Radz Pandit
@radzpandit.bsky.social
Avid reader, book reviewer & amateur book photographer. I write about books on my blog Radhika’s Reading Retreat. Love art and travel too.
Website: https://readersretreat2017.wordpress.com
Also on: linktr.ee/radzpandit
Website: https://readersretreat2017.wordpress.com
Also on: linktr.ee/radzpandit
#bookmail Exciting new arrivals from @mcnallyeditions.com.
November 26, 2025 at 10:25 AM
#bookmail Exciting new arrivals from @mcnallyeditions.com.
Backlight is the second book in the trilogy I think. I found this image for the first.
November 25, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Backlight is the second book in the trilogy I think. I found this image for the first.
"There are two men in the world
who always cross my path, one is the man I love,
the other man loves me."
- Tove Ditlevsen
who always cross my path, one is the man I love,
the other man loves me."
- Tove Ditlevsen
November 24, 2025 at 5:29 PM
"There are two men in the world
who always cross my path, one is the man I love,
the other man loves me."
- Tove Ditlevsen
who always cross my path, one is the man I love,
the other man loves me."
- Tove Ditlevsen
"Don't you see? I want you to understand:
Anything entrusted to me slips from my hand,
and so, for the sake of our happiness, my dear,
do not care for me so much, you hear!"
Anything entrusted to me slips from my hand,
and so, for the sake of our happiness, my dear,
do not care for me so much, you hear!"
November 24, 2025 at 5:20 AM
"Don't you see? I want you to understand:
Anything entrusted to me slips from my hand,
and so, for the sake of our happiness, my dear,
do not care for me so much, you hear!"
Anything entrusted to me slips from my hand,
and so, for the sake of our happiness, my dear,
do not care for me so much, you hear!"
"I am seized and swept across turbulent waters of dread..."
- "Anxiety" from THERE LIVES A YOUNG GIRL IN ME WHO WILL NOT DIE by Tove Ditlevsen.
- "Anxiety" from THERE LIVES A YOUNG GIRL IN ME WHO WILL NOT DIE by Tove Ditlevsen.
November 23, 2025 at 7:50 PM
"I am seized and swept across turbulent waters of dread..."
- "Anxiety" from THERE LIVES A YOUNG GIRL IN ME WHO WILL NOT DIE by Tove Ditlevsen.
- "Anxiety" from THERE LIVES A YOUNG GIRL IN ME WHO WILL NOT DIE by Tove Ditlevsen.
"And it's only now that she understands what a threat Martta's and Väinö's strange and silly love must have been to Aunt Sirkka, a woman who had twice been in love and twice been rejected - and to anyone who was afraid their inconsolable loneliness would be exposed."
November 23, 2025 at 12:56 PM
"And it's only now that she understands what a threat Martta's and Väinö's strange and silly love must have been to Aunt Sirkka, a woman who had twice been in love and twice been rejected - and to anyone who was afraid their inconsolable loneliness would be exposed."
"A hollow melancholy enveloped her with an unmerciful darkness she could not escape."
I loved Tove Ditlevsen's bleak but powerful THE TROUBLE WITH HAPPINESS; intense short stories that explore love, marriage, family, & mental illness.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2022/07/07/t...
#BlogArchives
I loved Tove Ditlevsen's bleak but powerful THE TROUBLE WITH HAPPINESS; intense short stories that explore love, marriage, family, & mental illness.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2022/07/07/t...
#BlogArchives
November 23, 2025 at 11:11 AM
"A hollow melancholy enveloped her with an unmerciful darkness she could not escape."
I loved Tove Ditlevsen's bleak but powerful THE TROUBLE WITH HAPPINESS; intense short stories that explore love, marriage, family, & mental illness.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2022/07/07/t...
#BlogArchives
I loved Tove Ditlevsen's bleak but powerful THE TROUBLE WITH HAPPINESS; intense short stories that explore love, marriage, family, & mental illness.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2022/07/07/t...
#BlogArchives
It just so happens that I've read some excellent Danish literature this year.
