Conor McCarthy

Bowie x Chaucer - superb!

Wow.

John Le Carre novel - Agent running in the field

Letter From Minnesota: “If They Take Me and Leave the Children…” Today is Tuesday, January 27th, 2026. I got gas for the first time this year by myself. The gas station was mostly empty. I drove into the station, heart thudding in my chest. I did everything as f…

Kao Kalia Yang at @literaryhub.bsky.social - "If they take me and leave the children." One of our great local writers at this moment of crisis.

Christmas is like a game of Pac Man. You have to keep moving from place to place; keep eating; and avoid the ghosts.

The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Festivus …

‘Tis still popular in some parts …

Frankenstein donut

Seasonal donut (slightly squashed)

Jack DeJohnette, versatile jazz drummer known for Miles Davis fusion recordings, dies aged 83 Drummer played on Bitches Brew and other landmark recordings, as well as making numerous albums as a bandleader

Saw him play with Herbie Hancock in the 90s - a wonderful musician: www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

Or, hang on, are we actually nostalgic for that?

No danger of any of us slipping into nostalgia here, is there?

Bus stop with graffiti

Strong rebuke of spy agency on our local bus stop …

Routledge’s US office is in NY, I believe …

From V to Vineland and Inherent Vice: Thomas Pynchon’s books – ranked! With fans eagerly awaiting the reclusive author’s first book in more than a decade, the noir caper Shadow Ticket, we assess his best fiction of the past 60 years

Pynchon novels ranked in the Guardian. I’m going to dissent on the placing for Against the Day … I loved it! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Presumably translated as “Sure, this is a Wendy’s, boy …”

Ominous owl …

a group of helicopters flying over a body of water at sunset Alt: Helicopters from Apocalypse Now

Spotify now just playing Wagner …

New books coming from Thomas Pynchon, Olga Ravn, and George Saunders in the next 6 months … pretty excited for all of these!

What Kept You? by Raaza Jamshed review – an extraordinary debut full of ritual and poetry A young woman grapples with the stories that shape her in this tightly crafted and complex portrayal of grief and growing up

‘An extraordinary debut full of ritual and poetry’ ⭐

What Kept You? by Raaza Jamshed receives a full-page and full-hearted review in the Guardian today!

Read the full piece by Bec Kavanagh: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

😲 George Saunders is releasing "Vigil" on 1/27/26

Like "Lincoln in the Bardo", it will be set in a liminal zone between life and death.
It follows the deathbed journey & moral accounting of an oil company CEO.

Are you adding this one to your TBR? 📚

#books #booksky #litfic #booklover #tbr

There’s a magnificent version of Arlo Guthrie’s “ODed in Denver” on that album …

Italian parenting for the win …

No defects at all …

Pope Pad See Ew V …

Vegetable patty on bread

Call this a democracy sausage? (Actually quite tasty tbf).

Wonderful playing tonight by the great Ed Kuepper

Amazing!

Can’t believe my innie was at work when the final episode of season 2 dropped …

RIP Dag Solstad …