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New blog post! #20booksofsummer continues with three different sets if novels: a satire on our obsession with romance & sex, a biography of one of the world's most prolific art thieves, and a feminist SF classic from 1975 drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/2... #20bos2026 #booksky

20 Books of Summer, #12, #13 and #14: Rejection, The Art Thief and The Female ManTony Tulathimutte, Rejection. This terminally online satirical collection of interlinked character studies deliberately refuses one interpretation, so I’ll just tell you what I took from it. …drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

My #20booksofsummer reading continues with two very different novels - one too tidy, one sprawlingly huge - both with a twist in the tail drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/2... #20bos2026 #amreading #booksky

20 Books of Summer, #10 and #11: The Safekeep and The Works of VerminMy 20 Books of Summer continues apace with two books on opposite ends of one literary spectrum: one too-perfectly-neat, the other deliberately, confusingly huge – but both with big twists nea…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

New blog post! I review a book that surveys utopian writing from Plato's Republic to Hamja Ahsan's Shy Radicals drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/07/17/2... #booksky #20bos2026 #20booksofsummer

20 Books of Summer, #9: The Uses of UtopiaIn this popular historical survey of utopian writing – almost entirely from Britain and Western Europe – Joad Raymond Wren argues that utopia is a ‘literary genre’ that ‘requires us to reflect upon…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

I continue my #20booksofsummer with two novels that turn out to have a surprising amount in common - one queer contemporary, one C19th historical, but both dealing with a brother who becomes a priest & how that affects his family drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/07/08/2... #20bos2026 #booksky

20 Books of Summer, #7 and #8: Land and Ordinary SaintsA young woman’s brother leaves their home in Ireland early to train as a priest. To his family’s dismay, the brother does not choose to remain close by but ends up travelling to Rome to…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

New blog post! A creepy, summery, liminal spaces story drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/2... #20bos2026 #20booksofsummer #booksky

20 Books of Summer, #6: Solace HouseI couldn’t have read Will MacLean’s second novel Solace House in more appropriate circumstances. First during the intense heatwave last week, down south at the Chalke History Festival n…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

This was accidentally posted early but if anyone fancies reading about my struggles with cosy books, go ahead drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/06/27/2... #booksky #20bos #20booksofsummer

20 Books of Summer, #4 and #5: Bookish and Moss’d In SpaceI continue my 20 Books of Summer with two relentlessly cosy reads. Lucy Mangan, Bookish. I was aware going in that Mangan’s memoir of a reading life, a follow-up to Bookworm, which I absolute…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

Was delighted to speak about WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED at @chalkefestival.bsky.social, first to school students on Tuesday and then to the general public yesterday. Now also delighted to be back in Northumberland where it is (reasonably) cool #skystorians #histchild #coldwar #heatwave

We have an 18-month temporary lectureship in early modern British and European history just advertised at Newcastle - closing date 9th July www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRW166/l... #skystorians

Lecturer in Early Modern British and European History at Newcastle UniversityLooking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Lecturer in Early Modern British and European History on jobs.ac.uk!www.jobs.ac.uk

New blog post! Kicking off my #20booksofsummer2026 with three wildly different reads that share a concern with how we romanticise the recent past. And one of them has time travel drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/06/15/2... #booksky #sff #20bos26

20 Books of Summer, #1, #2 and #3: Retro, Brawler, and One Day, Everybody Will Have Always Been Against ThisKicking off 20 Books of Summer as I mean to go on – with three wildly different reads – and as I hope to go on – with three books that all worked for me. Despite these books&#8217…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

There is absolutely a question here of what children & young people are actually meant to do with their time, given the lack of free public space open to them & the fact that not everyone has parents willing or able to provide endless enriching activities at home (garden definitely a bonus).

New blog post! Recent holiday reading, from travels through hallucinatory landscapes in rural Vermont, to Scottish bothies, to creepy SF religious institutions, to an 1860s miners' strike in north-eastern France drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/06/10/h... #booksky #sff #amreading

Holiday Reading in Late May & Early JuneI recently went away for a week in West Yorkshire that coincided with the best of the sunny weather, with only one day getting uncomfortably hot. In between walking and wild swimming in various nat…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

New blog post! What would happen if two of the surviving teenage girls from Eliza Clark's PENANCE grew up & decided to platonically queer parent together? The answer is more heartbreaking than you think drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/06/08/i... #booksky #queerlit

‘I’m sorry that I’ve loved you so much’: Chosen Family by Madeleine GrayI described Madeleine Gray’s second novel Chosen Family on Instagram when I was still partway through it as ‘what might happen if two of the surviving girls from Eliza Clark’s Penance grew up and t…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com

It was great to chat to Dave about WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED for the New Books Network podcast - listen here! #skystorians #histchild #coldwarhistory

My summer reading plans! drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/05/25/2... #20booksofsummer #booksky #tbr

20 Books of Summer, 202620 Books of Summer is no longer being hosted by Cathy of 746 Books, but Annabel of AnnaBookBel has stepped in instead – hooray! This year, it runs from 1st June to 31st August. I wasn’t plann…drlauratisdall.wordpress.com