November 22, 2025 at 12:42 PM
It just so happens that I've read some excellent Danish literature this year.
"Grandpa sits down at the table, takes a bottle of Karhu Vodka out of his briefcase, and puts it on the floor.
"Tell her to get me a glass out of the cupboard," Grandpa instructs me.
"Get him a glass out of the cupboard," I tell Grandma, and Grandma says:
"Tell him to get it himself.""
"Tell her to get me a glass out of the cupboard," Grandpa instructs me.
"Get him a glass out of the cupboard," I tell Grandma, and Grandma says:
"Tell him to get it himself.""
November 22, 2025 at 9:37 AM
"Grandpa sits down at the table, takes a bottle of Karhu Vodka out of his briefcase, and puts it on the floor.
"Tell her to get me a glass out of the cupboard," Grandpa instructs me.
"Get him a glass out of the cupboard," I tell Grandma, and Grandma says:
"Tell him to get it himself.""
"Tell her to get me a glass out of the cupboard," Grandpa instructs me.
"Get him a glass out of the cupboard," I tell Grandma, and Grandma says:
"Tell him to get it himself.""
On my blog today, a new post on Olga Ravn's dark and haunting novella of witchcraft and witch hunts, THE WAX CHILD. Translated by Martin Aitken.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...
November 22, 2025 at 8:43 AM
On my blog today, a new post on Olga Ravn's dark and haunting novella of witchcraft and witch hunts, THE WAX CHILD. Translated by Martin Aitken.
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...
"During the day she longs for the deep blue of her dreams, but she only finds pale fragments: a fair summer sky; a field of bird's-eye; a mop of cornflowers deep in a ditch; the window frames painted blue when Porkkala peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union."
November 20, 2025 at 10:38 AM
"During the day she longs for the deep blue of her dreams, but she only finds pale fragments: a fair summer sky; a field of bird's-eye; a mop of cornflowers deep in a ditch; the window frames painted blue when Porkkala peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union."
"...she's jealous of her mother and her dreamy contentment, the casual femininity from which she knows she will forever be excluded."
November 20, 2025 at 9:29 AM
"...she's jealous of her mother and her dreamy contentment, the casual femininity from which she knows she will forever be excluded."
"Kerttu had been a stylish, elderly widow, the type who coughed daintily as she sipped the cognac she'd been offered with coffee. In the ten years Father had known her, he'd introduced her to whiskey, Koskenkorva and Smirnoff Vodka, sweet berry liqueurs, beer, and gin long drinks."
#CurrentlyReading
#CurrentlyReading
November 18, 2025 at 9:02 AM
"Kerttu had been a stylish, elderly widow, the type who coughed daintily as she sipped the cognac she'd been offered with coffee. In the ten years Father had known her, he'd introduced her to whiskey, Koskenkorva and Smirnoff Vodka, sweet berry liqueurs, beer, and gin long drinks."
#CurrentlyReading
#CurrentlyReading
"You should never give up hope before the dogs have crossed the finishing-line.”
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
November 17, 2025 at 11:58 AM
"You should never give up hope before the dogs have crossed the finishing-line.”
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
I loved this brilliant, darkly humorous novel about a charming Jewish gambler with a distinctive, compelling voice; an avid reader who lives in a shabby boarding house in post-war London and crosses paths with the underworld. My new post here:
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
November 16, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I loved this brilliant, darkly humorous novel about a charming Jewish gambler with a distinctive, compelling voice; an avid reader who lives in a shabby boarding house in post-war London and crosses paths with the underworld. My new post here:
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/t...
"She is quite altered and has begun to do penitence.
What do you mean?
She has become a good, Christian woman.
Oh no, the worst."
What do you mean?
She has become a good, Christian woman.
Oh no, the worst."
November 15, 2025 at 2:37 PM
"She is quite altered and has begun to do penitence.
What do you mean?
She has become a good, Christian woman.
Oh no, the worst."
What do you mean?
She has become a good, Christian woman.
Oh no, the worst."
