Gordon MacMillan

If you’re in a reading slump, nothing is wrong with you. Sometimes it’s tired brains, overstimulation and too many choices. Here’s your guilt-free reset plan #Books tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/03/read...

wrote about the aftermath of finishing something incredible, and what to read next without betrayal. #Books tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-...

The cover of the bonfire of the vanities by tom wolfe in a blog post about how places in some novels become characters in their own right.

The setting as a character, and why the places in some novels stay with you tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-...

The cover of the bonfire of the vanities by tom wolfe in a blog post about how places in some novels become characters in their own right.

The setting as a character, and why the places in some novels stay with you tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-...

It’s definitely worth. I really enjoyed Teddy‘s relationship with his daughter.

Two Kate Atkinson novels, Life After Life and A God in Ruins, rest on a table beneath old photographs, a quiet still life of memory, war, and second chances.

I keep thinking Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life and A God in Ruins should be talked about far more than they are. Not because they’re obscure, but because they’re quietly radical. Time, war, memory, the routes our lives take. #booksky tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-...

I loved Life After Life, read it twice, but I found A God in Ruins really got to me.

Two Kate Atkinson novels, Life After Life and A God in Ruins, rest on a table beneath old photographs, a quiet still life of memory, war, and second chances.

I keep thinking Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life and A God in Ruins should be talked about far more than they are. Not because they’re obscure, but because they’re quietly radical. Time, war, memory, the routes our lives take. #booksky tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-...

We pretend we don’t judge books by their covers. We do. We just call it intuition.
What covers really do, how design trends shift, and five books I’m eyeing purely on cover energy. What was your last cover-led preorder? #booksky
tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/02/what...

So... What do you read after Lonesome Dove?

Gordon has a well-considered suggestion over at 'Tangled Prose'.

#BookSky

Loved Lonesome Dove? Skip the sequels and discover why Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy is the modern literary Western readers should turn to next.

What do you read after Lonesome Dove?

Not the sequels.
Not the prequels.
Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy is the better answer. Three novels, one sustained reckoning with land, loss, and the end of the West.
#booksky

tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/02/afte...

Loved Lonesome Dove? Skip the sequels and discover why Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy is the modern literary Western readers should turn to next.

What do you read after Lonesome Dove?

Not the sequels.
Not the prequels.
Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy is the better answer. Three novels, one sustained reckoning with land, loss, and the end of the West.
#booksky

tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/02/afte...

The moment you get a literary agent. how do you decide if they are the right literary agent for you

You got an offer from a literary agent. It is an amazing moment. Now you have to decide if this is the right person to guide your writing career. They might not be. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/01/how-...

It’s been 15 years since the last book, and we’re still trying to wash the taste of "King Bran" out of our mouths. We don't just want the next chapter; we need the narrative restored to its former glory. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/01/wait...

It’s been 15 years since the last book, and we’re still trying to wash the taste of "King Bran" out of our mouths. We don't just want the next chapter; we need the narrative restored to its former glory. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/01/wait...

Julian Barnes is one of those writers we don’t talk about enough.
Dry, elegant, emotionally precise. If you’re new to him (or overdue a revisit), these are the books to start with:
#RecommendedReading #JulianBarnes #blueskybooks
tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/01/juli...

Why We Revisit the Books That Broke Us A thoughtful exploration of rereading emotionally powerful novels and what they reveal about who we’ve become.

Ever reread a novel that once wrecked you?

Not for comfort, but to meet it again with new eyes.

This post is about the quiet, painful pull of returning to the books that broke us, and what we find there now.

tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/01/read...

Why We Revisit the Books That Broke Us A thoughtful exploration of rereading emotionally powerful novels and what they reveal about who we’ve become.

Ever reread a novel that once wrecked you?

Not for comfort, but to meet it again with new eyes.

This post is about the quiet, painful pull of returning to the books that broke us, and what we find there now.

tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2026/01/read...

