[photo now attached. I was having some issues with my wordpress image uploader, which I dealt with in a mature way, no yelling at inanimate objects, throwing things or tiny pinprick tears of frustration. No, really.]

• After the Fireworks by Aldous Huxley
• Carson McCullers: A Life by Josyane Savigneau
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe

I won After the Fireworks through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program, it’s a lovely edition of Huxley’s novella from Hesperus Press. Savigneau’s McCullers biography was bought on eBay over a month ago and once I sent the seller an email about its whereabouts, of course it arrived the next day.

In terms of reading, I think I’ve burnt myself out on contemporary fiction for the time being, everything I’ve read so far this year was only published in the last couple of years and I’m ready for something a bit older now. I’ve been eyeing off my stacks of Penguin and Vintage paperbacks with something approaching licentiousness. Contemporary fiction is good for a while, but there is no way I could only read the latest releases. Like wine, whiskey or cheese, good literature only gets better with age.

Here’s a bit of an audio treat for the end of week: Karen Russell, author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, reading and discussing Carson McCullers‘ short story “The Jockey” for the New Yorker fiction podcast.