Herb Randall

Book cover against mossy brick background. The cover features a partially shaded female face, lying horizontally across the page. Book info: Nadezhda in the Dark by Yelena Moskovich

A screenshot from the front page of Punctured Lines, featuring the title of the blog and the blog post. Punctured Lines Post-Soviet Literature in and outside the Former Soviet Union “everybody knows . . .” An Excerpt from Nadezhda in the Dark by Yelena Moskovich

A screenshot from the blog post: When asked to contribute our responses to this book, Yelena Furman said: “Brimming with references from Russian and Ukrainian literatures to Alla Pugacheva and the Moscow 1990s gay club scene, Nadezhda in the Dark is a poetic disquisition on global history and self-identity. Discussions of Soviet anti-Semitism and the war in Ukraine merge with explorations of immigration and queer love. In language simultaneously lyrical and sharp, Moskovich shows how the personal and political, the present and past, are inextricably linked in ways that are often traumatic but also occasionally hopeful.” Olga Zilberbourg said: “The Iliad for post-Soviet Jewish dykes . . . Moskovich’s voice commands our attention as it tells – breathlessly, passionately, mixing humor with earnestness – a story about two women whose Soviet roots both unite them and make their relationship impossible. Emotional pitch in this book is turned all the way up! I loved it.”

A screenshot from the blog post: * * * everybody knows Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Chekhov, and if you’re bookish Bulgakov and Gogol and Pasternak, but who’s talking about Margarita Khemlin, who died a handful of years back and left us with a masterpiece, Klotsvog, sometimes at night, when Nadya has already fallen asleep next to me and the blinds on the slanted window of our bedroom are not fully shut, I lie on my back and glimpse the broad nighttime sky, a dark milky sky, a pauper’s sky, a dreamer’s sky,

Today, we're celebrating the publication of Yelena Moskovich's NADEZHDA IN THE DARK, a novel-in-verse brought to us in the US by Dzanc Books. A story of a relationship, this book offers a review of recent history with Russia's war against Ukraine at the center.
#booksky
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in case someone recalls..

an American kids scifi book maybe from the 40s or 50s, about a kid (& his friend?) who walked from N. America to Europe across the Atlantic seabed, wearing pressurized suits

don't recall the name, can't find reference to it

it is possible I dreamt it but I don't think so

Hi Josh, I’d provide a good home if you still have one available.

Early fall evening in the White Mountains

A white bowl filled with bright red Ukrainian borshch, topped with sour cream and fresh chopped dill

З Днем Незалежності 🇺🇦 I cooked Ukrainian borshch as a small way to honor the occasion

Thanks, I’m relieved to hear it and look forward to more fantastic titles this year!

Does anyone know if @sublunary.bsky.social is still operating? I’ve not received any subscription mailings this year. I’ve sent a support email but it’s gone unanswered and they don’t seem active here or on X recently. I hope all is ok with them, one of my favorite small publishers.

Tweet by Paul Stanley of KISS with a picture of Tim Mohr and text reading: "Tim Mohr-My dear friend, literary collaborator, pure soul, brilliant mind, street food gourmet and so much more has died from pancreatic cancer. I’m heartbroken. If you knew him you loved him. The world has lost a bright light. A huge embrace for his wife Erin, Greta and Augie."

I'm saddened by the loss of Tim Mohr. Among Tim's many accomplishments were his translations of work by Alina Bronsky and Wolfgang Herrndorf, collaborations with Duff McKagan and Paul Stanley, and his own definitive history of East German punk, Burning Down the Haus.

Dutch hard rock guitarist Adrian Vandenberg performing a solo, with a large sign and logo of his band in the background.

Live music is the best. Don’t be lazy, just get out, go to the show! (Saturday night in Portland, Maine)

Uilleam Blacker and I are delighted to launch The Ukraine Shelf, a podcast where we speak with leading authors, intellectuals, scholars, and journalists about Ukraine and its place in the world. 📚Time to make space for a new bookshelf—you’ll need it! 🎧 Link below.

Back cover of Art Blakey’s jazz album “In My Prime”, showing Art standing on a dock dressed for the seemingly cold weather

Love this album and just look at the back cover photo – Mr. Blakey is not putting up with any bullshit today! #jazz

Toadstones by Eric Williams — Malarkey Bloody haruspicy as an archeological technique. The violent premier of a film star’s lost noir masterpiece. A housekeeper’s final job for her late employer. An exhumation to retrieve a poetry manuscri...

@geoliminal.bsky.social has this story about a lost film, rediscovered and shown to an eager audience of cinephiles, and halfway through, the story becomes a detective noir with a twist.

IDK, I think about that story a lot.

You should buy his book.

malarkeybooks.com/store/toadst...

A collection of books and CDs relating to the music of Jean Sibelius, the iconic Finnish composer

Perfect company on this snowy Sunday: Sibelius and @drdavidvernon.bsky.social’s SUN FOREST LAKE, an erudite exploration of the Finnish composer’s music. Difficult to put down, yet every page is a springboard to discover more works of art that share kinship with the music. Highly recommended!

The life of the word resides in the fact that it tenses and strains to produce a thousand associations, like the quartered body of the snake of legend, whose separate pieces sought each other in the dark.

Bruno Schulz, ‘The Mythologization of Reality’, tr Bates
www.brunoschulz.org/mythologizat...

A. S. Byatt talk earlier today with @herbrandall.bsky.social @yelenafurman.bsky.social @petipaw.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social made me pull this one from the shelves. I’m going to reread the quartet. ❤️

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. “The Children's Book” was mentioned several times, so I’ll try that next, as well as “The Game”, before continuing on to the Frederica Quartet.

I hope you enjoy them, Lisa!

A handmade blue and brown ceramic mug filled with black tea, a fountain pen with writing journal and a paperback book atop a wooden circular endtable

A question for my fellow literary-minded friends here: I’ve recently read A.S. Byatt’s “The Matisse Stories” and enjoyed them thoroughly. It’s the first Byatt I’ve read since Possession long ago when it was newly published. What work of hers would you recommend I read next?

A Saint Bernard dog happily sniffs and tastes freshly fallen snow

Someone is very happy for the morning’s fresh snow

Thanks! I wish I could send you a plate! ☺️

I finally tried the famous Tom Nichols lamb recipe. Can confirm: just follow this recipe from his grandmother, ignore the temptation to adjust. I cooked to an internal temperature of 135 F and let rest for 20 minutes for rare / medium rare perfection.

Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris #Morris24 #TandTMON starts today, December 17th! They are not inhibited by fashion, public opinion or political correctness. They are exiles in their own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form a mighty nation, if they o…

Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris #Morris24 #TandTMON starts today, December 17th! readinganactofsharedsolitude.wordpress.com/2024/12/17/t... via @paperpills10.bsky.social

Hello, Dresden!

Christmas market stall set in front of the enormous cathedral in Strasbourg, France

Christmas market in Strasbourg, France

Fantastic book!

Fresh snow accumulating on the branches of a small bush

Thanksgiving snow

Stars overhead

There is so much wonder to experience if you just remember to look

i just uploaded my own humble contribution to the $5 sampler, which meant i got to peek at the stuff that other Malarkers have put into it and, folks...lemme tell ya...

...get in on this one immediately, for real

Wow! 😍