Kissing is a type of universal language, best interpreted by those involved in the exchange.

Saw this make-up bag at the Wellcome Collection today. There's an exhibition inspired by the tagged book. This model from the gift shop is called Dental Bling. I need this in my life.

Fun to see guys finding their way to The Handmaid's Tale through ... football.

A very dense collection but worth the effort. These stories will make you think.

Germans really have it figured out

The wisdom of Fernando Pessoa

My former colleague @doris.hc has just launched Paperflips.com , a website offering recommendations to busy book lovers. I tried the quiz and was recommended the tagged book - sounds exactly right for me! Do try it!

This may be quite elegant in the original, but the translation felt clunky. The stories would probably form a good basis for Sunday afternoon TV but none of them touched me.

But this thing that almost never was still beckons, I wanted to tell him. They can never undo it, never unwrite it, never unlive it, or relive it - it's just stuck there like a vision of fireflies on a summer field toward evening that keeps saying, You could have had this instead.

We belonged to each other, but had lived so far apart that we belonged to others now. Squatters, and only squatters, were the true claimants to our lives.

I bought this during the #londonlittens meetup. All contributors were set the challenge of combining sex and death in their short story. All of the stories are good, none have a neat conclusion and they definitely make you think. 'Evie' by Sarah Hall really stood out to me - it packs a punch.

Yesterday I learned that NYPL's catalogue system is called CATNYP. How cool is that?

A very interesting read. Covers everything from marriage, sex education to LGBT rights. I particularly like how the author explores the links between sexual and political freedoms.

In which Mr Ottolenghi's chocolate cake gets a warm chestnut puree blanket :-)

Everything you ever wanted to know about Russian organized crime, and some things you didn't know you wanted to know! So glad this book is getting lots of attention - it's excellent. Very readable and comprehensive: it covers history, politics and also pop culture. Big thumbs up!

Filed under Badass Women of History. Using a broad range of sources, Jung Chang convincingly challenges the image of Cixi as a conservative standing in the way of reforms. I particularly liked the way she explains how Cixi's bad image was created by her opponents and how it took hold both in China and the West.

While this isn't as funny as the marketing would want you to believe, it's very sharply observed. I read it one sitting and found some sections quite moving.

Another one from Mr Ottolenghi's book. I prefer the chocolate cake but this one got good feedback too :-) And the mango icing is a fun touch.

The book is not great overall, but this is a gem. True beyond the Middle East as well 😁

The love story is so-so but the historical details are fascinating. Some really nice writing as well.

The first around 80 pages were great - a road trip story focusing on four women, all of whom are from different Middle Eastern states, is a rare find. This felt very refreshing but ultimately the structure didn't work and overall the book felt like it never had a proper edit. Some lovely quotes, though.

I can confirm that Mr Ottolenghi's chocolate cake recipe is amazing. I substituted chocolate frosting with a Nutella variant and added some Ferrero as tonight's dinner was on an Italian theme.

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses, only waiting for the day when they will see us handsome and brave? Perhaps everything terrifying is deep down a helpless thing that needs our help.

This is such a book-club book. Sometimes I thought the author made a bet with herself as to how many discussion topics she can raise in one book. The writing is compelling but I wished the pace would slow down in places to give the reader time to think. Very good overall, though.

A great crime novel. Intricately plotted. The translator also deserves credit - the text flows seamlessly.

I can see why Teju Cole received an award for the art of the essay. These are beautifully written and and the breadth of the subjects covered is impressive. I particularly enjoyed the essays on photography, which Cole looks at both from the technological and the political angle. An eye-opening book.

Fascinating articles and interviews, and I learned a lot about the connections between Turkey and Poland. Who knew Nâzım Hikmet's great-grandfather was Polish?

Focus on ancient Rome, the UK, US and France and a token chapter on China does not constitute a 'world history'. In addition, this wasn't particularly well written and I had the impression that the author's research did not go beyond easily accessible sources in English.

A loving tribute to pop culture but the plot and characters left me rather cold. Not my favourite Chabon novel.

An interesting narrative structure - a comedian suffering a breakdown during his stand-up comedy performance, told from the POV of his childhood friend whom he hasn't seen for years. The book is well-written in my view there wasn't enough meat to the story. The big reveal about the supposed choice was a letdown.

Foyles is all festive! Love it :-)

The stories are fascinating but the writing could be smoother. It seemed the author couldn't quite decide how to structure the book - chronologically, by issue, people... The result is a little confusing in places. Also I thought the tone oscillates between dry and quite movie-style - again, as if the author couldn't decide. We'll worth a read, though.

Julian Barnes reading from his new book at a Vintage Showcase event yesterday. And I was lucky enough to get a proof copy!

An amazing talk by Timothy Snyder at Chatham House tonight!

This book will make you cringe -but that's part of its appeal. It's very accurate in describing the level of stupidity humans are capable of when in love/infatuated/obsessed.

For the record, I resisted the urge to buy this book for two weeks. A doomed effort from the start. I mean, just look at the cover...

I went to Orhan Pamuk's talk at Southbank last Friday and of course I ended up buying this afterwards. His enthusiasm for building and discusding stories is infectious.

This is quite a dense collection, I couldn't read more than 1-2 essays in one sitting. Learned a lot about sci-fi, fantasy and creative work in general. Well worth a read.

I read this for a book club. We talked about the book for two hours and I still haven't completely processed it. This one will stay with you...

A very pleasant read. Good to read about summer heat when there's none to be had here in London. I found some of the plot elements implausible but the pace and dialogue were great.

Beautifully written! These stories are begging to be read aloud.

I normally like at least a small dose of realism in my fantasy reads, so this book didn't quite work for me. Perhaps I came to it too late - I would probably have loved it when I was a teenager. Some beautiful quotes, though.

An interesting collection of legends that are not widely known in anglophone literature. They give a strong sense of how people's environment shaped their lives. Some of the poems are really beautiful.

I loved this! Crime novels are not my favourite genre but this is beautifully written. It paints a vivid picture of the people, noises, smells and food of Marseille. The author was also a poet and that is strongly it shows - the language flows like magic. Strongly recommended! I'm planning the pick up the next book in this trilogy soon.

Fascinating, although it's clear throughout the book that the sources for this period are frustratingly scarce.

A really interesting book about how easy it is to influence the brain. The discussion on wheter it's possible to develop professional intuition is also useful.

I know lots of people loved this but to me it felt unpolished. Some great ideas, though.

One of my vacation reads. A nice historical mystery that can easily be read in one sitting. I enjoyed the technical details. The characters could do with a little more depth.

It's been a while since I read a story involving Baba Jaga :-) The characters could do with a little more development, but the plot twists and the beautifully intervowen East European folklore kept me interested. Thumbs up.

A useful overview of how the medical profession has viewed autism in the past century. Silberman shows that the perception that there's an autism epidemic is inaccurate - more people are diagnosed because there's more awareness about autism. Also good history of parents' activism and cultural perceptions of autism. Best of all, it's really well written - a genuine page-turner, even though it's over 500 pages long.