | 1732 | 📖 Zaire by Voltaire | France | 73 pages | 1894 | 📖 Regret by Kate Chopin | United States | 9 pages | 2020 | 📖 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig | United Kingdom | 288 pages | 🏆 | @mattzhaig 2024 | 📖 The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao | India / United States | 384 pages | 🏆🏆 | @ruthvikarao 2024 | 📖 Highway Thirteen by Fiona McFarlane | Australia / United States | 272 pages | 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 | 2025 | 📖 Writers and Other Dreamers by S. Cunliffe | United Kingdom | 367 pages | 2025 | 📖 Tofino by Tom Stewart | Canada | 427 pages | 🏆🏆 2026 | 📖 The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman | United Kingdom | 512 pages | 2026 | 📖 They Can't Burn Us All by Cathryn Kemp | United Kingdom | 404 pages | @cathryn_kemp 2026 | 📖 His Final Patient by J.S. Monroe | United Kingdom | 365 pages | 2026 | 📖 The Little Porto Book Club by Rebecca Raisin | Australia | 332 pages | @re...

Today in Bookish and Literary History, August 12

Image
2025 | 📖 For Richer For Poorer by Danielle Steel | United States | 258 pages | @officialdanielleste 2025 | 📖 Kiss Her Goodbye by Lisa Gardner | United States | 416 pages | @lisagardnerbks 2025 | 📖 Too Old for This by Samantha Downing | United States | 385 pages | @smariedowning 2025 | 📖 We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter | United States | 439 pages | 🏆🏆 | @karinslaughterauthor 2025 | 📖 Loved One by Aisha Muharrar | United States | 336 pages | 🏆 | @eeshmu

Today in Bookish and Literary History, August 11

Image
1980 | 📖 Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates | United States | 592 pages | 🏆 | @joycecaroloates3146 2020 | 📖 Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear by Matthew Salesses | United States | 317 pages | 🏆 | @m.salesses 2026 | 📖 Under the Falls by Richard Russo | United States | 256 pages | 2026 | 📖 Mia by Leslie Bazzett | United States | 320 pages | 2026 | 📖 Hocus Pocus by Brinda Charry | United States | 336 pages | @brinda_charry2 2026 | 📖 Counting the Days by Laura Chinn | United States | 320 pages | @laurachinnnn 2026 | 📖 A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young | South Korea | 112 pages | 2026 | 📖 A Tender Age by Chang-rae Lee | United States | 368 pages | 2026 | 📖 A Thousand Painted Hours by Barbara O'Neal | United States | 480 pages | @barbaraonealauthor 2026 | 📖 Sunrise by Téa Obreht | United States / Serbia | 336 pages | @teaobreht 2026 | 📖 The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye Penelope | United States | 496 pages | @leslyepenelope 2026 | 📖 The True Meaning of Love by Dan...

Today in Bookish and Literary History, August 10

Image
1988 | 📖 Man of the Moment by Alan Ayckbourn | United Kingdom | 104 pages | 2023 | 📖 The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau | United States | 340 pages | @tudorscribe

Then the Fish Swallowed Him by Amir Ahmadi Arian (2020): A Review

Image
Title : Then the Fish Swallowed Him Author : Amir Ahmadi Arian Publication Year : 2020 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pages : 288 Source : audiobook @storytel.tr Genre : historical fiction, Iranian fiction, political fiction I cannot decide whether this is a 3.5-star or 4-star book, which feels strangely appropriate for a novel that left me unsettled rather than satisfied. Let’s start with the title and cover, because I was deeply curious about them. Then the Fish Swallowed Him immediately calls to mind the story of Jonah, the prophet swallowed by a fish until he learns his lesson and returns to the right path. Here, the main character is named Yunus — aka Jonah — and the parallel feels painfully ironic. Or maybe irony is too soft a word for it. I believe the author somehow subverts the story, though I am not entirely sure how to name it. If we consider Yunus as Jonah and the solitary cell as the fish, then what does that leave the despotic system to be? Yunus Turabi is an ordinary man: a bus ...