"I had become wizen, the children laughed at me, flies buzzed about my bandage, drawn by the smell of the deep-running blood inside my skull; I was a grandam, a grimalkin, a crone, and the devil's milk-wife, I had at once, as if by a stroke of magic, become Dorte Kjærulf, the one-eyed hag."
November 15, 2025 at 3:30 AM
"I had become wizen, the children laughed at me, flies buzzed about my bandage, drawn by the smell of the deep-running blood inside my skull; I was a grandam, a grimalkin, a crone, and the devil's milk-wife, I had at once, as if by a stroke of magic, become Dorte Kjærulf, the one-eyed hag."
Missing my dear dad who would have turned 76 today.
November 14, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Missing my dear dad who would have turned 76 today.
Also updating the #NYRBWomen25 list. Eight excellent books to consider.
November 14, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Also updating the #NYRBWomen25 list. Eight excellent books to consider.
"I saw brother turn against brother, and mother against daughter. I saw hearts thirst for revenge and hands that craved for violence. This was not Nakkebølle, it was not even Funen; shudders ran even through my hardy wax, this was Aalborg, 1616, city of hate."
November 13, 2025 at 3:05 PM
"I saw brother turn against brother, and mother against daughter. I saw hearts thirst for revenge and hands that craved for violence. This was not Nakkebølle, it was not even Funen; shudders ran even through my hardy wax, this was Aalborg, 1616, city of hate."
Reading Olga Ravn for the first time, and loving this book!
November 13, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reading Olga Ravn for the first time, and loving this book!
Blurring the boundaries between prose and poetry, THE BOAT IN THE EVENING by Tarjei Vesaas explores the mysteries of the natural world and man's relationship with landscape. Translated by Elizabeth Rokkan. My new post here:
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/t...
November 12, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Blurring the boundaries between prose and poetry, THE BOAT IN THE EVENING by Tarjei Vesaas explores the mysteries of the natural world and man's relationship with landscape. Translated by Elizabeth Rokkan. My new post here:
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/t...
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/t...
Today's #bookmail.
THE DEVIL'S BOOK by Asta Olivia Nordenhof. This is the second in the Scandinavian Star series. Loved the first, MONEY TO BURN. Translated by Caroline Waight.
And Celia Fremlin's collection of short stories, BY HORROR HAUNTED.
THE DEVIL'S BOOK by Asta Olivia Nordenhof. This is the second in the Scandinavian Star series. Loved the first, MONEY TO BURN. Translated by Caroline Waight.
And Celia Fremlin's collection of short stories, BY HORROR HAUNTED.
November 12, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Today's #bookmail.
THE DEVIL'S BOOK by Asta Olivia Nordenhof. This is the second in the Scandinavian Star series. Loved the first, MONEY TO BURN. Translated by Caroline Waight.
And Celia Fremlin's collection of short stories, BY HORROR HAUNTED.
THE DEVIL'S BOOK by Asta Olivia Nordenhof. This is the second in the Scandinavian Star series. Loved the first, MONEY TO BURN. Translated by Caroline Waight.
And Celia Fremlin's collection of short stories, BY HORROR HAUNTED.
Finished THE BOAT IN THE EVENING, and it's great! A book that makes you slow down and savour its sights, scents, and silences. More elusive and fragmentary than THE ICE PALACE and THE BIRDS, but infused with the same hypnotic, otherworldly feel. Thank you @andrewmale.bsky.social for recommending it.
November 11, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Finished THE BOAT IN THE EVENING, and it's great! A book that makes you slow down and savour its sights, scents, and silences. More elusive and fragmentary than THE ICE PALACE and THE BIRDS, but infused with the same hypnotic, otherworldly feel. Thank you @andrewmale.bsky.social for recommending it.
Today's exciting #bookmail. Pirkko Saisio is new to me, and I loved CF Ramuz's GREAT FEAR ON THE MOUNTAIN earlier this year, so wanted to read more of his work.
November 10, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Today's exciting #bookmail. Pirkko Saisio is new to me, and I loved CF Ramuz's GREAT FEAR ON THE MOUNTAIN earlier this year, so wanted to read more of his work.