A cozy reading corner featuring a stack of five books on a wooden shelf: "Blue Nights" by Joan Didion, "Stoner" by John Williams, "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson, "Outline" by Rachel Cusk, and "Foster" by Claire Keegan. Beside the books are a ceramic mug, reading glasses, and a folded wool blanket, all illuminated by natural light from an adjacent window.

Five books for the in-between:

Blue Nights
Stoner
Gilead
Outline
Foster

A new post on liminal reading and why these are the ones I return to. #booksky
tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/read...

A cozy reading corner featuring a stack of five books on a wooden shelf: "Blue Nights" by Joan Didion, "Stoner" by John Williams, "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson, "Outline" by Rachel Cusk, and "Foster" by Claire Keegan. Beside the books are a ceramic mug, reading glasses, and a folded wool blanket, all illuminated by natural light from an adjacent window.

Five books for the in-between:

Blue Nights
Stoner
Gilead
Outline
Foster

A new post on liminal reading and why these are the ones I return to. #booksky
tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/read...

Three books in over thirty years. No interviews. No social media. So why can’t we stop talking about Donna Tartt? A look at how silence fuels literary myth.

Donna Tartt hasn’t published in a decade. She rarely speaks, never posts. And yet her influence is everywhere. Why we’re still obsessed: tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/titl... #DonnaTartt #DarkAcademia #TheSecretHistory tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/titl...

Three books in over thirty years. No interviews. No social media. So why can’t we stop talking about Donna Tartt? A look at how silence fuels literary myth.

Donna Tartt hasn’t published in a decade. She rarely speaks, never posts. And yet her influence is everywhere. Why we’re still obsessed: tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/titl... #DonnaTartt #DarkAcademia #TheSecretHistory tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/titl...

A collage of books and authors known for genre-crossing fiction, symbolising the evolving landscape where literary and genre fiction now freely merge.

What happens when crime novels get lyrical, and sci-fi starts sounding like elegy? In 2025, genre is less a boundary than a suggestion.

From Babel to Station Eleven, writers are dismantling the old labels. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

A collage of books and authors known for genre-crossing fiction, symbolising the evolving landscape where literary and genre fiction now freely merge.

What happens when crime novels get lyrical, and sci-fi starts sounding like elegy? In 2025, genre is less a boundary than a suggestion.

From Babel to Station Eleven, writers are dismantling the old labels. tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

For some reason Spotify thinks this is New Order. It’s definitely not.

A composite image featuring the covers of Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Carrie by Stephen King — all now-classic works that were famously rejected before achieving literary acclaim. The visual contrast across designs underscores their distinct genres and eras, from political allegory to horror.

Every time I get a rejection, I think about the one that told Sylvia Plath she didn’t have “enough genuine talent.”

Publishing is full of short-sighted “no’s”.

Here are some of the most brutal, and baffling rejections tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/11/reje...

A composite image featuring the covers of Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Carrie by Stephen King — all now-classic works that were famously rejected before achieving literary acclaim. The visual contrast across designs underscores their distinct genres and eras, from political allegory to horror.

Every time I get a rejection, I think about the one that told Sylvia Plath she didn’t have “enough genuine talent.”

Publishing is full of short-sighted “no’s”.

Here are some of the most brutal, and baffling rejections tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/11/reje...

Exploration of the rise of beige prose in contemporary fiction and a short list of bold, voice-rich novels that challenge the trend.

Why does every bestseller sound the same?

Clean. Marketable. Totally forgettable.

Here’s a manifesto against beige prose, and 5 books that really aren’t: tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/11/why-...

Exploration of the rise of beige prose in contemporary fiction and a short list of bold, voice-rich novels that challenge the trend.

Why does every bestseller sound the same?

Clean. Marketable. Totally forgettable.

Here’s a manifesto against beige prose, and 5 books that really aren’t: tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/11/why-...

List of five unexpected, under-the-radar books that offer fresh creative insight and help writers reconnect with language and craft beyond traditional advice.

Not another list of writing books.

These 5 titles didn’t teach me structure. They disrupted it. Broke things open. Got my writing unstuck.

Books that saved my writing (and didn’t come from the usual lists): tangledprosewritingthroughit.blogspot.com/2025/11/book...